Malaga, Spain

Malaga, Spain was our first port city on the cruise.  This was definitely our favorite day of the whole trip.  I don't know if it was the nice weather, the ease of navigation, or the kids' moods (probably all of the above)...but it was just a good day.  When we arrived it was suddenly overcast and misty.  But by the time we were away from the ocean a bit it had cleared up.  The kids had fun looking at all of the boats docked as we walked into the city.  It was a busy day in Malaga.  There were a lot of vendors and celebrations going on, because it was Holy Week.  Holy Week in Spain is a big deal.  At one point we happened upon a procession of a huge golden Saint from a church and down through the city streets.  Nathan said he remembered seeing this all over Peru during Holy Week while he was on his mission there.  It was kind of shocking to me, to see the blatant worshipping of idols, especially during such a Christ centered week.  Aside from watching religious ceremonies, we just wandered through the town and tried some different foods, etc.  It was a fun city and we had a great day.

 Its always nice to find a playground along the way.  Sometimes we feel bad dragging the kids all over the place to see 'boring' things.  A few minutes on the playground rejuvenates everyone every time!

 It's nice to share the load of Isla with Nathan now that we have the backpack carrier.  She won't sleep in it, though, so we still have to trade off with the Ergo Carrier.  I also decided that this stroller might as well be a member of our family as it is in 90% of our pictures.

Another attempt at something fun for the kids--who doesn't love a big bucket of cotton candy?!

                        I love this little bum!!!

 Gelato--seriously one of the best things about Europe in the spring/summer!  Can't get enough!

We loved this cathedral.  It had such a pretty garden around it.  The kids had fun looking at the fishies...

 This drinking fountain had a food pedal.  Nate had his foot over it the whole time and was telling the kids that it was a 'magic fountain', doing little tricks with it and what not...he totally had them fooled.  They LOVED it.

 This was the kids trying to catch a glimpse of the golden saint being marched through the streets.

 We see a lot of different street performers on our travels.  The kids always love to drop a few coins into their hats.  I had no problem paying this guy!  He was pure entertainment for the kids.  So fun!

Sight-seeing is definitely exhausting (and probably pretty boring for the kids)

Poor Sawyer--he had to go pee forever and it finally got to the point where he was flipping out cause he had to go so bad.  So I took him into some bushes near this playground.  I had Isla on me so I couldn't help much.  Anywho, as soon as he got it out of his pants he released!  It was like a firehouse gone loose!  Totally out of control. :(  Needless to say, he ended up with wet pants and shirt.  He was SOOO embarrassed and uncomfortable.  I had no extra clothes, so we just let it dry!  It took him about 5 minutes to forget about it.  The good thing was we were on our way back to the boat at this point, so he didn't have to stay in his pee clothes very long.

We found a perfect little hut next to this playground to try some tapas.  I had been wanting to try something all day, but all of the restaurants seemed too complicated or crowded with all the kids.  This was PERFECT.  Glad we ran into it on our way back.  We ate some chorizo with breadsticks, and some kind of spanish rice and sea food.  I was not excited when I pulled out the shrimp and saw those eyeballs still intact!  Yuck!

My cute, patient boy...tuckered out from a long day.