Sagrada Familia

We took a LONG walk today from our place to Gaudi's cathedral, Sagrada Famailia. It is quite the place. It is wild and, well, drippy. Everything kind of looks like an ice cream cone on it's way out. Here is a picture of it. We walked from there to second breakfast (not to be confused with first lunch we had a bit later) to park Guell, also by Gaudi. It was supposed to be an upscale residential district, but it went bust and now it is a great park. We walked all over the park (Caroline napped) and generally had a lovely day.

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La Rambla

Today we spent a good part of the day walking along a street called La Rambla. The street is full of flower sellers, bird sellers and a huge food market. Caroline was particularly excited about the birdies, as you can see. She was trying to tell them to say cheep cheep. Too cute.

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We made it!

The Kollers have arrived in Barcelona. We had a pretty good flight. Thanks for praying for the extra seat Nana. We ended up having a row of five to ourselves in the bulkhead. The arm rests did not all come up, so that meant creative use of space. But Caroline slept/dozed the majority of the flight. She was a trooper. We made our tight connection in Frankfurt thanks to some stellar efficiency by Lufthansa. Wow were we impressed. We got here and found the view you see off of our little balcony. So fun. We are
Two blocks from a park, above a cafe and just around the corner from a lovely church. Life is good. And now we are going to try to stay up for another hour and then pass out ourselves!!

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We are off!

After having to re buy Caroline's ticket (luckily she is just the fees) we have successfully made it to the gate. Whew. We thought it was best to bring Caroline. :)

The wonderful gate agent gave us a bulkhead seat, a spare seat and a bassinet. Hooray!

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Happy fall!

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Starting the Morning Off on the Right Note!

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Seriously isn't she adorable?

Thanks to Aunt Helen for this wonderful dress. Isn't she the cutest
little girl?

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Lest anyone question our loyalties

Caroline and I (ok mostly me) were bummed that we didn't get the
Steeler's game yesterday. But we made the best of it anyway. Caroline
was particularly pleased with herself when she realized that, although
our chair is too high to climb into with the cushions, it is just
right if she pulls the seat cushion out. So, I was happythe Steelers
won. She was happy to get in a chair. Generally the whole house was
happy. ;)

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Vehicle bonding

We took advantage of the absolutely beautiful weather today and went
to the park for a long time. Jack and Caroline dis some "engine" work
on a push toy. Under Caroline's careful guidance, Jack learned how to
fill the front of the car with bark (a skill Caroline mastered earlier
today). Too much!

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Horsey!

This past Saturday my friend Amanda and I took our girls to Oxen Hill
farm, about 15 minutes from our houses. It isn't anything fancy-a
working well kept 19th century farm with (thankfully) no tourist
gimmicks. They got to gave a goat sniff their hands, cluck at the
chickens, neigh at the horses and moo at the cows. There was plenty of
open space so they ran around until they just couldn't walk any more.
(Caroline went from running one minute to sitting down crying and
begging to be carried the next. Poor thing). They were enthralled by
the chain locking the horses in (it made fun clanging noises). They
also tried to climb the chicken coop's wiring. They git ridiculously
hot, sweaty and dirty. All in all a successful and fun outing!

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