Where we have been....

Way way way way waaayyyy back in August Lysle and I were able to leave our girls with my mom and we took of for Europe for 17 days. Thanks to Rice University this was all paid for and we had a great time. We started off by flying into Amsterdam, jumping into a car and driving around to see some architecture buildings in Germany and Switzerland. The pictures below are of Vals, Switzerland. Switzerland was one place Lysle and I would go back to. It was expensive but this day spa was AWESOME! To get there you had to take a small road through the mountains and there are some major drop offs...it was a little scary. But the spa was designed by Peter Zumthor. Seriously, if you have the time go to this place it is so great. It's a place to just relax and enjoy the scenery and fresh air. They have the spa open to guests only from 8pm - 10pm and then 7am-11am. Then it is open to the public. This spa had different water temp rooms and places just to sit and sleep or read with the mountains in view....it's crazy awesome. Vals, is just a little Swiss town-very typical and green and just cute.

















We then flew to Barcelona and stayed there for about 5 days and we saw ALL the Gaudi stuff. That guy was amazing. I loved all his stuff. We met up with some of Lysle's cousins, Karen and Gin...they were so fun. They both are managers at restaurants and totally hooked us up with food. We had every type of "tapa" you could think of. They also took us to this Thai place and it was amazing. They order fresh flowers from Taiwan every week and use them in all the their drinks and flower arrangements. We totally gained some weight. We were in Barcelona for 5 days and I think we could have stayed another couple of days because we didn't see everything and we were on the run the whole time.


















We then got in the car and drove along the coast...we hit Valencia, Murcia, Granada and then up to Toledo and Madrid. GPS was our lifesaver and it was really nice to drive and actually "see" all of Spain. We stayed in some pretty nice hotels and saw ALL kinds of buildings and did some major shopping at ZARA. It's expensive here in the states but it was so cheap there. Lysle came home with some serious gear for $200. I found some skirts and shirts but nothing compared to what Lysle found. We hit the end of season clearance sale so he scored on dress shirts for 5 bucks. So I guess that was the highlight of the trip. Nah.....I loved the Alhambra in Granada that was a beautiful place. Lysle bought me one of those big cameras, Nikon D60, for my birthday so him and I would go to a place split up and start taking pictures of whatever. So we have a TON of pictures...which is one reason why it has taken so long to post anything because I'm too lazy to go through all of them.




















Anyway...it was good to be home. I was so tired of not being able to understand what was being said and not knowing what was on the menu. It was just crazy and annoying. So as soon as we got home we went to our favorite Mexican restaraunt and it was sooo sooo good. Oh and just about a week ago we received a certified letter in the mail...we got a speeding ticket, we were going 5 mph over the speed limit. Apparently they have radar cameras in tunnels and on signs and everywhere. $130 bucks! Yeah!