Monday morning muse!

Today is Monday, the start of a whole new week.  Last week was pretty active, biking, shopping, diving, etc. I foresee this week to be more of the same.

The friends we have made here put us on to a new app for our phones.  It's called Whatsapp.  If you have it, it's probably the best way to contact us.  Email us for our Spanish numbers.


I have been introduced to the wonderful world of Amazon shopping.  I don't ever have to leave home again.  There is however the slight language barrier using amazon.es, and the fact that our address isn't really the proper address, and when parcels are delivered the driver calls and asks for directions (in Spanish), and the only time they deliver is when the kids are in school (no translator)...... Other than that it works smooth as silk. I have ordered 4 items, and had only 1 successful delivery, the rest are coming mañana y mañana.

This morning, while having coffee with "the gang", I was invited to play in a Monday night football (yes, I mean football as in soccer) league/game.  I was told it was just for fun and exercise.  I hope it's not the Spanish equivalent of getting someone to put there tongue on a pole in winter!!!  I haven't played soccer for 3 decades or more. First game is tonight, I will blog the results.

Other than that, things have settled into a comfortable routine.  Life is great, and we are still happy with our choice to come here.

Adios/ciao

Shane

Tres Semanas

Another week has come and gone and it still feels like a holiday....except for maybe taking the kids to school everyday. Shane and I attended the parent meetings at the school this week hoping a little too optimistically that we might understand something (we did not). Those two hours of feeling completely incompetent as parents was just another motivator to sign ourselves up for Spanish lessons. The civic center in town offers free Spanish lessons for residents. We signed up with some friends and were the only four in the class. The first day was a little overwhelming, as our teacher does not speak any English. We have now been to three classes and five more people have joined our class. I am realizing that it is truly a benefit that she only speaks Spanish, because we are forced to listen, focus, and do some charades, which also helps us laugh, which is important in life, especially when you are feeling somewhat overwhelmed. I continue to be overwhelmed, not only by our lack of Spanish, but also by the beauty of this country and area. The sunset takes my breath away daily, and we have had so much fun exploring the area by boat, foot, and bike.

We have been biking to school about half the time. It is 8 km of mostly downhill, and takes about 30 minutes, a little longer if we hit the panaderia (bakery) for chocolate croissants before school...which has pretty much become standard practice, and earned after the ride. Everyone benefits from bike days; kids get a morning ride to wake them up...and croissants, mom gets a good workout going uphill 8 km on the way home and Shane gets to sleep in, and doesn't suffer from me harassing him for a workout all day long. Then, we typically pick the kids up in the car after school and head home for lunch. It may seem soft driving them for the uphill portion, but the school day is from 9 AM to 2 PM which initially seemed like an incredibly short school day, but there is no lunch break, so the thought of riding straight uphill for 8 KM at 2 PM in the peak heat of the day with 2 starving children is not at all appealing. Today we biked to Nerja which is a beautiful little tourist town about 15 KM away. We packed a lunch, wandered through town, went to an heladoria (ice cream shop), swam at the beach, rode home and made paella for dinner.

Shane has almost mastered paella. I don't want him to think it is perfect yet, or he might stop making it, but I will say it is better that what we ordered in the restaurant. I almost lost my mind when I saw how much seafood and meat he bought to put into the paella...until I saw the price, then asked why he didn't use more. Some prices are quite similar to home, and some are even more like fuel, but there are a few things that are so cheap, that I can't help indulging. The cheapest things to date are cheese, wine, beer, meat, and seafood/shellfish. Perhaps it is a good thing we live on top of a mountain, otherwise it could be a very fattening year.

We have also been out paddling a few days each week. Last week, Shane dropped me off at our beach, and I paddled on my SUP to La Herradura to meet the kids after school which took about 45 minutes. This weekend,we spent a day at the beach and took the kayak and SUP over to some cliffs where we found some great climbing and cliff jumping locations. We also enjoyed just hanging out in the boats and watching the fish frenzies. They swim in massive schools and feed at the surface with their heads just breaking the surface. From far away, it looks like wind rippling the surface, but when you get up close, you realize it is massive schools of fish feeding at the surface. We have also discovered some really cool caves, and private secluded beaches from the boats.There are other boaters which can find these places, but it definitely separates you from the masses of car access beach goers.

Friday night we joined a group of friends for tapas at a restaurant just off the central plaza in town. It was wonderful because the group of kids could run off and play all evening, periodically returning to check in and grab a quick bite or drink. This is a regular event for this group, so it was nice to relax, visit, and not worry about the kids. It was close to 11 PM before we decided it was time to head home. We found Jaedyn easily at the plaza with some friends, but circled the area for well over an hour for Brae, gradually expanding our radius and trying to calm my increasing anxiety. We were fairly certain he was with a friends 13 year old, but could not locate either of them. Finally we found them on the beach searching for a sock he had lost. He didn't want to leave the beach without finding his sock, which I suppose was somewhat responsible of him, but I was so worried by the time we found him, I couldn't care less about him losing a sock!

Shane and I also went diving for the first time this week. I think we will try to make it out at least once a week. There are a number of dive locations that leave from town. Shane and I were going to try a dive with each of the various companies around town and decide which we liked best, but after our first dive, the owner offered us an ice cold beer, and Shane bought a package. I was a little more sold on the fact that the dive shop is across the street from where we park to drop the kids off for school, and leaves 30 minutes after drop off, but I won't lie, the ice cold beer tasted pretty good. After our dive, we decided to walk across the street and have a cervesa on the beach while we filled out our dive logs. I thought it would be on the expensive side, because it is on the beach, but it was the cheapest beer we have had in a restaurant and they brought us pulpo (octopus ) for tapas for free. We also watched them unload fresh fish out of a bucket for the BBQ. SOLD!

Both Shane and I are having difficulty being tenants. It is difficult going from being homeowners, and landlords to being tenants. I am fairly certain that our landlord will benefit from this struggle. Shane has already been to the hardware store a number of times in an attempt to set up a solar heated pump system to heat our pool. It is still quite pleasant now, but the temperature has already dropped 4-5 degrees since arriving here 3 weeks ago. We have also enjoyed gardening, reorganizing, cleaning, and planning "projects" for the winter...if we ever get bored.

I am also having a great deal of difficulty walking by real estate offices without "looking" at the postings in the windows.....we all have to plan for retirement right?

Hello I know I haven't blogged in a while so I will try to summaryse it all. We went to a water park one day in Malaga. First we went left to the big white one and the blue and yellow ones. we split, me and mom went one the big yellow one first it was so much fun, but I think I peed a little. then we went to the rapids witch weren't very fun. We also went to the boomerang and the big carpets.
 When we got bored of that we went to the pool and to the cold Jacuzzi then we left
                                                             ************
A while later my friend Jahi came over and we played in the pool for like 3 hours then he left. As usual life continued at an exaggerated rate from then on until Friday. Today we went to the beach and went to Jahis house
BRAE  

So I haven't posted in awhile so I've probably lost quite a few readers but who cares. So anyway we went to a water park over the weekend and it was a lot of fun. There were tons of rides and we all had a great time.

Since Monday, we've been in school and Brae and I have both struggled a bit with the new dialect and fast paced speaking, but I think that we just need some time to get adjusted to it and we'll be fine. We have been doing standardized testing throughout the week in every subject and it's been a bit difficult but I've been able to work through it. We hung out at a friends house today and it was pretty fun even though the little kids were constantly jumping on me in the pool.
Spain is pretty amazing and I can't wait to see what adventures the future holds.

Queen of awesomeness 
Jaedyn

Language School, broken tongues and bad ears.

Today was the 2nd day of Spanish classes for Kristin and I.  We took one day last week, and it was a little overwhelming.  What I didn't realize, last week was the introduction, easy basics class.  Today, we jumped right in, with an introduction to the face.  It's quite appropriate, as 2 parts of mine are broken.  My mouth/tongue is broken, as I can't pronounce most of the words, and my ears are broken, because I am struggling to hear the words being spoken.  I'm hearing different letters than Kristin, so it's going to make for some interesting conversations when/if we become proficient in the language.  At least it gives us something to do 2 times a week for the next 10 months.

Tuesday, we went diving.  It was very nice to get under the water again, and although the dive was a little murky, it was a great dive.  We dove just off our local beach, at a spot called Cerro Gordo.  We had snorkeled there with the kids, but it was nice to see it from under the waves.  There are about 5 different dive shops here in La Herradura, and we had talked about trying a dive with each company to see who had the best service/prices/etc.  After our dive, the owner met us on the beach, and had a ice cold beer ready for everyone who went diving.  We decided that we didn't need to find anyone else, so we bought a 10 dive package right then and there.  It's the little (cold) things that make for happy customers.

The kids have settled right into the whole school routine, and it's the same battles here that we had back in Calgary.  Get them up, get them fed, get them ready to go and out the door.  Kristin has biked down the hill with them a couple times this week.  One of the really nice things here is after we drop the kids off, there is a group of us who all go for coffee a couple times a week.  It's a great relaxing hour or two to start the day, and we our making some really good friends here because we take the time to slow down once and awhile.  I think this might be one of the many things we bring home with us after this year.  The relaxed pace really suits me......Kristin however is struggling to slow down a little bit.

All in all, it still feels like we are on vacation, and I hope that's how it will feel the whole year.

CIAO

Shane

This Morning, I was looking at the weather forecast for the day, and I glanced at the Calgary forecast as well.  I felt just a little smug when I saw the difference in temps, but it was 1 am back home.  Still, we are enjoying the tail end of a major heat wave here.  Everyone is telling us that the temp. is unseasonably warm right now.  Who am I to complain.

It was a little funny that we are here enjoying the heat, yet back home, the couple that is staying at our house was having some furnace issues.  Not funny for them, and I hope the issue was resolved, but funny because today, our landlord is coming to install the heating system here.  My smugness might change this winter, as we will be heating the house with 2 wood burning fireplaces.  Neither which are on the floor we sleep on.  One is below us, and the other is above us. Some of the locals have been telling us horror stories about how cold it gets here for a couple months.  Dropping to single digits at night, and only 15-18 degrees during the day.  I don't know how we will survive.  I am trying to talk Kristin into investing in a Hottub here, but it's a hard sell.  I think it needs to get cold before she will want one.

The last few days have been quite relaxed around CASA YOLO, we pretended we were the Griswalds, and made our pilgrimage to Wally World.  We had a couple new friends from school over, and the kids played in the pool for 3 hours.  We tried cooking something new, Calamari, with marginal success.  And we have watched the sunset every night.  It still takes our breath away.

This week we are trying to finalize all the details for rent, car usage for the year, and getting a routine for pool maintenance, yard work, and house duties.  We have even determined a little landscaping project we are going to tackle (when I say we, you all know who I mean).  Add this to our daily beach time, workout, siesta and relax schedule, and it makes for another busy week.  So until next time.

CIAO

Shane

A Promise Made...

There was a lot to research and consider when deciding where to pack up and move to for a year. First, there are the major items like timing, age of kids, budget, language, world events, quality of life, and much, much more....Then, when we had it narrowed down to Spain, there seemed to be even more to consider: dialect, region, proximity to airports, avoiding the concrete jungles, being coastal, proximity to various activities such as scuba diving, mountain biking, climbing, hiking, historical sights....the list goes on. So far, La Herradura has met all of our expectations and more. One of the highlights about moving to this town for the kids was Aquatropic, the local water park, and a huge inflatable play structure we saw in the bay on one of our first days here. They begged to go on the structure, but we did not have suits with us, and we were busy trying to get them registered in school at the time. We did not see it during the week, so we assumed it must be a weekend thing. We promised we would take them to play on it the following weekend...unfortunately, it was done the first weekend of September....but that's okay, because there was still Aquatropic, the water park.. We figured the best time to take them would be when their cousins arrived in October, so being smart, we checked the website and found out it was only open until the end of September...so we decided it would be a great treat after the first week of school. We heard that a local shop had coupons, so I went and got the discount coupon, we woke up Saturday morning, packed a lunch, got our suits on and headed to the water park for the 11 AM opening time. Half way there, we realized we had forgotten the coupon, so not worried at all, as we had the entire day, we turned around to go back for it. Arriving at the water park, we were devastated to find out it had closed last weekend. Apparently our Spanish needs some work when looking at websites. It's funny, because the water park was a huge selling feature when looking at living in this area. I can understand a water park closing that early in Canada, but I never dreamed it would close that soon in Spain! It is still plus 30 degrees most days. Now we are feeling terrible that this is the second promise we have broken in as many weeks. We quickly got on the internet, and found a water park that was still open in Torremolinos. Unfortunately it was 11:30 now, and it was an hour and a half drive away. After a quick phone call to verify, and a family vote, we were taking a road trip! Had a blast at Aqualand, and stayed right until closing at 7 PM. Sometimes you just have to follow through on promises.

I think my wife is trying to either kill me, or make not so subtle hints that I'm getting fat.  Since the kids started school, she has decided that free time is sweat time.

Yesterday we did a 10 km bike ride.  It may not sound like much, but we had almost 450m elevation change in that 10k.  It seemed to me that we went straight up......then a long slow winding gradual descent down, then straight up again.  We started the ride by heading up to the top of the ridge that we live below here.  At the top we have this amazing panoramic view of the ocean on both sides of the ridge, plus a great view of the mountain range right behind us.  It was pretty stunning.  We then started the long slow downhill.  A couple detours because of impassible roads, cliffs, bee-hives or gates, but we found this trail that leads through some type of orchard/ olive farm.  At the bottom, there was a locked gate, which we had to scamper around, but nothing too terrible.  We got to the highway, which I figured would be a great first day ride, because we still had to make our way back up the hill to the house.  The highway sits at about 150m elevation, and our house is right at 300m.  It's a real good climb on bikes from the road to the house.  Kristin decided that we should bike DOWN to the the beach and watch the waves (we didn't have our suits, but that really doesn't matter at the beach....all you need is a towel, which we also didn't have).  I think she just wanted to see what the ride up the hill would be like.  The ride starts with a gentle 27% grade for about 300-350 meters, then levels out to between 15-20%.  I think a couple more rides to and from the beach will either kill me, or make me ready for anything.

Today, we dropped the kids off at school, and then decided we should have a leisurely stroll through town.  I think I might have mentioned, nothing is flat here, if you leave the beach area.  Again, up, up, up, then down.  We walked for about 90 minutes, then went for a 60 minute paddle.  Just as we got the boat loaded and ready to go, the wind started to pick up.  We though we were heading into the wind, which would put the wind at our backs for the paddle home, but 2 km into the paddle, the wind shifted direction, blowing into our bow on the trek home.  We did see a giant Turtle though.

After the paddle, Kristin wanted to go climbing down by our beach, as there is a spot we want to try cliff jumping.  There is a cave we snorkeled in just around the point, and it looks like a fantastic cliff jumping point.  The water looks to be about 20 meters deeps, and the cliff is shear enough that you could climb almost any height before you jump in.  I decided that we will save this for another day, as I was exhausted.

Add this to the nightly sessions of Yoga, Pilate's, or Ab blasting workouts we have been doing, makes for an intense lifestyle.

We have had some incredible winds blowing off the sea for the last 3 days, making it a little difficult to play in the ocean, but the forecast is calling for a lessening of the winds and temperatures in the high 20's.  Should be a great weekend.

Till next time.

CIAO
Shane

Yesterday we had a pool party with a bunch of new friends. We had a lot of fun. Today I went to school for the third time and it was as boring as ever. Then we came home and I finished my book, YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! by BRAE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

School

Well school started 2 days ago and it's been quite fun I made some friends on the first day and we hung out during the 2 recesses Brae had some trouble so I had to miss class to help him, it was worth it because that day we had a giant pool party and Brae's new friends came. It was a blast. We had pop and sandwiches and watermelon. 

We went to school and I finished my english homework before anyone else and that is why i'm able to be blogging right now. So see ya later bye.

Queen of awesomeness 

Jaedyn

More new toys...

The kids have told the story quite well about the new bikes, and the long ride, so I will try not to duplicate too much. I will however say that after riding up the hill from La Herradura to our house, I will never again complain about the Edworthy hill at home. The kids did fantastic! It was over 30 degrees Celsius and the hill was unrelenting. We did have to make an ice cream stop at Cerro Gordo half way up, and for the first time yet, we actually ran out of water...and we brought a lot! I have decided that I don't need to buy a gym membership as long as I commit to getting on my new bike regularly. We managed to find two really nice used bikes at a store in Salobrena, a town nearby. They had a third bike that fit Jaedyn, but wasn't great, and the gears didn't shift, so we decided to keep looking for the kids. After purchasing the bikes, the owner came over and gave us the third bike for free. Who can say no to that?! The next challenge was trying to fit them all in our very small rental car. With some incredible tetris skills, we managed. I did have to ride home with Brae on my lap, and Jaedyn did have to carefully avoid getting skewered by greasy sprockets, but it was a successful venture. The next day we managed to find Brae a bike, and got everyone set up with helmets, lights, locks...and all the other necessities. With about an hour of Shane and I puttering with Jaedyn's bike, we got it into ridable condition. Luckily for Jaedyn, her and I are riding the same size bike, so she can ride the nice bike for family rides, and I can ride "hers" and I can ride the nice bike when the kids are in school. Luckily for me, Shane's bike is also the same size...so we took turns riding "Jaedyn's" bike. I am sure glad we have a few more paycheques coming in before we are jobless bums with really nice toys.
Kris

Shane's first homemade paella after the ride was incredible!

A stroll through one of the many quaint little streets in town.

The view of La Herradura from half way up

Water break!

Another water break!

Ice cream break! 3/4 of the way up...and we had to buy more water.

The adventures of school

Yesterday was the first day of school for the kids. A mix of excitement and nerves for all of us reminded me of sending the kids to kindergarten for their first days.

We quickly found out that we missed the section of the website that had a very long list of required school supplies. Since everything in Spain closes from 2-5 PM, we went home for lunch and down to the beach for a quick paddle and snorkel, where we discovered a great spot witha a guard house, hidden cove, and thousands of fish, before venturing out to find the supplies.

We were unable to find the store that a local expat told us about, so we made our way to Motril, the nearest major center and found an Alcampo store which is similar to Wal-Mart. Apparently we were not the only family who showed up to the first day of school without the required supplies. The stationary section of the store was packed!This task would have been daunting at home, but here we are, at 7 PM, haven't eaten, massive crowds of people, looking for items written in Spanish that we need to individually look up on google translate and then try to locate. An hour and a half later we have all but 2 items and decide we can find them at another store....then we wait in the 45 minute line at the till to pay. Then the 30 minute drive home with an added unsuccesful stop at one more store, a quick dinner after 10 PM, and unwrapping and packing of all the supplies, and a not so early night to bed. It didn't help either, that Brae came out of school horrified by the fact that he had to learn French! At first we thought it was a mix up, as we were with the understanding that the students got to choose a second language being either English or French, but it turns out that all grade fives learn French. Lucky Brae! Jaedyn helped us out immensly this morning when we pulled her out of the first hour of classes to translate our meeting with the school director to make sure everthing was  good with Brae. We were very happy to see a big smile on Brae's face when he came out of school today. To help with the transition into school, we invited some of the other expat families we met at the school over for drinks and a swim in the pool. As luck would have it, we experienced our first stormy day in Spain. It did not however stop the kids from having a great time in the pool, and us from having a lovely visit with other families who have been through our experience and have some local knowledge. It is encouraging to realize that we might actually have a social life here.
Kris

The Long Ride

So today was the last day before school starts so Brae and I got to pick what we got to do. I looked up various locations on the googly device and found this aquarium in Almunecar that looked cool. Once I told Mom she was so happy. I soon found out why, She thought it would be a good idea to bike down to the Aquarium and if you haven't read our blog before you'd understand that it's a very long steep road UP and DOWN. Going down was easier than going up I'll tell ya. The reason we biked in the first place was because my mom promised us ice-cream if we did.

When we got to the first town down the way named La Herradura I asked if we could just check it out for the day. Mom still wanted to go to the Aquarium but instead we went to a tapas bar which in case your wondering is a restaurant where they just bring you small amounts of food called raciones, there are different types of food you could order like chicken, fries, fish, Calamari, Salads and more. 

When we were done we started up the long hill home, we stoped for ice-cream 2\3 of the way up and when we FINALLY got home we jumped in the pool and played volleyball for a bit.

Now I'm sitting at the table and writting my blog. Here are some details about  our bike ride incase you were wondering.

Elevation gain\loss: 305m

KM: 22km

Oh and yesterday we went to a small town and saw a really cool street performance\parade. Here's a video.

Hi this is Brae. I havent posted in a while so BEWARE.
 A couple of days ago we got addicted to buying toys, and so we bought a bunch of toys A.K.A. WATER TOYS. We went swiming and stand up paddle boarding a lot lately.
The day before yesterday we went and spent 12 hours buying bikes.
Then we spent a whole other day buying me a bike and riding them.
The good part about shopping is the driving, I get to read a lot.
Today we biked all the way from our house to La Herredura, and while we were walking we went by a corner store that wasn't even on the corner. THE WORLD IS GOING TO END.

Spain has proven to be one big adventure, or a continuous series of little adventures all combined.

A week ago, I got a spanish cell phone sim card.  Brae and I went to a phone store and he translated for me.  I wanted a basic plan that had some phone minutes, some texts and some internet data.  The lasy expained my deal to be 60 minutes calling, 100 texts, and 1Gb data.  5 days later, without making a single call, and getting 2 text from the phone company, and only using 150Mbs, my phone card has run out, and I need to pay more to keep the phone working......and I can't get any answers from the phone company, because my phone doesn't work.

The story of the passport registration was told by Kris and Jaedyn.
Our first rental car was a larger van.  We paid more to rent it for a week than we did to rent a car for the month.  Also, there were a lot of hidden fees that weren't on the website.  There was the fuel fee......"pay for the fuel in the car.....and pay for the fuel you use.....and then pay for us to fuel it after...and then pay again for making us charge you".   We seem to have paid for the next 2 renters fuel...I guess pay it forward it a noble thing!

We paid for our NIE (European ID Number) in Canada, but we have to pay for it again in Spain.  Oh well..

We have tried to send the rental fees to our landlord using Paypal, but we seem to be having some issues.  We can't send the lump sum, Actually, we can't send any right now (we are dealing with this, and should be straightened out soon).  I think we are going to get the next guests we have to bring us the money.....BTW, if your the next guest on the calendar, call us  :).

I still love it here, and we are finding new and fun things to do each day.  We have made it a mission to find a new beach, or site to visit each day.  Even the issues we are having are just first world problems, and we are finding the humor in everything.

CIAO
Shane

New Toys!

Yesterday was a fun day! We had to go to Malaga to trade in our rental car for a smaller, cheaper, easier to maneuver car, now that we don't have loads of baggage. Then we went straight to the sports store, and realized that we should have kept the bigger car. We had a lot of fun buying new toys! Then we spent the evneing playing with them. We bought a 3 person inflatable kayak, and an inflatable SUP. We explored the coastline from our beach all the way to La Herradura and found found lots of cools coves and caves. Thinking we will do some great exploring on these! Let the fun begin.

We are quickly learning the ways of Spain. Nothing is open after 2 pm, and no one is in a hurry. It is a great philosophy really, if you are not trying to accomplish anything in a hurry. It is forcing us to get out of the house early, run our errands, and then chill out and/or play for the rest of the day. We have also adopted Spanish meal times, as it is just too hot to cook or eat until 8 or 9 pm. We experienced our first pallella On the beach Monday to celebrate getting the kids registered in school. We walked the 1 block from the school to the beach, and Shane and I ordered the food and drank cervesas in the shade while the kids swam. When the food arrived, they joined us, and then ran back for more ocean time. Today, we were in no rush...or so we thought. We needed to go to the police station in Motril to apply for residency cards. Since we already have our visas and NIE numbers, we thought it was just a simple check in at the office...not the case. After waiting our turn, having multiple people go ahead of us who arrived after us, finally asking and getting to talk to someone, then waiting while she took a 20 minute phone call as we waited, we found out that we needed to go get more passport photos taken, get multiple photocopies of our passports and visas, go to a bank to pay another fee for the forms she filled out for us, then come back to be fingerprinted at the station. After standing in line for 30 minutes at a bank we were told that we can only pay for these forms on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and not on Wednesdays, so we went to another bank, and stood in line for another 30 minutes. This bank was great and gave us lots of great advise regarding banking in Spain. Unfortunately, we did not get back to the police station until 2:10...and everything closes at 2. So, tomorrow we start again! We did however discover a cool little town with a great castle and beach on the way home, so Vida es bueno!
Kris

4 Days Left

4 days left of R and R and then it's off to school.  Since time is flying so are we trying to explore, beach, and get permision to stay in the country, so it's been a busy few days. Today was no different first we slept in so we were a little rushed getting going.  We got to the police station around noon and found out we needed pictures and documents and a bill that we didn't have, so we rushed out and got the pictures and documents at a fotocopy place down the road from the station.  After that we ran around trying to find a bank.  When we found one they said that they only did the thing we needed on specific days so we went to find another bank.  The second bank was great we got what we needed done and after we bolted for the police station and as we got there they closed and so now we have to go back tommorow early and get it done.

The good part was we got to stop at the beach for a few hours.  We had tons of fun there and I think mom and dad fell asleep on the beach. Now we are at home preparing dinner and i'm writting this blog.

(But you already knew that)

Queen of Awesomeness

(A.K.A Jaedyn)

It was a crazy hot day today, and a weekend, so we figured the beach would be packed, but we decided after dinner that most people would be leaving and it would be a lovely evening for a snorkel. So, for the first time, we decided to drive to the beach, and for the first time we decided not to bring a phone or money so that we could leave everything on the beach and not worry about anything getting stolen.Our plan worked; as we drove down the road, a steady stream of vehicles were heading up, and cars were parked along the side of the road close to a km up with the parking lot having filled up early in the day. We were able to park right by the beach, and went for a great snorkel around a point to some really cool caves. We watched the sun set from the water, then made our way back to the car. Shane had the car key in a waterproof case...or at least it was supposed to be waterproof. No problem, when the electronic opener didn't work, we opened the back hatch with the manual key, Jaedyn crawled through and opened the doors and...the car won't start. Apparently there is a security feature that sends a kill code to the battery if not opened with the electronic opener. Now it is dark, we have no phone, no money, beach sandals and it is 2 km straight up hill to get to the house. Jaedyn and I go to the first restaurant on the beach and it is closed, so we go to the only other restaurant and ask for a screwdriver to try to take the key apart to dry it out. Jesus, the lovely waiter comes to the car with us and tells us he will go find someone to give us a boost. He goes back to the restaurant and gets the cook Costel. They come out and have to move a car double parked to get Costel's car, who drives over and boosts our car for us. I think we may have to go for dinner at the restaurant soon and leave a very nice tip. I also think we might stick to walking to the beach! Always an adventure.

Kris

Now that we have been here for a few days, I am starting to relax and take it all in. As much as I want to treat this like a holiday, and try to pack everything into as little time as possible, I am trying to remind myself that we have plenty of time to explore the surrounding area. Okay, I'll be honest, my family keeps reminding me of it, I want to go, go, go. I can't help it, it's who I am. I have however kept myself occupied nesting. Organizing cupboards, rearranging furniture, unpacking and finding places for all our stuff, figuring out guest rooms...you know, generally chilling out and relaxing.

We have had a few issues, but generally things are coming together. I booked a hotel room at the Malaga airport the night we arrived, so that we could arrive and go straight to bed, then pick up the rental car at the airport in the morning and drive to Casa Yolo. After waiting an hour for our bags we found out that there was no courtesy shuttle to the hotel which was 1 km away. I looked into picking up the rental car one day early, but they said we couldn't pick it up 12 hours early; we would have to rent a car for the night and bring it back the next day for our reserved car, so we took a taxi which ended up costing 25 Euro for the 1 km drive. I nearly lost my mind! Shane calmed me down, and said it was worth it. Out of principle I almost wanted to walk...if we didn't have 250 kg of luggage, and if it wasn't 10 PM and dark, and if we knew where we were going, and if my family wouldn't have killed me...I probably would have.

The hotel was one of the smallest rooms I have ever stayed in. It barely fit a double bed and crappy pullout couch. By the time we brought our bags in, and stacked them as high as we could, it was an obstacle course to make it from the beds to the bathroom. None of that mattered though, it was a much needed place to sleep. After breakfast in the morning, we walked back to the airport (no taxi this time). We had been to the rental counter the night before, so we knew exactly where to go...unfortunately, you could only access it from the secured arrivals area. We spent an hour walking in circles and asking directions, which kept leading us to a dead end. The most frustrating part is that the counter was on the other side of a glass wall from us. So close...yet so far away. Finally, we got directions to the kiosk in the parkade where we waited in line for 30 minutes, then waited for them to bring us the car for another 30 minutes. Finally we went and asked, and they gave us the keys and told us where it was parked. Why they didn't do that to begin with, I have no idea! We headed back to the hotel and loaded our bags. We had nightmares of needing to rent two vehicles to fit all of our stuff, but the Fiat Doblo had tons of space...okay, just enough. By Canadian standards, it would be a small SUV, but after parking it in a few parkades, it felt bigger than our long box F150. We will be happy to trade it in on a compact car this week.

The highways are great in Spain, but once we left the highway and headed towards our villa the fun began. The roads are not as bad as many places in the world, but they are definitely fun! The area is made up of hills and cliffs, so the roads are steep and windy with lots of switchbacks.

After arriving at our villa, meeting with our landlord, kids testing out the pool and picking bedrooms, we headed into town to buy groceries. So far, we have BBQ'd and eaten outside every night.

It will take some time, but slowly I am adjusting to paradise. I had three criteria when picking a house:
1. Walking distance to the beach-It is not an easy walk, but we have done it a few times already, and it will definitely keep us fit.
2. Pool-kids have practically lived in the pool...SO worth it! Can't wait until we have more people here to share it with.
3. Quiet/not in a big city-We are successfully remote, hopefully the commute to school every day won't become a pain. The cicidas are noisy, but they become white noise after a while, we do hear the goats as well when they wander into the yard to snack on the carob trees, oh yes, and the faint sound of the waves at night...I think it will do.

We spent the entire day Friday trying to get the kids registered in school, tomorrow we will do the same. School starts on September 12, so hopefully it is sorted by then. Tuesday we need to trade the rental car in on something smaller, so we will do some shopping while in the bigger city. We are thinking we need to look at inflatable SUP and/or kayaks, bikes, and a climbing guide book of the area.

Vida es bueno!
Kris

Sunday.

Well, today we decided that another day of rest was in order.  We have no plans, other than some pool time, and maybe a siesta.  It is the hottest day we've had here so far,and the heat is absolutely glorious.  It makes the pool that much more attractive.

I do have to admit though, I was a little scared to go into the pool today, because we found a little critter drowned in the pool this morning.  All I can say is Arachnophobia!!!!

He's a real tiny spider, about the size of a quarter, but it was still a little freaky.

We have no real plans for the rest of the day, and I think that's just awesome, I am really getting into the whole laid back siesta culture.  We might walk down to the beach after supper for a late evening swim, but other than that..........!

Ciao
Shane

So this is my second blog and today we did lots that's worthy of this blog. 

We started off the day by driving down to an abandoned house halfway down to the beach. From there we walked down to the beach and stayed there for 6 HOURS. While we were there we fed fish, slept, Swam, Snorkeled, Tried to catch fish in our hands, Cliff jumped, Climbed, explored underwater caves, and much more, so much more that the list would be too long for this page.  So I'll just say that it was a lot of fun. 

After the beach we came home and hopped in the pool and that's really all that was exciting today, so I guess that this is the end of the blogging for today.

Bye

P.S Did I forget to mention that I found an octopus in a rock in a cove at the beach it was a small one and I think it was a squid by it's shape and size. It was grey and the picture is a little fuzzy.:)

Queen of Awesomeness

(A.K.A Jaedyn)

Today we walked to the beach, we stayed at the beach for 6 hours. We snorkeled a lot and saw millions of fish.I met a new friend while rock climbing, his name was Adam and he lives in Malaga.
Me and dad found a hidden cove we plan to go there soon. Me and my mom climbed a mountain in ten minutes while j and dad drove. My dad and I might also go fishing soon. See ya later.
 Brae

So... I am lying in bed, at 2:30, and it just hit me.  What the hell have we done! I think it's starting to sink in a little, or I'm still jet lagged, but we are here....really doing this.

Today, errrrr...tomorrow we are driving into Granada to try and get the kids registered in school.  This has been one of the major stressors we have faced, as we couldn't register them from home, and the school here starts in a couple weeks at most.  If we don't get them in school, then we are home schooling for the year, which may change all our plans.

Aside from that, its still quite surreal being here.  We hiked down to the beach yesterday.... We were told you couldn't drive down, there is a parking lot at the top and a shuttle bus takes you down.  In all the research we did, no where did we find that.  I just thought the beach was quiet because of the seclusion and the "nature" of the beach.  Turns out the shuttle only runs in July and August.  After September 1st, the road is open to all.  The beach still wasn't all that crowded though. 

The water was quite warm, and we could snorkel easily.  The rugged cliffs are amazing, and the views are spectacular (looking out or up that is ;) ). We will check out the restaurant one day, but it seemed a little pricey for a regular hangout.   There is a standup paddleboard rental shop at the beach, but we didn't get a chance to ask about prices.  We hope we can make a deal to rent a couple long term, easier then buying, and we wouldn't have to carry them down to the beach every day.
Since we do have a early start, and a busy day, I will end here and try to get some rest.  Maybe now my mind will quit spinning.

CIAO

Shane

Hi there. This is my third post, today was very exciting. To start the day we all woke up early to go to the beach; it was a bumpy ride, Jaedyn got a sliver this big [       ] in her leg, and more than three of us had our legs {knees down} torn up by plants on the way down. We found some cool abandoned houses as well and one old abandoned terrace.
Brae

Hey guys, so I haven't done one of these yet so it might not be the best you've read yet. So today is our second official day in Spain, and we had a big adventure today. Today we went to the beach,but instead of driving down we had to walk straight down a cliff.

While we were climbing down the cliff I slipped and got a sliver in my leg. Without explaining the gory details i'll just say it hurt like h... it was very unpleasant. Then after that we walked the other half of the cliff-walk down a road to the beach. We played there for about 3 hours and then we had to hike all the way back up to our house which we have decided to call Casa YOLO(You Only Live Once) As soon as we were back we jumped into the pool and just swam for another 2 hours there. We had dinner and now I'm writing my blog.

Queen of Awesome

(A.K.A Jaedyn):)   

CASA YOLO

Well, we made our first venture down to the beach. Our plan was to wake up early and hike down before the heat of the day, but apparently we all needed sleep instead....so...we did the hike at the hottest possible time of day. Ocean swim felt so good at bottom, and pool swim felt even better when we made it back up. It is a 2 km walk with an elevation drop/gain of 280m. If we do that every day, we will be in great shape! There is a road that switchbacks down to the ocean, with about half of it being closed to vehicle traffic, but being who we are, we decided that seemed boring, so we bushwhacked through the forest below our villa and came out onto the road where the vehicle traffic is prohibited. There was only one casualty, but luckily the sliver Jaedyn got deeply embedded into her leg was large enough to pull out with leatherman pliers, because we didn't have tweezers on us. 

The snorkelling was fabulous! No corals, but thousands of fish! The beach was very educational for the kids. We won't need to worry about them looking at inappropriate websites if they are curious about different anatomy. By the end of the year, they will be well educated on all shapes and sizes. Even after spending a few hours there today, they were totally at ease, and over the initial culture shock.

We have come up with a name for our new home, "CASA YOLO" ( for those of you my age or older, "You Only Live Once"). Here is a picture of the kids cliff jumping in our yard into the pool. This morning we had goats grazing right outside our patio gate as we ate breakfast. I am wondering at what point this will feel like life, and not just a vacation? Vida es bueno!

Hello there this is the second post by brae. I haven't slept well in 48 hours, so it`s pretty tough. Although the views are really awsmmazing so that equals it out. I think we are about to go to the beach soon.