Costa Brava, Spain!

Two weeks ago we took a mini-vacation to Costa Brava, Spain.  Jake's work was going slow and we wanted to do a little bit of traveling while we're in Europe, so we packed up the car Friday morning and drove 3.5 hours down the Mediterranean coast of France and Spain.  We ended up staying at the Rosimar Spa hotel in Lloret Del Mar.  Our hotel was literally 50 yards from the beach, and we had a room with a view to the sea.  It was wonderful.  

We got half-board with our hotel reservation, so a breakfast buffet and either a lunch or a dinner buffet was free every day we were there.  It was sooo nice after a long day outside swimming to not have to wait to find a restaurant, order food, and be served.  Having a tired, grumpy baby is not conducive to eating at restaurants.  We did go to a couple of restaurants, though, so we could try the local food.  I'm pretty pickey so I didn't really order anything adventurous, but Jake had some interesting seafood!  I distinctly remember crayfish...gross....

Here are some pictures of the trip: 

The French countryside on the way to Spain

Addelyn's first time touching the sea.

Addelyn getting knocked over by a wave - she's a trooper, though.  She didn't cry once in all the times the waves pushed her down and splashed her face.

Addelyn LOVED playing in the sand right by the water's edge

Playing in the sand with daddy

See all the sand in her hair?  It was from a really big wave.   It  was just barely over her head and got her completely soaked.  Luckily daddy was holding onto her nice and tight.  We moved back a bit after that one.  No toddlers were pulled out to sea on this trip! 

Soaked by the waves and still having the time of her life!

This is the face Addelyn made whenever the waves came and got her legs wet.  The water was a bit chilly!

Daddy and Addelyn playing on the beach at Lloret Del Mar

Pretty view down the beach.  There's a castle on that hill, but it wasn't open to the public.

Down the beach the other way - there's a castle on that hill, too.

There was a sea-themed park right by the beach - Addelyn simply had to play there every time we passed it (which was every time we left the hotel, pretty much).

Our hotel had a pool in it as well, which we went swimming in once.  We also went swimming in the Rosimar Garden Hotel pool, which was much more Addelyn-friendly.  We didn't bring the camera to that because we thought it would just be a hassle and we didn't want to run the risk of it getting wet.  Addelyn had SO much fun there.  First she walked around the kiddie pool (it came up to about her chest...maybe a little lower).  Then we took her to the big pool which had a 0-depth entry.  We spent about an hour in that pool just having Addelyn "swim" around, splash, and walk in the shallow end.  Addelyn is so comfortable when she's in the water.  She will kick her feet and hold her arms out in front of her as I support her tummy to "swim" to daddy - all the while making her "fishey" sound to say "I swim like a fishey!".  Also, she would often stick her face in the water (sometimes on accident, sometimes on purpose).  When she did this she'd just come back up, spurt and cough a little bit, sneeze, then just look at me and grin ear-to-ear and shake her head and go "woah!".  I don't know how I got such a tough girl when Jake and I are both such wimps about the water!  I will have to have Jake film us in the hotel pool sometime soon to show you how much Addelyn adores swimming.

Addelyn on the way home after a tiring weekend at the beach.  She got a ball out of the vending machine at the gas station.  She was pretty excited about it.

The mountains in Spain on the way home from Costa Brava

More mountains

A bus that we passed had a long string of toilet paper blowing out of the top of it.  I was a little too slow with the camera, but there was a good 30 feet sticking out before it finally broke off...

...part of which then blew onto this car :-) 

That's it for our fun vacation!  I'll do a regular Addelyn/France update soon.  I have been taking pictures like crazy recently, so I need to stay caught up with posting them :-)