July 28th 2010 - Overview of the Levesque Family Spain Roadtrip

I am sure the blog's friends and family have anxiously been awaiting word about our fantastic adventure, accompanied by pictures of course.

Overall the trip was a huge success. We all grew together and had a wonderful time. We were able to learn a lot about how to organize our time and routines. We were able to learn some Spanish and get around speaking broken French, English (not broken), and German. In Spain Linda spoke German to a Spanish lady who didn't understand English. I did ok using my French in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. We even managed to say thank you to two Portuguese people who were living in Luxembourg in their native Portuguese.

In total we traveled 6576 km (4200 miles). We were in 8 different countries Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain and Luxembourg. All of this took place over 35 days. During this time we spent 6 nights in the car, 6 nights camping in a tent, 4 nights in luxurious Hilton (2 on the way to Spain and 2 on the trip home from Spain), 7 days in an apartment with Linda's parents in San Sebastian, and the rest of the time in one or two star hostels.


Our big trip is about to start - packed and ready to go...


Daddy and the kids at our campsite in Ribadeo, Spain


Damien taking his nightly bottle

The kids did excellent. We drove most of the time overnight so that the kids would not get too bored. I drove the entire trip and Linda was my navigator/gps. Damien sat behind me and Alicia sat behind Linda. It was cozy at night when I was driving, sometimes Alicia would wake up and I would reach back and put the pacifier back in her mouth and then scratch her head until she would fall back asleep. Usually whenever we would stop I would take Damien out of the car seat and Linda would be in charge of taking Alicia out. The same would go when we put the kids back in the car.

It is pretty amazing how much more stopping and how much longer the stops are when you have kids. It was still a lot of fun however, when we would stop at rest stops or gas stations and take out the cooking kit to warm up food for the kids. We would put them in their strollers or on a blanket in the grass while we fed them. Linda and I would often buy a baguette, butter, some cheese and chozario (salami) to have a nice semi-peaceful lunch or breakfast. Many times we would also eat mussels in tomato sauce from a can (our new favorite).


Alicia taking her morning strol after sleeping in the car in Betanzos...


..while Damien does his stretches - stretch those cheeks
A typical day, if you can call it that, would start with waking up feeding the kids and giving medicine around 9:00, then some breakfast for the grown ups. Then we would get the kids and ourselves ready for a day out usually at the beach or whatever our daily adventure was. We would then feed the kids again at around 12:00. 12:00 to 4:00 pm we would go to the beach or something else. Then 4:00pm feeding and medicine. Maybe we would spend little more time at the beach or walking around. Then we would take the kids back to wherever we were staying and sometimes wash them off and get ready for the night. Around 9:00 pm the kids had usually eaten, Alicia had taken the rest of her medicine and they were on their way to falling asleep, while Mommy and Daddy had a well deserved beer. Afterwards we would put the kids into their beds on wheels (stroller) and go and find a nice place to have a relaxing dinner. We would then go for a stroll around and maybe have another drink and by the time you noticed, it was already 1:00 and time for Damien's night feed. Luckily he would usually stay asleep while we feed him and he learned to eat his food cold as well as hot. Princess Alicia has never enjoyed cold food. We don't blame herJ

Overall I was amazed that no matter how hard we tried we were not doing anything until 12:00 pm. It was something that we learned to accept, that it was impossible to start the days main activity before then. Getting out of wherever we were staying was the toughest part of the day. A trip to the beach involves so many little things like putting lotion on everybody, changing diapers, then changing diapers again as soon as we are on our way out the door, figuring out how long your going to be gone so that you can bring enough food for the kids, bringing the beach umbrella and so on. Then when we got to the beach it was still pretty crazy. We would have to carry the strollers over the sand or drag them threw it. When we finally go to our destination on the beach we would set up what seemed like a small village so that the kids could be entertained while staying in the shade. Between the visits in the water with the kids, changing diapers, playing and feeding there would be an occasional brief moment where both kids would sleep and Linda and I could knock out in the sand for 30 to 40 minutes. Everything was definitely fun, but it was different then how Linda and I use to do it on our own.

It was really great to see how much the kids developed, adapted and grew. Alicia loved the water. We called her our little mermaid. Once she got into the water she was a little star. She knew the routine once we got down to the beach. She knew she was going to go swimming as soon as she heard the waves. Out of extreme excitement she would stiffen up, open her eyes as wide as possible, start kicking a little and waving her arms by her side when we started to put her swimsuit on. Then she was about to explode with anticipation when we were walking down towards the water. As soon as she touched the water she would start laughing and giggling hysterically. As previously mentioned she loved to get thrown up in the air and caught in the water. In between getting tossed, Alicia found it really relaxing to just lie back on her back and have me pull her over small waves. Many times she would help me move her by kicking a fantastic flutter kick. Alicia and Damien were able to stay in the water different lengths of time depending on the weather both in the ocean and on the beach. For the first part of the trip 15 minutes in the water 1 time a day was a lot for them. They would use up all of their energy and then come out and try to warm up and then eventually fall asleep. But by the end of the trip in warmer conditions, they were able to get in the water 4 times a day for 15 minutes each round.


Damien taking a walk on on the beach in France


Alicia and grandma Carina is playing in the sand in San Sebastian, Spain


Damien with his best smile!


Family pic in San Sebastian!!


Daddy loving the son or sun...??


This is not Damien, it is Alicia standing with Daddy!!!


Mommy and Alicia in Tossa de Mar, Spain


Mr Charmer says, "I love hanging on the beach"

Alicia was also really good on the land. She started to put her feet down on the ground and push so that she is in a standing position with us supporting her. This is a really big stand (step) for her. She has also become a lot more tactile with her hands. When I would pat her head in the car, or if we would sit with Alicia on our lap, Alicia would grab my (our) hand and hold on as a sign of affection. It was heartwarming. Alicia's strength in her arms and her range or motion has also greatly improved. The best way to demonstrate the improvement is how she lifts both arms over her head together. She use to not do this at all. Now whenever we sing a song, "Brother Damien," where we use to take her hands over her head. She instead will take the initiative to bring our hands over her head and then back down, and repeat. Alicia also seems to have really good skin for the sun. We tried to keep the kids out of the sun as much as possible, but Alicia came back with the cutest tanned legs and feet from them sticking out of the stroller.


Alicias tanned feet - so cute!!

Damien was a little star on this trip. He is just doing so much it is hard to keep up with. He started saying, "Ma Ma ma ma ma ma ma," and now he has started to say, "Nej nej nej nej," or the perfect combination of "Ma ma ma ma Nej Nej Nej Nej," which means, "Mom no no no". Luckily he does not know what this means yet. Damien is super strong. He turns himself all the way around on his stomach, he has pulled himself up to stand but then fell over, he can stand if we let him hold onto a table, he has started to do the beginning steps of crawling, he can turn over in all directions and he sits perfectly. At the beach we would let Damien sit in the sand and have the waves hit him. At first we were worried that Damien would topple over, but he held fast like a rock with a huge smile on his face. Damien was always looking around and trying to take everything in. Everywhere we went people wanted to meet him, talk to him or hold him. He is a natural flirt. Damien would stare endlessly until someone would look back at him. Usually he would be smiling at the person or would start smiling as soon as they acknowledged his looks. We even saw him one time try to flirt with a pigeon. All the Spanish ladies would come over and say, "Ola!" and play with him. He really stuck out in Spain being so blonde, and blue eyed. It really got to the point of ridiculous. When we would push Damien in the stroller we could not see what he was doing, but you noticed what the people around you were doing, so we figured out that Damien was up to his meeting people act again. Damien's smile and cuteness could melt the coldest hearts. Do not let the charming looks totally deceive you though. He is crazy. We had to watch where he was trying to go, what he was trying to grab, and what he was trying to put in his mouth constantly. His favorite thing to grab was Alicia's hair. Obviously Alicia was not a big fan of her brother's new toy.


Damien and Daddy having some pintxos in San Sebastian


Hanging on the beach with Mr octupus ( he was our 5th family member on the trip - thank you Memere and Papa!!)


OLÁ!!!

Damien loving the water

In the next couple of blog entrees we will write more about the actual places we visited, tell some funny stories that have happened, along with of course more pictures!