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As I sit here in our beautiful apartment in Granada, I feel overwhelming gratitude for how far we have come over the last 20 years.  When we came here when we were in the military, we didn't have much money, and we didn't have many resources (the internet was VERY new, and it wasn't a source for travel advice).  Now, the possibilities are really only limited by any lack of determination on my part (which isn't much).  20 years ago, we blew in and out of here quickly because all six of us were crammed into a hotel room and just didn't have the cash to stay too long.  Now, we can stay here as long as we like and know what there is to see.  It's really wonderful. We packed up our stuff in Madrid this morning, and it was a bit of a relief to get out of the tiniest AirBnb that could hold all nine of us.  It worked, but it was tight.  It was convenient though to be in the middle of downtown Madrid.  We dragged our luggage about a half a mile to the park...

I don't know how long we've been planning this trip, but it's probably been four or five months.  We started counting down around "89 days left", and we were about to lose our minds the week leading up to our departure. Initially, Hannah wanted to take Trevor on his first international trip.  We thought Ireland would be a good introduction, but Trevor didn't want to take the time off of work.  And Glo wanted to come along.  So we decided to go to Spain.  But then Trevor decided to come, and John wanted to come (it's Spain, Aris!), and then John asked me to ask the boys and their wives as well.  In the end, Rebecca and Ethan stayed home with the kids and to watch our animals, but Mark and Allison signed up too. I imagine I spent 40+ hours planning this trip.  We decided to return to Andalusía, a place that we visited several times when we lived in Germany but that our girls don't remember at all. I was worried mostly about Clarkie and jet lag, but also ...

It has been great fun, following Glo on her pregnancy journey....for me.  Every Wednesday, she would be one week further along, and I would check online to see the size of her baby. John on the other hand? He could do nothing but stress the entire 39 weeks.   At six weeks, she went in for an ultrasound with John.  He just wanted to see that she had an actual baby.  And she did! At 12 weeks, another ultrasound, and John ordered a "Panorama" test which would tell Glo any and all genetic abnormalities as well as the gender of the baby. Deep breath. I sometimes think that being pregnant with less knowledge 30 years ago was less stressful than being able to know SO MUCH now. Thankfully, there were no detected genetic problems.  That's what's really important. But let's be real.  We really just wanted to know what the baby was. Johannah, Gordon, Glo and I were sitting in Chick-fil-A having lunch.  We were trying to decide how to find out what the baby was--w...