How is it already JULY?!

Wow….time sure has been flying by! I can hardly believe the first half of 2015 has come and gone. I had the best of intentions with this blog and keeping everyone updated with our adventures, but it seems as though I have fallen a bit short. This post is the beginning of my attempt to get ‘caught up’ with what we have been up to, and then to keep this blog more current! We have been quite busy these past 4-5 months. We have hosted numerous guests, traveled to new places, and added a new (4 legged) member to our family. Here is a quick recap of the end of February – March.

IMG_4468In February we ended our road trip with my sister with a drive through Marbella on our way to Ronda. We arrived in Marbella at the perfect time for a sunset dinner on the Mediterranean. To say it was gorgeous would be selling it short!  Ronda was nothing short of amazing as well. If you are planning a trip to Ronda, I highly suggest this Airbnb. It is in the old town, literally steps away from the bridge. Pedro, the owner, met us to let us in and show us around. We were running late and he was more than happy to accommodate us.

Before my sister had to head home, we spent a day together in Sevilla, just us girls. We had so much fun touring around the city! Here are a few of my favorite photos from that day.

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sevilla bull ring pano

We ended February with a trip to Zoo de Castellar. This zoo started as a rescue for animals that were being mistreated and sold on the black market. It has been open since 2002 and allows visitors the opportunity to get up close with the animals. Being the animal lover that I am, I was like a kid in a candy store. We were able to hold and/or pet a baby white tiger, a lemur, an owl and many others.

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The baby tiger had the softest pads on his feet. As you can tell in the photos, I really got a kick out of being able to pet this little one. The broom in the photo was to distract the tiger because he was really playful!

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March was by far one of my favorite months here in Spain, and we sure did squeeze a LOT into it. Nearly every weekend was filled with BBQ’s, beach trips or vacations. Some of the most beautiful sunsets I have witnessed were in March. We made a trip to Morocco and also to Germany. We said goodbye to a great friend. The weather was amazing and the experiences are ones that I will remember forever! Here are some of my favorite photos from our weekends in Chipiona.

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I will share our Germany & Morocco trips with you all later this week. I have far too many amazing things to share to add them in here. I hope the first half of the year is treating you all as wonderful as it is treating us!

 

Six Unbelievably Wonderful & Amazing Months of Marriage

“But love, I’ve come to understand, is more than three words mumbled before bedtime. Love is sustained by action, a pattern of devotion in the things we do for each other every day.” -Nicholas Sparks

This may sound cliche…ok, this absolutely sounds cliche…but I guess time flies when you’re having fun! Today marks 6 months since Marcus and I tied the knot, and it has been – hands down – the best 6 months of our life together. During our engagement we both heard on many occasions, and from various different people, that marriage changes things. Marcus and I talked about what we possibly thought could change given that we had already been living together for 3+ years, and neither of us could come up with much. I believe we felt we were already in the groove of being together, living together, loving each other, and that marriage would simply change my name and we’d finally have the coveted title of Mr. and Mrs., Husband and Wife.

During our engagement I was so excited to become his wife, but I didn’t really know what to expect. You often hear that the first year of marriage is the hardest, and that being married is a lot of work. None of this worried me because I know that we both love each other and that we will stand by each others’ side through anything life throws our way. I’d have to say that I really feel we are lucky in love because marriage has been nothing short of a dream come true. Honestly.

That’s not to say that things stayed the same. You may be wondering if anything changed… Yes! A lot changed, and I must say it was pleasantly surprising. I will speak for myself here, but I know my husband shares my feelings on many of the things I’m about to say.

I have a new sense of confidence in our relationship. This is not to say that I did not have confidence in our relationship before. However, now that we are married I have a new feeling of assurance that we will get through anything and everything, together. This confidence is the best feeling in the world.

-I no longer get bothered by the ‘little things’. Everyone has little things they do, and sometimes after living with someone for awhile little things can start to irritate you. I have noticed that the little things my husband does are no longer bothersome to me. Some of this comes from the fact that I am looking at things differently. I make the choice to not let silly little things bother me, because what good does that do for anyone? And part of this comes from knowing that these little things are just that, little things, and it’s better to learn to live with them and embrace (and maybe even love and find joy in…) them rather than nagging and letting these things turn into something bigger.

-I am my husband’s wife. This is a bit of an obvious one, but these words have so much meaning. Husband.  Wife. I did not realize how much I would enjoy saying these words, out loud, to anyone (and everyone), whenever possible. These words have a way of making me feel so very wonderful. I love being my husband’s wife.

-We are playing new roles in our relationship. When we were dating I think that we were both a little more selfish, which isn’t a bad thing! However, now that we are married we have both stepped up to our new roles. I know that we both value these new roles and take them seriously. On a daily basis I think about the wife my husband deserves, and I strive to be that person.

-We have the conversations you think about having with your husband or wife. We always had (pretty) good communication in our relationship, but now we are on a whole new level. We open up our communication to very deep conversations about the past, where we have come from, and the wounds that we may carry. We also open up our communication to our future, where we want to be, and how we are going to get there. Some of the conversations we have had in the past 6 months have been the most important conversations I’ve had in my life. I am so thankful to be sharing these conversations, feelings and thoughts with my husband.

Some of the daily things I focus on in our marriage are:

-Taking pride in our marriage, and in being my husband’s wife. 

-Having the utmost respect for my husband, and our marriage.

-Being filled with joy everyday that my husband has chosen to spend his life with me.

These simple, daily thoughts have aided in ensuring that our newlywed life together has been everything (and more) than we could have dreamt of. I am confident that the months and years to come will follow suit and be just as amazing, and even more so, than our first six months!

Cheers to love, life, and happily ever after LP7A8619

Home Sweet Home . . . for now!

IMG_3465Hi everyone. I just wanted to do a quick post to share with you where we are staying right now in our ‘temporary housing’. We were so happy to get to stay off-base and we were set up with a great place called La Espadana. There is a great restaurant on-site called Los Olivos. We have enjoyed quite a few great meals there, and even more beer and great conversation with the bartender, Abraham. It’s really convenient too because we get daily breakfast at the restaurant. It is a typical Spanish breakfast of cured meats, cheeses, bread and various pastries. IMG_3468We love the cafe con leche here, although since the cup sizes are much smaller than what we are used to we usually have 2 or 3! All of the staff here has been so accommodating and helpful. The only negative thing I can say about La Espadana is the sleeping arrangements are not our favorite. Here in Spain (and much of Europe from what I’ve been told) they put 2 twin beds in a room rather than a double or a queen. Marcus and I tried sleeping that way but it wasn’t working out for us to be sleeping apart from each other. We have opted for sleeping on our pull out couch for now…and if you’ve ever slept on one of those you know how uncomfortable they tend to be! With that being the only downside, it is far outweighed by the great things we have here at La Espadana. IMG_3461My favorite thing is that we are right across the street from the beach! We walk out the front of the lobby and there is a great park with tons of wooden walking trails, gorgeous trees and some great workout stations. Joey and Lola have become pretty accustomed to their daily romps on the beach and they absolutely love it. I was never a huge beach lover, I have always preferred the mountains. Now that we are here in Southern Spain I am falling more in love with the beach every. single . day ! It is all still setting in that we get to live here for the new few years and enjoy all that Spain and Europe have to offer. Every day is really a new adventure for us and it has been nothing short of amazing so far. Marcus was given a little bit of time to settle in before starting to work full time so we have gotten to spend a lot of our time together in our first weeks here. Next week he will start working a full time schedule though, and I sure will miss him! IMG_3388IMG_3417IMG_3454IMG_3404IMG_3420