Happy Halloween

Wonders of the World

Our goal is to see the 8 Wonders of the World, which include the 1 remaining Ancient Wonder of the World and the 7 New Wonders of the World (http://www.new7wonders.com/). 

After visiting the Colosseum, we have now been to 4 of the 8:
1. Machu Picchu, Peru - May 11, 2007
2. Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt - March 15, 2009
3. Petra, Jordan - April 4, 2012 
4. Colosseum, Italy - October 16, 2012

Remaining Wonders to Visit:
Chichen Itza, Mexico
Taj Mahal, India
Christ Redeemer, Brazil
Great Wall, China


Colosseum, Italy - October 16, 2012:













































Petra - April 4, 2012 (view from the High Place of Sacrifice):


Petra - April 4, 2012 (The Monastery):
 

Petra - April 4, 2012 (The Treasury):


Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt - March 15, 2009:


Machu Picchu, Peru - May 11, 2007:

Spanish Meal Times

Daniel finally adjusted to the meal schedule taught to him by his colleagues at the Polytechnic University of Valencia.  The typical daily schedule was:

8-9 AM Breakfast

11 AM Coffee/Snack

2 PM Lunch

5-6 PM Snack

9-11 PM Dinner

Part of a tapas dinner at Tapas Pambori:

Daniel's Apartment in Valencia

Daniel had a nice two-bedroom apartment on the third floor of the building at 12 San Francisco de Borja during his stay in Valencia with a small balconey that opened to the street below.

Valencia, Spain

Daniel spent the past month in Valencia, Spain with a fellowship from the European Union at the Polytechnic University of Valencia as part of the Transatlantic Partnership for Excellence in Engineering.  The next series of blog posts will contain information from his trip.  I hope you enjoy them.  He also made a weekend trip to Porto, Portugal and went to Rome and Barcelona when I joined him for the last week.

The City of Arts and Sciences:






Torres de Serranos (Serrano Towers - gate of the medieval city wall):


Beautiful city street:


Central Market:

Labor Day Weekend

It started with a bang... 

--literally.  As you can tell from the picture above, my foot is a little bruised.  Why you ask?  Well, it's probably a combination of a cutting board and gravity.  I was preparing lunch on Saturday when I bumped the cutting board and it landed, corner down, on the top of my foot.  It then bounced off my foot, hit my shin, and hit my foot again!  After about 8 minutes of doing my lamaze breathing exercises in an effort not to teach my 2 year old any new fun words, I was able to speak again. Walking, however, was a different story.  I didn't even attempt to hobble on Saturday, but I did end up hobbling all day Sunday and part of Monday.  By Monday afternoon, I could walk relatively normally again.  Currently, there is only one pair of shoes that can fit this foot, so silver flats it is, at least until I can fit my foot into something else comfortably.

Other than that, we had a really great weekend playing at the local parks.  See below:


And just hanging out after some grocery shopping.


I do have to thank Daniel for willingly keeping a 2 year old occupied all weekend while I fumbled and stumbled around the house.  Thanks dear!  :-)

Rachel's Birthday

Above you will find a picture of my office on my birthday.  When I walked in on Monday morning, the ladies in the office had placed sticky notes all over my office.  Best of all, they were all hand-written notes from the employees in the schools.  It made my day!  Now I have them all on my filing cabinets.  I have to figure out what to do with them all.  I'm going to hold onto them since it was so nice.

I enjoyed that evening just hanging around the house with Daniel and Sophia. 

Feeling good about my 30th year!  Bring it on!

Visit from G.G.

GG Jane playing "paper" dolls


GG Doug and Sophia


Pullen Park and Sophia not wanting to smile


Pullen Park Carousel


Looking up at GG Jane


"Up and Down, Up and Down"


Playing with stamps


Out to dinner at The Pit


The sweater GG Jane knit


Sophia showing GG how to work the iPad


Working her magic for GG Doug


Playing games

http://youtu.be/tyJPMiowfR8


http://youtu.be/gMOconXtRqo


http://youtu.be/MkVLZyRT84U


http://youtu.be/BAc82gHjPRQ


http://youtu.be/Jonf-kxyP1w


http://youtu.be/iTu1OZcF3Yc


GG Doug and GG Jane came to visit this past week.  We had a great time roaming around Raleigh and showing them all our favorite places.  We were glad they were able to come up and spend some time with us!

OBX Video and More Pictures

http://youtu.be/xbUwT_ANg_0

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100803615315379.2662753.11813009&type=3

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100803563838539.2662743.11813009&type=3

OBX - Wright Brothers' Memorial