Spain and Portugal with the family

For new year’s we went with my family (we were 12 and this was just my mom and her brother’s family) to Madrid and Lisboa (Portugal). Aside from both destinations being incredibly beautiful, I must say that I am a very lucky person to have the family that I have (not that I hadn’t realized this before!). We had such an amazing time together. We were together for a week and we didn’t have any arguments whatsoever; none. We enjoyed each other’s company so much and had so much fun that it made me realize that I miss my family incredibly. I wish I could see them and hang out with them more often.

Although we had a full schedule everyday, my favorite part was late afternoon around 6pm where we would gather in the hotel lobby and just grab a few (several) drinks, relax and then go to dinner around 9:30-10pm.

No joke, we have close to 800 pictures from the trip (12 people taking pics), but here are just a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

Just hangin' out in Plaza Mayor... what wigs? What are you talking about?

1st night; nice restaurant. Why do we have napkins onour heads? Just 'cause...

Later that night... umm, yeah, I don't know...

Babe, can I hang this up in our living room?

New Year's Eve...

Before

After

“Hey, where do I go?” Dar’s new phrase

So although this has been going on for years now, it has finally been caught on camera. This is Chachi taking over Darlene’s side of the bed… this happens every night!


And here are some other pictures of Chachi and Luka…

Luka has arrived!

So after much anticipation, Luka is finally here! She arrived at JFK last Wednesday around 3:30pm. Unlike Chachi who was calm from day one and incredibly shy to come out of the cage at the airport, Luka jumped out of the cage and couldn’t stop squirming, moving, jumping, licking, running, eating, drinking, etc. She’s incredibly cute and we’re very excited to have her. We went straight from the airport to the vet (I know, talk about having a traumatizing day!), and they said she was fine, all’s good and that she weighted 5 pounds… At this point Chachi is looking like a Giant Schnauzer at 12 pounds!

Amazingly Chachi reacted very well when she first met her; she was playing with her and she seemed very happy. Later that night, after she realized that this new tiny-constantly-moving-thing wasn’t leaving her house, she got really pissed and started to mark her territory. Oh well, a week and a few days later, they’re getting along fine. They play all the day, speaking a very odd language that it seems only Chewbacca would understand, but at least they’re playing… I do miss sleeping all throughout the night though… I shall never take that for granted ever again. I’m thinking (and really hoping) that Luka will get into a regular schedule and sleep all throughout the night soon. VERY SOON!!!

Here are a few pics! Enjoy. On the last picture you will notice that Luka has something funky on her nose; yup, slobber from playing w/ Chachi!