Europe: Barcelona

I'm super late on this (this was back in January), but we had THE best time in Barcelona after our few days in Rome! I think we all agreed the Barcelona days were our favorite. Maybe that's because our beds weren't rocks there like they were in Rome? I had been to Barcelona 10+ years ago, but my memory is bad enough it felt like a whole new experience.

The Barcelona trip started with a slight delay when they decided to bump us to a later flight because it was overbooked. This is a picture of me throwing a fit until they changed us to a sooner flight and gave each of us a chunk of money for our inconvenience. 

We started our first morning with the Segrada Familia. Seriously, it is stunning. You really can feel the spirit there. You can sense that Gaudi really loved the Lord and dedicated this to Him.

Inside the Segrada Familia.

One of the Gaudi houses we walked by.

After debating for forever if it was worth the money to go inside Casa Batllo (another Gaudi house), we decided to do it. SO cool and worth it! 

Being tourists inside the Casa Batllo.

On the roof of Casa Batllo.

More Casa Batllo. Such cool architecture!

We went to a Flamenco Show! Cameron volunteered to help keep the beat.

Seriously the dancers were amazing!!! I loved it.

Doing our best flamenco stance.

We ate a ton of interesting food in Barcelona! Cameron was in heaven! I enjoyed it for a day or so...then I reached the point I was ready to have "normal" food again. :)

Yummy churros and hot chocolate one night! And we had the funnest conversation with the barista who served us--a really nice circus performer.

This is somewhere in the middle of our million mile walk to get to Park Guell. I guess we took the incredibly long way. We never thought we'd make it. I think it seriously took us an hour when it was supposed to be five minutes? But we got there!

Park Guell!

After Park Guell, we headed to the market (La Boqueria) for lunch. I was all fooded out, so I got Walk 2 Wok around the corner while Jason, Kasee, and Cam all indulged in all sorts of fun foods!

We headed to the coast one afternoon and loved seeing that part of the city. 

We even took a fun boat ride.

We stumbled on a Kendall Jenner appearance at a Mango Store, and I immediately turned into a crazy fan girl. We waited for an hour for our sighting, all while trying to get more info out of the guards. 

Probably my favorite picture of the whole trip? This is Cameron standing in the back of the crowd eating his waffle because he couldn't care less about Kendall Jenner. Or maybe because he cared so much about his waffle. :)

SUCH a fun trip. It was nice to get back to our boys after, but it really was so fun to have a break and get to explore europe with some of our best friends.

Europe: Rome

We had that most incredible european adventure back in January with our good friends Jason and Kasee! Back in August they invited us to tag along, and we knew we couldn't say no! We picked Rome and Barcelona and started the planning. I'd been to both cities before, but Cameron hadn't been to either one. We LOVED traveling with Kasee and Jason and seriously had the best time. 

Day 1: Colosseum and Forum

Kasee converted us to the selfie stick during the trip. Seriously useful! :)

We started out visiting the Colosseum and the Forum on our jet lagged Day 1. 

I guess we started out on the "wrong" side of the Forum, and the by the time we made it over to the traditional side, it was closing and they were forcing us out. But in a typical Stephanie move, I hid and snuck past them. Kasee and Jason followed..but Cameron chickened out. Too much of a rule follower, I guess. :)

Day 2: Tivoli (Villa d'Este), Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain

Our second day in Rome, we headed to Tivoli and had the best day! I think we all agreed it was our favorite Rome day. It's a little city about 45 minutes outside Rome. It was so fun to be somewhere smaller and more local. We wandered around Villa d'Este and it was gorgeous, especially the gardens. 

How I love this sweet friend of mine! 

I have no idea why I'm making this face. But we were in the midst of guessing the price of all the designer window display clothing in the Spanish Steps area.

Day 3: Campo D'Fiori, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Vatican & St. Peter's

Cam met a little friend in the market.

Rome is the most beautiful city! Entering into Piazza Navona.

Cam and I got photobombed by these crazies outside the pantheon. 

The prettiest streets! 

Jason's twin in the Vatican Museum.

Inside St. Peter's.

Beautiful St. Peter's.

We ate at amazing restaurants every night. I think we were a little sick of pasta by the end of our days there. :) We made reservations at a bunch of places that looked good. Which was a great idea, except that we had SUCH a hard time finding things. Maps in Rome aren't terribly accurate.

Day 4: Park

On our last morning, we went to the Park and rented a little golf cart. (We were soooo tired by this point.) It really was super fun and was the perfect way to end the trip!

The view from the park.

Our little cart! The horn didn't work, but I kept all the pedestrians safe by yelling "beep beep." We've got to do our part to keep up the obnoxious American reputation! ;)