Favorite Autumn 2006 pictures

Just a few really nice ones...

Halloween 2006

In this last picture, I think she's crying after realizing she wasn't going to get as much candy as she had expected :-)... Some people were nice, others were confused, others (I think) thought we were confused of country and we hadn't realized it!

These are a few photos of Sofía's first "consciuess" Halloween. I actually made her go from door to door in our building asking for tricks or treats. Of course not alone, there was another courageous or crazy (as you prefer to see it), Venezuelan mom in the building, who sent her son, Juan Adolfo, along with Sofía on a quest for candy...

Autumn 2006 - Mallorca con Fiore...

That was our trip! It was 3 very intensive days... we really made the most out of it! Gracias Fiore!

The prettiest part of the island that we got to see...

Nos pasamos un súper fin de semana en casa de Fiore, quien gentilmente además nos llevó a visitar la isla... ¡Qué bonita!

Autumn 2006

A few photos of us, Barcelona, pregnancy...

Summer 2006 - Venezuela

This is the end of our trip! A succesful, enjoyable, relaxing and colorful trip! We were lucky enough that my godmother was able to pump us up into first class! Sofía couldn't believe her eyes. She used the remote control so many times to extend her chair and fold it back again that she broke it! We were scolded :-)...

We took advantage of being all dressed up to take a family photograph... it came out nicely!

You see these pictures... We took them! I was really hoping, waiting and wishing till the last minute that something were to happen!! A gift from the beyond... the airline calling and saying we couldn't leave or something, a storm, a plane damage... but nothing... so I get to the airport, very very dissapointed. I see the Iberia airplane flying in at the moment we are parking the car. We get in line for the check in, for about 40 minutes, everything seems to be in order. Suddenly 3 people before getting up to the counter, they tell us that no more passangers fit in the plane. They had overbooked the flight!!!! So we got to stay an extra day and got pad for it! It was really amazing!

Here's the funniest episode of this trip... it's more of a miracle episode actually. I had bought my tickets a few months prior to the departure date. A few days later my aunt announces that she's getting married to Arnaldo and has already set the dates. We were leaving on Sep 2nd afternoon and they were getting married Sep 2nd night. I was very very frustrated. There was nothing to do though. Their dates depended on Arnaldo's work vacations and they were unable to move them around.

Here we are, next to playa parguito, eating the inevitable.. fresh fried fish!

We also got to visit my friend Adriana. She had just recently bought a bed&breakfast with her cousinon margarita Island. It's the cutest thing! Visit it, http://citronela.blogspot.com/. It's beautiful!

We also made a small trip to Margarita. It was our first family trip, composed of the 4 of us! My parents invited our stay in the 5 star hotel of Isla Bonita!

We took advantage of my cousin Federico's first dental cabinet, to go take care of our teeth! He hadn't graduated yet, but he was already working at it! Although, I was shocked with his prices ;-)... I have to say he has very smooth hands! Here you can see Sofía as a first hand helper!

We also visited my grandmother on my biological father's side, Pepita! This is my Portorican grandmother. Here we are, the 4 generations!

Had to get up early... wasn't very happy about it... but it was worhtwhile! Here are my brother and my husband beating each other up at tennis...

Laura and Federico

Susa la loca and me ;-)!

This is in Alecita's B-day, with the whole clan! Here is my aunt Maureen, my uncle Kunito and me!

Another highlight was my cousin Sharon preparing dinner for the 5 cousins and Co. Here are some good pictures of that night...

Daddy love-a-dub...

A few city trips as well. We went to el teleférico, the cable car that takes you up Caraca's mountain, el Avila. There is food and games and an amazing view from there. We also went to Parque del Este. All with my nanny, Alecita!

It was a trip were we got to relaz quite a bit; we were quite homey. Here's Nico and Vincent playing chess and Sofía developing the artist she has inside!

These are just common sunsets and views we get from my parent's apartment in Chuao, Caracas. Isn't that amazing?! I love it! It's also Vincent's doing, he was really into taking the best shots with our new Nikon D70!

This trip was very olorful in the sense that we got to do a lot of stuff. For instance here's a photo of my uncle Ricardo's apartment. He's an architect and had just remodeled it. Before he did so, it was almost a big empty storage room.

We also enjoyed the pool. Sharon, Sofía's godmother, was so good with her...

We had so much fun that day at my uncle's house. We jumped on the trampoline, for which Sofía was delighted and Sofía played pictionary with the adults for the first time! Tuti was the best at it with her! They made a wonderful team and beat us all!

Here's a nice little trip we made of going back home to Venezuela for 3 weeks. I was pregnant with Paul of about 4-5 months. Here we are at my uncle Kunito's house. Look at the color of these guacamayas and in general the beauty of the garden and the view...

Catalunya mid-2006

More Sofía...

Pregnant but not visible yet!

My beautiful flowers...

Future as an actress? I say yes!

Vincent and the whole Teamlog network team

Benoit and Stéphanie came to visit us during this time. We are eating the famous Felafel's we loved!

This is in Barna, on the famous Ramblas!

I had a couple of mom-friends from Sofía's school, Verónica (Aaron's mom) and a Venezuelan women (Juan Adolfo's mom). We use to babysit for each other so, that we could have each have a free night every other WE. This is a photo of Sofía, Aaron and Juan Adolfo's leg. It worked out well for everybody!

Just a few photos of our life (mid 2006)...

Pyrenees Trip - April 2006

Well, that's all I have of this wonderful trip! It will stay in our minds and hearts for years to come. When I think about this trip, I feel this is the kind of experience that build life up in a special way. I believe we should just create more of these... Again thanks to my mom for organizing such a complicated task! Thanks to Mir for coming through with this in the first place, so we could then want to reproduce it and dare try and feel how she did... She's a real heroine!

We stopped an extra night at a small town somewhere in Catalunya. They had an openair play of a chapter in the bible. If I recall it was the Last Supper. Vincent took some pretty cool photos!

When we got to a certain point downhill, our men came to pick us up with the cars and we pursued the walk. We found a few Dolmens, which have a special meaning, because it was in one that Mir and the kids would hide during the day, to not be seen by the the Nazis. During the night they would walk the mountain with a local guide that would cross people. Mir had a little bottle with liquor she would give the guide to maintain him warm. She carried Elsa in her arms and Hugo and Louise would walk down. This lasted 3 days if I recall correctly.

Going down...

Okay, we made it! From the Lodge to the Spanish border, only 20 minutes!

Other beautiful photographs...

We had come up, but now we needed to come back down. The kids adn husbands left in the guy's truck and we came down the Spanish border.

Angelina & Nicolai's love...

Dani filming, with the intention of doing a documentary maybe someday...

Us listening...

Here's Hugo storytelling... this was a beautiful experience. He was trying to recall all the details of the time when he was an 8 year old boy and he crossed the Pyrenees, escaping from WWII

Storytelling time... first Dani and I, mimicking my mom! We are just saying how, since we are little girls, she could tell us "Let's go girls, we want to get to the other side, all we need to do is cross this wild river; but Ingy we don't know how to swim; excellent, a good time to learn! Come on girls, this is really nothing, nothing to be afraid of!". It was a parody to the previous's day adventure!

This is the next day... the night we got there, we felt like the luckiest set of human beings. We were fed warm food, we hadn't died on the way there, we actually found other human beings! This is how scary it got towards the end of the hike. A few of us wanted to accuse my mom (she was the organizer), but the truth is, she did an excellent job! Thank you Inger for organizing one of the most incredible adventures we've done!

The trip that was suppose to be 2 hours long ended up being almost 6 hours!!! It was 11pm and we were lost in the middle of the Pyrenees, already imagining the wild pigs attacking us! These cows were the first sign of life we had seen in a long time. We had lost our trail, it was dark, the kids couldn't handle it anymore and nor could we. At that moment, when we were all about to start attacking each other, we found a road!!! A few minutes later, we found the Lodge that were we were going to sleep!

Here's some of the scenery on the way there. The kids (Angelina, Dane and Sofía) walked the whole way! 5 hours up the mountain! They were like goats... not even complaining for the most of it. When we came back home from this trip, Sofía had a school trip to a mountain site with the school for a whole WE. As soon as she started climbing the mountain, she got sick. When she got home she had 40 of fever for a couple of days!! After that, she didn't want to see a mountain again for a while!

Here we are finally going up. I want you to please notice the happy grin on Hugo's face!

Just to add up to the full house, Sharon and Martin came to visit also! Here we are all of us at the magical fountain in Barcelona (Plaza España) as well as in Tossa de Mar...

Us all, enjoying at the Parc de Catalunya, in Sabadell...

A few sleeping beauties...

I will start with a few photos of the pre-adventure. When my sisters Dani and Nikki & Co had arrived to Barcelona. I will show some photos of all of us at our place in Sabadell...

This was one of the coolest adventures we've done! It was something my parents had talked about for such a long time, and it suddenly came possible. We were trying to reproduce the escape, my stepgrandmother, Myriam and her 3 kids, Louise, Hugo and Elsa had done during the 2nd World War to get away from France and rejoin her husband and father, Alexander van Dobben in Venezuela, where he had been sent of by the Dutch governement as a Consul, away from the Nazis.

We should thank my mom for making this happen. She gathered the information, about moreless where they had crossed over (the Pyrenees) and figured how it was possible to do so today. The participants in this adventure, were: Nikki, Rob, Dane, Angelina, Danielle, Hugo, Inger, Nicolai, Vincent, Vanessa and Sofía.

Other spring photos...

And again, at our little park down below from our place...

Just a day at the beach and at a park close to Poblenou... These are the happy days!

B-Days...

Vincent managed to set the camera on top of a branch, probably hanging and about to fall into the little creek, but somehow it worked and the camera survived the adventure. For once we have photos of the 3 of us together...

We enjoyed the foie gras and tuna salad I'd made. Yes, I know what a combination, n'est pas?! And here, I'm not sure why I'm doing this, but I'm sure the camera deserved it ;-)...

We went for a picnic at the Montseny National Park. We found a beautiful deserted spot, only for us! We had a little river by our side. Sofía enjoyed exploring the ants and walking by the river!

Experimenting...

This is and might be the closest we ever get to plastic surgery! Well, you never know! At least, we had so much fun while designing our new eyes!

Carcassone

Uhh, wonderful! Here we were at the town square, enjoying our capuccinos, while our cuty pie would run around on her little scooter, having a blast!

A friend of mine, Elena, said that she didn't like Carcassone because it seemed like a Disney imitation of a middle age village. It's so well renovated and preserved and a little bit turisty that I can understand the statement, but it's still so beuatiful, without a doubt worth the visit!

Inside "la cité"...

This was a magical little trip! I did not expect to see such a wonderful site! We were quite impressed on how it had been rebuilt and renovated.

Christine & Flore's visit

So, it's January, and what does that mean? Well, it means there's "Les Soldes", and a good excuse for my sister in law to come visit! Of course, she didn't need an excuse, she was always ready to come see us...

Yes, these are not photos of the shopping, these are photos of the cultural side of the visit. A little insite into Parc Guell, one of Gaudi's most remarkable works. It was never finished.

Babka and Sofía in Barcelone

Some pictures of our beautiful Barcelona.

This was not a time when Babka enjoyed Barcelona, she said she was no longer into European cities, she preferred older cities with more history! Probably our fault for not doing a better job as tourist guides! However, they do seem to be having fun here...

Meanwhile, us enjoying the sightseeing in Sabadell...

Finally in 2006!

So we're approaching our modern days! Here I will show a few pictures of a very intense month, were we had a lot of family visit! But it all started out with Sofía in Saverne for New Year's Eve...

This must of been a really amazing Galette des Rois!

Enjoying their recently acquired x-mas presents...

"And I'm this big!"


A special love for this bird...

Other nice 2005 photos...

Youn and beautiful...

Note, that the most important part of this photo is not only Yasu and Vincent, but the man behind, who's behind and other parts are available to the public eye!! Ohh, Barcelona! Or should I precise, Sitges!

Another one of Vincent's passions... I don't know why...

Sofía's x-mas school presentation

Isn't this the cutest little devil you've ever seen?!


She was really going for it! She did such a good job, I was impressed, she scared those little angels away and was not shy about it!

A day in Montserrat

Sofía's 4th B-Day party

We asked her what she wanted to do, and took her to do it all... all day long!



Go and play at Aventura Park...

Ride her bike...

Eat pasta with green sauce (Pesto)!

Vincent's Art

He loves lightning... here some photos that prove his passion ;-)...


They are cool, huh?!

Sportive as can get!

Hard at Work!

I think the pictures speak for themselves!

Real Beauty...

...and a bit of posing as well!

Manners

This is dedicated to Grandpa...

Here is a different perspective of Sofía´s beauty ;-)...

My dad & I

I'm such a daddy's girlie whirlie! Here are some of my favorite moments with my daddy...