Day 1: Madrid

We flew into Madrid on Saturday morning and spent that day feeling very jet-lagged!!! We forced ourselves and the kids to power through it, though, and we got to explore a lot of the more touristy areas of Madrid, including some plazas and the botanical gardens, as well as a huge, gorgeous park they have there. Think Central Park, but in Madrid, and (in my opinion) more beautifully landscaped. Here are some pictures of our first, very long, day.

Here we are, recently off the airplane and waiting for the metro.

Joy humored me and let me take this picture, also in the metro. Isaac was being cranky and didn't want to be in a picture. We were super tired, so it's excusable. :)

One of the plaza's? Or maybe outside the train station? Not really sure. Poor, tired Isaac, still not wanting his picture taken!

This is a park outside a castle in Madrid. We visited this park and castle the first time we were in Madrid when Ginny was 11 months old, so we wanted a picture of Ginny now 6 years later! We only spent a few hours in Madrid before taking a train to St. Sebastian, so this was one of the few places we saw on that first trip.

We thought we had a picture of her riding this dog toy, so we took another picture of her now. But, as you will see below, it was actually a different toy she was in. She probably wasn't big enough for this one yet.

Finally, he was happy enough to be at a park that he let me take his picture!

This is the picture we have of Ginny from our trip in 2010 at this park. She was in the car toy! So, for your viewing enjoyment, below is Isaac in the same toy. So cute!

These two wanted to pose for a picture on this. I don't know what it is.

Here is one of the main plazas in Spain. Lots of people selling stuff to the tourists.

Also, a lot of entertainers. The kids loved the giant bubbles!

These next pictures were taken in the Botanical Garden in Madrid. It was beautiful, and the tulips were all in bloom which was gorgeous!

The next few pictures were taken at the beautiful park. I finally looked up the name of the park and it is called El Parque del Buen Retiro. :)

As we walked through the large "central" park in Madrid, we got caught in a major downpour. We were soaked within seconds. (Along with all of the MTC missionaries who we ran into. Apparently, the Madrid MTC missionaries come to the park every Saturday to do some contacting. We had a lot of fun talking to them, and then we all got soaked together. :)
Isaac was so tired at this point (it was around 5 pm Madrid time) that he slept completely through the rain, despite getting soaked. He didn't even stir!

At this point, we were so tired and soaked that we decided to call it a day. We took the kids back to the apartment where we were staying, fed them some dinner, and got them into bed. They were so tired they slept amazingly! Even despite Isaac's 5 pm nap. :)