Gran Canaria

After Christmas, Brad had off work until January 4. (I love Denmark.) So we decided to go somewhere warm and fun since we weren't with family and had no plans. We decided on the Canary Islands. They are about the only place part of the EU that is warm this time of year. They are Spanish islands off the coast of Morocco. We went to Grand Canary and it is a beautiful place.
They have mountains ....

beaches ...

and the Dunes of Maspalomas. They have rain forest and a volcano too. I would have loved to go to the volcano, but it would have been an all day adventure and we thought it was too much for the kids.

Here's Daddy and Anika at the dunes.

The weather was perfect, about 75-80 during the day and at night it would cool down to the 60s.

Little known fact ... Grand Canary is where Christopher Columbus was from. His house is a major tourist attraction in a town in the northern part of the island.

What's this my husband is looking at in the distance?

I'm sure he was just looking for the toilet. =)

One of Broderick's favorite things to do was to find rocks and throw them in the water ... not always caring if there were people nearby. We had to watch him closely.

Pool time:

Broderick loved the pool. The water was a little cold, but once you got in, you did get use to it ... really ... like, once you went numb.

Anika loves the water too.

Anika has also discovedered french fries .... she is a big fan.

While we were walking around, we had seen a Hard Rock Cafe, we had to go. We really miss American food over here. Now I don't know if Hard Rock normally has good food, but it tasted really good to us here.

We took the kids to a wildlife park nearby our resort. We went to a birds of prey show, or as Broderick would call them "fierce birds". They had bald Eagles that they let fly around, but they had a little problem ... the birds didn't come back. They had to cancel the rest of the show and were trying different things to get the birds back. After about a half hour, finally 2 of the 3 birds returned. Not sure if the 3rd decided to stay free or not. It made it rather interesting to watch.

This orangutan made a big impression on Broderick and he is actually still talking about him 3 weeks later. He calls him his good friend and is very concerned that the store abe (big monkey) is sad that Broderick is not there with him. Its pretty cute.

We also went to Aqualand.

It was a really nice water park and I'm not sure who enjoyed it more ... Broderick or Brad. Brad was lamenting there wasn't other adults to go on the rides with.

And ... HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!!!!

Our resort had a very nice candlelight meal that evening. It would have been very enjoyable if it wasn't after Anika's bedtime, but we survived it. I'm not sure if we should take it personally, but they put us in the corner of the restaurant ... away from everyone else.

They gave us bags of party favors and treats to bring in the new year, but we didn't stay at the party. We took the kids up to bed, but Broderick snuggled with us on the balcony for a little watching the fireworks.

I was up for the new year, but I can't lie. I went to bed for an hour and then Brad woke me up at 11:30 to see the beginning of 2010. What can I say? I'm getting old.

Here's Anika ready to go out ...

Coming back from dinner.

We were there during the Christmas season and there were decorations set up for it, but it just didn't seem right. I guess the midwest is a part of us, because when its sunny and 80 degrees, it just doesn't seem like Christmas.

We really enjoyed getting away to some nicer weather and this is a vacation that we could just relax instead of trying to see so many sights. There are some negatives to travelling with two youngsters though .... like sharing a hotel room. Broderick is a deep sleeper, but Anika wakes up with a pindrop. So once she was sleeping, we had to make almost no noise. I don't think Brad and I have ever got so much sleep. We were going to bed early, but that's a good thing ... because the kids were waking up before 6.

What???

Don't they know we're on vacation???