Our European Trip: Barcelona

On our last night in Bordeaux we ate dinner at an English pub and Ryan started not feeling very well.  We all thought it was likely all the wine we drank from the winery day and being possibly overdone.  However the next morning Ryan woke up and was really really sick.  He couldn't eat breakfast and the walk to the train was miserable.  He was a real trooper but once we got on the train (a 12+ hour train ride) Ryan basically stayed in the fetal position.  I've honestly never seen anyone with such uncontrollable shakes (chills) and such awful sweats like he just ran for a few hours.  He was under all the blankets we could find, a sweatshirt and jacket but it was not helping.

Then finally a sweet old grandma across the aisle from us went and got Ryan a hot cup of milk.  For those of you know Ryan, he doesn't drink milk but he was in such dire need he didn't even care.  Then with the help of a fluent Spanish English speaker we understood that this grandma also was giving Ryan some fever breaking over the counter pills.  Again in such dire need Ryan took them.  They were totally safe so no worries people but if you had seen him, you would have taken anything too.  These meds did help for about 1-2 hours but then Ryan would start to feel really crummy again.  

LONG story short, the next morning Ryan decided it was time to go to the hospital.  Luckily Liz is a Spanish major so she was most helpful is getting us checked it at the hospital.  And although I am a Spanish minor I was no help as I was so upset and worried about Ryan.  After a few bags of fluid for the dehydration and at least two bags of antibiotics, an xray, and SEVERAL blood tests it was determined that Ryan had an infection in his intestine likely from bad water.  

The only thing we can trace bad water back to was in Bordeaux at our B&B, Ryan used tap water to mix an airborn/vitamin C drink.  He says he didn't even think twice about it but everywhere we were served bottled water, even at the B&B.  A small mistake but it was costly.  

So after about 7 hours in the hospital Ryan finally got discharged and we were on our way back to our apartment.  While we were in the hospital Dustin and Liz enjoyed a wonderful day of sight seeing and eating. I have a few pictures from their day but I couldn't really tell you what they saw or where they went.

So here was the only picture I took of Ryan from the hospital.  He wasn't in the picture taking mood while being a patient.

To say Ryan was bound and determined to get out of the hospital and enjoy Barcelona is an understatement.  I thought we should spend the rest of the day laying low and just hanging out at our apartment but Ryan had to go see the Sagrada Familia Cathedral.  So Dustin left with him to go see it while I napped at the apartment.  I was exhausted!

We did finish the night back at our apartment eating ice cream and watching some tv.  Everyone was early to bed as we were all exhausted.  Oh- I forgot to show you the apartment...

So Barcelona hardly had a fighting chance to be the favorite spot of the trip but we made it through.  Ryan got some antibiotics for the next 5 days and we left after two nights on our way to Dubrovnik, Croatia!  Up next for our journey is the AMAZING stay in Croatia!  

Until then,

Weekend Shenanigans: Celebrations Galore!

It was another great weekend full of fun and business!  And we loved it!  On Friday, after helping at the U of MN swim/dive meet with my friend Annie, we met our husbands out for dinner at Blvd.  Although I assumed we would all grab dinner, I was the only one who enjoyed dinner- always looks weird to be the only one eating.  Oh well!  It was a delicious ceasar salad!  

On Saturday Ryan and I busted our butts to get our house ready for the baby shower we would host on Sunday.  You know when you host a party how much you do to your house and it's great to get those projects done that you wouldn't otherwise finish!  I loved it!  We cleaned and organized the basement- well really Ryan did!  We finished that darn dresser I've been working on for months- that sucker deserves its own post this week :)  We cleaned and cooked a ton.  We ran to the grocery store 3 times!  You can't possibly remember everything in one trip!  

Then later we headed out for Ryan's uncle Jimmy's surprise 50th birthday party!  It was really fun to meet so many of Jimmy's friends and to celebrate his birthday!  Jimmy thought it was a Halloween party so he was one of the only people dressed up!  Loved it!

After that party we headed over to Bonnie and Daron's house for the annual Halloween party!  The big group dressed up as the Game of Thrones characters and everyone went all out!  It was awesome!  Ryan and I were lame and didn't dress up- we came as the lame Hannays.  

I spent most of the night like this...

snuggled with Howie Hadden!  What a sweetheart!  

And on Sunday we hosted a shower for Jon & Lauren AND HOWIE!  Howie wasn't supposed to be at the party but he was born almost 6 weeks early so we were thrilled that he could be at his own party!  It was an awesome day with lots of great friends, filling food, and some adorable baby moments.  I believe we had 24 people here- a full house but wonderful!

The diaper cake and the beer cake (more specifically for Jon!)

A little monkey theme going on here with a monkey diaper cake and monkey cupcakes!

The girls decorated some onsies with iron on fabric.  ALL the girls were really really creative!  How cute right!?!

How adorable is the man of the hour?!  It was a really great baby shower for Howie!

Hope you had a good weekend too!  Up later this week- the infamous dresser and some more European trip!

Our European Trip: Wine Country

We woke up at Villa Chaleemar to a delicious breakfast from Leena.  It was really nice to not go to a cafe or have another protein bar but to have some croissants, fruit, yogurt, fresh juice and coffee.  Yummy!

Just after breakfast Jean-Pierre picked us up and drove us out to St. Emilion-- one of the wine regions in Bordeaux.  We started our day at Chateau Canon.  This was a charming, old-fashioned, romantic winery.  I will let the pictures do the talking...

So as you can see this place is incredibly charming.  We toured the facility- we saw the where the wine is made, where the wine is stored, and then the underground caves that span the whole St. Emilion region.  It is pretty amazing!  The whole region is on top of these beautiful caves.  They were carved out to bring the limestone into build buildings in Bordeaux, Paris, and other cities in France.

        

We proceeded then up to the wine tasting room and opened the first bottle of the day!

From here we headed to the city of St. Emilion and Jean-Pierre directed us to this adorable wine store where we could do free wine tastings and buy wine to ship home.  We really enjoyed this place- the wine expert was great.  He looks like Ben from the Bachelor- right?!  And we proceeded to ship home 18 bottles of wine (between the Squires and us!).

Liz and I loved this chandelier!  So pretty and I really want it in my house!

After a full almost meal of wine tasting, we headed across the street to lunch.  This restaurant was in a cave!  We couldn't read a thing on the menu so we all ordered the special of the day and of course another bottle of wine!

After a delicious lunch (is anyone sick of me saying delicious yet?!  but for real everything is so good here!) Jean- Pierre picked us up and we headed over to our next winery, Chateau Petite-Village

This winery is much more modern than Chateau Canon.  It is a new building- not original, stainless steal equipment.  Just such a different feel from earlier in the day.  

After seeing the facility we went upstairs to the wine tasting room.  We got to try 3 varieties.  

Jean-Pierre!  He was a great tour guide for the day!

And then we were on to our last winery of the day, Chateau des Laudes Winery!  This place was so different from the first two wineries in that it was organic!  I didn't really expect as much from this place as I wasn't sure an organic winery could live up to our other tours.  But it did!  The owner of the winery is passionate- at that might be an understatement- about his wine!

This winery had beautiful flowers all over!  I had to use our new camera and capture some of these brilliant colors!  I think we all pretty much passed out on the car ride back to our Villa and we certainly napped when we got back.  After wonderful naps we headed to a British pub for dinner.  This was the beginning of Ryan not feeling so good.  We all sort of contributed it to a long day and lots of wine.  Stay tuned for what really happened with Ryan.

Hope you enjoyed our wine day but I know we enjoyed it more!

The view overlooking St. Emilion!