My parents, sister and her boyfriend Skip all meet us in Madrid for the week. 
We rented an apartment in a great location in Madrid and enjoyed the cool weather and benefits of being in a beautiful European city (wine, pork, chocolate, ice cream - well you get the idea). 
Jaydon got to meet some of the locals though his favorite was playing in all the nice green grass. 
Steve also had fun playing with the settings on our new camera which ended up getting some really great pictures of Jaydon playing in the grass with his balloon sword. 
Jaydon discovered that his favorite kind of ice cream is 'pink' ice cream and that eating it in 50 degree weather is much easier because you don't have to worry about quite as big of a drippy mess. Though you do end up a little cold after that snack, I think he got to experince shivering for the first time too. 
Jaydon spent some quality time with his Aunt Sarah, they played, read books and watched Gigglebellies (note for all you moms who need some 'new' kids songs/cartoons I'd recommend this one - just search on youtube for it, I'm too lazy to go find the link for it right now). 
The highlight of Madrid for Jaydon was definitly the zoo and we had a perfect day for it! 
He loved showing off all the animal sounds and noises he can make and seeing all the animals he knows from books and baby einstein for real. 
His favorite was the elephant, we had to visit him many times. He also got to pretend to be a leemer with Aunt Sarah and Skip. 
These are the MeMe's which is the name he's made up for cats, when he saw the panther he said it was Midnight which is the name of an all black cat that lives in our compound. 
Next we visited the Giraffes, the Monkeys, and the Gorillas. 
The bears were very impressive, they looked so cuddly yet so hungry. 
The zoo also had a great dolphin show with some very enthusiastic perfomers. 
After the show they hung around to say hi to all the kids through the glass. 
But Jaydon's favorite show was the seals, I think he liked how clumsy they were and the fact that most of the activites involved a ball of some type or another. 
The last stop was the petting zoo where Jaydon got to pet and feed some cows and goats and all the other animals on Old MacDonald's farm (one of Jaydon's favorite songs). 
Madrid is home to the oldest resturant in the world so we made sure to eat lunch there one day. 
Their specialtiy is roast piglet and yes this is an entire wall of them ready to be thrown into the wood fire stove before geting served. 
The grand finale for the Madrid visit was taking my Dad to the Shakira concert for his birthday. It was a great show even if a majority of the songs were in spanish. 
Aunt Sarah and Skip kindly volunteered to babysit Jaydon and the rest of us went out, enjoyed the music and stayed up much too late.Sarah, Skip and Steve had to head home after our week in Madrid but the granparents and I weren't finished with Spain yet, now on to Barcelona but that's for another day...
At the time we bought it he was much to small to wear it but with kids one thing is for sure, they grow. By Halloween this year he had almost outgrew it so we figured we better make sure he gets some use out it. (The shorts are made out of real leather which was still very stiff and they were a little tight so Jaydon couldn't sit or bend over all night which in itself was pretty funny to watch...) 
Jaydon was the cutest little Swiss mountain boy in the compound. On our trip to Geneva we even picked up a few accessories for him, the hat and a St Bernard puppy with a cask around his neck. 
Jaydon was still fighting off his illness and had a fever most of the day but was willing to put his costume on and go out to see his friends. 
Mommy had to hold him for most of trick-or-treating but he did his best to get into the fun. After the trick-or-treating we had a party a the club house, it was very well decorated and we had to check it out before it got filled with little kids. 
Fourtunatly we did because that night Jaydon's fever hit 104 so we did not stay for the much of the festivities. 
All the kids in the compound got into it, I thought you might enjoy seeing a few of the other costumes too.
A couple African Giraffes: 
The 3 Musketeers: 
Will's costume was one of my favorites and his dad put a lot of time into it. He was the Thomas Train conductor. 
His actual costume was pretty low key (don't forget the train whstile) but the highlight was the train he got to push around the compound! 
All home made out of cardboard, duct tape and coat hangers...
We have discovered that Jaydon LOVES olives. 
Black olives on the fingers is always fun for everyone but he will eat them of any color or marinate. 
He understands that most of them have pits in the middle and always asks before eating one to know whether or not to look for a pit.
I'm not really sure what I was - the make-up didn't quit turn out the way it looked on the box. I think most people agreed I looked like some sort of angle of death. Everyone got into the fun. Here's a few shots of the other costumes that night. 
Happy Haloween!
Jaydon's good buddy Jacob just turned 1 so we had a party to celebrate (of course). The theme was Texas, down on the farm. All the kids had fun playing with the hay and the water in the trough. 
Jacob had the honour of having both his grandma and great-grandma in town for the event. 
The highlight was definitely the cupcakes, or more like the chocolate frosting and M&Ms decorating the cupcakes. 
Here's a great shot of Jaydon and the birthday boy enjoying the cupcakes (i think this was their 2nd one). 
We tried to get all the kids together for a group shot, this was the best we got, too many kids and too much sugar. 
And by the way if you haven't experienced a 1 yr olds birthday party about 30 mins after everyone has had their fill of cupcakes here's a few seconds of video to give you taste of the fun...
Our good friends 
She's having a little girl and has 
This meant introducing, or maybe I should say, making it a regular routine to sit for 15-20 minutes up to 3 times a day to watch his baby cartoons. He took an instant liking to Cookie Monster and this is now his new favorite song.
This one is covered in his favorite things - tractors and has his name on it. I ordered these for his friends turning 1 in the compound and couldn't resist getting it for 
