Our flight landed in Manchester around 12:40 on Friday afternoon. We got our bags from baggage claim and rounded the corner toward the exit where we found my cousin standing with a big cardboard sign with our name on it, along with a goofy grin on his face. It was a good laugh after a long day of travelling.
It's about an hour drive to his house, so our journey wasn't quite finished! It was a relief to get to their house and be finished with planes and cars, for a few days anyway.
For dinner that night, we had fish & chips (french fries), then we headed out to the pub for a couple drinks. I can't remember what time we made it to bed, but I do know I slept like a rock. Hubby and I woke up sometime after 8 on Saturday morning, and I felt good... no jet lag at all. Saturday night, a group of us went to the dog races for a couple hours.
Honestly, it was a fairly low key weekend. Not too much running and gunning like alot of vacations seem to be.
On Monday, 17 of us loaded up and headed back to the airport to go to Mallorca, Spain for 8 days. We went to Mallorca 2 years ago, the last time we went over to visit the fam, but this time we stayed in a different resort. It had it's pros & cons, but overall, it was a nice place, and we all had a great time.
The trip wasn't without excitement, that's for sure. Our youngest boy, the accident prone one, managed to get hurt only a couple hours after we had arrived. Hubby and I had walked up the street from the resort with my dad to find an ATM machine, so we could get some euros. Not long after we left, our oldest boy found us to tell us the youngest boy fell and cut his knee.
Apparently, they were walking on the rocks close to the hotel to go fishing with a fishing net that my cousin bought. Our boy had flip flops on and slipped.
We hurried back and found him in my cousin's room with a bloody, nasty cut on his knee. I knew right away that he needed stitches. So, of course, I immediately started to worry about the medical care there... how clean it would be in the doctor's office and if they would sew him up right. It's never a fun thing to have to deal with injuries in foreign countries.
Luckily, the doctor's office was just up the street from our resort, so we borrowed a wheel chair and pushed him there. However, in Spain, everything closes from 1-5 for afternoon siesta! The pharmacy was open, so we took him there and asked the pharmacist if we could get away with butterfly bandages. She wasn't sure, or couldn't understand us, so she called the doctor. An hour later, he arrived!
We got the boy on the exam table, and he was scared to death. The doctor poked and prodded and messed with his knee, then gave him a few shots to numb it. He then trimmed the jagged skin with a razor and sewed him together.
The doctor was extremely friendly, and he did a really good job fixing the boy's knee. We had to take him back every morning for the doc to check for any problems and to clean it and rebandage it.
It costed us 310 euros, which equates to about 440 dollars. That's certainly money we didn't plan on spending, but I'll be honest, he wouldn't have gotten that kind of care in the USA. Here, they would have sewed him up, sent him on his way, and asked to see him back in a week. We would have been expected to clean it and rebandage it ourselves. Not that that's a major deal or anything that we couldn't handle, but I was certainly pleased with the care we got.
Because of the stitches, the boy couldn't swim for about 5 days, but the resort had fantastic activities, and there was something for him to do everyday. By the time the stitches had been in for 5 days or so, the doctor said he could swim in the sea, but not in the pool. He handled it like a champ and never complained about not being able to swim.
In fact, he turned his attention to helping his daddy find "jackpots" (topless women), and that kept him busy for a while!
Believe it or not, that wasn't his only injury! He managed to cut his finger in the restaurant at the resort trying to cut a bread roll. Then later that same day, he was playing mini golf with my cousin's boy, and somehow managed to get whacked in the chin with a golf club. He sported a nice bruise for a few days!! The poor kid looked like he had gone to battle! The event staff at the resort were teasing with him and trying to help him come up with an exciting shark attack story to tell his friends when he gets home!
Our oldest boy completely immersed himself in the activities, and he made alot of friends by doing so. One night, he did a competition with 3 other guys, like the man of the resort kind of thing. There were several activities they had to do, and they were judged and scored in each one. Our boy got second place, but we had tons of people afterwards say he should have won.
The first activity was the muscle man competition. Each guy had to take his shirt off and make muscles. The next was to kiss as many women as possible - no men, no kids. Our boy ended up with 36, which I think was a tie for the most. Next, they had to go in the audience and convince women to give them their bras. Our boy ended up with 7 bras. Then, they had to each get one woman from the audience to come on stage and assist. He chose my cousin's wife for this, and in hindsight, thank God he didn't pick me... would have been extremely akward! Each team had to pop balloons, without using their hands.
- The first balloon was put in the man's lap, and the woman had to sit on it to pop it.
- Next, a balloon was put between them, and they had to hug each other to pop it.
- Then, the woman had to stand backward over a chair. The guy then had to take the balloon and put it behind the woman, then thrust himself into her to pop the balloon.
- The last balloon could be popped however they wanted as long as they didn't use their hands. Our boy got down on his stomach and my cousin's wife put the balloon on his back, then kneed him to pop it!
Last, the guys were given 10 minutes to go to the room and come back dressed as a woman. For those of you who know my boy, there's no way he's getting into any of my clothes! One of our friends had a stretchy white dress that she let him use. He put on one of her bras, her swimsuit top, and the stretchy white dress. I put mascara, blush, and lipstick on him. We put his hair in a pony tail and a headband, and he carried a purse. He totally strutted his stuff up to the stage, then sat with his legs crossed like a woman would.
Hilarious! I've never laughed so hard in my life!
We had a wonderful time in Spain, although there were lots of French people there, and they obviously don't like Americans. I think we were the only Americans there, but they made sure to boo us at every opportunity! My oldest boy got really annoyed with that.
We only had one day in Sheffield after getting back from Spain, then 4 of us went to London for a day before coming home. Sadly, it was a wasted trip to London because our friend broke her foot, had surgery, and is in a walking boot now. She can't get around very well, and they didn't have much money left. So, between not wanting to pay the money to see some of the sites, or not wanting to stand in line with a bad foot, or having a hard time getting around, we didn't get to do anything. We rode the tube all over the city, for nothing, then called it a day. Oh well, I've seen it before, but I wish I would have had that extra day in Sheffield with the fam rather than wasting time and money in London.
We got home to a hot house, lots of laundry to be done, and the best damn fajitas and iced tea ever! Back to reality tomorrow, then the kiddos come home on Tuesday.
Until next year......
I'll post some pictures in a new post. I think this one is long enough already!!
UPDATE: Here's pictures
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