Here are two pictures from a trip to the supermarket.  They just seem like small versions of Meijer/Family Fare/Aldi (they have Aldi's here!).  Nothing is in English...but you can mostly tell what stuff is.  Price is about comparable, or less, than Michigan.  They are very clean and "modern", staff is helpful, but very little English is spoken.  The town we are close to doesn't really have a traditional "European market".  there is a fruit/veggie store and a few bakeries...but the supermarkets have everything too.  We have found everything we need for meals, even breakfast cereal, except Black Beans. - Dad

Here is a link to the AirBnb listing for the Villa we are in. The pictures are a good representation of the house

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/17361235

This might make it more organized to see the pics.  We are definitely in off-season prices!

Here are some pics from our latest adventures!

Here's all of our luggage before we left for the Gerald R. Ford Airport: 4 suitcases and 8 backpacks

We found some exotic foods at the nearest Aldi's...

And some not-so-exotic foods...

We went for a walk in the woods on Saturday; the views were incredible!

A beautiful Spanish sunset, taken while driving.

The Arco Del Cobertizo, a Moorish Archway.

It formed part of the defensive wall from the end of the 12th century. It was the entrance to the old Arab quarter and gave access to the bazaar where silk, agricultural goods and livestock were traded.

We ate at our first European restaurant (unless you count Burger King at the Paris airport) for Mom's birthday today!

It was a late lunch (or a very early dinner, depending on how you look at it), so we had the place to ourselves!

We made it!!  I woke up in Spain today!  Someone pinch me!  Walking out the door in Allendale and arriving to our Spanish house took a total of 22 hours of travel.  The kids were amazing!  They did a lot better than I expected.  NEXT DAY  I didn't get a chance to finish and post my first entry, so now it's Saturday.  Yesterday's fun was buying groceries.  We thought we bought "spaghetti sauce" but it turned out to be tomato soup, so we opened the "salsa" and that turned out to be spaghetti sauce!  Our bodies are still confused when it comes to the time.  Going to sleep last night was ok, but most of us woke in the middle of the night unable to fall back asleep for a couple of hours.  What fun!!  -Katie

So begins the greatest adventure of our lives, and already some memories have made their mark. From walking 10,000 steps a piece in a couple chaotic airports, to surviving more round-a-bouts in the first 20 mile drive than any of us have experienced in our lives, to that suspiciously sketchy, but surprisingly scrumptious airplane brownie, to forcing our bodies to operate for 30 hours straight without a wink of sleep, it has already proved to be a straining experience, but that was all wiped away from the views of mountain peaks poking through the clouds, the 65 degree warm breeze in January, and the time spent learning new things with family. I can't wait to see what the coming months bring. -Collin

And we didn't lose a kid in any of those chaotic airports! So I think the trip is going splendidly thus far, because the three youngest tend to look around with eyes like saucers and forget to follow Dad... but to be honest, I did the same thing a time or two during the past 30 hours. We made it to Malaga, Spain around 3pm our time, and Mom and Dad got to brush up on their stick-shift driving skills as we drove to our villa outside a small town in Southern Spain. It definitely wasn't terrifying at all... *forced laugh* -Grace

Here are a few pics:

Clare and Aaron got a bit of beauty sleep while we waited to get the rental cars at the Malaga airport.

We're feeling pretty done with airports in this pic; this was in Malaga.

We found a restaurant named after Paul in Paris!