Gettin' Ready

It's been a while since I've written. I guess I've lost the motivation to keep up on the blog because I'm so anxious to go home. Over the last couple of weeks we've just been laying low. We did take a day trip up by Barcelona to a monastery up in the mountains. Montserrat is in a beautiful setting. We enjoyed hiking and the beautiful peaks in the mountain. We've been invited to a few family home evenings and get togethers to say goodbye to friends.
Last night the girls invited some teenagers from the stake to go hang out to the beach. They all had a great time. We are about half packed and just about counting the hours down till we leave.

Parties

As our year here in Spain is drawing to a close we have been invited to a lot of farewell parties. Why so soon? The other American family is also going back and they are leaving on Tuesday. Actually, Dan is staying for his military assignment but the rest of their family is going back to the states because the schools are so bad here. Anyway, we were invited to their house on Friday night because a family in the ward offered to make them paella.
Paella is the famous dish of Spain. People rave about it. I find it highly overrated. It's just a rice dish with meat. Valencia is famous for their paella. The typical paella is Valenciana paella which contains chicken and rabbit. Although when I'm around town and see people eating paella I usually see them eating it with whole sea creatures sitting in it. We are talking about shrimp with their eyes and antenna's attached. You see whole snails with their shells in it. Pretty disgusting to me.
Josue and Christina made Valencian paella over a wood barbeque. We had a nice time. The kids swam in the pool while we visited with the families.
On Saturday the YW president Olympia and one of her counselors, Alexandra invited our families to a park for a bbq. Here in Spain you can't bbq in your back yard. You have to go to certain public parks that have community bbq's. They have bbq police there as well to make sure that your doing it right. Well we got in trouble bbq-ing with charcoal. Apparently you can only do it with wood. So several hours later and after the Strodes were lost for about that same time we were finally gathered for some great chicken, ribs, and chorizo.

The 26th

So today marks the one month countdown till I can sleep in my own bed. We are getting so excited it is hard to wait these last remaining days. We will have to make the most of it by a few more day trips and lots of beach time. There have been times when we have collectively said to ourselves why didn't we get tickets to go home sooner? But I'm sure that after the first month of being home we will start to miss some of the things from Spain. So 31 and counting.

Morocco

We just got back from Marrakech Morocco. We loved it! It was a quick trip, only 2 nights. We left Dayna and Cade with our friends the Strodes and took Mckenzie, Cassie, and Chase (my nephew that is staying with us). We arrived at night the first night and had to have our taxi driver walk us to the riad. There is no way to find it on your own. There are no cars in the old Medina and it is full of narrow passage ways and alleys. Staying in a riad which is basically a bed and breakfast is the way to go to Morocco. They are so quaint. There were 5 rooms in the riad and we had three of them to ourselves. The next morning we met a guide at the Jemaa-el-Fna which is the main square. There are all kinds of entertainers in the square waiting for you to pay them to take a picture with them. Of course we couldn't resist the snake charmer and the local dentist that shows up to pull your teeth without any pain relief.
We saw some palaces and learned about the different carpets made in Morocco and from the different areas. We went to a spice shop and learned about some different spices and minerals for make-up and remedies. Of course we spent a lot of time in the souks (street shops) shopping and bargaining. We had a great time and would love to come back some day.

Toledo

As a last hurrah before Riley left we went to Toledo which is about 4 hours away. This trip was the one Riley was most excited for. Toledo is the sword capital of the world and Riley has been saving his money for the last year in order to get a sword. He had searched the internet to see what kind he wanted and was ready to go. On the way we stopped to see the windmills of La Mancha. If your familiar with Don Quiote you know that he fought the windmills in La Mancha. Afterward we drove to Toledo to see this beautiful old city. This city has a gorgeous skyline. It is so striking to see the city across the river. Toledo is surrounded on three sides by a river. We wandered around the city and went into many sword shops and jewelry shops to see the handcrafted jewelry.
After shopping we went to our hotel and swam in the pool. Dayna and Cade would tell you that that was the highlight. The next day Dayna and Cade went home with our friends the Strodes and we took their teenagers to Madrid to go to the temple. We went to see Eclipse in Madrid at the English theater. The next morning we took the kids to do baptisms at the temple before heading home. It was a nice get away.

Riley's stateside

This morning we took Riley to the airport to go to Utah for the next 5 weeks. He is staying with his cousins and going to scout camp. We've been tracking his flights all day and he arrives in the middle of our night. He is very excited to be coming home and I know he's going to eat at Red Robin tonight and have rootbeer. We talked to him in New York and he was already texting his friends. It doesn't take long to get back to life as usual.

VIVA LA ROJA

World Cup 2010 goes to Spain! After church we walked down the beach to find an area that was showing the game on a big screen. It was crowded with spaniard who were thrilled about the game. We didnt stay long, we wanted to enjoy the game from the comfort of our home. But after we won we drove around honking our horn and celebrating along with all the other spaniards.

London

I took Mckenzie and Cassie on a short trip to London for the past couple of days. The girls were very excited to go see Wicked and to try and see Eclipse in english. We got there Tuesday afternoon. We went to the British Library which was just across the street from where we were staying. We saw original manuscripts or notebooks from many famous authors such as Henry Irving, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and The manuscript for Alices Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol. They had musical notebooks by Mozart and Handel, lyrics handwritten by the Beatles, and the prayer book of Henry the 8th.
We took a day trip out to Stratford on Avon, The Cotswold, and Oxford. We learned that Oxford is not one university but a city made up of many different colleges. The college of Christchurch is the one that has been featured in Harry Potter. The girls sat at the tables in the Great Hall and we saw where Harry first learned to fly his broom in the first movie.
We saw Shakespeare's home and his wifes childhood home. We didn't get to see Eclipse because opening day was the day we left and we had to get to the airport. We will try to see it when we go to Madrid next week.

Road Trip

We just got back from Southern Spain. I think this is my favorite part of Spain. I love the Arab influences in the architecture. We visited Cordoba, Sevilla, The pueblos blanco, Ronda, and Gibraltar. In Cordoba we visited the cathedral and the alcazar with it's beautiful moorish gardens. The cathedral here once was a mosque when the moors ruled Spain. At the time of the conquest it was converted to a cathedral. It is gorgeous inside. The carvings and arches make it so much prettier than your usual cathedral. At the gardens we found a statue of Columbus being received by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. This is supposed to be where Columbus asked them to fund his exbitition. This is also one of the bases of the inquisition.
Sevilla is famous for it's bullfights, flamenco, and gypsies. We did see a few gypsies and street guitarist but didn't see a bullfight because we've been there done that and we didn't see flamenco because they are late at night and we stayed 15 minutes out of the city. The highlight here was the Alcazar. This is a Moorish palace that has been expanded through the years and still is used today as a royal palace. Sevilla is a beautiful city and you may or may not recognize one of it's famous buildings from Star Wars 2.
The pueblo blancos are white villages littered throughout the south. They are in a very mountainous region and are quite dramatic.
My favorite of these is Ronda. It is situated on both sides of a deep ravine. We didn't get to spend too much time here because we visited a cave and took the kids to a public swimming pool we found in some small town. We wished we had spent a little more time here.
Our final day we went to Gibraltar to see this famous rock. We took a tour up to the top and the highlight for all was seeing the monkeys that were brought here from Morrocco hundreds of years ago. After having lunch we drove home took a wrong turn and drove an extra hour out of the way.

One year

Today is our one year aniversary of living here in Spain. I can't believe that we actually pulled it off. I'm sure many of you thought when we first said we wanted to do this, It will never happen. We even thought that. Well, here we are about to come home in a few months. I'm sure when we get home we will all think back on this time and think, did we really do this? To celebrate being here one year drove to southern Spain to check out this part of the country. We are in Cordoba and it is beautiful here. A very quaint spanish city with an old Mosque that was captured during the conquest and turned into a Cathedral. The city has very strong moorish influence including architecture. Pictures will come when we get home.

Festival of San Juan

We cooked up some bbq and took it to the beach for a picnic dinner around 8. Some friends came and joined us. We walked down the beach to the crowded side so see all of the crowds. There were so many people, all of them drunk. When we got back to our side of the beach it was just around midnight so we built our fire and waited by the shore to jump the waves. It was cold when we first got in but it was very pleasant and none of us were cold. Afterward we went to the fire and all of the kids burned their school books. I think they thought that was the best part. We did partake of the jumping over the flames. We got home about 12:30 (it's great living so close to the beach).

School is finally out

The kids did it. They made it a year through the spanish school system. Riley got a nice basketball to the face yesterday as a farewell. (It was on purpose). This was a very hard year on them not just because of the language but because of the way they were treated at school by some of the kids. I think that they have learned what it is like to be the outcasts at school. Anyway to celebrate tonight is the festival of San Juan. Tradition is tonight at midnight you go out and jump seven waves for good luck the next year. Some people I've talked to say that you also jump seven fires but we may just leave that to the drunk people that will be out in full force tonight. The beaches here do not allow fires but this one night I think it is so out of control that there is nothing they can do about it. The kids all take their school books and papers and burn them. It should be a fun night.

YW Activity

This past Saturday we were going to go on a hike for YW. We met at the church at 6 am to get out before it got hot. Problem was it rained all the night before and was sprinkling when we met. The leaders decided we weren't going to go to the mountains so we drove to a river instead. We got to the town where the river was and it was pretty cold. We ended up starting our activity in a bar where we sat and warmed up to some hot chocolate. I bet you've never had an church activity in a bar. It is pretty funny to think about it. Bars here are very different. They are more like diners in the states. You will walk by a neighborhood bar and there will be families all in there with the kids running around while the parents drink. They even have big huge gumball machines in the bars.

Air Show

Last week Valencia had their big annual air show on the beach so we went. It lasted for many hours and we saw stunt planes, The big planes that pick up water for fire fighting, Search and rescue planes, helicopters, skydivers and culminating in a show similar to the blue angels. It was fun day!

Birthdays

May and June bring Birthdays in our family. We had a great time celebrating. Cassie was first she turned 15 and is looking forward to getting back to Oregon and getting a drivers permit. Scary!!!! Dayna had her birhday while we were in Denmark and our friends were kind enough to make her a birthday cake and make her a necklace out of Danish Krone (money). Finally, I had another birthday. The family treated me great. They made me a nice dinner and cake.

Girls getaway

So I was invited to go with a bunch of military wifes on a getaway to the Canary Islands. We flew to Gran Canaria and just had a few days of R&R. Beach time, shopping, staying out late and sleeping in. We went to Las Palmas for a day. It was a pretty city and looks just as you imagine a Spanish city to look. I was surprised how arid the island looked. It was very brown but also very hot and humid.

The experience of a lifetime

I forgot to mention this a few weeks ago when we went to Denmark. We were sitting on the plane. Dayna and Riley were sitting off by themselves and Dayna came running up to me and said that the pilot invited her and Riley into the cockpit. They got so sit up there and talk to the pilots and sit in the pilots seat. But she was most excited that they fed them Kit Kats.

Denmark

We went to Denmark on May 20. Once we landed in Copenhagen we started driving to Billund which is where Legoland is. We had rental car issues right off and had to drive back to the airport to get a new car. They were really unhelpful but finally 2 hours later we were finally on the road. We stayed at the legoland hotel that night and they had many activities for the kids to do.
The next morning we headed into the park and had a nice time riding the rides and looking at all of the lego creations. When the park closed we went to a bakery to get delicious danish pastry. Mind you, this is not the crap American version of danish pastry this is the real McCoy. After filling up on pastry we drove back toward Copenhagen to stay with Ulla and her family. Ulla was a girl who stayed with our family almost 30 years ago. My dad had baptised her family some 50 years ago. We had a great time visiting with her family and they were so nice to let us intrude on their lives.


The next morning we went into Copenhagen. We saw the original Christus in a Copenhagen church. We walked around the city and ended up on a very quaint street lined with boats and restaurants. We took a small boat cruise in the harbor to see some of the sites that way. We missed out on seeing the little mermaid in the harbor. She was on loan to China for the next 6 months or so. That's a little disapointing!
Sunday we went to church with Ulla and her family. (It will be nice to come back to the states and finally understand sacrament meeting.) After church we drove to Frederiksberg castle and saw the Carl Bloch paintings of Christ in the castle. The church uses many of his paintings. Check out a gospel art book. They are beautiful in person. We walked around the grounds, they were beautiful.

Monday we drove to Sweden to saw that we went to Sweden. We were going to stop in Malmo but none of the parking meters would take our credit cards to we turned around and drove back to Copenhagen. We went to Tivoli gardens, the oldes amusement park in the world. It was really beautiful there and we had a great time riding the rides. Both the new ones and the really old ones. This was my kids favorite day.!
Tuesday we sent my parents off back to the US and we had a few more hours so we took the metro back into town and bought more pastries and walked around until our flight left. We had a great time

Parents

I've been neglecting the blog for a couple of reasons. 1-I'm such a terrible writer I hate to go back and read the things I post. 2-My parents came to visit us for most of the month of May and I was a little busy.
They came May 5th and Brent and I picked them up in Madrid and spent the night there to show them the city. We had a good time, we attended the temple and stayed in the hostel that is on the temple grounds. The next morning they were excited to get to Valencia to see the kids after school.
We showed them around Valencia for a day and then I went with them on a cruise out of Barcelona. We went up a day early so that I could show them around Barcelona. We took a cruise to Monte Carlo, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Palma de Mallorca. It was nice to be able to spend some time with my parents even if I had to withstand their snoring. hee hee.

When we returned we took them to church to see our wonderful ward here. We took them to the lladro factory and to a wonderful park where we rented 4 person bikes. We then all went together to Denmark where we stayed with Ulla. She was a girl that lived with our family 30 years. It was so nice meet her family and get reaquainted with her. I will post more about Denmark another post.