Here Daniel and I are, about to leave our darling little family.
Yes, they were as crazy as usual. I hope Grandma Ann will be alright!

Looking at the bull billboard, can you guess where Daniel and I went for 10 days?
Espana!!
This is the first time Daniel and I have gone on a vacation alone since we had our children. It was a trip we both have worked hard to be able to take.

The flight was of course very long, but Daniel and I enjoyed talking to each other and watching a few movies. When we got on the plane in Canada that would take us into Madrid, there was a huge group of high school kids from some type of exchange program. You should have seen Daniel's face as he watched these kids converse in Spanish. Daniel just kept saying "AHH, mi gente, mi gente" (my people, my people). Daniel's dad is 100% Spanish. One reason we decided to go to Spain was to meet Daniel's cousin, Emilio Garcia Pascual. So to see these kids on the plane Daniel felt as if he was going home!

Here we are eating our first "menu al dia". It was very good. We started with Sopa de puchero, soup with garbanzo beans. (A few day later I asked Emilio's mom for the recipe and she said I could not make it because she did not think the USA sold fermented bones that are put in the pot while soaking the garbanzo beans. Maybe it is best I don't know how to make sopa de puchero!) Then we had a very thin fish cooked on the grill and a creamy flan type dessert. So far it looks like we are going to love the food!

The owner of the restaurant just loved having us eat there. He was telling the other patrons we were from California. He was very kind.
After dinner we headed to southern Spain to meet Daniel's 3rd cousin. Emilio is 34 years old. He teaches Spanish in England and is fluent in English. Lou sent Emilio's mom, Maria Josepha (Pepa), a letter many years ago asking for some dates for family history. Years later she wrote Lou with some of the information and that was the beginning of our relationship with Emilio's family. They live in a small village near Malaga, Spain called Alfarnate. Around 9:30pm we drove off the main highway and headed to the village. At 10pm, using our GPS, we arrived in Alfarnate and spent the next several hours getting to know Lou's mom(Antonia/Nana)'s family. Emilio had so many pictures to show us. It was neat to see pictures of Nana's family.
Emilio just kept talking and talking and telling us so many facts. Daniel and I were getting very tired and Emilio still wanted to take us out for dinner. Maria Pepa insisted we leave to get something to eat b/c everything would be closing (it was almost midnight) but Emilio just kept talking. Finally we did leave to get dinner and everything was closed except one bar. So we ate some tapas.
This was not Daniel's nor my idea of a delicious dinner. It was very "rustic"! We had a plate of each of the following on day old bread: sardines, cheese, blood sausage, and salami. (remember post 'Day 1") But, I was going to be a good sport about this so I picked up a sardine and took a bite.... SALTY!!! That is alright, I will eat the salami... well, maybe not. Ok, it was too late to be polite. I just filled up on cheese. At Daniel's request I tried the blood sausage. Daniel said it was not that bad. And he was right, it was really pastey and...well, I just couldn't finish it (How do you say laco-ovo-vegitarian that eats honey in spanish?) After our tapas, Emilio took us to a house that we rented for 2 nights. We were exhausted by the time we went to bed!

Family Night

Before we went on our trip we had a fun Family Night with the kids. Earlier in the day I needed the kids to be busy doing something, so I let them make pumpkin bread (from a box mix). They really did it all by themselves except pouring the mix into the pans. Later, I thought it would be fun for them to deliver the bread to a friend.
Olivia chose Milles of course, but Sam wanted to do Miles so Olivia let him deliver Miles bread.

Olivia chose another friend, Lilly.

We chose Chloë's friend, Derek.

And Daniel chose his home teaching companion, Justin.

Everyone had fun that night!

day 1

This is my first dinner as an official non-eater of meat. Something has happened to me over the past few years and I cannot stomach meat, chicken, pork, and some fish. Last week I reached my limit of meat intake and I am done with it all!* Below is my first try with red lentils.
They are pretty good.
I hope my family does not mind the change!

*I will eat some meats if my stomach is up for it and it is high in quality.

Lulu can almost walk

That is the good news. The bad news is that she will probably take her first good steps while we are in Spain! I will be so sad to miss them. Hopefully Grandma Ann will catch them on the camera.



I love you Lauren. You have the cutest laugh. I am going to miss you.

Is this a journal or not....

I always say I want this to have more journal entries, but I never do it. So here are two thoughts...

First, Daniel is the Elder's quorum president in our ward. So he likes us to have new move-ins over once a month for dinner. Last weekend we had three families over for hamburgers. We had a great time. Daniel is getting really good at the grill! Anyway I am sharing this story for a reason. We were almost out of ketchup so I went into the garage to get more ketchup. It happened to be Organic. (I bought it b/c the label was pretty) So I set it on the table and said, "Oh, here is the Organic ketchup!" Then one of the wives jumped out of her chair, reached across the table, and said, "OH THANKS!" Now here is what I am thinking... You mean someone cares about Organic ketchup. With all the other JUNK we have on the table how is Organic ketchup going to change things!! I mean really, to me ketchup in itself screams anti-organic. .... But I did feel really bad about how excited she was about the Organic Ketchup that I made a quick recovery talking about the differences in the levels of Organic. It is very fascinating... certified organic, organic, locally grown organic.
In case you didn't catch it... I am not politically correct about the whole 3rd breast issue!

Just so you know the end of the story, I visit teach this girl and we hit it off great!

The other thing I wanted to enter in my "journal" is that I am SO EXCITED. Daniel and I are going to SPAIN in 8 days! I am finishing up last minute items, such as getting from the airport to our first hotel! FUN FUN. Actually I do LOVE this kind of task.

Family picture...NOT

We tried. Thanks, Todd and Spencer.




As you can see, Daniel looked great in every photo!
"Oh he's so handsome"
(recognize that phrase?...it is the little rabbit in Robin Hood)

Lula's bath

Lula is getting so big. Bath time is still her favorite part of the day. She screams when it is over in protest!

We all love having Dory around. If I am out with the kids they say, "I want to go home with Dory." or After Dory leaves Chloë always asks where she is. We are very blessed to have found someone who helps me, but also loves the children so much that they can see it.

Pigeon vs our Costco cart

So we are in Costco and there is a pigeon in the back of the store. I stop to show the kids the bird and then we continue on our way.

Then Sam said, (very innocently)

"Why did you not run over the bird with our cart to kill it?"

I am glad I have at least one boy!

Labor day weekend

Labor day weekend had a great start. After Daniel made pancakes and homemade syrup for us we went out to wash the car. Sometime later I came into the house and found Sam helping us put the syrup into the bottle after it had cooled. He did a pretty good job, but the still was a big syrup mess on the floor and counter from him trying to transfer the syrup with the ladle.


On Monday we went to the stake Breakfast and bike rally. It was a lot of fun.


After naps the kids and I went to Mandy's house and rode our bikes around their street. Olivia and Miles are still great friends.

funny family

birthday wishes

She is 6.

Thanks, Spence, for helping light the candles!

We had a great day and a relaxing dinner.

Erla and Carlos (just back from his mission to the Dominican Republic) came to celebrate with us.

It took 4 years, but it was bound to happen. Someone (Aaron) broke a window while playing football in the backyard. Oh well.

Olivia's 6th birthday

We had a great birthday weekend! Olivia really loves her new bike.

Olivia's first day of First grade

Olivia is a pro at doing new things. The first day of First Grade was a breeze. She loved it!

Good Luck, Olivia. We love you and know that you will shine brighter than ever. You are a wonderful daughter and a great friend to those you know. You have the gift of joy that you can use to make others feel good around you! Go get 'um!!

picnic

Andrea invited us to go to the park with them for one last hoorrah before school starts tomorrow. We had a nice, easy lunch and the kids tried to fly kites, but there was not enough wind. The weather was beautiful!

here puppy, puppy

This little backpack is a glorified lease to keep kids close at hand. Chloë loves to wear it and let Sam & Liv walk her around. It is hysterical to see!

what does Sam love

Sam loves BIG pieces of watermelon. I will have to scan another picture similar to this one of Sam when he was a baby!

Sam also figured out how to climb this wall in our front patio. He will just sit up here and look around. It is so cute.

Lauren's first birthday

The kids got out the playdough and ended up making Lula a birthday cake.

They were both very cute. Lula wanted to play with them.

After our cake-making party we opened gifts. Barbie got each of the kids a present to celebrate her birthday. The kids had a great time opening the gifts. Chloë was especially excited. Thanks, Mom and Happy Birthday to You!