Back Home and Back to Life in Spain

 

Home and back to reality! (this is the side of our house)

Organizing

As we were organizing and cleaning rooms after returning home from Utah, Kamree came up with this ingenious way of storing her bracelets....

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 ...and this not so practical way of storing her necklaces. 

 

El Escorial

Just after getting back from Utah we met up with some friends and their American nanny (not pictured) who is a roommate of our niece Rachelle.  This is obviously a Spanish foosball table with Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid and ashtrays in it's corners.

 Analia

Kamree's friend Analia at her baptism.   

 Since Analia was baptized, she moved up to the Senior Primary class.  The two now don't get to see each other enough so here they are catching up.

 

 

 Brent's Birthday Lunch

 This was about 4 days after Brent's birthday, but unfortunately we forgot to go out on his birthday since we forgot about his birthday until he hinted 2 days later on Saturday night.    Our kids got their preferred pizza from next door this Spanish restaurant and then returned home to eat while we dined at the restaurant.    I ordered the baked chicken which came with gravy smothered french fries  and Brent ordered the fish tacos atop ratatouille.  These pictured were the 2nd dishes before the yummy dessert.  

 

 

Juan Carlos Park

 A few days before school started we met with friends at the Juan Carlos Park and discovered this huge net.  The kids climbed from one side to the other.  There were huge gaps in this,  and I'm not sure how they managed it with their short legs.

YW Indexing Activity

This was a YM YW activity we had the weekend before school started.  The kid on the right was baptized while we were in Utah.    The lady sitting down in the far left corner (in white) is Sylvia H. Allred a recent 1st counselor in the General Relief Society.  She and her husband were so much fun to talk to about a few of their many adventures.  The couple apparently tagged along with the trainer of our ward family history specialist.  We were so glad they did!

  

 Back to School

After spending over 600 euros ($800) for books,  $30-40 for school supplies, and $100 for grade co-ops(classroom supplies) we were ready for school. 

First Day of School (Colegio) Sept. 9th 2014

I forgot to take a picture before they left so I snapped this right after getting home.  Apparently the first day was not too bad, since they needed no smile bribes.    Kamree told me on the way home from school that 1st grade was going to be easy since all they do is watch movies and play games. 

After school Oreos and milk.  This is the first milk I have purchased from the refrigerated section of the store.  We are not milk drinkers so the taste of the box milk has never been an issue for us in cereal.  This soured before we could finish it; I think it's best we stick with the boxes. 

 Kaiya's First Day of High School (Instituto) Sept. 10th

 It was rumored that the high school wasn't going to start until after the city fiestas at the end of the month, but the day before the kids started school we found out that Kaiya was to start in 2 days.  What a let down, but she was a trooper (perhaps since it was only 2 hours for the first 4 days).

 

Mason's Baptism

Mason was baptized at our Bishop's home in his swimming pool!  The baptisms in the summer are at his home which is next door to the Madrid Spain mission president.    This  is only 10 minutes from our home which is much better than the 45 minutes to the baptisms at the stake center which is in Madrid next to the Temple.

 Fiestas San Agustin

The fiestas go for several weeks with 1-2 things a week until the final week when it is nearly non-stop partying.  The schools, stores and postal service are closed on Friday- Monday when the bulk of the fiestas are scheduled.

Morgan and his friend Luis racing to the top of the tallest inflatable slide I have ever seen.   Unfortunately, these inflatables were set up for only one day after school.

 The street market is full of food, game, clothing, accessories and toy booths.  These are set up for 4-5 days in a row but only in the evening around 7:30 until who knows how late. 

 Only after about the 50th time they asked they received.  

 

 

 

 We found these clothes hanging out on the side walk interesting.  We assume this must be the home of someone running a booth all night.

 This was the band at the Ayuntamiento (town hall) setting up to play after the midnight  fireworks.   They both kept me awake til around 2 am which I then slept soundly through the allnight partying until someone doorbell ditched us at 7am.   

 

Running of the Bulls

The bull runs are scheduled Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning in prep for the bullfighting those evenings. 

 As we waited for the bull run to begin others waited to take over our spots.   Morgan was watching like Mason is here but in his own section to the left.  This older gentleman stood behind Morgan for a minute and then slowly weaseled his way into taking over the entire spot forcing Morgan to move out of his way.  Of course an apology was neither given nor expected 

 

 



 

 

 

 After waiting 45 minutes after this was supposed to begin, the first bull was finally out of the gate.   It turned out to be the only bull that did anything besides book it into the stadium.  The three larger beasts are oxen and are just leads.  They are chassed back to the beginning after each bull enters the stadium and then return with the next bull. 

 

 

 

 

 The oxen were determined to not return to the beginning, so they continued turning around back to the stadium.   After the 5th try they finally brought in a new darker set of leads. 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids got really bored at the fence while waiting for each new bull so we decided to go into the stadium and watch the excitement from there.  This bull is being led by the new set of oxen that did their job much better.   Notice how much smaller the bull is than the oxen.  Kamree thought the bulls were babies. 

 

Spain

This is a picture of a crosswalk after exiting a round about with arrows pointing the opposite direction of traffic.  When we first moved here I was startled once while driving thinking I must have gone the wrong way but knew there was no other way.

 

 Kamree "How many more days until Rooster Day?"     What?    Kamree- "Rooster Day, when we eat chicken." You mean Thankgsiving Day when we eat turkey?     Kamree-"Yes."