Summer 2015

This summer has been nothing compared to our non-stop fun summer last year.  However, we did plan a few outings to keep us from going too stir crazy. 

Embalse del Atazar

In July, the boys went on a weekend kayaking camp-out while the girls slumbered at our house.

 

They had to kayak to the camping spot and stopped along the route to cliff jump.

The 6 of them slept snugly inside that tent. They may have had more fun, but we slept more comfortably.

 

Drive to Los Callejones de las Majadas.

At the end of July we took a day trip to Los Callejones de las Majadas.  Our 2 hour drive took 31/2 hours thanks to the backed- up holiday traffic.   At least we got to sit and enjoy these stork and nest covered antennas along the way. 

After we exited the backed up highway we passed endless fields of sunflowers.  FYI-Sunflowers were introduced to Europe by Columbus in 1493.

During growth, sunflowers tend to track the movement of the sun across the horizon which is called "heliotropism". They stop following the sun once they begin blooming and then remain only facing east.  

Los Callejones de Las Majadas

We eventually arrived at Los Callejones, which is an area with amazing rock formations 1/2 an hour outside Cuenca. 

This July was Spain's hottest on record and thus we have spent most of the time inside.   We choose this mountain destination with hopes of a cooler temperature.

This is how much Kamree loves me.

There was plenty for the kids to explore, in fact we all felt quite adventurous.

Morgan wanted a solo photo here; so his friend kindly tried to remove himself from it. 

Here is Kaiya's adorable best friend.

These rocks reminded me of cauliflower and broccoli.

This area had traditionally been used by shepherds who added rock walls to keep cattle.  This looked like it could be an ancient hobbit home, right?  

Here the kids attempted to pick the biggest nose ever. 

Kamree is quick but not that quick.

Kaiya seems to dwarf our friend even though Kaiya is not more than an inch or two taller.

 The name " Los Callejones"  means the alleyways, which there were many.

Morgan had a hard time keeping up with all these distractions along the way.
 

We sat and waited for him during a few of his climbs.

Can you spot all 5?

We found the perfect picture spot for 8 kids if one can climb like a monkey. 

Aw aren't they all so cute?

After Los Callejones we stopped in Cuenca for a short time to break up the drive.

This is part of the old castle walls above the River Jucar.

They were exhausted and I felt triumphant.  It was so much better than sitting inside all day.

Here are more sunflowers while on our way home.

Parque de Atracciones 

We met up with our friends at the Parque de Atracciones in Madrid for a full 12 hour day (opening-12pm to 12am) in the beginning of August. 

The park had all the standard rides plus a few others.  These swings were one of our favorite rides.  This picture was taken when the swings were about half way up. 

Brent and Mason are checking out the shrunken people on the ground.

Kaiya and her friend are in the center of this photo with Madrid's skyscrapers in the background. 

The beginning of the day was quiet with short lines but after a couple of hours the lines were quite lengthy on the more popular rides.  Fortunately, Kamree had no problems entertaining herself in the long lines.

We were surprised to see this here and without an additional fee, which perhaps it should charge a fee since the line moved sooo slowly.  Even though there were only about a dozen people ahead of us it took over an hour. 

 

The advisory signage was hilarious or perhaps grotesque if you use your imagination.

The kids unsuccessfully tried to enter this time traveling portal.

Parque de los Patos

This duck pond is a 1/2 mile from our home, near Brent's work.  It has seen better days, it was covered with a 1/4 " layer of slimy looking algae.

The water feeding the pond coming from the Guadalix river (behind Kamree) was a bit cleaner and where the ducks actually were.

Morgan and Mason rode their bikes, Kamree rode her scooter while I carried their popsicles by foot. On both sides of Morgan were wild blackberries bushes.

I miss our raspberries back home and even thought these weren't as good I'm ready to go back for more of these wild blackberries. 

 

Parque Juan Carlos

We spent a couple full days at this park within a week while Brent was gone to the U.S. for business. We like this huge park since it is simple to get to, never crowded, has free parking and always has more to explore.

I'm not sure if this is a sculpture or a play structure.  It had a wide ditch surrounding it, possibly to keep the kids away from it.

The kids knew they had to play on it so they didn't hesitate jumping across the water or for those that couldn't jump the 4 to 5 feet waded through the 2 feet deep green grimy water to get to it.  

Worten

Morgan and his friend begged to stop by this electronic store after lunch one day.  Of course, Morgan is not in this picture, he's too busy running around the store checking out all the computers and tablets.  The roles felt swapped when we walked into this store as the kids took off while the parents followed them around asking them when we could go because we were bored. Perhaps you can see in this photo what some of them were up to with the LDS.org home page.

Embalse del Atazar

We've barely had any rain the entire summer, until the night Morgan went camping with his school friend.  Brent and Morgan went two years ago on this annual trip Brent's co-worker puts together.  Brent was in the US at the time and therefore was not able to go.  It began to rain as they were kayaking to the camping spot down the river and then it began to pour, hail, thunder with lightening.  Some of the kids were crying, some tipped over, and they all got soaked.  Morgan's sleeping bag was soaked and he was given a dry towel to sleep on with his towel to cover him. The area where they camped does not allow tents nor fires.  They were overjoyed that someone thought of bringing a tarp to sleep on which was instead used for some coverage. The rain did not let up until around 6 am and then only for a couple of hours which is when this picture was taken. They spent most of the time huddled together below the center of this tarp.   The entire night I expected him to show up but they were troopers and survived the night. You can see the water in the kayak.   The morning was full of sunshine which they took advantage of by playing in the water, cliff- jumping,  and kayaking.  

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The kids are great candy store patrons.  They came home the other day with the latest item, "Candy Paper" amazingly without sugar.  They said it tastes a bit like cotton candy.   I don't think they cared for it too much as they haven't purchased it since.



In the background of the top picture you can see the first of many boxes filled as we made our move to Madrid.  

Good-bye San Agustin Del Guadalix!