Fall 2015

Cantabria

Somehow I forgot to post our trip to Cantabria with my friend Brenda back in October, but better late than never.

Beach in Comillas

We spent part of the first day at the beach.  It wasn't hot but warm enough to shed some clothing and play in the sand.

...and for the die hards briefly get in the water.

While my friend and I were basking in the sun we were briefly entertained by a busload of giddy nuns. 

Palace Chapel-Pantheon and Sobrellano Park

The beautiful Sobrellano Palace and the chapel-Pantheon are located in the town of Comillas and built in 1881-1888.  I'm not sure why there were cannons placed out front.  

Playa de Santa Justa

Before returning to our hotel we decided to take Brenda to one of our favorite locations along the Cantabrian coastline. 

Instead of following our path from the previous time we...

...noticed this path along the fence line and we decided to explore it.
 

 And this incredible view was what the pathway led us to.  

After Brenda had had enough of my kids she attempted to throw them over.

Luckily for them, she didn't go through with it.

The next day we took a drive into the enchanting Picos de Europa.

We wanted to explore one of the numerous caves inside the Picos but after traveling up hills, over mountains, following this guy and hiking up shade-less and often steep trails...

and we kept failing (the dang Spanish siesta).  Morgan at least got to climb above this cave. 

Fortunately the amazing views made it all worth it.  

Castillo de Fuentes de Valdepero

On our way home we passed this castle and as usual pulled off to do a little exploring.  Kamree is the best, she joined Brent, Brenda and me while the other 3 stayed in the car complaining that we had seen enough castles.

It helped that Kamree had her Heeleys on,  which she wears every chance she can even on stone walkways.  Brenda and Brent are in the picture on the right.  This castle was built between the 14th-16th centuries.

Back Home

The building on the left is a building near the kids' school.  I'm not sure what it is but it is eyecatching.  The picture on the right is Morgan and a couple of his friends walking to school.  We live about 12 minutes from the school and two of his friends live a couple of streets away from us so they often walk to and from school together.  

This is a cute video of Kamree and her super adorable Korean friend Sharon.  

Thanksgiving

The last couple of years we did Thanksgiving by ourselves and invited a couple sets of missionaries but this year was a bit different.  This was the cute little girl table.

There are a few American families in our ward and in the other ward in the building, we all joined forces and invited all 12 missionaries.  This was the older kids' table with 4 missionary chaperons. 

We had 7 and a half families with a total of 50 people including the missionaries.  We have not been around so many Americans since being in Spain, it felt like an American ward party.  Yes, I am the one in the center stuffing my face.

With all these people we still all took home enough leftovers for another Thanksgiving meal the following day.  

This great greenie missionary entertained some of the littlest kids after dinner.

San Lorenzo Del Escorial

This was the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  We spent the first half of this day with some friends from Brent's work.  We've been here to visit them before, but they had just finished renovating their new home and we wanted to see it.  

El Escorial is most known for it's amazingly big monastery. These photos are of the back-end as we were walking toward the "Casita de Principe"  which is one of the many residences of the Spanish Royal Family.

This is the back yard of the palace.  It was built between 1771 and 1775.

 I should have joined them!!!

This is the lush front yard of the Palace. 

Fall was obvious here.  The kids miss the piles of leaves we had in Utah,  until we return and they are responsible for raking and bagging them all.   

Can you guess who helped decorate our humble Christmas tree?

This interesting plant is at the park across from our church.   I am enjoying the flowers and nice weather we are having even though my kids would much prefer lots of snow for Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!