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....

.

 

 

 ...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."

"America the Beautiful"

Boy did we have a great and very busy summer, currently we are back home resting and being bored! Here is a very long list of the most exciting things we did and then following are a few pictures of some of our activities.

 

Besides going out to eat alot to catch up on all our cravings,

 we went to Millcreek Canyon, for hotdogs and s'mores

and we went to Rocky Mountain Raceway
 we watched and set off lots of fireworks
Wolfcreek for two Family Reunions
Snow Basin, the gondola and a hike

We went swimming several times
Museum of Natural Curiosity
Duchesne Demolition Derby
Ogden Temple Open House

Hollywood Connection

Several sleepovers
Alpine Water Slide 

Night in Midway

                              Gardner Village                              

Night in Heber
Shopped a lot!
Several Parks

Tracy Aviary
Seven Peaks

Ice Skating
Splash Pad
Pineview
Trafalga

Lagoon
Movies

 

 

Saratoga Springs 

 

Neptune Park with good friends the Moffats and McNeils.

Kamree and Emily at the top of the pyramid.

Bellon Family Reunion

Kamree and Adrielle getting reacquainted at the reunion at Wolfcreek.
 

Uncle Ben kindly took the brave kids for rides on his too cool bike.

Morgan wore the helmet since he went outside the parking lots for a longer and faster ride!

Kamree liked it so much she went twice.

 

Mason has never gone shirtless swimming until we were up at Wolfcreek in the pool on a rainy/overcast day.  His skin was so ghostly white that it only took a couple of hours to give him a 2nd degree burn.  This picture was taken on day 5.  He went shirtless for several days after due to the intense pain and for fear of the blisters sticking to the shirt. It was so painful that he would cry if anyone breathed on him.

Lake day at Pineview reservoir.

Independence Day!!!!

Grandma Bellon's 4th of July Stake Breakfast.  This was when we really felt like we were home.


 
Some of our huge home fireworks after the barbeque and before going out to watch the real fireworks throughout the valley.

 

 

Playdates 

 
This is a new park in the Daybreak community.  It is one of the best parks we've found.  With the Pendletons and Deckers.

Sleepover with the Wells.

Showing off the soccer shirts and Kamree's Spanish shirt. (the only shirt we've seen in Spain with Spanish writing)

 

At Trafalga with the Chatwins.  Chris is driving Kamree and Kaiya bringing up the rear.

Brandon driving Mason.

Rocky Mountain Raceway and the double deckers.

 

At Tracy Aviary with the Decker boys.

Rock Slides in Alpine 

 It's about a half mile hike up to these secret slides and it was brutal in the heat and super bright sun with very little shade.   This was just a couple days after my PRK (eye surgery) so my eyes were extremely sensitive to the light even with dark sunglasses and holding an umbrella.   Kamree is going down a small slide below the large one above that ended in a large pool.

 

Mason, Payden and Morgan are standing at the top waiting for their turn to slide.  The place was extremely packed leaving little room to even watch.  Morgan was the only one that went down the slide leaving the rest of us to hike back down wet only from our sweat. 

 Fortunately this splash pad was on our way home so the kids did get to eventually cool off.

Morgan practicing for the American Ninja Warrior.  (with the Davenports)

 

 Kamree learning to climb the silks from Heidi the silks pro.  We spent this afternoon/evening with the Davenports. 

Huber Family Reunion

Pictured here is one of the two owls that live in the trees near the pool/ sports area at Wolfcreek.

Kaiya and some of the girl cousins eating one of the many yummy dinners.

Morgan and the boys being boys. 

The day at Lagoon began quite rainy but turned nice and cool by the early afternoon and the lines were short the entire day!

 

Morgan flying high on the Jungle Joe at Pineview reservoir. 

On our way up to hike the peak on the Gondola at Snow Basin.

The hike wasn't too steep, but the gravel/dirt was slippery.  We had a few tumbles including Brent's parents which sent them both to the Instacare.

 

Most made it to the top!

Can you guess which one is Kamree and which one is Kaiya?

We had a week long reunion here at Wolfcreek with the Hubers and then Kaiya went up to Idaho with Grandma and Grandpa for a couple more days of fun.

Ogden Temple

The new Ogden Temple Open House.

Duchesne

We went out to Duchesne to see Corey's new house and four-wheeler.  The kids loved it all!  We went to the Duchesne Demolition Derby that is apparently the biggest attraction of the year.  We had to stand in line for 3 hours before the show was to start to get good seats.  It was great but it made for a late night drive back home. 

Corey's Wedding

It's official:  Corey (my sister) and Brandon are now hitched!!!

Our 4 kids playing after the wedding luncheon with Corey's kids(-1),  her new kids and new brother in law.  Perhaps there were a few too many kids on the trampoline. What do you think?

Millcreek Canyon

We had yummy fire roasted hotdogs and s'mores with the Deckers and Pendletons.

It was great, the adults sat around talked and ate while the kids ran around having fun playing games.

 



Seven Peaks

We went here 5 or 6 times during our stay in Utah.  This time we were with the Brinkerhoffs,  Payden, Adrielle and Parker.

 

Kamree and Adrielle on one of the many slide rides.  We could not keep Adrielle off the slides.  She loved them!!!

Oquirrh Ice Rink

 

You would think no one would need help being the 3rd time here this summer.

Outside the skating rink, as you can see, Kamree has grown a bit this summer.

Hansen Family Reunion

This was during the Day Reunion at Melissa's house the day before we came home.  Maybe this was a goodbye hug?

 

 

 

Goodbye to possibly the "bestest summer" ever!!!

 

 

 

Thank you Corey for the use of your vehicles, we couldn't have done it without them!!!!

 

And THANK YOU to Grandma Bellon for her hospitality and the use of her home for nearly 2 months!