A Diary of Spain

Well, it is only two weeks after promised! But now we are home and have access to the internet in our own home and can post at leisure. The bad news on arrival home was that we had taken all our pictures with our camera on the worst picture quality! I kept seeing that my memory card could hold 7200 more pictures, but that did not phase me. I thought Alan must have purchased a gigantic memory card. So 647 poor quality pictures of Spain for you to view whenever you come visit! We will give you a brief synopsis here though:

Day 1: We arrived in Spain after an 8 hour plane ride (in which we were served 2 full meals...I love international flying). From the airport we took the metro straight to the temple. We were trying to meet up with the mission people, but there session had started so we just went to the next section available ...it was rough with my headset and jet lag, but it was great. The temple is a full size, beautiful building. After our session we ate our first Spanish meal in the temple cafeteria. It was there we ran into the mission group. From there we took our bags on the metro and went to our hotel where we showered and promptly fell asleep for the next 4 hour! When we awoke we realized we would be late to the open house at the stake center next to the temple. It was a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the temple and it was really neat. They has lots of members share their temple dedication experiences. Then we had an open house with tapas, a local custom, and then we left and went out on the town. We arrived one day after the San Isidro festival which is Madrid's biggest holiday, but there was still plenty of fun stuff going on. We attended an outdoor opera in the Plaza Mayor and then bought ice cream and then walked one from free concert to the next until 2 am. Then we went back to sleep.

Day 2:

We found our favorite breakfast: Hot chocolate and churros! We woke up early trying to catch some of the San Isidro spirit down by the San Isidro church...where the famous water is, unfortunately, we were the only ones awake at 7:30am. So, we walked the empty streets between empty booths until 9:30 when we found someone who would make us breakfast. After breakfast we took a long metro ride to church, we stayed only for sacrament mtg because a family Alan had taught had invited us the night before to dinner today, so we took a train to their house (30min) and had a great time. We returned from there and went straight to Retiro Park, one of my favorite Madrid destinations. It is a gigantic park and we went there almost every day we were in Spain. It has a beautiful lake with an amazing lion statue/fountain on it. And the people watching cannot be beat! After the park we headed to a fireside back at the Stake Center which was really neat. They showed a slideshow of the temple being built including the ground breaking. After the fireside it was back out on the town. We went back to the San Isidro festival and it was in full swing...well maybe half swing. It was like the Madrid State Fair! We enjoyed it thoroughly. This little girl is in the traditional San Isidro outfit.

Stay tuned for more!

Spain is Great

Hello family,
We finally found a hotel with internet and we have not yet had the opportunigy to call, but we are doing great and are alive. We have been touring around with the missionary group, but we are splitting off today. We will try to call or post pictures tonight. We love you all.

Happy Memorial Day (It's close enough, right?)

I went to Houston this past weekend to visit Kristin's grave and the temple.
I took some pictures and just wanted to share them with you.











It's a very pretty cemetery. Kristin is buried at the back side of the cemetery in a an area dedicated to infants. I was very lucky to have found the headstone. It was a process of deduction. It was mostly covered because it had been raining. It was a neat experience.













I also went to the Houston Temple. It's a really neat temple.



It was a great weekend and a fantastic experience. So much so that I finally decided I had something worth posting on the Blog. It only took 3 years. :)

$300 Haircut!

Hey ya'll. This is it. I chopped it! I got an email midnight on Wed. The buyer wanted the hair shipped and cut by Friday at 4:00. 17" somehow turned into approximately 20" at the salon! Don't ask me.....I told the haircutter that he sabatoged me. I was going in with pictures of Katie Holmes (I like her bobs) I ended up with an A-line. I really like the front...I don't really like A-lines. I wish I could say I was in love with it...but HEY it is on me...it's gotta look semi wonderful!:) He told me he salvaged what he could in the back, and to wait for a few months and then we'll trim it all up. It was as thrilling as jumping out of a plane (or so I tell myself). I was pretty scared.

I just posted these pictures on my blog and wanted to show you. It's on and and being loved by all who see. It's the nicest quilt in the house, by far. Thank you, thank you! I can't wait until we can do the twin sized to match- you know you want to!