Trip to Grenada

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El Escorial

It was a cold blustery day -- see our marshmellow baby -- but we ventured out anyway, to El Escorial. 50 minutes by train, north of Madrid, nestled in the hills -- is this massive palace of Phillip II. It is said that it took 1500 workers 21 years to build it. It is not ornate, but it is large and impressive. For 5 centuries, the Kings and queens of Spain have been buried here.

It was hard to even take pictures of the palace. All the parts of the palace were giant in scale, massive doors, oversize gates and walls made of rough stones hewn into gigantic bricks. It felt like we were with Jack and we had come up the beanstalk to the ogres palace.
Click here to see a better view of the palace in it's entirety

Situated on top of a hill it has beautiful expansive views.

The King's gardens

Chocolate con churros at the end of the trip -- man, we are going to miss these.

Visit to Reina Sofia Museum

Next stop on our Spain Marathon... the Reina Sofia-- contemporary art museum.
Many Spanish artists... Miro, Dali, and of course Picasso.

Our favorite work of art: Rock's twin sculpture -- Rock in rock, if you will.

Nun Cookies

In downtown Madrid just around the corner from Plaza Mayor, there is a secret door. It is not marked, it is just a door. But if you ring the call button, you may hear a voice. If you hear the voice and say "Dulces" or if you have more spanish vocabulary at your disposal -- you can say "I am here to buy Sweets". The woman's voice may then tell you --as she did us -- to come back later at 4:30. So we waited.

For an hour...And when we came back, we rang the bell. No answer... Again... no answer. Repeat upteen times. We were just about to give up. We were about to go home. Should we ring just one more time? We did. And the nun's answered. They buzzed open the door and told us to follow the signs. We went down the hallway and came to this turnstyle --

The nun's are not allowed to have anyone see them, so we could only hear their voices. They spun the turnstyle out with 2 boxes of cookies for us to choose from. Then we picked one and put our money on the shelf and turned it in for them to take.

Pretty fun... a little mystery makes cookies taste even better!

The Oldest restaurant in the world!

Eating at the oldest restaurant in the world -- Sobrino de Botin est. 1795

The food was expensive but fabulous. We had roasted chicken, artichoke hearts with iberian ham, fried eggplant with roasted pepper sauce, and croquettes. Yum...

Even Rock was drooling over it...

Primary Program

For some reason I can't get this video to flip the right way -- but all you really need to hear is the sweet clear voice of our little Elle. She sang this solo at the Primary program. They asked her to sing this in English and she did a great job. Proud mama right here.

Ava had practiced to sing with Elle and in fact in the dress rehearsal it was she who stood up and sang with all her might while Elle shrunk behind the podium. When the time came things reversed with Elle poised at the podium and Ava curled up next to me. But she sang with gusto in the other numbers -- a mix of "Spanish" and English words that she knew.

Nathan is the pianist.

The things they say...

Ava: "Mom, on my next birthday... I'm going to be SIXTEEN!!!!"
Then with a silly look on her face -- "Just kidding Mom. I'm going to be FIVE-Teen."
She sure does act her age! Teenager in a 3-year-old body.


Playing David and Goliath. Elle as David. Mom starring as the King.
David says to the King: " I'm going to fight that Giant and get rid of him once and for all."
King: "Really? Would you like to borrow my armor?"
David with a disgusted look: "No. I don't need it. My armor is the power of God!"
Ok, then! Off you go!

Birthday 3 and 32

It is birthday time for Nathan and Ava Natalie... Nathan loves sharing the day with Ava... and Ava loves sharing it with her daddy. I'm not sure who was more excited for this birthday -- Ava or Elle! Elle could not sleep the night before the big day -- and had been helping Ava plan all week. When the day finally rolled around... Elle was so exhausted!

Morning with presents... (the sun had barely come up! But
Elle had already been awake for hours)



Her Pinata! Somehow that is beginning to be a tradition...

We took an outing to a big mall in the south of Madrid called Rivas Futuras. It has a bunch of miniature rides for the kids. They loved it -- and wore us all out.


The birthday kids! I had to include this years picture (above) and last years picture (below) Ava is wearing the same dress -- but this year it is the one Elle just grew out of. I can't believe how much she has grown up in this year! Nathan looks younger!

Rock Talk

This is typical Rock. If he is awake he is smiling.
Actually, he often smiles in his sleep too!
(Please pardon the mom "goo-goo" voice)

Our kids don't look anything alike...

Ok, maybe they do.

Elle, Ava, and Rock