Sundays in Barcelona #13 - Diagonal Mar

Hola Familia y Amigos! We hope you all have had a great week! After being in the US for two weeks, then having jet-lag for two weeks, and then being in the Canary Islands for a week, this was a week of getting back into our routine here. The best part was that Brian was on call all week and they didn't use him! Two different days we packed a lunch and headed to the beach to play. Wednesday Caroline had her best day at "bydnastics" yet, Thursday Luke did great at futbol, and said he wanted to play in the actual game on Saturday. Up until now we had only been going to the practices on Thursday evenings. So we went to the game Saturday at 10am, and enjoyed a beautiful morning by the sea watching futbol! Luke had a great time, and as you can see a tiny bit in the back of this picture, the scenery was gorgeous!

This is Luke's team carrying the goal post after the game, I thought it was a cute picture! Luke is the second one from the right.
After his game we headed to Barcelona to have a birthday lunch with Josep & Teresa, because it was Teresa's birthday! They suggested we meet at Diagonal Mar, which is a relatively new area along the sea with a nice mall and beautiful outdoor terrace with lots of restaurants and running space for the kids. We had a great time! After we ate we went inside to a kid's play area at the mall, and as you can see, the kids loved it. Here is Caroline beside a mussle.

We bribed them away from the play area with the racing car shopping carts before it was time to leave. :) So the title isn't exactly correct, because our fun day in Barcelona was Saturday. Sunday we did go in again for church, but came home for the afternoon because Luke's futbol team was supposed to have team photos taken at 3:45pm. We showed up at that time and there was a game going on...half-time came and went, and finally an hour later the game was over and they started presenting all of the kids in the futbol school by team. We were actually VERY impressed, it was a really nice ceremony!
Here is Luke's team being escorted in by the Sitges A team, which we found out is the best team in Sitges. They had a game after the presentation of the futbol teams. We had such a nice time there that we ended up staying for the entire game after the ceremony.
Here is a shot of all of the teams on the field, isn't that amazing? Luke's team is in yellow in the front.

And a close-up of Luke.

And finally, this is Jackson during the ceremony! He was pretending to be a monster. He has really been saying some funny things. We think he is completely ready to be potty trained, because after he poops he comes to me right away and says "Change me Mom. Change me Mom. Change me Mom. Change me Mom...NOW!" At the futbol game tonight he had a meltdown about something, and then after a few minutes he came to me and said "I done cwying now." He also loves to pretend to make me things, he'll come up to me and say "Hey Mom, you want coffee? I make you coffee. You want a sawad? I make you a sawad. Eat it! You want some chocwat? Hewe you go!" And he still loves to pretend to go to work at the airport and come home and have everyone make a big fuss over him. "Hola! I home!! How you doin'?"

This week is another quiet week. We're getting things organized in the house and itineraries worked on for our two sets of guests in February! February 8-12 the Walter family from Landisville is coming, and February 16-22 friends of mine from college (Becky & Patience) are coming with their husbands. We are really looking forward to our time with them!

We hope you have a peaceful and relaxing week.

Con abrazos,

Tonya

Canary Islands

Hola!

We just returned from 5 days in the Canary Islands, and had a wonderful time! The Islands reminded me somewhat of the Hawaiian Islands: there were 7 of them, each with a very different personality. We had gotten a great deal on tickets into the island of Gran Canaria, thinking that we would also try to explore another one or two of the smaller islands. One of the places that our landlords said would be beautiful to stay on Gran Canaria was Puerto de Mogan, so we rented an apartment there and absolutely loved it. The first picture is of a view of Puerto de Mogan from the winding road you need to take to get there. It's the main road that goes the whole way around the island. The next picture is of Brian & Caroline at dinner the night we arrived. The next day we just spent at the beach, playing and relaxing. Brian built sand castles and Lightning McQueen for Luke. The kids were so happy to play in the sand and water.

The third day we attempted to drive the whole way around the island and explore some different areas. However, the road was so windy that all three kids complained of a belly-ache and fussed about wanting to go back. :) We made a stop at Agaete, and found a cool watering hole there, there's one picture of Luke & Caroline putting their toes in the water. The idea of exploring the island was such a flop that we cancelled our plans to go to the island of Tenerife to meet up with our landlords, as well as to visit the island of Fuertaventura next to Gran Canaria. Oh well. The next picture is of eating breakfast on our terrace, and the rest are just of the beautiful port area and another day at the beach. We decided it wasn't worth trying to do much else! The kids had fun burying Brian, and then Caroline wanted to be buried as well. We really had a great time!

We hope you all are doing well. Have a wonderful week!
Love,

Tonya

Sundays in Barcelona #12

Hola Amigos!

Since we had such a fun-packed week this week I thought the kids and I would do something mellow and very kid-friendly after church today, and it turned out to be a huge hit! We went to the noon service of the International Church of Barcelona, visited with some friends from small group, and then drove to a place I had found in a brochure called "Catalunya en Miniatura". I wasn't completely sure what to expect, and it turned out to be perfect for the kids. It's an outdoor display of the whole region of Catalunya, in miniature! It was so fun for the kids to see a miniature La Sagrada Familia after we had just been there, and to recognize some of the other things we've been doing so far in Barcelona. The first picture is of the kids by La Sagrada Familia. The second is the Tower of Colom by Port Vell in Barcelona. The third is the kids trying to look into the Barca stadium! It was so cute. They had a button to push for many of the things, and when you pushed the button at the Barca stadium you heard a lively rendition of their fight song (there was a game going on inside the stadium). Pretty cute! The next picture is of Montserrat, which they also loved since we had just been there. And the last picture is an overview of many of the sites at Catalunya en Miniatura. They had a number of different trains going around, cars moving on highways, a big airplane taxi-ing at the airport, and they did a great job showing many of the beautiful cathedrals around the region. The kids ran all over the place looking at things, I could hardly keep up with them.

Brian is coming home tomorrow, and then we are leaving Tuesday for the Canary Islands for five days. Our landlords are from there, and so when I called to ask them some questions about the different islands they said they would stop by with some information. When they stopped by they had Christmas gifts for all the kids, and also said they were going to be in the islands the next 2 weeks as well, and invited us to Tenerife for a day so they could show us around that island! They are SO nice and we feel very blessed to have them as our landlords. So we're looking forward to a relaxing time, as well as a tour of the island of Tenerife. I'm sure I'll have pictures to post of that trip next weekend.

Love to you all and have a great week!
Tonya

First Visitor in 2008

Hola Friends & Family!

We had our first visitor from the States in 2008 this week! A friend of mine, Dorca Ressler, was flying from Tanzania back to the US and stopped in Europe for a short visit. We had a lot of fun showing her around, and also exploring new areas with her. We hadn't been to Montserrat yet, a famous monastery built high on a mountain, so we went there one day. Unfortunately it was cloudy and drizzly that day, so I don't think we experienced the full majesty of the place since we couldn't see any views. The first picture is of Dorca and the kids walking toward the monastery. The second is the kids and I outside by some pretty flowers, and the third is the kids running around a circular design on the floor inside the entrance area to the monastery. It was very beautiful! While we were there we also were able to see the boys choir perform, which was very impressive. We rode a cable car up to the top of the mountain, so that makes any trip fun for the kids.

The second day with Dorca we rode the Bus Touristic around Barcelona and hit some of the highlights. Our first stop was La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous work-in-progress cathedral. We had not been inside it yet, so we went in and were absolutely amazed at the detail and amount of work involved in building this incredible work of art. The kids were actually REALLY into it, which surprised us both! They have a museum underneath the cathedral where they have replicas of the cathedral and that especially interested them. The next picture is of the kids at the Olympic stadium from the 1992 olympics. From there we walked to the cable car ride which takes you to the castle at the top of Montjuic, and the next picture is Jack & Dorca on the cable car ride. The last shot is of Barcelona and La Sagrada Familia from the cable car. We then stopped at Port Olympic for ice cream, and finally got off the bus to walk/shop through the Barric Gotic district back to the car at Placa Catalunya. It was a full day, but very fun and the kids did GREAT! We had a great time with Dorca on her visit.

Adios por ahora!
Love,

Tonya

Sundays in Barcelona #10 and #11

Feliz Ano Nuevo!!

After all the Christmas postings I realized I didn't say anything about Sundays in Barcelona #10, which the highlight of was seeing the kids singing "Joy to the World" and "Go Tell it on the Mountain" in the Christmas choir at church. They were SO CUTE! So I had to post a picture from that. We actually stayed at church for both services, and then came home to pack because we left the next morning for Pennsylvania. That was about it for #10.

A highlight of this week was on Friday when all SIX boxes of Christmas gifts arrived from the US. The kids found their new rain gear (matching coats and boots), and wanted to pose for a picture. Now I just hope it rains. :) Here in Catalonia they celebrate the Dia de Reis (Day of the Kings), when the three wise men bring gifts to baby Jesus. So on Friday night a royal postman came to town and all the children were to drop off letters to the three kings (similar to letters to Santa). Then on Saturday night there was a big parade with lots of royal people and the arrival of the three kings. They give LOTS of candy to the kids. I tried to get a picture of this but it was kind of difficult. Along with the picture of the parade is what Jackson was doing during the parade. :) He got lots of smiles. We went to the parade in Sitges, but heard that the event is spectacular in Barcelona where they arrive by boat. The families then gather for dinner the next day (today, which is the actual Dia de Reis). Josep & Teresa invited us to join them and their families at their home in Barcelona for this, which was very fun (Sundays in Barcelona #11). The next picture is of the gathering, but I accidentally cut off Luke & Caroline, sorry. We had a wonderful meal, and then the traditional dessert was a round kind of ring cake with fruit (which was very good). Hidden inside the cake are two things: (1) a small king (whoever gets this in their piece wears a crown and is king for the day), and (2) something like a lima bean (whoever gets this in their piece has to pay for the cake). Josep's 95-year-old Grandmother found the king in her piece! And Teresa found the bean. Josep & Teresa also gave the kids each a really nice gift and a bag of traditional Catalan candy. We had a great time with them, and had fun trying to speak Spanish.

That's it for tonight. Much love to you all and have a great week!
Adios,

Tonya

Christmas 2007

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo!

We hope you all had a wonderful time over the holidays with family and friends, we sure did! I'm going to have to back up a bit and show you some pictures from Jack's birthday first. I meant to do that before we left for the States and I just ran out of time. We ended up having his party at our house because it was a bit too windy and cold to be on the beach that day (25 mph winds!) We had a GREAT time celebrating with our friends here. The first picture is of his party and the beautiful chocolate cake made by our friend Miss Annette. The next two pictures are of opening and playing with his gifts, there were lots of diggers for everyone. :) He LOVES them! The evening of his birthday we went into Sitges for Christmas caroling at Cap de la Villa, which the kids really enjoyed.

On to Pennsylvania! The kids and I arrived on Monday the 17th, and had a really good flight over. We stayed with my sister Nellie & her husband Josh, and the first picture is of the kids playing with them after work. The first week we spent some time visiting with family and neighbors, had a surprise 40th anniversary party for my parents, went to a Christmas Eve service at our church (on the 22nd), and had a 70th birthday party for Grandpa Les. Brian arrived late on Christmas Eve, and we were together with my family that day/night. The pictures at my parents house are of the kids listening to the Christmas story, Jackson placing baby Jesus in the manger, and Caroline posing with her Santa hat. The next three pictures are of Christmas Day at Brian's parents house: peaking at Grandma's stockings, Jackson opening his presents, and the kids sleeping over in a tent.

We are sorry we didn't get to visit with everyone, but had a great time connecting with those we were able to see. The next couple of pictures show some of the things we were able to do the week of Christmas. Luke was happy to see his cousin Ryan, and we were able to see Great Grandma & Grandpa King, who presented Luke and I with a beautifully carved horse (for Luke) and giraffe (for me). Grandpa King is well known throughout the county for his wood carvings. We also had a surprise 60th birthday tea party for Grammy, and visited with the Walter kids from our neighborhood in Landisville. Over this past weekend we were at a lodge near Bucknell University with 50+ relatives from the Sharp family, which is always a highlight of the holiday season. The next picture is of five of the seven 2-year-olds born in the Sharp family in 2005. And finally, the last picture is of Luke & Caroline sleeping on the flight back to Barcelona! Brian was able to get us in business class which made for a very nice trip home! Business class was empty on New Year's Eve, I wonder why! :) We figured anyone who could afford business class was out celebrating somewhere.

Everyone seems happy to be back to our Catalonia home, and Tarheel was VERY happy to see all of us. The sun is shining and we're enjoying Brian being home for a couple more days. Lots of love to you all and Feliz Ano Neuvo!! Thanks to all of you who sent Christmas greetings, they will be on our fridge so we can remember you every day.

Love,

Tonya