Turning 40 and Harvesting Almonds

Turning 40 ain't so bad! :) We think he still looks pretty good!
Barcelona even had an airshow in honor of his 40th birthday, can you believe it?! :) Well, not really. But he got home 3 days early from a trip, and was here in time for an amazing airshow in Barcelona, as well as his actual birthday! They had an interesting array of airplanes, this is a fire suppression bomber demonstrating a water drop.

We decided to sit right by a playground to watch the airshow, which was one of the smarter things we did that day.
This is the same water bomber coming in to pick up some more water to do another drop.
Here is a view of some of the thousands of people who came out to watch the airshow.
There were even hot air balloons!
A Spanish armed forces F-18 did a demonstration, which was the highlight of the airshow for Luke!

Helicopter formation demonstration team.
The Spanish version of the Thunderbirds was this 7-aircraft formation team.
Caroline liked when the smoke trail made a heart shape in the sky.
Same group, sideways view.
At the end of the airshow the jets flew with red, yellow and red smoke trails to make the Catalonia flag.

On the actual day of Brian's birthday, we spent a really nice afternoon on the beach. As you can see, we had the place to ourselves! We had a picnic lunch, played futbol, went for walks, and played in the sand. It was a beautiful day, and very relaxing.
Caroline and Jackson going for a walk.
Luke playing in the sand.
And Brian enjoying turning 40. :)

This past Saturday we went to the "finca" of Luke's friend Dylan to help them harvest their almonds! It was a great experience. Here are the kids playing in the small shed.
And here's a view of the shed, with people husking the almonds, and Tarheel happy to be invited along.
I don't have a good picture of the first process of the harvesting, but the guys would go out to the almond trees with bamboo type sticks and knock the almonds off the trees onto plastic tarp. They would then bring sacks of almonds over to where we were husking them.
Here we are having a nice picnic lunch.
Husking the almonds was actually pretty easy, and the kids even enjoyed stopping and helping in between playing. We just peeled the outer fuzzy skin off, and made a big pile of the almonds in the middle. They will be sold to the cooperative, and then someone else gets to crack them to get the small piece inside that we actually eat. It was a really nice day, and we were happy to just spend it outside, doing some work, and being with friends! We went for a hike later in the day, cooked dinner over the fire, had a nice campfire, and then drove home. We decided not to camp out this time. :)

Much love to everyone,

Tonya

Hi all,

Tonya and the kids made my birthday very special, as did all of you who sent cards and greetings! I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful family and thoughtfull friends! I hope to have 40 more to enjoy with all ya'all!

Thanks again and may God bless you!

Brian