Missing Graduation

 When we were deciding about the timing of this trip there was one thing that Steven was concerned about missing.  GRADUATION  The Spanish Program had seven graduating seniors this year and Steven was very sad to miss this day.

Before we left for Spain this group threw him a going away party to celebrate with him and say goodbye.  They set up a surprise for him and I was able to be there for it.  (see the last picture)

As another sweet surprise they were able to bring Steven to Graduation in Spirit.  They carried around a picture of him during the day.  LOVE IT!!!!

A Trip to a Spanish Hospital (AGAIN)

 Thursday Morning just before walking out the door for school I sent the boys in to brush their teeth.  A minute later Keagan was crying and Jackson and Jacob are running to us saying, "There is blood, lots of blood"

Turns out the boys were playing and rough housing in the bathroom and Keagan slipped and crashed.   Since we have been through this before with Kaden during our first week here and we are much more settled in Spain this event was much less traumatic than the event with Kaden (thankfully)

Keagan got to skip out on school as we drove into the Seville to the children's hospital there and because the opening was not super long just super deep they were able to glue it closed, (no stitches).

He is a little sore but not to horrible.  The hardest part will be not getting wet for the next 7-10 days.  That means he can't sweat a ton on his forehead (it is 95 degrees here lately)  So he will have to not play soccer for the next few days and keep it clean and dry.

All part of the adventure.

Romería

 Wow!!!  The Spaniards know how to party!!!  We have just spent 3 full days having the time of our lives.   There is so much to say so I will do my best to explain what this party is all about.

Romeria is a Feria (A Spanish Fair)  Like many festivals in Spain it has a Patron Saint and a few Sacred parts to it but mostly it is a party of your life. 

It started Thursday Night around 9pm.  That night was mostly for the Kids to go on rides (Miranda went out with her friends at 10 and came back at midnight and around here that is early).  The real party started on Friday and went through into Sunday night.  Our family got up Saturday morning to attend a special Mass for the festival.  They went late into the night each night and started all over the next afternoon.

They had a full and large carnival area with rides, like bumper cars, large carnival rides and the older kids favorite one El Toro Loco.  It was a crazy ride that is hard to explain if you can't see it in action but imagine 3 large padded tubes that rotate back and forth to try and get you to fall off while the entire area the tubes are attached to was a large rectangular platform the moved and swayed like the ground is moving underneath you.  It was crazy to watch and would never fly in the US because of all the accidents and injuries that could happen (Jackson came of twice with a bloody nose but still smiling and wanting more)

Anyway enough about the rides, that not the most interesting part.  The other half of the fair are tents set up like huge fancy permanent looking tents. My first assumption was that it was going to be places to eat and craft vendor store type things.  Not so at all.  The people around here belong to groups that organize there very own tents for a never ending party.  So is Steven and I were apart of one of these groups, We would pay and annual fee (about 400 euros a year)  during the fair we would have a tent with the other members that was just for our group.  We have a certain amount of food that is already covered for our tab and if we go over that they just charge it to our tab and we pay it later.  We can invite friends to join us.  Depending on the group we may have a live band come and play so that we can dance.  So for three days we have never ending place to go were we have dancing, talking, food and drink.  The kids have somewhere to go and play (if we want to spend a ton of money on rides).  It was amazing.  The most amazing part is that we really got to be apart of it all.  In any other circumstance we would walk through and feel like tourists but we are apart of this community and they made us feel it big time. 

Our family was invited to a number of the groups to be personal guests of many different friends.  We ended up having time and energy to visit 4 different tents during the weekend, many of them twice.  We spent hours talking, eating, laughing, and DANCING!!!!

They do a type of flamenco here known as Sevillana.  We really are no good at it but that doesn't mean we didn't try, and we had a lot of fun doing it.

We were just so spoiled by our friends and neighbors.  They were so wonderful and this was an experience of a lifetime to really be apart of this event.  Like so many things the Feria is an amazing sight to see from the outside with beautiful color and pageantry but a whole different experience as an insider and one we will never forget.

 I captured a few quick shots of all the people dressed up in their Flamenco.  It really was amazing to see everyone dressed up and into the party.

 Miranda in a favorite of her borrowed Flamenco dresses,  And look! It has a built in pocket, these ladies are no dummies.

 Above, Miranda danced with our friend and Neighbor Julio and below she is with our friends, Louisa, Gloria, Grandma (Louisa'a Mom, I don't know her name we just call her Abuela), and Louisa'a Daughter.

Look Mom a Double Potty

This week we were at an event here in Chucena (more post about that later).  At one point while we were there Makenna needed to go to the potty and Steven had taken her.  After a moment he is calling me over because Makenna needs help and he cant' go into the girls restroom.  I am thinking she is having some problem, maybe she peed her pants, ar needs help in some other way.

I go into the stall she is in and she is just standing there waiting for me.  I ask what she needs help with and she says, "look mom two potties in the same stall, now we can go peepee together"  hahahaha.   So like any good parent I sat down with her and we went peepee together.  LOL

Love that funny girl!!!

Merida

 We have seen so many things during our time here and each of them seems to be from a different ancient time.  It can be hard to keep it all straight but we are doing our best.  We ended this great 10 day adventure in ancient Roman ruins in the town of Merida.

 Merida by all indications was a center of government and Roman life during the era of ancient Rome.  The town has an amazing and well preserved Colosseum and ancient Roman Theater.    It has roads and ruins of houses, and expansive amount of roman relics.  It also has a large Circo (arena for chariot races), and we got to see it all.

It was a good last stop before our drive back home to Chucena.

Berzocana

 For our last night on the road we made reservations in this tiny town up in the mountains.  We had to drive about an hour up the windy mountain roads to get to the town.  We wandered around just to see what we could find of in True Steven form we found a couple that sat and talked to us for about an hour about the area and people.   They took us in the garage and showed us their very old cars, they let us go into their home and see the views from their balconies, took us to their back yard to see their chickens and roosters, and even provided a drink for the children. 
They had an old VW Van in their garage that they told Miranda she could have :)  He said that it would run just fine if we put a new battery in it.  They were super nice and it is always good to talk to the local people.

Salamanca

 I love Salamaca!!  It really has this ancient feel about it but is also a University Town and has that fun feel about it as well.  We stopped by the University of Salamanca and learned about it's history as well as spotted the frog sitting on top of the head of a scull (a must see in Salamanca)

Instead of going in the Cathedral the normal way in Salamanca you can go right up the tower and around the balcony area.  This is one of my favorite ways to see Cathedrals.  The views are stunning and so fun for the kids as well.

Zamora

 Zamora is just a cute town with an amazing amount of preserved Romanesque building in a small area.  around every corner was a new ancient building to see.  They have churches and castles and history behind all of them.

One of my favorite things to see in this town was not really ancient at all put a work of love with the trees in a few of their plazas. 

The trees were very patiently and beautifully grown together.   They had literally grafted the top branches together to form a canopy of trees and it was so stunning I wanted to try and do it at my home in Iowa.  It was mesmerizing to stare up into the branches and figure out where one tree began and ended (which you never really could)  It was wonderful.