Feliz Dia del Pavo

That means Happy Day of Turkey in Spanish, or in other words, Happy Thanksgiving. We say this as we were lucky enough to go to Spain for this Thanksgiving. (Even though we had paella on Thanksgiving) We took a few extra days off from work and school and found a cheap flight down to Spain. We flew into a city called Malaga with two other families here in England that are great friends. Total people in the trip, 19. Total parents, 6.

We were grossly outnumbered but we searched long and hard on the internet to find somewhere to accomodate the masses. Our spanish hacienda had enough rooms for everyone along with a pool, hot tub and a pool table. The children would have been happy just hanging out at the pool, except it was freezing for the first few days.

We wanted to see a few things in the area. We went to a Moorish castle called Alhambra, which was very large and it was obvious to see the moors impact on castles. Lots of water and fountains, which was important to them because they came from northern Africa where water was highly desired. It had the typical history of most castles where lots of people were killed and there were some good kings and bad kings. Instead of kings, though, we have Sultans, monarchs, and harems.

We also went to a white cliff city called Ronda. You can see why it was called a cliff city. We were way up there. The highlight for me was the bullfighting ring located in Ronda. It was great to get to play on the grounds of a ring that is still used today. It was one of the first, built in 1785. We had a few little bulls hopping around the ring while we were there. You can see them, they were cute. It was interesting to see the swords and the javelins used for the sport. Ronda also had an amazing bridge also built in the 1700's. It is 320 feet tall and it is an amazing sight. During the Spanish Civil War in the 1930's, Fascists were thrown from the bridge. It is wonderful to teach the children such uplifting history.

Despite the amazing history that we did see, the children enjoyed the museum of chocolate. As you can see, there is a chocolate statue of the current prince of Spain. Also, is a 1400 kg replica of the city of Bethlehem. (that is over 3000 pounds.) The kids loved that.

The kids loved having the time off but it all came to an end the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We were still able to get lost, even with a satellite navigation system. We were one loud group with 19 in tow and restaurant owners cringed when we walked to the doors. We tipped really well.

He's now a teenager... HELP!!!

No really, he's great. We're very proud of Nick and he is a wonderful boy. He helps around the house, he allows Kris and I to go on dates without hiring a babysitter. He has also taken over lawn mowing and other larger chores. (If you read our blog at all, you know how his very first lawn mowing experience turned out.) But the mere sound of the ward causes parents to shake and have twitching actions. We celebrated Nick's birthday a week early this year because we had a trip planned during Thanksgiving and would be with friends. It would have been very difficult to bring along a cake for everyone.

Nick was very happy to have a birthday party at home with family. He received money for iTunes purchases and bought video games. Our little baby is now thirteen years old and is also two inches taller than his mother. The height comes from his mother's side of the family. He has some great jokes and he has decided to follow in my footsteps and play the trumpet. He decided to depart from my footsteps and actually be good at it.

As a side note, we watched two of the Cranney's kids while they took a business trip. It was a pleasure to watch them and it allowed Kris to take them all out for girl's night. So off they went to Norwich to watch the Nutcracker done by Northern Ballet company. They all had a wonderful night and we boys went out and got lost trying to go over to a friend's house for Guy Fawkes night.

Annual Chili Cookoff

Okay, so it is actually just a code word for Halloween, but I am thankful that we have a chili cook-off associated with it so that adults have something to eat. Every year, our ward does a Trunk-or-Treat activity in our church parking lot. Right before the activity, the adults get to do their own form of treating. That's right... a chili cook-off. All the men in the ward bring their own chili and the women judge which is best. This year, someone else won other than me. That's all I want to say about that.

Each child put plenty of thought into what they wanted to be. What that means is each child thought they wanted to be something and then it changed roughly every 2-3 days. Katy and Evan were the worst. Evan was a vampire with great hair. Katy was a very cute witch, with the required purple motif. Nick, as you can see, was a doctor. (not a lot of imagination this year) Lizzy was a cowgirl and she was pretty consistent with that. We had a hard time trying to find a cowboy outfit in England. It always looked like she was doing traditional English riding in plaid. We finally were able to do it with an Indiana Jones hat and whip set.Our friends, the Cranney's, have an activity every year that consists of making graham cracker houses and wasting all the candy while doing it. Is a lot of fun and cuts way down on Halloween supplies for the kids. Good fun.

Just so you know, I spent about three hours carving pumpkins from a set we bought. You are required to look at and appreciate the hard work that Lizzy and I did. Look at it. And you had better write a comment. And it had better be positive.