a sunBEAM

Last Monday we had a sleepover with these cute little girls from our ward.

Their mom and older sister are pregnant...so it's a little crazy around their home these days!

We ate chicken nuggets and fries, we read books and played games, and we had the funnest family home evening I've had in a long time.

These girls answered questions, said both prayers and picked the songs.

Above they are singing "Jesus wants me for a sunBEAM" and dancing...T was intrigued.

They brought a sweet spirit into our home and I loved it.

Tonight for FHE, I think we may sing and dance to the sunbeam song in their honor!

Can't wait.

Sevilla

Our last day trip in Spain was to Sevilla, which is sometimes considered to be the capital of Southern Spain. We were so impressed with everything in this city, but especially all of the gorgeous flowers.

Like these purple beauties.

This picture was taken mostly because Jim thought the sign was hilarious (really? Kansas City Avenue?) but the flowers around it are beautiful as well.

We started at the Plaza de Espana. This gorgeous building and courtyard were built in 1929 when Sevilla hosted the Spanish-American Exhibition. They have murals of every Spanish province and we were so excited to see the areas we had visited.

There goes our little man. You know, the one who definitely thinks he is a big man.

We love the cobalt blue tiles surrounding the square. The bridge, the ground and the monuments all showcased this brilliant blue which stood out against the rich Spanish buildings.

We walked by this hotel in the center of Sevilla and I thought it was so gorgeous I couldn't help but take a picture of it. Parents, all I have to say is Jim's signing bonus ;)



We made our way to the Cathedral where we saw the tomb of Cristobol Colon (better known in America as Christopher Columbus). His son is also buried in the cathedral. We enjoyed looking at everything in the cathedral, and learned that this is the 3rd largest cathedral in all of Europe.

We randomly met up with some childhood friends of mine in Sevilla, just two days after randomly running into them in Granada. It was so weird! From left to right there is Max, Nick, Dad?, Tanya, T and me, Caleb. The Lush boys were the ages of me, Ash and Jordan and we all went to Elementary School together. The last time I saw them Jordan and Max were in 6th grade. It was fun catching up with them. In the background is a picture of Columbus' tomb.

After leaving the cathedral, we visited the Royal Alcazar of Seville. The upper levels of the palace are still home to Spanish royalty. We couldn't get enough of the Moorish architecture.

This little chapel in the Alcazar was where sailors would pray for safe journey before going out to sea. It was in a room right next to the chapel shown above that Ferdinand Magellan charted the course he would make to the Spice Islands.

Beautiful. The scenery and the boy!

We definitely did not eat any of these sick and wrong little creatures (although I saw people eating piles and piles of snails).

We however gladly consumed cones and cones full of cold, creamy, sweet, heavenly ice cream.

And we also ate some legit Spanish churros. They're so different than American churros, but SO delicious. They are served for breakfast (these are my kind of people). They come to you deep fried and hot, with sugar on the side that you can sprinkle on, but no cinnamon. They are small and skinny, but still perfectly chewy inside. You can eat them with (and dip them in) hot chocolate...but we just ate them au natural. They were delish.

Gibraltar

We walked to the UK from Spain.

It took us about 3 hours to fly to Espana, but only about 3 minutes to walk back.

We must be fast.

Or maybe we visited a piece of the UK that is actually far, far, far from our home in Cambridge.

They checked our passports at the door, customs checked our bags (kind of) and we were home.

Meet Gibraltar everyone.

A city known for it's gorgeous view of Africa, abundance of monkey's and Prudential adverts.

The actual rock of Gibraltar was awesome for it's history, the experience, and the three things mentioned above...but the city itself lacked the charm we had experienced in Spain.

We spent half a day exploring the rock (which we actually learned on our tour is fairly hollow...so much for Prudential, huh?)

This is what we found:

Views of Africa.

You can't really see it in the pic, but believe me, it was there!

A few monuments testifying of Gibraltar's coolness.

WWII tunnels with lookout points hundreds of feet high that had loose bars that Mr. T wanted to pull out for fun to give his mother a heart attack.

History lessons.

Monkeys.

I saw enough monkey's in Taiwan to know that they are not the nicest animals in the world (it kind of creeps me out that they walk beside you and fight at your feet), but Jim and T were fascinated.

A shirt that accurately describes our little Baldilocks!

Cannons to rest on and beautiful scenery.

A royal palace. No serious, this is it. We were in the UK but this was no Buckingham Palace!

We were super grateful for the opportunity to see Gibraltar and appreciated it for all that it was...but boy oh boy were we happy to return to Spain's beautiful soil!

Granada

When we first decided to go to Spain, our biggest decision was which part to visit. As I mentioned earlier, I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Spain and had a clear picture in my head as to what I would find in this romantic country. As we were looking at pictures of the big cities of Spain, I just didn't find what I had expected. So Jim googled Granada...and I started squealing with delight! The deed was done...we were going to southern Spain and would definitely be visiting Granada.

Our first stop in Granada was a city on a hill next to the Alhambra (a Moorish palace in Granada) called Albaicin. We had heard it was a cute Spanish town with a beautiful view and delicious food. After winding through a million narrow curvy streets and walking up at least a billion sets of stairs we were ready to explore.

The day was perfectly warm and the sky was gorgeously blue. At the top of the hill we found a flawless view of the Alhambra with the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains in the background. There was a man playing Spanish music on the square and Jim and I took a second to drink in our incredible surroundings (OK, and maybe we put on a show for everyone by dancing to the music!)

We met a nice French couple who graciously took our picture. I love having a husband who speaks so many languages! On another day in our trip we met a Ukrainian waitress in a restaurant and Jim ordered our Spanish food all in Russian. How multi-cultural is that? Oh and PS--Talmage picked our one and only family picture to pick his nose. Thanks dude!

For lunch we found a small little place in the Albaicin to eat. I am a firm believer that to understand the culture and to get the feel of a city you need to eat at a hole-in-the-wall where they don't speak english (or have english menus for that matter!) So we did...and let me tell you that tradition hasn't let me down yet!

We ate paella, a delicious soupy rice with seafood, chicken and vegetables. When the waitress first brought out the grub, I was positive we wouldn't be able to finish it...

...but it was so delicious we just couldn't resist. I'm pretty sure we were licking our fingers and the pan trying to eat every last piece of rice. Paella is definitely on my list of things I need to learn to make. And the sooner the better.

While searching for our car, we found a small outdoor market which was way to good to turn down. I LOVE markets and we try to find one whenever we travel. We were so lucky to run into this little beauty.

The Alhambra itself was remarkable. It was built in the mid 1300's and was shockingly intricate. As I walked through the Palace, the gardens and the old Alcazaba I was so impressed by the time and effort these people put in to making it gorgeous. Every last bit of ceiling and wall space is filled with prayers and murals.

This was written all over the Palace and simply says God is good. And I 100% agree.

It was a really hot day (believe me, we weren't complaining) so Mr. T cooled himself off in any water source he could get his hands on. It's funny because holy water and the gutters were equally refreshing and wonderful in his book. I love kids!

We visited the Roman colluseum in the Alhambra mostly because the little man led us right up the stairs.

Fearless. If I had to sum up Talmage is just one word, this is what it'd be. Or maybe stubborn. Or maybe strong-willed. Or how about crazy. Cute. Playful. Energetic. All-boy. Strong. Funny. So maybe one word just wouldn't cut it...but for this picture's sake as he's climbing about 100 stairs on his own to the top of the colusseum let's stick with fearless!

The inside of the Palace was incredible. We loved the vibrant tiles, the peaceful courtyards, the gorgeous views and the magnificent archways.

When Talmage started acting like this, we realized our trip was coming to an end. He had had enough of big people stuff. He wanted a good ice cream cone and his blanket and his binkie and his pillow. And of course, his big people delivered! Even when he's grumpy he is so dang cute...how could we resist?

On our way out the lighting was just perfect and I captured this heavenly moment in one of the Palace's many courtyards. It's our inspiration for the courtyard we'd like in our home someday. Orange trees, greenery, a fountain with water running towards it from four sides--it's so relaxing and calming and perfect. Granada, you're beautiful. Hope we can visit again someday.