First Days of School

Thanks to so many of you who prayed for the girls on their first day of school. They were not excited about starting back--and who could blame them being in a place where you don't understand anyone around you. Sunday night, before their first day they started to get excited and it carried on to school Monday morning! They had a great day Monday and Today. Here are some photos to illustrate Spanish school...

Katie, Tallulah, Alice and Conchita (our neighbor who went with us the first day for moral and lengual support)

Coming Home with new books!

Mae Mae calling the Grandmammas to give them the report on the first day

Do you remember how fun it was to get new books?

Katie spent 4 hours the first night trying to translate all the letters that came home that first night to make sure the girls went on day 2 with everything they needed. What a great mom! I told her to just give them some paper and pencils and not worry about it...Good thing they have her!

Day 2--breakfast (Breakfast toast with ham)

Dropping the girls off on day 2. You can see Begona in the back in the peach shirt who is Liza's teacher.

Some video of the Chaos at drop off time in the mornings.

Camino de Santiago

What a gift it was for us as a family and Young Life Madrid staff to staff a small Albergue (Hostel) for pilgrims traveling to Santiago to visit the Cathedral where St. James bones are apparently housed. It was just what we needed as we stepped off the plane in Madrid we were all feeling a little home sick and sad. It was a perfect time of living in community and serving folks from more than 35 countries!

Some pictures of the Albergue:

This house next door is over 350 years old. Maria lives here with her son and their cows (yes, they live inside with them too!) Notice the next picture, Maria is following their cow out the door and up the street!

The Dining Room

...full of pilgrims for the free nightly dinner

The bedroom that held 12 snoring pilgrims--right on top of each other!

Outside in the morning greeting pilgrims and serving them with coffee, tea, water, bathrooms and good conversations.

The cows walked past us many times a day on their way to the pasture and to get milked. We all loved it until they unloaded right in front of the house! We all felt like we had stepped back into time with these folks and their simple way of life--made us quite jealous in a lot of ways!



Our team for the week. Young Life Madrid--plus Ruben one of the neighbor boys.

Tom, graciously taking a turn with Tallulah!

Me and Ruben playing a game he made up with Pokemon chips.

Liza, the little Pilgrim

Buying our daily bread from the bread lady who would drive in from a nearby town.

Our living arrangements...First camping since we have been in Spain!

Some Tallulah Glamor shots...

The girls were in hog heaven with Kate, Ana, Tom, Barbara and Jim at their beck and call...

Great picture of Maria dressed up getting ready to go into town--she was about four feet tall!

Tallulah entertaining us from the outside--she was screaming too loud to keep her in!

Us in front of the Cathedral in Santiago--where everyone was trying to get!

Time in the USA for Emily's Wedding

What a gift to be able to come back to the US to be with family and friends and celebrate with Emily and Brad on their wedding day! Here are a few photos of our time there with folks we love!

Tallulah's birthday celebration with Lolli and Pops

Slumber Party at the Wingfields!

Slumber Party at the Evans!

Slumber Party at Sandy's!

Rock Island State park.