Amazing Family

We have a friend who travels back to the states frequently, and he offered to pick some stuff for us.  He stopped in Brian's hometown, and all our parents graciously did a little shopping for us.  I sent a short list (probably 10 items) that I couldn't find here in the states that I asked for them to get for us.  Look what we ended up with!!!!!!

Brian forgot his pillow in the states - it made its way back home to us here!

Jeri, Kenny, Kay, Rich, and Reggie, we are so indebted to you!  It was like Christmas opening this!!!!!  Not only did our parents get the few things we asked for, but they went above and beyond and put in a bunch of special little gifts for us to open.  (GLEEEEEEEE!  and some earrings, and clinique stuff, cute plates & napkins... oh the mothers totally know me!)  We love everything.  So much.  THANK you!!

(question: did I use enough exclamation points in this post?)

We love you all and miss you!

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The last week in Madrid

I've been up to bunches in the last week!  Here's the week in review.

I've made a great new friend who has taken me under her wing.  Somehow, this has taken the form of Friday afternoon Sangria.  We make it our new habit.  It's been so much fun!  And, the sangria has been d e l i c i o u s.

This same friend invited me to have lunch with her last Tuesday.  One thing I love about a typical Spanish lunch is that there are usually three courses.  On the left is my first course - fish something (patee?) with a really delicious salad with fresh spinach, cheese, tomatoes, strawberries and corn.  I had steak for my second course, and then we shared flan 3 ways - chocolate, wildberry, and traditional caramel.  It was an amazing lunch, and I had fun with my friend and her coworker.

Last weekend we also got to meet some more new friends from Germany.  They wanted to go to San Gines - a well known cafe for it's chocolate and churros.    Hot, greasy, breaded dough, dipped in thick, warm chocolate.  So amazing.  If you visit us in Spain, we will definitely take you here.

I've also been keeping myself busy at home.  I've tried several new recipes, both Spanish, and traditional ones from home.  On the left is a few cookies from my first attempted batch of chocolate chip cookies here.  I had to bring over several of the ingredients from the states, including a 5 pound bag of chocolate chips my mom gave me before we left!  I didn't have all the ingredients I needed, but with the substitutions I did try, they tasted remarkably good!

Last Thursday were invited to a dinner party with about 20 people, and I was asked to bring dessert.  I quadrupled a apple crisp recipe, and made a 9x13 pan and a 9x9 pan of tasty apple buttery deliciousness.  There was enough that we got to bring the smaller pan home, and it's been amazing to eat this with ice cream most nights this last week (though it's not really getting me ready for bathing suit weather)

The last picture is my second Spanish recipe attempt.  Last week I made Salmorejo, a type of creamier gazpacho.  Maybe sometime I'll get the recipe up here.  I didn't take photos of it this time.  But this week I attempted empanadas.  It involved only 6 ingredients: chorizo, pancetta, red pepper, sweet onion, olive oil, and the puff pastry wrapping.  They weren't quite as pretty as I had hoped for, but they WERE pretty delicious!

Lastly, this is a big weekend for Madrid.  It's the patron saint's holiday, and there are a lot of activies going on around the city to celebrate the San Isidro holiday.  Wednesday night things got kicked off with the gigantes y cabezudos parade - the Giants and Big Head parade.  You can see above what I mean.  It was kinda cool to see it!

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Avila

2 weekends ago, we decided it was time for a day trip.  It had been a few weeks since we had traveled, so we decided to see some of the more regional monuments around Madrid.  There are a lot of small, beautiful sites around Madrid, and the first we decided to go see was The Valley of the Fallen.  Typically, right about now, I would spend a little bit of time giving you some history about the place, so you could feel like you understood a little bit more about what we went to see.  But, this time I'm not.  And here is why: we drove the hour or so to get there, after we had checked online to make sure it was open, there was a small, white sign saying that the place was closed.  :/   Turns out May 1 is a holiday, which we did not know, and this national monument was closed.  

Of course, we knew well enough to not get too frustrated.  So, there was another big destination stop nearby that we thought we'd see - El Escorial.  Again, if we ACTUALLY visited it, I'd give you some history and interesting facts.  But no, this place was closed too!  But I still took some pictures while we were there (if nothing else other than to prove to you that we TRIED but it was closed.  It was a beautiful place, and we'll try to go there again sometime in the future.  

We went for broke and decided to try a third place.  The city of Avila (pronounced like the "o" of ovulate, without the "te" at the end... my friend corrected my pronunciation, and I had a hard time the rest of the day not just saying ovulate for the name of the city...).  Our friend Christiano had tagged along with us at the beginning of the day, and though he had already traveled there once before, he graciously agreed to go again and play tour guide for us.  

Avila is pretty much known for the fact that it has a huge wall around the old city, with 88 towers, and 9 gateways.  There's a big cathedral, which every town here has.  We were a little bummed that we didn't have the success we were hoping for with our previous stops, but I proceeded to get some good photos.  Enjoy!

You can see the whole part of the old city from this photo.  There is a bunch of other development around the outside of the city, but we craftily only wanted to show you the actual ancient city...

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Mother's Day Surprise - Jeri and Kay come to Spain!!

As we take the day to celebrate the countless reasons that our mothers and mothers everywhere are so fantastic, we just had to share the latest event that once again reminded us why were are so blessed by the two amazing women that we call mom.  Jeri and Kay came to Spain!!!  They really pulled a fast one on us because we had no idea that they were coming but none the less, we had a great time.  Since we already had plans to check out the near by town of Chinchon, the four of us piled in the car and heading out for the day.

Here is Kate and Jeri on one of the old roads overlooking the historic city.  In the background you can see the ancient castle that was used to defend the towns people for years.  I (this is Brian) know that women like to get dolled up but come on Jeri, a corsage for an impromptu weekend trip? 

Another scenic view of the town and surrounding area.  Again I had to deal with the peculiarities of road tripping with 3 women.  Jeri said the skirt was more of a morning outfit.  Will I ever understand?

My mom and Jeri apparently got a deal on the corsages in the airport or something.

Jeri (in outfit number 3) with Kate in front of the town's largest church.  This lady's fabulous fashion sense, and desire to show it off, knows no bounds.

I was pretty excited to give my mom a big squeeze for mother's day.

My mom (also in outfit number 3) and me infront of the clock tower.

Out of control is really the only way to describe these two.  It's amazing what seems like a good idea after a few glasses of sangria for lunch.

In all seriousness, we cannot begin to describe how incredibly blessed we are by these two women and the love they show for us.  Their support for us, regardless of what country we happen to be in at the time, has helped us grow and become the people we are today.  

With that, Jeri and Kay, thank you and we love you from the bottom of our hearts.  Happy Mother's Day!

Brian & Kate

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Welcome Tanner Charles!

Last weekend, Todd &Shannon (Todd is Brian's cousin) brought Tanner Charles into the world!  We are SO excited for them, and felt lucky to get to "meet" him last night on Skype.  We can't get over how tiny he looks in Todd's arms!  (Todd is approximately 8.75 feet tall, well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but I have to stand on my toes to hug him!)

Doesn't he look just like a natural, cradling that baby?  Congrats Todd & Shannon!!!

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