Everyday Sights

(click on any of these pictures to enlarge them)

Last Saturday we ventured into Madrid on a mission to find an electronics store David had looked up online. I took the camera along to document the "everyday things," we typically see on a trip like this. Typically, we drive about 30 minutes to the nearest Metro/Subway station and ride the rest of the way on it.

There is a point in the center of Madrid (which is also the center of Spain) called Kilometro Cero (Kilometer Zero) and from that point, there are 5 main highways that reach out across the rest of the country. From our house, we take the A2 past the airport into the city.

Sign urging caution because of a high concentration of accidents in the area.

Typical grouping of red brick apartments. This style is all around Madrid.

When we first visited Spain, we were amazed at how much graffiti there was everywhere.

Now we hardly notice it.


Once we were in the city, we passed a bookstore with these cookbooks on display.

I was amused by the American cookbook. :)

R & M standing in front of one of the many garden/water features downtown.


Near Kilometro Cero - the heart of downtown Madrid.


One of the many cheese and ham store windows.


The large things hanging from the top are legs of cured pork, and are one of the most popular Spanish cuts of meat. People buy them whole and serve them thinly sliced.

More pork. Spain has so many kinds of sausage and ham.

David and Rachel ducked into a souvenier store while Bop and I stayed outside.

The souvenier shop was next to this wedding dress shop.

This particular dress was 2,000 Euros, (about $3,000) and was so gorgeous!

Little Monkey...

and the drive home again. This is about 5 miles from our house.

Dry. Barren. Brown farmland.

But we are thankful for our lives here and enjoy the sunshine every day.

(We wouldn't mind a little rain, though...)

Little girl

The church plant here in Camarma has one Sunday school class for all the elementary. All these kids are 4th, 5th and 6th grade, and Rachel. This past Sunday they sang a special song for the congregation. Doesn't she look so tiny?

Cooking Fun

Rachel is growing up and always eager to help Keri cook.

Here are some photos of her most recent assisting...

Cleaning up

The mess

The happy cooks.

Spanish Birthday Party

Well, we got ourselves invited to a birthday party for a 5 year old Spaniard today. Back in April, when David's parents were here visiting, we had taken the kids hiking on the "mountains" behind our house, and met a Spaniard and her children. We talked for a while and the lady, Maria, invited us to come by her house sometime. We've had a hard time connecting with her since then, though we've tried on a few occasions.

The day we arrived back in Spain after being in the States for a month, Maria rang our bell and invited us to come over. She had been watching for our car to be in front of our house the whole time we were out of the country. Having already been awake for over 24 hours, we politely declined. She understood, and invited us to come over anytime.

Today, we decided to go by their house to visit. They very graciously invited us in, and we found out that today is their son's birthday. They were planning to have a big party in an hour, and they invited us to attend. We went home and got the kids' swimming suits (they have a pool, and we just live around the corner). It was great fun - they are such a hospitable family - and it was incentive for us to continue to work on our Spanish.

Here is Rachel and some of the children at the party:

Keri and Mathis enjoying the food. They kept bringing out more and more food all evening long.

After dinner, they had a theater set up for the children to watch the movie Bolt.

Finally, a simple pinata. It was a box with streamers coming out the bottom. Each child grabbed a streamer and pulled. This opened the bottom of the box, and the candy fell out. Much quicker and safer than a standard pinata. The man holding the pinata is Javier, the dad.

Trip to Georgia

We had several friends in the Atlanta area we wanted to see, as well as speak at one of our supporting churches. Here are some pictures from the day we spent with the Huggins family.

Rachel's first ever time swinging a ball bat. She wasn't bad!

Little Ava boo.

Abigail and Rachel being silly.

The foursome.

BFF's.

And the Huggins cute new puppy.

We spent the night with some other friends who had this awesome little car bed that was just Bop Bop's size. :)

Creative Discovery Museum

We were very thankful for a friend who graciously got us passes into the CDM one day while we were at home. This place has so many memories - I remember taking Rachel there when she was barely 1 year old and could hardly walk. It's always fun to see her interact with the different exhibits because she can understand and do more each time we go. And it just so happened, this summer's special exhibit was none other than Curious George - Mathis's very favorite character.

Playing in the water.

In the art studio. Rachel is drawing a portrait of mommy.

Rachel playing one of her favorite pretend activities - Grocery Store.

GEORGE!!!

Outside with the bubbles.

She always has her nose in a book, even if it is just a brochure. :)

Cousins

We got to spend time with cousins on both sides of our family. Here is Ziah, Keri's brother's daughter. This was the first time we had seen her. Rachel was very taken to her and really enjoyed being the "older cousin." :)

Beautiful girls...

Rachel had been saving her allowance for about 3 months, hoping to buy a pair of roller skates. So we finally were able to buy them for her. This was her first attempt at it. She's getting better, though.

And no trip to Grandma's is complete without having biscuits and chocolate gravy at least once. Here is Mathis enjoying his immensely.