These Are the Days, We'll Remember

Today was one of those days that is just practically perfect... I love this time of year... this is our third June here in Spain, and sadly, our last.  I really feel like I could stay here forever.  I love our home, I especially love our little yard this time of year.  We have beautiful flowers in pots on the patio and hanging on the fence that separates the pool.  The only noise we have back here is the constant chatter of birds.  The ivy is in full bloom and hangs all along the fence, and I love the fronds from our neighbor's palm tree that pour over the fence into our yard.  The days are super long right now, the park is full in the evenings.  James is old enough now, almost six, where he can run back and forth to the park without having me to accompany him.  And he is comfortable now, he just got past the barrier, where he is not nervous to invite kids he doesn't know to play with him.  He loves being at the soccer pitch and kicking the ball with Paquito.  Paquito is a good neighbor friend.  He is hilarious, he showed up at the door last night at 9 asking if James could come to the park... just as we were saying family prayers and sending them up to bed.  Only in Spain.  How I will miss Spain!  I've never been happier, I don't think, in our entire married life than I have been here.  Perhaps Monterey, but we've been in Spain much longer and it will always hold a special place in my heart.  Cosette is so funny, she is almost three and she is exploding with personality and self confidence and cracks me up every day with her, "Thanks, Mom" and her enthusiastic, "You're welcome!" Today she excitedly reported to me that there were ants in the playroom, I got a little vacuum and took care of them.  Afterwards, "Thanks, Mom!"  Any little thing I do for her she repeats it.   It's hilarious.  And sweet tender James was concerned about the ants being vacuumed up.  "So I guess when they get sucked in the vacuum they don't stay alive?"  he said defeatedly.  "Yes, James.  Does that make you sad?"  He nods his head, "Maybe next time you can just take them outside."  "Ok, James.  I'll do that." Cosette has lately been leaving the house wandering on her own.  The other morning, when there were FOUR adults in the house (myself, Reed, Amber, and Karla the housekeeper), I got a call from Kevin asking if I was missing one of my kids.  HE found her up at the guardhouse while he was waiting for a cab to go to the airport.  She was in her pajamas and piggy slippers.  When I went to get her, she was just so pleased with herself... thought she was the funniest little thing.  Just this past week she wandered off to the park while I was making dinner.  When I realized she wasn't in the house I sent Caroline after her and she reported to me that she was at the park... yep, made her way there herself, crossing the busy road in our neighborhood to get there.

I took Cosette on a bike ride today... we went to the pirate ship park at Casa de Campo, but since no kids showed up and she was bored (she always wants a kid to play with), we headed on down to the lake.  How cool it is that I can ride my bike from my house to such a beautiful little place... they've made some improvements and there is now a walkway with railings, places to picnic and sit on benches.  WE had a great time down there looking at the ducks, wish we had had more time, but I had to make it back to my Spanish lesson.  Usually my weeks are more busy, but since I had planned on going to the attache trip, and then decided against it last minute, my week was pretty clear.  No attache events, no bookclub, no appointments, or even shopping or errands, besides the groceries.  Cozy and I have been able to spend some nice outdoor time together.  I ran five miles yesterday in Casa de Campo and went on a bike ride with Cozy the day before to the playground at the same place.  A number of kids were there and she tagged along with them and was happy the whole morning as I contentedly worked on my embroidery.  She is becoming quite independent.  A mother I was sitting by at our little playground tonight at our urbanization was commenting on what a tough little cookie she was.  She was jumping on the tramp with about 5 other kids who were stepping on her, jumping into her, rolling over her, etc. ...she was just getting battered and loved every minute of it.

I also got to see the girls perform in their gymnastics routine yesterday... this was a big part of the reason I didn't go on the attache trip.  I'm so glad I was there, front row, to see them perform... they did such a great job and had so much confidence.  Caroline was so cute in her red leotard, as she looked over at me a number of times with a huge smile on her face.  Emily was elegant and graceful and did a great job with her hula-hoops.  I recorded the numbers of course, so they are there for posterity.

Anyway, on the bike ride home today, my bike started making a terrible squeaking noise, and a group of bikers (they are everywhere in casa de campo), probably in their sixties, rode past and asked if they could help me fix the bike.  I got off and all three of them surrounded the bike, theorizing on where the noise came from and how to fix it... this was all in Spanish of course. I just love the Spaniards.  Finally one of them got out his little Allen wrench and tightened a bolt and lo and behold it was just fine and I was on my way.

 School is out next week, and things will be wild for the next couple months... but I plan to savor this time.  I truly am so sad about leaving... I will mourn leaving this place more than any other place I've lived.  I love our home, our yard, our neighborhood, the people we've met, friends we 've made, the Spanish people in general are just so wonderful.  There's so much vitality here...  Spain has a pulse that I just love.

It was so fun to have Reed here with his family for a couple weeks, mostly to see him reunite with this country he loves so much.  He was practically giddy the whole time here.  I wonder how many times he ate churros con chocolate in the two week span.  He loves the food, the culture, the people.  It was so fun to share that love with him.  Now we have something that even bonds us more.  James and Hyrum had a great time together... they are both desperate for more boy time, so I'm really glad they got it.  Their last night here, we went to a Real Madrid basketball game and watched Jaycee Carroll play... he got us free tickets on the fifth row behind the team's bench.  This was especially awesome for Reed because he was a HUGE fan of Jaycee when he played at Utah State... Reed calls it the "golden age" of USU basketball and that Jaycee was the best player to come out of that school.  So, to see him play in the semi-finals here in Madrid was just a real treat.  WE waited around for him to come out from the locker room with the other teammate's families, but he didn't show!  When Ben texted him, he said he didn't know we'd be waiting and left through another door.  That was really disappointing because Reed was so looking forward to visiting with him.  Well, then he offered to let us come to the training facilities in the morning where they would be having practice and give us a tour around.  Of course, I couldn't go because we had church and I had to teach a lesson and take the kids!  I couldn't believe how fast Reed and Ben accepted Jaycee's offer.  It's like they didn't even give skipping church a second thought!  So funny.  So, that ended up being a really nice experience for Reed and he got in a really good visit with Jaycee.    

Cordoba's Patio Festival

Life is very busy and full here, especially now that we're down to our last year, I'm feeling like I have to cram everything in!  Por ejemplo, on a random Tuesday I took Cosette on the speed train down to Cordoba to see the patio festival... because I've never been and I knew this was my last chance to see it.  Crazy? yes.  Worth it? Absolutely. 

Cosette was actually a solid traveler on the almost two hour train ride.  She had a little purse with her little toys and kept herself very busy.  But, you have to remember, the train is the easy party.  First you have to take a cab to the cercanias station.  Then you have to take the cercanias to the main train station, book it to a whole different part of the station, go through security, find your platform and board to get to this point.  Then you can finally kick up your feet and relax. 

The festival is actually an annual contest among the residents of the city to see who can display the most beautiful patio... Flowers galore.  Patios are actually inner courtyards, designed to help keep the home cool in one of the hottest cities in Europe, and a place to have your own private little garden.  Most had little fountains or running water.

First annoying thing about this festival was that it ran from 11-2 pm and 6-10 pm (got to love Spain).  So yeah, we arrived at the station at 11:30 and had exactly 2.5 hours to see what we could.
Second annoying thing, everyone else in the world knows about the patio festival... so many dang tourists where ever we go. They are taking over the world!  (And yes, I realize I'm one of them but somehow prefer to see myself as not).

We had to wait in line a half an hour just to see this patio.  And there were a ton of patios.  I knew we couldn't continue to roll like this, so we took a cab over to a less busy part of the city where we had much better luck.

This is how Cosette feels about getting her pic taken over and over

Tourists, go away please

The next part of the city had patios that had more variety and were just gorgeous in my opinion.  We were able to hit 6-7 with no problem before time ran out.  And of course, pictures don't do them justice.

This was my very favorite one:  It was huge and the bougainvillea was stunning.  

Cozy was so done getting her pic taken

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I think it's safe to say you got the idea.