Learning to Sew

I cannot sew well. I only took sewing in Jr. High. I can do a few things on our machine, but I really don't feel like I know enough to teach Maddie and Aly correctly. So, when a neighbor mentioned she wanted to start a 4-H group and focus on sewing first I jumped at the chance for Maddie and Aly to be involved.

These pics show the scripture bags they sewed and also the skirt that Aly sewed (I just haven't take a picture of Maddie's yet.) They also have sewn shorts. Alyssa wore her shorts on the Fourth of July. I am so glad they are getting great instruction from two sweet neighbor ladies!

MY Little Dancer

Josanna took her first dance classes in June. Jos just loved going and she danced for me on the last day of summer class. She mostly galloped around with a big smile, pointed her toes when asked and hit first position on cue. It was very cute. I am looking forward to taking her to classes again in the fall.

June's Bounty

We had a rainy cool June and our garden loved it. We had fresh spinach, beets, radishes, strawberries and peas.

I had everyone help with shelling peas. It was so nice to serve a bowl with dinner and to freeze some. These are Josh's and Mike's hands.

These red beauties were so sweet. We ate them in bowls at meals or in smoothies. I had enough to share with neighbors and to make this pie. My mom always made strawberry pies from her patch. I remember getting a slice of her pie in the hospital after Alyssa was born in June years ago. Good memories.

Aly Kat turned 9

My sweet blue-eyed sunshine turned nine recently.

This year she really wanted a sleepover with her best cousin Jaycie. They played with the birds, watched "Beverly Hills Chiquaqua" and "Tale of Despereaux", and talked and giggled. In the morning they just kept on playing. We went to the store and Aly spent her birthday money on a doll that she had wanted and also got a Taylor Swift CD (I don't think the CD has left the player yet.)

Jaycie made these cute "cousin bracelets" and also gave Aly a darling bag, notebook and new earrings. Alyssa received some gifts from Spain, too. In the evening we went bowling together. The kids had a great time---Josie out-bowled all of us (with a little help from me and the gutter guards.)

Saying Goodbye to Spain

We are home now, and have had almost a week to readjust our clocks and get back into life here. This was me on our flight home. Mike and I have another suitcase full of memories together. My favorite souvenir is a colorful plate from Toledo. Here's just a few more shots from the trip.

I really, really wish you could taste how yummy Olga's Spanish tortilla was. This picture alone will need to do. I did have other Spanish tortillas during the trip and hers was by far the most delicious. (Spanish tortilla are similar to potato and egg omelets.)

Here we are saying goodbye to Olga and Miguel in front of their home. It was so comfortable being in their home.

We left Lanzarote and flew back to Madrid. We stayed at the Hilton Madrid Airport hotel. It was very nice. Notice the glass elevator behind me and the huge open interior. Each floor had outside fish "ponds" behind the windows. It was really a cool hotel, with a great breakfast buffet.

Day #8-Sunday in Lanzarote

Dacil and I together after our LDS church meetings.

I bore my testimony in Spanish today at church. I said 7 simple sentences professing my knowledge of God, Christ, the Book of Mormon, and the prophet. I have been grateful for the feeling of acceptance here. Michael bore his testimony in Spanish and did a fabulous job. He has done fantastic with the language. We also enjoyed talking to the missionaries. Dacil translated for me so I could understand what was being said in Relief Society.

This is the family we have stayed with. Dacil's mother is Olga, her father Miguel, her sister Belen with husband Roberto and sons Josue and Jacob, then Dacil is taking this picture.

We have loved having Josue (and Jacob) around to enjoy. Josue has really buddied up to us. He reminds me a little of my nephew Nate. After church he jumped into the car and sat on Mike's lap because he wanted to come with us to his grandparents home. It is the people that I have come to love on this trip that have made it so wonderful. After church we had a delicious meal, then took naps. When we woke we were going to visit the boardwalk (charco) with boats and beach nearby, but we started talking. And we talked. And Belen came with her family. I laughed with Roberto at a funny thing I said, I held baby Jacob, I played hide and seek together in the house with Josue, I stood on the porch with Dacil and talked. Even though we do not have a beach nearby and it is nice to spend time there, we also do not have these people nearby and it is even better to make these wonderful memories. I have always told my children that people are more important than things because that is what I truly believe. These are good people and I am grateful to have been here with them.

Day 7-Volcanoes and Beaches

Here is our laundry drying from off of the upstairs window. They have a washer, but no dryer. I unclipped it and brought it in when it was dry.


We went to Timanfaya National Park today. It is a volcanic park. The above is a picture of one of the craters. We took a bus ride that took us all over the park explaining the eruptions and landscapes. Mike remembered going to this park as a missionary on p-day. They had several demonstrations to show the heat from the open crevises in the earth. They took a dry bush and placed it in the hole with a long pitchfork and it ignited from the heat. Then they took water and poured it down the pipe and it came gushing back as steam. Also we could pick up the gravel near the site and it was too hot to hold. We also could feel the heat over a grated opening, which Mike and Dacil are doing below. They have a restaurant that cooks over a crevise---no gas or electricity, just the earth's heat. Pretty cool.

The park logo is a devil holding a pitchfork over his head. This was our impressions.

We also drove along the coast and stopped at a black sand beach. So beautiful.

After which we drove to a white sand beach (Playa Papagayo). We wrote messages and names in the sand, including this one to our children. . .