A Much Needed Vacation-Madrid

My Dad is a Spanish professor at BYU, part of his job is taking students on semester abroad to Spain...the cool thing is that when I was younger our whole family would get to go. I was able to go to Spain when I was six and again when I was 16. I have a lot of memories even from when I was six. My parents went back a couple of years ago, but I was in the nursing program and Jon was in school and we weren't able to go....but this year we did it! Greatest vacation ever!

Mom and Dad

We left to Spain on June 14th and arrived in Madrid on the 15th....such a long flight. We flew on Air France, which was already scary just because of what just happened with the other Air France plane....and then we had about a thirty minutes of MAJOR turbulence, in which the flight attendant who had the most panicked face IN THE WORLD, ran to her seat to hurry and strap in....then continued to look up and down the isle as if any second the plan was going to go down....Jon had been reassuring me that everything was going to be okay...until we saw the flight attendant...and then we were scared for our lives. Don't worry though we made it.

So jet lag really sucks. Jon and I were determined to beat it right away...so we arrived in Spain and around 2pm and went straight to the park in Madrid called the Retiro. They have the coolest grown- up park. Okay, so I'm not quite sure if it really is for grown-ups, but we fit and it was fun. They had these twirly things that you can spin on just by leaning a certain way. You can really get going very fast!....So fast that after spinning on it I couldn't walk straight and fell into some bushes.

Next we went to an old friends house Josephina and Joseph's house to eat dinner with them and their daughter Julia Maria and her daughter Alba...is that confusing? Anyway when we came to Spain the first time when I was six, we lived in the same apartment complex as these guys and became good friends. Rachel and I played outside in the courtyard with Julia Maria everyday. It was good to see them again.

Sharon and Alex

The second time we went to Spain when I was sixteen we were so lucky to have a couple of our friends come with us for the whole spring semester. Sharon and Ruth...then Bartlett, now Rowan and Rodrigues. It was so fun to have friends with us. Anyway this summer Sharon and her Husband Bill and daughter Alex were able to hang out in Spain again. So Sharon and Alex came to dinner with us and turns out even though they can't communicate with language Alex and Alba love playing together. It is really fun to watch them interact.

This is the apartment is where we lived in when I was six. It is always very nostalgic to be there again.

Left to right: Dad, Joseph, Rachel, Julia Maria.

Alex and Alba...Mom and Zoe learning to walk (Zoe that is), my mom is pretty good at walking already.

The girls....it was so nice to see Zoe again...she is growing up so fast! She loves to try to walk now, but always wants somebody's hand...although word on the street is that she just walked for the first time last week all by herself!

It was cool getting to show Jon where we used to live and our Spain friends.