Saturday morning Churros ...

 

We found a Churros stand right down the street from our house that is open Saturday mornings.  YUM!!  I could see this becoming a quick tradition if we lived here longer.  The kids really love the Churros con chocolate ... oh wait, so do I!  And then of course, enjoying a card game on our lazy morning! 

Sand Art ...

 We kind of enjoy walking along the beach, looking for treasures and the kids love to play in their personal HUGE sandbox!  I'm not sure how to get the picture below to turn around, but that is Owen's name.  He practices every minute he can!  He also enjoys making those HUGE people.  Lydia loves to draw herself, complete with a bow.  Jenna loves to dig tunnels and Anthony makes fortresses!  We sure enjoy the beach!  Wish there was a nicer one in Idaho Falls!

 

A night with a Flamenco singer ...

 We made all the kids take a nap during the day (or at least tried) so that they could stay up for a late night Flamenco party.  We thought it was supposed to be a dancer, but it ended up being just a singer, but she was amazing!  The kids did amazing waiting for her to take the stage and then was completely mesmerized while she sang.  She had an amazing voice and it was fun to see the Spanish 'costume' of a typical Flamenco performance.  We had a fun night!

A Thanksgiving Feast ...

 

Where we go to church has a Spanish ward and an American branch, so we combined together for a fun little Thanksgiving Feast.  The American's brought the typical Thanksgiving dinner fixings and even made cards to explain them in Spanish.  It was pretty yummy, nothing like home cooking, but at least we got a taste of our favorites for the holiday.    Funny how an American Favorite, although not mine, was so weird to the Spanish people.  Most of them didn't even want to try the pumpkin pie.  My family enjoyed it though!  All in all a fun evening!

Leg of Jamon ...

 Everywhere you go in Spain has these legs of Jamon (ham/pig) hanging in their store.  It is a very popular thing here.  It is a cured ham (think ham jerky) and it quite tasty.  Jake just had to get a leg and our friend Claudia was nice enough to let us borrow her cutting board that her father made.  It makes it safer to cut the Jamon off.  She showed us how to do it first off and then Jake had to take a turn the next time she came.  I doubt we will eat it all even before we leave, but it was a must according to Jake in order to experience the Spanish culture!

 

Plaza de Toro, El Puerto ...

 On Saturday we went down to the Plaza de Toro and had the guide tour.  It was very neat to see how it the bull rings operate.  Our guide said that the bull on the pink wall was the second bull that ever fought here in El Puerto, 134 years ago!  Pretty crazy the tradition of bull fights have lasted that long.  We got to see the actual bull fighters cape, they use pink and yellow here.  It was actually quite heavy.  Then we headed down to the bull cages.  They said that each event has 6 bulls that fight and they have two in reserve in case they don't fight well or they get hurt.  They always get the 8 bulls from the same ranch for each fight so that the bulls are used to each other and won't fight each other.  Our tour guide said it cost about 20,000 euro just for the bulls. We let the kids watch what we wanted them to see on YouTube and it was very interesting to see such a powerful animal and the crazy people who dance around them!

 

They have a flag system to tell who wins or how well the bull and or fighter does.  Three white flags mean the fighter wins, the bull is dead and the fighter gets both ears and his tail as trophies.  The red flag means the bull is not a good fighter and needs to be replaced.  The blue flag means the bull wins, but is still dead.  The green flag means the bull is injured and needs to be replaced.  The orange flag means the bull is amazing and needs to be sent back to the ranch to make more bull babies :). 

 

It was quite interesting to see just how this tradition lives on!

Soccer on the beach ...

Our trip to Spain wouldn't be complete without a little futbol happening!  We found a fun Espana soccer ball at the store and have been having quite a few soccer games since.  We even enjoyed one on the beach!

 



Church ...

There was a baptism in our ward so we decided to take the kids and go.  It was from a little boy whose Dad is in the Navy and they did most of it in Spanish.  It was quite interesting that is for sure.  We enjoyed our time and got to meet some fun new people.

 

Anthony got asked to give a talk in Primary and since he always enjoys it at home in Idaho, he decided he wanted to do it here in Spain too.  He did a fantastic job.  He worked and worked at it Saturday and Sunday and practiced and practiced the words he couldn't pronounce.  I wrote the talk in English, Jake used Google translate to translate it and then worked with Anthony in the pronunciation. We reenacted his talk in the backyard when he got home so that we could document his Spanish talk. Check it out on youtube if you'd like.

 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFZvTkLnIeE

More Spanish Food ...

 Yum!  Most Spanish food has really been yummy!  Above are some friend green peppers, below is some Jamon.

 Above is our typical Sunday night meal ... pork chops with fried potatoes, salad and fruit.  We've had it every Sunday since we've been here.

 Above is one of the nights we got a smorgasbord  of things.  There is nachos, meatballs, nachos, croquettes, salad, jamon and a seafood cocktail.

 Here is a yummy chocolate cake and carne de toro that Claudia brought us and it was amazing!  We like it best when our friend Claudia comes and helps us learn to cook Spanish cuisine.