Fighting Bull Farm ...

 One of the things that Jake (and my dad) wanted to do most was to see a bull fighting ranch while we were in Spain. Jake made a bunch of calls and emailed a bunch of different ranches and finally got a contact who would meet us after their busy tourist season and give us a tour of their ranch.  It was so cool.  We got to get on a little trailer pulled by a tractor and they took us right into each pen of the bulls.  They separate them by year and how feisty they are and how good of fighters they think they would be in the ring.  The ranch that we went to had tons of trophies of their bulls being successful in fights. The bulls that we saw actually fought up in North Spain and Southern France area.  It was really cool to see their facilities.  It was interesting to see just how similar this was to home.  It reminded of us Jeral's farm with peacocks running around, chickens, horses, cows and even had the windmills. It was a really fun tour, probably one of our favorite day in Spain!

Flamenco ...

My parents wanted to see a Flamenco show while they were in Spain so we looked one up in Jerez, where they are famous for their Flamenco.  Jake drove us up there and got us right to the back alley spot.  We enjoyed a nice Flamenco show!  They sure do expend a lot of energy up there on the stage. It was a nice night out.  Adam came over and was at our apartment while the kids were asleep so we could go, it was so nice of him!

Party for Claudia ....

 Claudia was so amazing!  She would come over to our house and cook the meals so we could watch and learn from her.  We learned to really love her and her family, as she did ours.  The kids were always so excited when she was going to come and would come and help her cook if there was something they could do.  We wanted to tell her thank you for all the extra things she did for us so we wanted to give her an "American" experience.  The best thing we could think of was Root Beer Floats :).  My parents were coming over and so I had them bring Root Beer extract and some yeast because I had read that you could make it that way.  We tried it and it was SO nasty.  Nobody liked it except for Lydia, who would have drank the whole bottle!

 

Luckily we had some good friends on the base that were able to get us some Root Beer to share with Claudia and Simon.  They weren't too impressed, but were good sports about trying it.  My Mom made her amazing cinnamon rolls and they gobbled those up!  Simon especially loved them.  My Mom also brought some fleece and we had the kids help us tie the outsides to give to them.  We will never forget out experience in Spain with Claudia and Simon!

Primary Program ...

 The Cadiz stake had a Primary Program that the kids were involved in so we headed over.  It was cute to see them up there playing the parts of the Christmas story.  We enjoyed and were very proud of our children for doing so many things in Spanish.  They got up there and sang their little hearts out.  They went to primary and didn't even know the language that was spoken most of the time.  I hope they never forget how brave they were and how they can do hard things if they want to!

Ronda #2 ...

 The pictures looking down are where Jake went with the kids, it was WAY down there.  It was a steep, slick staircase so the rest of us stayed up and enjoyed Ronda.  But Jake and the other kids said it was so pretty down there and the cave was very interesting.  They are glad they headed down there.

Ronda ...

 What a gorgeous world we live in!  We drove up to Ronda and enjoyed the amazing views from the city!  This city was one of our favorite spots in Spain.  The feel of the city was amazing, the city was beautiful, clean and just enjoyable.  We arrived just in time to enjoy our typical picnic lunch of PB sandwiches with fruit juice, meat and cheese.  We took that everywhere with us.  While we were there we got to enjoy some beautiful music by a local musician. The ambience of the day was set up from the very beginning.  After lunch we walked over to the famous bridge and could immediately tell why people go to Ronda to see it.  It was amazingly beautiful. After we walked around the city a little bit, Jake took Anthony and Lydia down into a cave to see the source of water for the old season (pictures in the next post) and my parents, Jenna, Owen and I shopped for souvenirs.   We enjoyed a little treat from my parents at a McDonald's and then met up with the others and walked around the city a little longer.  We really enjoyed our trip to Ronda and would go back again!  Gorgeous!