Our favorite restaurant

Spanish food is not great, in fact its quite bland. Eating out at lunch is your best bet because it cost about half as much and even at $15 a plate that is not unusual. One day when we were still new here we wandered around and decided to try a new place that wasn't Spanish. Tenchi Tempanyaki.

It is our favorite restaurant (there's an Italian place that comes in a close second). Why am I telling you about this? If you come to visit you will go! Our only company so far has gone and we went with our friends recently as well! It is a buffet unlike any one you've been to.

You order what you want and they make it fresh (not heat lamps!) But its buffet style all you want, just keep ordering!

The kids tried sushi, and lots of other new stuff they might not have tried and the service is amazing! We always have a good time. They know us there now as we have lived here for 3 months (almost) and have been there about 8 times!

Our favorites are the rice, and fried wontons. The soup and salad is even amazing!

Come on out we will take you!

Black Friday

Turkey soup in on the stove and I should be bundling up and headed out to stand in line for some great deal after all it is 1:30 am in Ca. No its about 10 am here and I am black friday shopping via internet, with my cereal. Not as much fun! (Paige took this picture!)

Alot to be thankful for

We had a great Thanksgiving, we all enjoyed ourselves. Our guest seemed to have a great time as well. Pres Hinkley and his wife and area 70's ended up having to attend to Official bussiness, but the 9 missionaries and the 2 other families came and we played basketball, decorated cookies shaped like turkeys, The Sister's played piano and sang songs, There was lots of food and the missionaries were able to bring home leftovers. We had one sister who was not American (Italian) and she had never had Thanksgiving. She said she had a hard time sleeping the night before. She had only seen it in the movies and wasn't sure it was even a real thing. She was so excited. They were very grateful and it reminded me of how much I have to be Thankful for. What a great family I have, these kids so willing to try new things, a husband who works so hard to give us the most unbelievable life ever. My friends and family in the states always worried about our comfort and wanting to send things our way. A beautiful home in a beautiful country, yet being a part of an amazing culture and the freedom

of my own country. My freedom of religion that so many take for granted but many fight for daily. The blessings I have been given that allow me to share with others and enjoy this Thanksgiving day!

Hope you had a great one too!

Thanksgiving Preperation

3 days! Seriously! Monday we got a call requesting our invitation be spread beyond the 2 families plus ours and 6 missionaries to 3 more missionaries, the mission Pres. (Pres. Hinkley) his wife and the area 70's that would be in town.

....Sure whats 6 more people, to total 29!

It was fun, setting all the tables (4) and baking all the pies (6) , the less than fun part was pealing 20 lbs of potatoes!

I would have enjoyed it more with an American size oven!

LLADRO Factory

I took a mini (one week) get to know Valencia/Spanish class and we went on a few little outings in order to practice some things we learned. We took the metro to the Lladro factory. Taking the metro was the learning experience. The factory was just fun. We go to see them put thier stuff together and see thier museum. It was very nice and a nice day out. If our instructor wasnt so odd it would have been a blast!

I learned a few phrases and figured out how to take the metro so not too bad (I guess)for a week in a classroom. Its a good activity for you all on your first day in! Not too far, not to hard, and you can still fit in a nap while you are trying to adjust to the time differance. They also have a factory store with seconds so its also fun shopping!

(This is me and my friend Luce,Im not sure why it looks so pink!)

Me Blogging

*Thats it...Dan took it and wanted me to post it. Me Blogging!

Saturday In Madrid

Our family at the Madrid Temple! "It was such a great day" -quote by Daniel Aaron Strode

The temple on a cloudy day still shines! Building to the right is where there is an MTC and also the Hostel we stayed at.

Dans beautiful picture of "La Casa Del Senior"

When Dan was in High School his parents were stationed at a base in Madrid that doesnt exist any more. We went to the old area and looked around. It was a bit sad that so much of it is gone. Plowed down and re-built, but interesting enough there were a lot of old abandoned building that had been left behind. We walked to a little shop that he would take his allowance to and buy gum or what ever. That was fun and very nestolgic for him.

It was more fall in Madrid then in Valencia. A little cooler and more colorful trees. It was very nice. Dan went and helped the Youth with Baptisims at different times (there were a lot of kids and not such a big Temple) So when one girls wasnt busy; me, the kids and the other teen would walk around and enjoy the trees and town.

A Friday Night in Madrid

This was an adventure. We had a phone call from the other American family in our ward (The Dixon's) they left earlier than us for the trip to Madrid (Stake Temple trip) they had found a movie theater in Madrid that playes movies in original english form. They went to see "New moon" or rather "Luna neuvo" When they got there it was sold out so they were going to the 12:30 pm showing. Did we want to go....No, but 2 of my girls did so I went with them. At this theater they had assigned seating so we didnt need to show up too early. Once we got our way to the theater we sat at a cafe and had "chocolate caliente" and 'churos" yummy! Then we went to the movie and the girls love it and are so excited they saw it before it was even released in the states!

Then on our way back from the movie we had trouble getting onto the Temple grounds (there is a hostel there that we were staying at) aparently they dont let you in after midnight. We had no idea

and had no where to go and couldnt figure out how to get in. I sent Logan and our friend Riley over the fence to trip the sensor to open the gate. It didnt work. It must have been shut off. So I sent them to run to get the Dads to help figure out how to get us into the grounds. Shotly after they took off running the security guard came out and they didnt run to him for help but rather from him as though they had stolen something or broke a law! He chased them, then came and yelled at us in Spanish and finaly let us in!

All in all a typical Friday Night in madrid!

The Master Piece

Here is the finished project!

She layered colores for shells and added glitter to her green paint to make the seaweed sparkle. Now she wants to find mermaid stickers.

She did a great Job!

ps.- Stay posted, a trip to madrid this weekend!

"moments of our lives"

So we decided for Thanksgiving to have a few families and 6 American missionaries for dinner. We thought since Wii or tv would not be acceptable activity between dinner and dessert we would have some turkey shaped sugar cookies to decorate. In preperation we made the cookies today and stuck them in our freezer. As we were having a grand ol time making it looked like it snowed in our kitchen logan asked if I had taken a picture. With powdered sugar flowing from my sleves and covering my hands I said "No...why?" Paige then answered
"Because these are the moments of our lives" ....Of course I ran and got the camera!

Whats for dinner when you have time to cook.....

Seth's favorite question is "whats for dinner", or any meal or snack for that matter. For the last year and a half, the answer has been ...What ever I can throw together really fast, or whatever's in the fridge. However, I have found my self with more time recently and have looked up recipes that literaly take all day. From braising the meat to reducing the sauce to roasting the vegetables!

So this was number one! It was Herbed Chops de Provance. Surprisingly the family LOVED it. Who knew if you took all day to make a meal it didnt matter how many vegetables were hiding in it!

So this is how I spent my Thursday!

Paige The Artist

So Paige is showing quite an artistic flair. This is a picture she took yesterday. The sun rises in the back of our house (Very nice for the master room's balconey) and sets in front. She asked me for my camera and ran and took this picture. Maybe we will need to get her her own camera soon!
So far Paige is the only one who has made use of my craft room. (Give me a break I JUST finished up-packing) She had been painting this nick-nack shelf for 3 days now. Alowing each layer to dry before she does the next. She washes her brushes and everything. (Of course there is paint every where but Im impressed with her work so Ill clean it up later!)
I will post the finished project when she is done!

The Peanuts Gang

We were invited to a Halloween party at a friends house and Dan came up with this idea of going as the Peanuts gang. it took us all the way till the last day to convince all of them to join us. We had a lot of fun making the costumes and spent a good part of the day all working on the costumes with Dan as our peanuts consultant. It was a good party too. We had a lot of fun!

(Before we left the house we had a few sets of Trick-or-treaters come by. Only one set was dressed up. The other set just had plastic shopping bags and told Dan "we've seen you around" Im not sure if they were trying to scare him as Their trick or just to say we live in the neighbor hood and know you are new. It kinda freek me out!)

In case you cannot tell Dan Arlena = = Charlie Brown Pig Pen Lucy Logan Tori = = = Seth Linus Snoopy Woodstock Paige =

ZOMBIE DINNER PARTY

Creepy food like ; Monkey brains and troll toes, Rat kabobs and earthworms in blood sauce, Of course you wouldnt have a Zombie Dinner Party without embalming fluid. The cake was framed by what the Spanish call Bat pops (Coke popcicle with strawberry jam and vanilla icecream inside)

We played a mummifying game, lots of toilet paper and crazy kids! (can he breath in there?)

JUST FREEKY!
A dead princess.

I think this dress will look better on a living girl! The light in the room didnt help make her eyes look alive at all? ISH!

So since she was turning the big 13 and we didnt have a house, we posponed a party until the week after we got our stuff delivered. She chose to have a Halloween themed party and asked all her guest (She only invited her American friends) to dress as though they were dead. We had 9 tennagers total (Logan would have made 10 but got a bad reaction to her flue shot from earlier that day and was in bed)

Pumpkins

So Halloween is not a holiday they typicaly practice here, however it seems as though they might be starting. I remember in Germany they didn't celebrate it, but on base we did. Just as we were leaving (2000) it seemed like the stores were carrying a few decorations and costumes. So maybe its simular here. We didnt expect much since we have no base near by. Now there are rumors that in the neighborhood of the kids school (The American School) they trick -or-treat.

We went to the market and got a few squash and decided to carve them, then at the super market the week of halloween (No sooner) we saw pumpkins with advertiments and directions for making jack-o-lanterns. We got a few of those too. Heres what we came up with...

Valencia

Ok, Yes this is where we live, but Valencia is like a state in Spain not like a city. Yes, it is a city but there are so many areas around that are more like what we know as cities and we live in an urbinisation called Riba-Roja. It is about 30 minutes from the main city of Valencia. This is where we go to church. So while our visitors were here we decided to go for a walk around the city after church. The funny thing was it was stake conferance. (So what- we go to the stake center) No, they rent a ball room at a hotel for stake conferance. So no one was there! We just walked around valencia. There was SOOO much to see Museums of Art and Science, Sculptures and people and it was all even better because it was Sunday and most of the stores are closed so we didnt have the typical crowds and trafic.

PENSECOLA

So 30 minutes after the movers truck drove away, Dan pulled up with our first visitors.

John and Tenniel had been at a wedding in Paris and of course we wouldnt forgive them if they came to Europe and didnt stop and see us. So, by day we were seeing sights and by night we were un -packing. They were a huge help! 4 adults sure beats 2!

So this is Pensicola. A great beach, beautiful old ruins, Some modern scupltures and a wonderful board walk full of little shops and we enjoyed some pastries and really good gelato!