April 16, 2009

Easter weekend!

Ohhhh man!! My first Easter away from home!! It was spent at my host family's cabin..."La Canadilla." I wasn't able to watch Conference on TV because they don't have one at the cabin. I have been watching it on LDS.org and MAN IS IT AMAZING!!! You would think that they would run out of things to talk about... but it just keeps getting better!! The cabin is run off of a generator... and the water comes from a huge pump up on the mountain. I bonded a lot with my host parents at night because we would just sit by the fire and talk for hours. My host Mom is very catholic, so Semana Santa was a huge deal here in the Elwell house. We only ate fish and eggs on Good Friday, and then went to watch them carry the statue of Mary, and the cross, from one church to another. I cannot tell you how refreshing it is... to be in another country, and have the comfort knowing that going to church on Sunday will be just the same as it is at home. It may be in a different language, but the spirit is just as strong! All around, it has been an amazing past two weeks! I love living here, and have realized how truly thankful I am for the kowledge I have of the gospel!
Mr. Charles and me on Easter Sunday!

The pool is finally open, yay!

Semana Santa. There were so many people there, it was unreal!

Charles didn't want to walk, so he was on my back the whole way!
Love this girl!


Being a nanny is so much fun!

At the cabin waiting for the bonfire to be lit!

Sitting by the fire before bedtime!

Victoria and Charles turned 6 while we were at the cabin!! I gave Victoia a magnet board with pieces to create your own faces!

Charles got Candy Land... they had never heard of it before!!!

yay the twins are 6!!

I bought Victoria and I matching bracelets. Its a competition to see who can keep it on the longest.
Last night ever being 5!!!!
We caught a lot of lizards at the cabin... we may have caused this one a little damage. woops!

There is a pond by the cabin that is filled with frogs. They have never attempted to catch one before, so I made it a goal to get one before we left. This is a frog I caught the first day!! It was so much fun to see their reaction. They LOVED it and named it Tink. It lived in a bucket while we were there for the week!



They had friends over for lunch one night at the cabin!

Here in Spain, they don't have campfires. They just do big bonfires with dead branches and boxes. It lasts about 5 minutes. They thought I was CRAZY when I brought up the idea to roast marshmellows!
In the back of the truck, going to swin in the pond!

The entire ride there... the dog was at my feet. hahaha

Not your typical Utah mountains... but this is where the cabin was! There were olive trees EVERYWHERE!
This is what I woke up to every morning!! Lucky me!

Our homemade frog catching net!

La Canadilla!

Victoria

Charles!
We went to play in the snow the day after Easter

The snow man was falling over so I tried to catch it.....

That didn't work out so well. They all jumped on me instead. Anyway... there is an update on life!! I miss my family a lot, but I love it here! 3 months down, 4 to go!!

April 1, 2009

Paris!!

And the fairy tale life continues..... PARIS! Last weekend Kate and I headed out to Paris!! We found round trip tickets for under a hundred dollars, and we were gone!! We left on Thursday morning, and came back on Monday afternoon. Our host families were way nice about us being gone so long, we were surprised!! It rained for a minute on Saturday which was kind of a bummer... but I absolutely LOVED being there!!!

Kate and I at the top of the Eiffel Tower!

Some crazy lady outside the Notre Dame. She reminded me of the old lady on Home Alone. She had birds all over her!!!!!

After seeing this, I wanted to go watch The Hunchback!!

The Eiffel Tower at night... AMAZING!

hahaha at the top of The Arc de Triumph

It was rainy for about an hour... but we still managed to have a good time! Not hard to do when you are in France!
Ummm my 5 Euro umbrella didn't last long!!

Holding the Lovre like an ornament hahaha

Kate and I before we went in to see the Mona Lisa. The Louvre was HUGE!

Perfect picture moment of my SWEET umbrella that held together SO well!!!

Kate and I on the "Romantic" river of Paris!


The littler streets were adorable!! You can rent those bikes behind me and ride around everywhere!! It felt like they were available on every corner!!

Big holes to tie the boats up to on the river!

On the bus heading into the city!

RyanAir... probably the cheapest airline ever hahaha!!! My seat wouldn't even recline :(

Kate and I outside my house right before we left on our adventure!!