Easter!

I can't believe Easter has come and gone so quickly!!  I was sick this year (as I was last year...  how crazy...), but Wes and the kids all went to church.  We have a tradition of doing our own egg hunt in our house, right after church.  We can't find plastic eggs here, so I decided to improvise (which seems to be the name of the game, living away from all things familiar...)  I decided to hide BLOCKS.  They each had their own color to find (since I figured Weston would grab them all first, if I let the just go at it. :) )  They each had to find 10 blocks of their color, and then they could open their "prize."  The kids really enjoyed it, and it was really Carolina's first "egg hunt."  Haha... :)

We also shared our tradition of coloring eggs with some of our closest friends.  They had seen this on the "movies" before, but had never done it.  It was so cute... they were so excited.  You can't buy food coloring here, so they were quite intrigued with the colors!   It's also hard to find white eggs, so we used brown ones... they worked fine; we just had darker colors than is normal for "Easter colors."  It worked, though!   The kids had a blast.

Marco is one of Weston's closest friends, and Inés and Jonathan are also in the same class.

This is in Toña and Antonio's second home in a quaint little pueblo outside of Cáceres.

Inés actually brought some of her eggs into school, so she could show the whole class.  It was a fun day of exchanging different cultural traditions.  We all went out to eat together, and we got to try some of the food that is typical for Easter Week here in Spain.  What a blessing this family has been to us!!

Learning to Make Empanadas!

 
These are some of Wes's favorite "finger foods."  He had them first in Argentina and then again here in Spain.  Apparently, each country makes them differently; and Wes has decided that the ones from Argentina are his favorite.  Our tutor, Gabi, is from Argentina; so she agreed to teach me to make them during one of our "classes!" (in Spanish, of course.)  :)  It was a nice break from classroom stuff, and Wes LOVED the results! :)

Yummmm!!  They were so good!  It was fun making them... and interesting to discover that they don't use measurements like we do.  It's a "pinch" of this or a"small spoonful" or a "large spoonful," etc.  It's the same here in Spain, and it's taught me to explore and experiment with the flavors that WE enjoy.  It's super fun!

Grandmommy and Papa!

We dropped "the Matt's" off at the airport and picked up my parents at the same time!  I was worried that Carolina wouldn't remember them or that she would be shy around them, but that wasn't the case at all!  I'm SOOO thankful for Skype, b/c she completely KNEW them and was thrilled to be with them!!  That, of course, made my parents' day! :)

Dad and the boys just after they arrived.  The boys could hardly get enough of Papa! :)

My parents arrived on Friday and we left Sat. for a beach resort in Southern Spain.  It was an amazing week of relaxing, swimming, and playing!

Carolina was SOOOO thrilled to be with my mom. She got lots of one on one attention, and she just ate it up!

Weston and Papa after a day at the beach.

They had a blast!

Carolina was hilarious.  She proved to be a total girl here... she enjoyed laying on a lounge chair, soaking up the fresh ocean air!  The sand here is more like sand mixed with dirt, and she didn't like getting dirty at all.

There were several days where Carolina took her nap right on the beach!  It was so great for me!... the boys played, Carolina slept, and I got to read!!!!  :)  definitely luxury! :)

In every little town, there are all these little fountains all over the place for drinking, washing hands, or just getting refreshed.  The kids are all a little too familiar with them, and before any of us could do anything, Carolina was drinking it... and getting completely soaked!

Marbella

Wes and I on a date in Puerto Banús... I've never seen such yachts before!  It was beautiful.

We had a week together at the beach, and then we came home to Cáceres for a week. 

My poor dad was sick for the first couple days in Cáceres, but Carolina couldn't resist being with him.

Mom and Nathan!

Mom and Dad at the top of the "mountain" in Cáceres... you can see all of Cáceres behind them.

One last pic together... 

We all had such a good time together; and after not seeing them for 14 months, it was really hard to say goodbye again. :(  But, we will treasure the memories of our time together, and hopefully see them again next year!! :)  In the mean time... we still have Skype. :)