The White Family Journey

The boys have been counting down to the first day of school for a while... Weston, b/c he was excited about school, and Nathan b/c he wad DREADING school. Isn't it amazing how different each child is??? :)

We spent the week before trying to get all the supplies we needed for the kids. (It takes a long time when you have to translate everything!) I never really had a child in primary school in the States, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. But here, it seems like alot!! We (the parents) supply all the paper towels, tissues, wipes, etc. in addition to all the crayons, markers, construction paper, envelops, cardboard, paint, etc... and much, much more... Whew! When you have THREE of them at this age?!? Wow. So, we did all that, and we got everything put together the night before.

Carolina wanted to go with the boys SO badly!

We also buy all the books (for each child) at a local book store, and we have to bring those in as well. So, we had bags and bags of books, PLUS all the school supplies... for THREE kids! You should have seen us walking to school! Thank the Lord we only live a block away!

Well, on this particular day, I felt VERY much like a silly foreigner. As we walked to school, we encountered lots of other families walking to school... but NONE carried bags of books or supplies. Apparently, we were supposed to have brought everything in the week before when the teachers were preparing the classrooms. But, of course, that was something that somehow got lost in the "language abyss." :)

There was nothing we could do but stand there, looking dumb with all our stuff... it might have been different if it were only ONE child, ya know? But we were ridiculously loaded down with three kids' worth of books and supplies. haha. :) If I'd had a free hand, I would've taken a picture for y'all... so we could all laugh together... but, of course, both hands were full. :) Oh, well... we apologized to the teachers and then had to go individually to each class (after hugging the kids and saying goodbye) to drop of "the goods." It was the normal chaos of the first day, so everything took longer.

When I got to Jonathan's classroom, his teacher asked me if I had his name on everything. I didn't know that we were supposed to... I just figured it all went into a collective "stash." But no... and of course I didn't have everything labeled. How in the world are you supposed to label one (unwrapped) roll of paper towels? So, she told me to bring it all back the next day, labeled. I'm thinking, can't you just give me a marker?????? :) Nathan's teacher did the same thing to Wes, but also insisted he take the books back... she wanted them labeled (which I can understand) and COVERED with contact-like paper. Weston's teacher was the only one who was pretty gracious to us. Maybe it's b/c Weston is old enough to put his own name in every book? I'm not sure.

This is in the school "yard"... nice concrete, huh? :) We drop Weston and Nathan off right behind where they are standing. Jonathan gets dropped off just to the left of where they are standing.

SO... we had to walk back home and drop the stuff back off at the house, and then head on to OUR class. Needless to say, Wes and I were very late that day. But, "no pasa nada..." as they would say in here in Spain! I was dreading walking back to the kids' school the next day... looking like the "dumb American" with arm fulls of bags again. haha! Oh, well. It took us a few days, and we finally got everything squared away... although, I still can't find plastic place mats for each of them. I have no idea where to find these... :) Do y'all bring place mats in for your kids???? :) haha..

The day went well for the boys. Nathan cried a little on his first day, but it wasn't too bad. He has a really sweet teacher, who is supposed to be one of the best in the school. He's also with all the same kids, so that's a blessing! Jonathan has the same teacher as well as the same class as last year. Weston absolutely loves it. Like Jonathan, he also has the same teacher and class. He is now the tallest (but one of the youngest) in his class, and that's a HUGE deal to a 7 year old boy. I think it made his day. :)

Well, I'm so behind in writing about our summer. Things just keep happening, and I can't quite keep up!... haha... that's just life, right? So... I'm still catching up on events in August. We were able to take vacation at the end of August (right after Wes passed the written part of his driving test!!!!)

We have some friends (other missionaries with the IMB) up in San Sebastian, which is at the Northern Coast of Spain (really close to France!) They went Stateside, and offered their apartment so we could go on vacation. The boys were so excited... we haven't really been on vacation together since we left the States, and they LOVE the beach. So, we drove 8 hours north and arrived at our friends' home in the early evening. It was an amazing drive. We live in a place that is very hot and dry... completely brown, just about everywhere. As we drove north, it was like we hit a line, and everything was green again!!! I LOVED the green. It's strange, but it's one of the things I really miss from home. It was beautiful. Just being around "green" makes me sigh with contentment. :) We also went through many tunnels as we got up North. We were traveling straight through mountains! It was amazing!

Wes and I always enjoy seeing other people's homes here in Europe. The homes here are so different (well, just much smaller) than those in the States, so it's always fun to get great ideas of how to maximize space. When we walked into our friends' home, it was like walking into an IKEA store. :) haha... I think just about everything they had was from Ikea! I, personally, have never (YET) been to an Ikea, but it's huge here in Spain. We don't have one in Cáceres (obviously), but most of our friends travel to Madrid or Sevilla for the day to specifically shop at an IKEA. So, it was awesome to see all the different pieces of furniture, dishes, toys, gadgets, etc! I came home with many new ideas! :)

a bit of a cloudy day...but this was the view from the balcony


This was "early" in the day for Spaniards (around 11am), so it's quiet!

Their home is SO close to the beach there. It was beautiful! We could see the ocean (kinda far off... but still there!) from our balcony. It was balmy and warm... it was perfect. Our friend left a bunch of notes for us, giving us hints and ideas of stuff to do. She had said that it would take about 15 minutes with kids, to walk to the beach. We have Nathan and Carolina, so we figured it would take us a bit longer, but we had no idea HOW much longer. :) The first day, we headed out to the beach (on foot, like good Europeans...) and it took us about 45 minutes to get there. It was a long walk, but the kids enjoyed getting out, and Carolina had a million people to say "¡hola!" to... :) It wasn't so bad on the way there. BUT, you should have seen us on the way back!!!!!! Oh, my goodness!

Carolina's favorite pose

My "cutie boy"

Normally, I pack a lunch and we eat at the beach; but b/c we were so close, we decided just to go for the morning and come back for lunch. Yeah, well, after a long, fun morning at the beach, the kids were tired and hungry... and we still had a 45 minute walk home. Oh, and I forgot to mention that our friends live on a hill. :)... so, going down to the beach wasn't that big of a deal. But, tired, hot, hungry and "up-hill" do not go well together for four kids under 7!!! Hahaha! We are NOT good Europeans yet. We are definitely still Americans! :) Nathan thought he was dying, and Carolina totally fell asleep in my arms. She became a dead weight, and I could hardly carry her! Once my arms went to sleep and I could no longer carry her, Wes made Nathan get off his shoulders (poor kid) and walk so Wes could carry Carolina for me. Whew! That was my work-out for the day! :)

The next day, Wes drove and dropped us off. He had to park almost back at the apartment (which we kinda expected), but it was still better than having everyone walk. ;) The beach was beautiful, and the water was so blue! There are three beaches there... and they are nothing like the American coast that we are used to. I told Wes... even when we go on vacation to relax, there's still some sort of culture shock! :) haha... the beach was more like a large cove with more people than you could count. I think when I think of a beach, I think of being able to walk and walk and never reach the "end." Ya know what I mean? Yeah, well, not here. :) It was different... beautiful, but different!

Our friends had told us about each of the three beaches, and we decided to go the "family" beach. But even the "family" beach was still quite European! It was a topless beach (and I think ALL of them are.) We knew it and were forewarned, but still... The first day, I think we were on a part of the beach where there were a lot of "foreigners," so it wasn't too bad. The next time, I think we were around a lot more Spaniards. I think I only took pictures that first day; b/c after that, it was hard to take a picture without a topless "someone" in the pic!!!! How crazy! Thankfully, our kids never even noticed anything!

Nathan dug a huge hole in the sand then wanted to be buried in it.

While we were there, we met up with some other friends, Ian and Katie, who are also with the IMB. The crazy thing is that I went to college with Ian! I told Wes that I NEVER would have thought that 15 years later, I'd be sitting on a beach in Spain with Ian and his wife and girls, along with my husband and kids. How fun! :) They have 3 girls very, very close in age like our boys (although, they have twins!) Our kids got along so great together. It was fun to be able to hang out with some English speaking friends, who are totally going through similar things in life. We feel blessed to have gotten some time with them!

This is the kids all playing together at Ian and Katie's apartment. Sorry it's small, but I loved the action... kind like stair-steps, but with kids!! :)

Well, one of those days there, it rained. It was actually perfect timing, b/c I was needing a break from the beach trips. :) SO... we found a mall nearby. In Cáceres, we have a "mall" but it is so tiny (ok, you from the States who think you have a tiny mall... you have a HUGE one compared to the one I'm talking about. haha. :) ) The malls here have grocery stores inside of them... kinda like a Target or Walmart (groceries combined with everyday "stuff") in a mall. In our mall, this store makes up the majority of the mall... if that gives you an idea of the size. So when we found this mall in San Sebastian, we thought we were in heaven!! :) It was "huge." :) It had everything we were looking for: a sports store for the kids and Wes, an Eroski for me (that big store that I mentioned), a McDonald's (of course!) AND it had a place for the kids to jump on trampolines! :) It was the perfect rainy day. :)

The apartment that we stayed in was situated on a little "square" or an American may call it a large courtyard. There was a fountain in the middle, a café on one corner, a little sandwich place, and a small grocery shop. (If you can picture a large brick courtyard with apartments on three sides. At the street level were each of these little stores, and on top of them were the apartments. ) It was great for us! Wes and I could sit outside and have a coffee while the kids ran around and played. Groceries were right there, and we even got fries one day at the sandwich shop. It was a fun, restful time for us!

On our adventure home (b/c you know, with the White family, life is ALWAYS an adventure! :) ), we stopped b/c Jonathan had to "go" :) (for the millionth time!) As Wes got out to help Jonathan, he realized it was a great place for pics... so, we took a long break and Wes did a photo-shoot. Haha... we all loved it. :)