Anyway, I’ll start with yesterday (Saturday, June 26th). As we know from my last post, i didn’t sleep much on Friday night, so it was a late start on Saturday. We had a sunny day in Madrid, so we decided to stay in the city. We started by touring the Royal Palace. It was absolutely beautiful inside. We ate lunch first in hopes that the kids would last longer, and it really helped. :)
Afterwards, we got some water and hit the Madrid hop on/hop off bus. It was a great way to spend the afternoon as a tired family. We saw so many beautiful sights and no one got tired of walking. ;)
When we got home, our apartment was over a hundred degrees. We had called 5 hours earlier to have them come and do something to help cool it off and to fix the toilet, but they never showed up (needless to say, we will never rent an apartment in Madrid again!)
We were all hot, tired, and frustrated, we called the McDevitt family, (our friends who are living in Spain) and asked them to save us! They had invited us over for Sunday, but also offered Saturday night, so we took them up on it. We rode the metro for over and hour to get there, but it was SOO totally worth it! They took great care of us. Everyone was happy to see another English speaking family, eat good food, and watch some soccer (the USA/Ghana match was playing at the restaurant.) We ate at the yummy restaurant and then went back to their house to finish watching the match. Sean kindly drove us home so we didn’t have to brave the subway at midnight. We were all exhausted, but so happy with the fun evening.
Today, after another hot, sleepless night, we got on the metro and rode up to go to church with the McDevitts. It was their ward conference that day, so the church was full. The kids were able to attend an English speaking Sunday School class, but then braved the Spanish speaking YM/YW classes with the McDevitts as translators. Mali had a sweet sister missionary from the states take care of her in Primary and I got to attend RS in Spanish. I loved it.
After church, we piled the families into the McDevitts’ cars and headed to their house again. Kelly made an AMAZING home cooked Sunday meal, and we all were able to feel like we were home for the day. After lunch, the kids all headed down to the pool. The kids, Sean and Dave swam, while Kelly and I talked all afternoon. The weather was perfect. All the smells of summer were in the air – sunscreen, chlorine, flowers, etc. The kids all hit it off well, so everyone was happy all day. Around 8, we all headed back up to the house and had some snacks. After the snackfest, we had FHE. We had a great time playing “Whoonu” with the two families. It was another late night, so Sean drove us back to the city. It was hard to say good-bye. The McDevitts were wonderful hosts and made us feel so welcomed and comfortable. It was just what we needed before heading out on our next adventure.
Because our apartment was so awful, we have been joking the past two days about how everything will be better once we get to France. “All our problems will go away, once we get to France”. We do feel that we all need to unpack our suitcase, and just “live” for awhile. We are all looking forward to just enjoying one place for several weeks. We are excited for the arrival of the Thompson family next week and having a little bit of home here in Europe.
Saturday’s photos:
The Royal Cathedral
The Royal Palace
Family in front of the palace
For some reason, Hayley and Dillon love making this face to each other on this trip. So, we caught Dillon on camera whilst enjoying a lovely limon granizada.
Dinner with the McDevitts: Mali, Shannan, Dillon, Connor and Hayley
Sunday’s Photos:
Riding the Metro to church
Dillon, Hayley and Shannan at the pool
Dave and Sean
Kelly and Wendy
Liam, Mali and Erin arrive first at the snack table
Soon joined by Dillon, Hayley, Shannan and Connor
Dillon rocking out on Sean’s guitar. He was in heaven! He misses his daily jams at home.
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