Spain - day 1

But first, a wrap up of our last few days at home. Adi and Frankie went to babysit and we picked 2 huge bowlfuls of berries at the Henderson’s. I took some to my ministering sisters to share the love. 

Lexi sent money for a birthday pedicure, so on Saturday morning I brought Matt with me for his first ever and he was in heaven!

He was like - I had no idea this is what you did with your friends! 😂 He’s a believer. 

We went to Hudson’s beach birthday party and then since it was so hot and there were jelly’s, we invited them back to our pool. We swam till 6, it was a fun day! That night we finished laundry and I had the girls shiw me what they were packing and checked everything off our list. We tried our best to pack light!

We went to church on Sunday and then I headed up to the Calvert building for my new counselor Susanne and new secretary Heather to be set apart. Amber was sick, otherwise she would have been there too. It was good to give them hugs and say “good luck with your new callings!see you in a month!” 😂🤷‍♀️ summer is sometimes weird. 

Rental cars were crazy expensive, so Alli drove down and then drove us back up to the airport. We checked in and then popped over to the USO for dinner. 

We love that place. And D was starving. She ate a max and cheese, cheeseburger, pirates booty, 2 fruit snacks, and several Girl Scout cookies. 

😂

Ready for our big adventure!

We flew from Dulles to Lisbon and our flight didn’t leave till 10pm. 

I preferred last time when we first flew to Boston and then straight to our foreign city. 10pm is a weird time for a flight. 

We were ready for bed!

Our friend in the back just kept on a-walking. 🤣

The girls hardly slept. Every time I woke up to shift around, it seemed like one of them was watching a movie or listening to music. 

We flew TAP Air Portugal, and it wasn’t my fav. 

The food was just meh and there were so many announcements, first in Portuguese, then in English so they took forever, even overnight. 

Matt and I were stoked that we got our row to ourselves! 

We made it I to Lisbon around 10am their time, and since we had to walk the tarmac and bus to ajd from our planes, we’re counting that as a country. We’d love to go back one of these days too. 

We’d been told we had to try pasteis de nata, so we were like obvi. 

The girls each got a Nutella croissant and we hung out for our should have been 2 hours but turned into 3 hour layover. 

Then they walked us to a bus, squeezed us in like sardines, and then left us there for a good 15+ minutes. We were tired and the bus was hot. I had to laugh at these road weary travelers. 

Then I busted out Heads Up and we weirdly shuffled around so we could all take turns and tried to play quietly. 

Walking up to our plane, finally!

Delaney and I got a row to ourselves this time and she grabbed this pic. 

Matt was emotional to be back in Spain. He’s dreamed of this for so long!

We literally aced the metro system! And the girls were so tired, especially baby bug!

We’d watched a couple videos on how to ride, what pass to buy, and it helped so much. We got our card and paid our special airport fee and knew right where to go. Go us!

We’re staying right downtown and it is soooo cute!

We dropped our luggage at our cute and simple hotel and set out for dinner. 

And gelatti for a special birthday treat. 

Then we walked around. It was still 96°, so pretty warm. 

The Royal Palace of Madrid, kind of like their White House. 

The back of a fountain. 😂 there were tons of people out and a fun energy. 

We’d read you could go up in this church and it overlooks the city so there’s a great view, but we were too late to climb. Whomp whomp. 

The view was still pretty!

The architecture reminds me of New Orleans since there’s such a Spanish influence there. 

The girls were troopers but so tired and Frankie’s tummy hurt, so we came back to our room and crashed. 

It’s a tiny “sextuple room,” but it’s clean and quiet and the girls were stoked about the bunk beds!

9:00 bedtime + a couple phone and bathroom wakeups. Yay for a birthday in Spain!

She’s Barbie, he’s just Ken

My wonderful dad drove up from Florida to watch Frankie and Delaney while we went to trek. He brought our new to us Space Car so we got 2 good things for the price of one. Dad modeled our Seacruisin’ sweatshirts for our Wales cruise. 

We loved the Barbie movie!

We all dressed up in pink, except Matt who was a preppy Ken. 

Sporty Barbie. 

Barbie with her mini me. 

And sassy Barbie. We loved the movie, it had a super good message and was fun and silly. All the feels!

We got all our stinky trek stuff washed and put away. And then the last thing we had was our giant pot that we’d cooked over the open flame and I swore would never be the same. But with the Pink Stuff and some elbow grease, doled out in several 10 minute segment’s because it was tiring, we got her as good as new. Picture to show our progress halfway through. 

On Sunday evening Matt and I drove our new Space Car down to Fredericksburg to meet up with Dan and Chantel to deliver a bouncing baby Frankie. She went to chantel’s girls camp again this year and it started Monday. My dad asked how we were liking our new car and I sent him this. 

Monday brought a trip to the dentist where Delaney moved to level 5 and Adi level 9. Its been taking forever, but will be nice when it’s done! We did a little shopping and stopped by Nola’s house for a birthday hug. 

On Tuesday Delaney tried out a class at Ballet Caliente. She’s midway between level 1 and 2, so we’ll see what their class schedule looks like. She’s showing the ballet slippers we borrowed for the class. And she loved it!

That night I went to LP’s new RS’s presidency meeting and then talked to Amber about our big September service project. All week has been busy getting all the things done. 

On Wednesday I went to the dr. I’m still getting used to having to take medicine every day, and I didn’t have enough for our whole trip. Then chelsea and I met up for a pre-birthday hike around St. Mary’s City. It’s been so hot so we waited till the evening and caught up and sweated and enjoyed this beautiful state. 

On Thursday I left at 6:00am for my 7 hour round trip drive to pick Frankie up from camp. First I picked up Rye and we chatted the last hour of my drive. I dropped her off to help chantel pack up and picked up Frankie a few hours before camp ended because she had a big appt that afternoon! She loves going to camp with Chantel!

It was braces removal day! Congrats to Frankie!

It was so fast, like 20 minutes start to finish! And we had laughed because she hadn’t gotten to shower before coming home and I thought they’d take her picture for their wall of fame, but they’ll take it next time. 😅 And now she’s got a beautiful smile!

Also, I got the sweetest birthday card from Hallmark, like the store sent it to me, not just bought there. Form cards don’t usually make me tear up, but this one was sweet. 

And some funny memes. #true

Best. Commercial. Ever. 

I can’t believe when we get back from our trip the girls will be back to school! Summer has flown by!


😂😂😂

We’ve been spending most evenings at the pool. This is my favorite time of year to swim, when it’s deathly hot and the pool is so warm. There’s not even a shock when you jump in, the water is so nice! We ❤️ Sunmer.