Toledo

 The first thing we saw in the parking garage was the advertisement for the exhibit of instruments of torture.  Welcome to Toledo! The kids were beside themselves with glee, mostly imagining elaborate scenarios of how they would escape at the last minute.  Only the five-year old had the sense to say, ¨I don´t like that.¨

The city archives had a lovely courtyard and an open door. 

The purpose of the trip was to visit the sword maker.  

In the back, they really were grinding and hammering and making things.  Everything was black with soot, so though they were not forging at the moment, they had in the past.  

Troy´s art photo of the way through town.

I wanted to visit the El Greco house museum.  It is his 400 year anniversary, so I heard on the radio that they had remodeled it.  The art is all replicas and it was never his house, but rather, what a house at that time might have been like.  But it was cheap and lovely and had a nice garden to rest a bit, so worth the visit.

Lunch on one of the many terraces.

Lovely pottery!  I bought some dessert plates as mine collection is down to 7.

Our gaggle, looking a bit footsore.

view from the south of the city where you can see the river bend.

Catching happiness on film and Wyatt´s 12th birthday

 When these kids get together, it is like a parkour explosion where they bounce off of each other and run, jump, climb, fall, and roll, plus throw in singing and dancing. These are once again all Gaby Sanoussy´s photos.

Slight digression for Wyatt´s birthday: he started the day at the campout and ended it with coke floats and cake.  He was not sure if this was the best birthday ever, but he decided that the current one is always the best one.

Troy is helping him retrieve his iTunes gift card.

Gaby does a good job of catching some of the action. 

Tristan and Katherine were instant friends and really calmed each other down.

Happy,

Happy,

Happy,

Happy,

Happy,

...Because they are happy.

Spanish people are really into crafts

While the guys were camping, we went to a craft fair called Creativa.

This ad was all over town, on buses, in magazines, on street corners  The beige girl is painting something big, like the packing pallets that she is going to use for shelves.  My neighbor AT THIS VERY MOMENT is wearing her tank top, carrying her paint bucket and painting wooden pallets in her driveway.  The other girl is a dainty craft girl with a knitting project. 

So from the massive ad campaign, I knew it was a real event.  With things you find on the internet, you never know.  It could be the same old stuff from China.  However, there was not a soul to be seen at the Crystal Pavillon.  Halfway around the building, we had a nice chat with a Spanish woman who was also looking for the entrance.  Kim wanted to see ¨the real Madrid¨ and she did:  events in strange, slightly derelict places; absolute confusion going anywhere new for the first time; and a pleasant conversation with a lady from Madrid!  Bonus!

Finally, all the way around the building, one entrance was open.  Our new friend scored us a free ticket and a discount coupon.

Inside, the only sign of anything crafty was the ubiquitous pink bag.   Kim spotted that counter right away, where we got our free bags.  The next stop was the snack bar, or course.

Downstairs were the exhibits, crammed together at the back.  Do Spanish people just like to be crowded?  Why, in this huge exhibit hall are we so packed that we keep losing our kids?

We wanted to sign the kids up for workshops, but at $35 a pop, we decided not to.

 These Eastern Europeans put on a good show with a little plastic disc that turns into a floating candle.

 These are disposable flower vases, which Kim needs for all the flowers her husband brings her at the office.

 Plus all the craft stores in town brought their supplies for scrapbooks, decoupage, quilting, sewing, knitting, painting, beading, etc.  I didn´t buy anything, even from the Fiskars  display of scissors.

 They could not wait to get home to start crocheting.

 We assembled our eco-candle when we got home.

Camping with the Boy Scouts

Here´s the Boy Scout trip.  This group was the ¨not wimpy´group on the 11k hike.  Wyatt got stuck in the wimpy group because he twisted his ankle.

 

 

Troy has hammock envy.  This one belongs to the scout-master.  Troy has the hammock but is not quite ready to deploy it anywhere besides the back porch, which is fine with me.  He may have to buy himself a new one while I am using the one on the porch.

 Another nice picture of the hike.  Photo credit for all of these: Gaby Sanoussy.

 Campfires are not allowed in central Spain, so this is a fake butane fire.

Some of the dads chilling out and swapping stories.

Reunion

We had a really great week hosting our friends from Oman for a week.  The Sanoussy´s are currently living in Ethiopia.  Their top priority was taking the kids to parks.

Tied for the top priority was eating out.  Eating out in Ethiopia is apparently buying a slice of beef right off a fresh carcass and going next door to eat it.  Raw.

I felt like an under-acheiver at the airport.  The muslims were all there welcoming their people with trays of juice and milk and tea.  Kim told me that they do that when the travelers are coming back from the Haj.  They set the tray on one of the few chairs, open the boxes of UHT milk and juice and voila!  it looks really fancy and nice. 

The first Boy Scout trip of the year was the same day that they arrived.  Camping was one of the things we enjoyed doing together in Oman.  Troy asked if the guys could go on the trip and the Scoutmaster said, ¨Technically not, but if they just happen to show up at the campsite and just happen to be walking on the same trails…¨

Wyatt is trying out his new backpack and finding out what it is like to be a turtle.

Meanwhile, us girls and Winston went looking for a park.  This one was so awesome we went back with the guys for their last night here as well.

Triathlon

Here are a few pictures from my triathlon a couple of weeks ago.  I thought it would be no big deal, because I have run, swum and biked since age 12.  Actually, since before that.  I was thinking of riding my bike to the university to use their olympic pool and 3-meter board.  But I had a pool and bike by age 5.  But it was HARD.  I know, Mom, you are laughing at me for doing crazy things and being surprised at how hard they are.

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You can barely see the little orange caps.  Troy could not understand why I was so late coming out of the water.  Actually, I was in the next group, the green group.

I was 24th out of 100 coming out of the water.  That is me on the left.  I ended up 44th with my slow mountain bike and lack of training.

It was a beautiful day and you can see how pretty the park is.  When is my next race?  Next summer when it warms up again.

Hot Glue Project for Halloween

The boys sweet-talked us into $65 worth of materials plus $35 shipping for a costume project.   All I knew was that they were making armor from foam based on a video they saw on Youtube.The foam arrived a couple of weeks later in a box that said, ¨We sell mats!¨ 

Sure enough, it was a box of foam mats like you would find in a nursery school. 

 While they waited for the slow, overpriced shipping, they made paper models, so that they did not waste the foam.

 Tristan is gluing some nylon webbing onto the knee guard.  

 He is also improvising with the locking edge of the mat to make an awesome scary spine.

 The heart of the project is that you hit this foam with a heat gun and then bend it.

 When it cools, it holds its shape.

I am amazed.  I am glad Troy has hot glue and a heat gun!