Last day in Spain

I am planning to write one more blog entry after this one, but it's going to take some time and processing to write it.  I'm planning on doing it during my layover tomorrow, so be on the lookout!

Today was a great day.  The kids finished school yesterday, so this was their first day of summer vacation and our last day here.  I couldn't have planned it to work out any better.  It was great spending our last day with the family.  I am going to miss them so much.

The family was invited to go visit some a friends' country house in Segovia, about an hour North of Madrid.  The parents gave Bree and I the option of coming with them or staying behind to do whatever we wanted to do on our last day in Spain.  We decided to go with the family and I am so glad we did!  It was so much fun and it was great spending the whole day with the family before we leave tomorrow morning.

The house was great, similar to a cabin and surrounded by trees.  They also had animals like horses, dogs, chickens, ducks, and bunnies.  They also have 8 kids all between the ages of 16 and 2, so our kids had so many friends to play with.  We just hung out and played with the kids and had lunch.  Then we all put on our bathing suits and drove to the lake.  It was about a 15 minute drive through the curvy, hilly region of Castillo y Leon.  Then we parked the car by the road and walked along the lake to a good spot to swim.  It was gorgeous there.  The lake was completely surrounded by mountains.  Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera, but hopefully I can steal some pictures from Bree.  It was so fun swimming with all the kids.  I swam with the older girls all the way across the lake (which made me so tired....I am so out of shape!)  After a couple hours we loaded the car back up.  I carried Mariana to the car because her shoes were wet and she didn't want to put them on.

Then we took a detour on the way home to see Segovia's famous aqueducts from the 1st century.  The father of the family that we visited today was very interested when Javier and Ines told him I wrote my thesis on Saint Teresa and we spent quite a bit of time talking about both Saint Teresa and San Juan de la Cruz (Saint John of the Cross).  So after we saw the aqueducts we also went to the church where San Juan de la Cruz is buried.  While we were there he bought me two little books from the gift shop--one about St. Teresa and one about San Juan.  I wasn't expecting that at all, I just met him today!  He was really nice and passionate about his faith, especially the writings of the Saints.

When we got back to their house from the lake we ate dinner and played with the kids some more.  Bree and I ended up playing foosball with the boys 4 on 4!  Each one of us was controlling just one handle.  It was so much fun.  Then we loaded up the car and headed back to Madrid.  Mariana fell asleep in the car and the older kids went straight to bed when we got here, so we didn't get to say goodbye to them.  :(  But I did at least get to carry sleeping Mariana to bed.  I kind of hope they wake up in the morning so we can say goodbye.

I could not have asked for a better last day in Spain.  The family was so great to us over the past three months.  They added so much to our experience of Spain.  I am really going to miss them a lot.

Ok.  Last blog post coming soon.

See you all back in Cincinnati!