First few days with the family

Hey friends!

Sorry I haven't written in so long...  We have been very busy with class and the family.

Things are going so well!  I really, really like the family a whole lot!

There is a father, mother, and 4 kids.  The youngest is Mariana, who is so precious.  She is 4 years old and she hardly ever stops talking.  The only time she stops is when her dad tells her she has to speak in English!  Then after about a minutes she's jabbering away in Spanish again!  She's so much fun.  Bree and I played "three princesses" with her last night and tonight when I was giving her a bath she asked me to sing her some songs, so I taught her some Bible school songs.

The next youngest is Javier, who is named after his father.  He is 7 and he's a little on the shy side, but if we get him talking about something he is really interested in, he will talk quite a bit.  His older brother is Tomas.  Tomas is ten and he loves to pick on Javier.  Both of the boys love soccer.  Javier has soccer practice after school on Mondays and Wednesdays and Tomas has soccer practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The oldest is Ines, who is 12 and is named after her mom.  Ines seems pretty shy too, but she is so sweet.  She's a really good older sister.  She's really smart too.  She spends a lot of time studying after school while we play with the other kids.  But there are some times, usually after the other kids are in bed, where Bree and I have gotten to hang out with just us and Ines.  She talks more to us then.  We watched Drake and Josh with her last night.  :)

The family really spends a lot of time all together.  We all sit down together for breakfast every morning and dinner every night and we've all been watching soccer games on tv after dinner when they are on.  Tonight Bree and I watched Sister Act with Ines and the kids.  That is such a great movie.  :)

The grandparents (Javier's mom and dad) also came to visit to say goodbye before vacation.  Bree and I played soccer in the back yard with the boys.  Some other fun things we've done with the kids... we've walked to the park and played on the playground and we've walked to the candy shop to buy "chuches" (candies).  :)

We've been eating pretty well with the family here.  They are all about eating healthy.  The only bad thing they have served is french fries tonight, and there was only a little bit of them.  Lol.  We eat breakfast and dinner with them, but no one is here during the day, so we get lunch elsewhere--usually at the school cafeteria.  I had paella for the first time today.  It was full of fish, and it actually wasn't too bad.  I am trying really hard to make myself get used to sea food.  But this dish was serious.  It had muscles (shells and all), shrimp, and calamaris and I ate it all.  :)

We're going on vacation with the family tomorrow to Sotogrande.  I think they have a condo there, not exactly sure.  I just found out where we were going tonight.  Apparently it's a beach on the southern coast of Spain and it's a 7 hour drive from Madrid.  I'm pretty excited.  :)  Hopefully I'll have internet so I can get some work done on my thesis!

That's all for now.... I need to get to bed!

Love you all!