Grammy Fail!! Family updates by year: 2012

Yes, I'm a horrible person!  I haven't posted a single thing in FIVE YEARS!!!  Granted, I have posted many many MANY missionary letters and photos (on Nick and Josh's blogs) but have been a complete failure on the family front.  Here's a very quick recap of the past 5 year's highlights:

 Leo joins the family!! 12-12-12

Bye Bye Barcelona!

We left Barcelona, driving like bats out of Hades because we had to turn the rental car in by noon and get to the cruise ship. Which is why the few photos of Barcelona City Centre are, well, so few!

 

 Monument at Plaza Espana Barcelona 

Top of Monument

 Las Arenas Bullring

 Arc de Triomf Barcelona.

 Catalan National Art Museum - absolutely one of the most beautiful buildings in Barcelona

On board the cruise ship - the main elevator

 Indoor pool on board ship

 Cute couple on main stairway of ship

 

Lights of Barcelona from the sea

 Gary on the balcony of our cabin

Carla on room balcony with lights of Barcelona in background

 

 

A Day in Barcelona

We only had one afternoon and evening in Barcelona before we had to board the cruise ship at the harbor.  We walked through the streets near our hotel and found that we were only a few blocks from one of the most amazing and interesting feats of architecture on earth - The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, commonly known as the Sagrada Família.

 

The Sagrada Família is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926). It has been under construction since 1882, Gaudí became involved in 1883, taking over the project and transforming it with his architectural and engineering style—combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. When Gaudi died in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete. Construction passed the midpoint in 2010 with an anticipated completion date of 2026, the hundred year anniversary of Gaudi's death.

The line to see the interior of the cathedral had a wait time of over two hours, so we contented ourselves with walking around the exterior, which was amazing!

So many different styles of architecture in just one building.

The front of the cathedral has sculptures of fruits and vegetables on the spires.

 There are elevators that go up these spires to the top of the cathedral.

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The evening before we headed out on the cruise we were able to find the "Bullet" building  in Barcelona.  About a half hour after sunset, the building lights up and changes colors throughout the night.

The next morning as we headed to the harbor we passed by the street where the Gaudi designed apartments were - totally a surprise!  We had no idea they were so near our hotel, so we were thrilled that we got to see them up close.

The Road to Barcelona - Nov 4, 2012

We drove from Valencia to Barcelona, along the AP 7 (hate paying tolls but needed to get to Barcelona before dark!) Beautiful scenery, lots of cool castles on hills, amazing churches and sweet little villages. Orange groves and vineyards as far as you could see in every direction. Photos are a bit blurry because once again Gary was ZOOMING!!!

 Cool castle on the hill along the coast

 Another castle,

  Pretty cathedral in the center of town

 Another cool castle

 And another cool cathedral

Little church on hill overlooking sea

 

 Fun hotel in Barcelona

Valencia, Spain

We arrived in Valencia in the late afternoon so there was still time to check out the city.  Valencia is one of the most beautiful cities we visited in Spain.  So much to see!  Our hotel was close to the city center so we walked in the direction of the train station, which was an amazingly beautiful building itself!

Directly across from the train station is the Plaza de Tores, or bullring, and it totally dominates the downtown plaza.

This is the red door where they send the bulls into the ring to fight.

We headed further into the city, which was filled with huge, gorgeous buildings dating from the early 1800's back to the 1400's.

 We arrived at the Plaza de Reina, which opened into a huge park area with restaurants and street cafes, and the cathedral toward the back of the plaza.

 We thought perhaps the cathedral was being restored because there was scaffolding set up all around one corner.  turns out there was a huge music festival going on and they were setting up a stage and light show.

The doors to the cathedral were HUGE and very ornately carved.

 Behind the cathedral was another small plaza, and the street directly behind the cathedral had a walkway from the priest's residence over to the cathedral.

 The plaza behind the cathedral also had a museum filled with relics that had been discovered inside the cathedral when they were doing renovations.

 Another shot of the front of the cathedral.

Gary ran into his cheering section behind the cathedral...

 The Plaza de Reina was a great place to hang out because there was so much to see.  Lots of gorgeous buildings...

 all painted and spruced up...

 fountains filled with water...

 and even the sidewalks are marble!

 Best of all, we stopped at a little street cafe for hot chocolate and churros.  This is NOT your basic Nestle's Quik!  This stuff is thick, rich, hot and totally addictive.  Dunking the hot churros into the hot chocolate is sheer perfection as far as treats go!

 We ended our evening with some friends of Gary's from his mission.  Mari and Antonio Sanchez and their son Jeiro invited us to their apartment for dinner, which was amazing.  Mari is the younger sister of Pepe (we went to church with him and his family in Granada) and Mari had been baptized as a teenager just before Gary left the Granada area.  Gary also knew Antonio back then - he was an investigator.  So Antonio joined the church just after Gary moved from Granada, and after his mission he and Mari got married. They have an older son serving a mission in Northern Spain, a daughter living in Washington DC and another daughter living in Granada, as well as Jeiro, who is 14.  What a sweet and wonderful family.

 It was such a treat to spend the evening with this family!  This entire trip has been amazing, especially meeting all these great people who have remained strong in their faith and in the Church.