Leaving on a Jet plane....

In a few short hours we will start our journey to Bangladesh. I am not sure I will have the time or the opportunity to blog but I will surely post pictures and tell stories when we get back. Nojah and I are both a little nervous with a few active butterflies in our tummies, but looking forward to the time we will spend together helping the little ones at the orphanage as well as people from the surrounding villages. The hardest part will be saying goodbye to my little girl and my husband and missing them along the way. 10 days is a long time when you are half way across the world. Christmas was good, low key at our house this year, but nice. The kids were entertained and seemed happy with their gifts which is always nice and Tob and I just appreciated our time together as a family. We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas's as well. If you could all keep us in your thoughts while we are traveling we would appreciate it!
Merry Christmas and Have a Happy New Year!

Christmas eve jammie's

Enjoying the new wii

Safety first! You must have a helmet on prior to unwrapping gifts.

and even though Santa was pulled over by our local police department for poor lighting on the sleigh and for Rudolf nose not being so bright (a whole other fun story) Santa still managed to not forget about our sweet Myah and her Kitty cohorts!

My precious....

For years I have said I don't need or want a kitchen aid mixer and was adamant about it for fear my mom might buy me one (I know an odd fear, but she really likes me to have all the cool kitchen appliances). Let me explain, I have a SMALL house with a SMALL kitchen and didn't feel like I had the need or space for such a bulky piece of equipment. In fact I was quite sure I could get by just fine with my dandy little hand mixer (After all it hasn't failed me yet). Then I suddenly had a craving after eating breads and pastries for the past month in Spain and Christmas coming up. I decided maybe I could really use one, and maybe clean up wouldn't be so bad, and just maybe I could get a RED one, that way if it just sat on my cluttered counters and took up space without much use, it would at least look pretty. :-)

After having these thoughts for a couple of days and spending the morning at my beloved friend Chelsea's home, I went home and called my mom saying, you know what I really want for Christmas??? and Low and behold Toby and I together scored this beauty as OUR Christmas gift and I (we) LOVE it!! In fact I love it so much I think I will donate or dispose of my hand mixer (to free up space). So far we have enjoyed cookies, muffins, cinnamon rolls, dips and bread. Now I just need to equalize my time between cooking, eating and exercising because the first two seem to be taking over. THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!! I never thought I would refer to a mixer as "My precious"

We love this man

For those of you who do not know, this is Toby's dad. He is an incredible man to say the least and never ceases to amaze me. He was injured in a motorcycle accident, leaving him a quadriplegic when Tob was only a couple weeks old and has been living on his own the past 35 years. He is a generous man with a huge heart. He is creative, funny, and smart. He is involved in the city, helps outs his neighbors with his knowledge and expertise as a mechanic and gardener as well as a ham radio guru. He grows his own gourds and drys them for numerous projects, built an intricate fish pond, not to mention, he built his own handicap motorcycle from old motorcycles and parts. He always has a smile on his face and a positive attitude to go with it.

He lives about an hour and a half from us and we wish we got to see him more as we adore him. He is a wonderful Dad and Grandpa who continues to enrich our lives. Thank you Neal for lessons you have taught us by just being who you are. We love you!

Picking out the perfect tree

On Sunday we went Christmas tree hunting with the Plew family. We climbed a few steep hills, slid down a few steep hills and then sent the boys on a mission up the steep hills again to find us girls the perfect trees. They did a pretty good job giving us a couple to choose from.

The kids did some sledding and the dog did some pulling. This was how Lex got tree #1 back to the car.

and this is how the boys got tree #2 and tree #3 to the trucks. We then enjoyed hot cocoa and sugar cookies while the kids warmed their feet. Now our tree sits fully decorated in our living room much to our delight. We have been enjoying lots of Christmas music, sled rides (courtesy of Myah), and various treats and plan to continue with this as long as possible. Hope everyone else is having an enjoyable holiday season!

Home Sweet Home

(Wandering through a castle in Portugal)

We arrived home on Tuesday morning after 18 hours of flying and 5 hours of driving in the snow with a late night pit stop at my mom and dads in La Grande. We called them from a gas station late in the evening to tell them we would be stopping in around 2 am for a snooze. They were great and left the light on for us, much like Motel 6, but nicer (and cheaper too). We went grocery shopping early the next morning, which was quite a treat to have English labeled familiar foods to pick from and then drove home slowly with snow packed roads. We arrived home at 10:30 and the kids were back in school at 11:06. We were ready, and most importantly of course, they were ready.

We spent a couple days adjusting back to our schedules as Spain is 9 hours ahead of us. It wasn't uncommon for us to pass out at 6pm and then up again at 2:30 in the morning watching movies before getting ready for school and work. I have worked the last 3 nights and actually feel better then usual, probably because I have been awake during the night the past 5 weeks. Anyway, the sun is shining, snow is glistening, and calling me out for a run. Looks like winter is officially here and I am happy to welcome it back.

BaRcELoNa

(Tob looking at a map outside the city, leading us to Melissa's twin street)

After the futbol game we headed to Barcelona, a city of 1.5 million people give or take. Tob has a family childhood friend, Melissa who happens to live there and offered us a place to stay while we were in the area. The first email we received from her gave us her neighborhood, street address, and cross street. I told Tob to email her and ask her for exit numbers and what not because Barcelona's not smallish so much, but he thought better to google search her house and honestly it looked fairly straight forward in a nice area right outside of the city. So we followed our own directions and ended up finding the street but not the cross street or any reason to believe it was in the neighborhood of Gracia. We stopped a nice woman who tried to help us find the house and then had to give us the bad news that we were in the wrong spot and send us deep into the middle of the city. She was very friendly and we were happy to have someone who knew where to send us though.

(Nojah with the tile lizard in front of park Guell)

Within an hour or so we found her house and a parking garage and an email from her giving us directions :0) and that her housekeeper would let us in about 4:30. When her housekeeper got there she left her key at home and had to run back and get it. We felt so bad for her, but we sat and had coffee and Popsicle until she returned to let us in. Tob called Melissa and she recommended park Guell so we headed there for the afternoon until she got home. This is a famous park that started being built in the early 1900's by someone who went bankrupt and then eventually the city bought it. Anyway, it was pretty cool to walk around although it got dark. Lots of tile and neat architecture to look at and open space for the kids to kick around the soccer ball. A couple days later we returned in the daytime to check it out as well.

(a little too much time spent together makes one go crazy)

We went and had dinner with Melissa about 9 that night and she gave us the lowdown on how Spain works which was nice. We had a lot of questions she was able to answer for us. The most important thing is you only have pastries or something small for breakfast (Spaniards don't eat much breakfast and of course we do, most important meal of the day right?) Cafeteria's and bars may open about 10ish along with shopping stores and then everything closes EXCEPT Restaurants from 1400-1600 and if you don't eat during that time she said you don't have a prayer of getting a decent meal until 8pm. Wow, we thought everything closed during those hours but we were wrong. Everything does close but the restaurants open. We kept trying to find food before 1400. Yikes we had it all backwards. I think we have eaten well, despite our lack of knowledge though.

(Nojah checking out the Olympic Museum)
Our second day in Barcelona we headed to La Ramba (a famous street) where they have street performers, animals for sale, art, flowers of all kinds, and markets with meats, veggies, fruits, and dead full skinned rabbits. Then we spent the rest of the day wandering around the Olympic grounds and checking out the museum.

(Tob and I making out in front of the stadium)

Anyway, everyone is ready to go out for the day and here I sit blogging in my jammies, so I had better wrap things up. We spent 2 nights with Melissa and then headed to Stiges on the Mediterranean coast where we have been playing at the beach for 2 days. We will stay here one more day and night and then make the big push back to Madrid. It's been an amazing trip and Lex just said to me this morning it feels like we have been gone only a couple days. I think it has gone by fast and we have all had a wonderful time but will be ready for our own beds, our own food, to see our family, friends and animals and get back to regular life.
I also hear we are coming home to some snow. :-)

I don't have any pictures downloaded yet for today but I had a minute to write a quick note. We have had the "silver bullet" our new ride for about 3 days now and love it. The only downfall of course is now learning something new. For example finding hotel rooms isn't easy. It doesn't seem that difficult until you actually try and do it. Our first night we spent 2-3 hours driving around near zaragoza trying to find a reasonable rate on a room and for the first couple hours couldn't even find a hotel (it was dark although i feel like that shouldn't matter) then when we did drive out of town we stopped at a truck stop and they were going to charge us 50 euro's for 2 twin beds until they found out we had children and the price sky rocketed up to 100 euro's, so we moved on. The next place Tob forgot to mention he had a family staying with him, although they didn't ask and said he could pay 50 euro's in the morning. This was a classy truck stop joint as well, but at that point we didn't care and just piled into the room, shared our 2 twin beds and then tried to sneak out after Tob paid in the morning. We don't know if they would have charged extra if we had mentioned it but didn't care to ask. The next morning we decided to head out early and find a hotel room in Lleida where we planning to catch a futbol game. We were told to look for hostals because they were cheaper but that turned out to be kind of a joke. We found 2 hostals but they didn't appear to be open and then one hotel that would have cost us an arm leg and both our children so after 6 hours of walking around this city we opted to drive out of town and see what we could find. We had children in tears fearing we wouldn't be able to stay for the soccer game which was the next day, however we luckily found another cheap hotel just out of town connected to a car sales place and again with 2 very small twin beds. The twin beds worked ok in Thailand when our kids were 4 and 6 but now that they are 8 and 10 it's a bit more difficult. Oh, well, we are happy to have a place to stay. It's not like we can just pull over and sleep where ever we want anymore.

So now that we got the whole campervan figured out we are done and have to figure out the hours of restaurants, cafeteria's, bars and how the hotels work. By the time we have that figured out we should be ready to board the plane and head home. :) Today we got up early and went to a Lleida futbol game which was very cool. It was fun to watch all the old men get their panties in a wad over the game. They also had all the little kids leagues honored before the game and there were kids from 16 years down to what looked like 3 year olds. So cute! It was sunny and a great day to sit out and watch the game. The kids had a blast. After that we had lunch at domino's per the kids request and NOTHING is open on Sundays as we have learned especially between the hours of 14-1600. After our belly's were full of pizza we headed to the park where Nojah played soccer with boy about his age and Lex wandered around being Lex.

Anyway, a little bit of rambling for you all to read. I wish I had more picture for you but I left our european converter in the "classy truck stop" hotel and now we have to charge everything in the car and the computer is close to death. Hope all is well at home. I think we have 7 or 8 more days and are headed to Barcelona tomorrow to visit Melissa and see the cit

Pork leg with hoof anyone?

Shopping in Portugal

Hola all,

Tob and I have spent the day at a campground outside of Madrid cleaning out “Fantastic” organizing and packing up all our stuff. The past week hasn’t been too bad with the beast but it has been a stressor for Tob so we are excited to make the drastic change and trade this in and pick up our teeny tiny Europmobile tomorrow afternoon.

For the next 10 days it will be hostels, hotels and restaurants. We are going to TRY our hardest to find a soccer game to take the kids too. There is one in Zaragoza on the 13th or 14th and then plan to head to Barcelona and visit Melissa (one of Tob’s family friends). She has been generous enough to offer us a place to stay for a night or two while we are there. It will be nice to have someone who speaks both English and Spanish to bounce all of our thoughts and questions off of. There are a lot of things we wander past and just wonder why??? And now we have someone to ask, if we remember our questions of course.

Regarding food our kids aren’t always the most daring food tasters (especially nojah) but they have done a little better this trip and have enjoyed some new favorites. We have enjoyed cracking and eating nuts (except for the chestnuts we recently purchased) although we were brave and tried them again roasted from a street vendor and thought a little more highly of them, but walnuts and almonds are our favorites. Tob and I both have fond memories of my grandma and his grandparents having nuts and a nutcracker when we were little and visited their homes. We hope to instill this tradition at our home and have more nuts available for the kids when we get back. Another family favorite is Olives, green olives, black olives, olives with seeds, but not directly off the tree. We all LOVE THEM. We have eaten lots of pasta and sausages (mostly wild boar). Grocery shopping was a bit of a culture shock as I remember back to walking through our first (Supermercado) 3 weeks ago thinking what in the world are we going to cook and eat? With having 4 plates, 4 bowls, one nonstick scratched and chipped pot and frying pan and then one other pot we didn’t have a lot of options for gourmet cooking however I think we have done pretty well. The kids love Nutella which they have had at home (thanks to Gma Teri) and have eaten many a nutella sandwich here as peanut butter is a rarity. Another thing we have noticed regarding produce here are things are fresh and not mutated to ensure the fruit is larger or comes seedless. We have thoroughly enjoyed the plump grapes from local grape vines even with the seeds. One last thing we will miss when we leave Spain will be the pasteleria’s and panaderia’s. Fresh bread and pastries in Spain are quite the treat.

Anyway I should probably get my dirty children to the showers and dinner made. I think after that there are card games to be played and journals to be written in. We are loving our time together (most of the time anyway) and are looking forward to phase 2 of our trip. Hope to update everyone soon. Adios for now!

The Chamberlain Family at a Museum in Portugal

Portugal Continued....

We entered Portugal at the northern border towns between Verin and Feces (yes fecesJ, although I am sure it’s pronounced differently here. I was a little disappointed we weren’t stopped by any border control to stamp our passports but most importantly we knew we were there. We were enjoying the mountain scenery with elderly people strolling about up and down the roads when I rolled down my window to enjoy the breeze. Shortly after rolling down the window we noticed the distinct smell of gasoline and how it continued to follow us as we drove down the narrow windy road. I was getting a little nervous that we may have yet another problem when Tob finally said in a fowl tone “I bet that guy didn’t put our gas cap back on.” Sure enough we stopped when we were able to and found out he was indeed right. No gas cap and gasoline leaking down the side of our camper van. After a few moments of exchanging words we decided it was best that I just didn’t talk and that is exactly what I did the entire 200km back to Spain. We drove all the way back to the gas station and were lucky enough to get it back even though it was about 10 hours later. So we wasted ½ a tank of gas and were back right where we started. That night we contemplated even going back into Portugal since we didn’t have a guide book or an ingles/portugese dictionary and would have to wing it. However winging it is what we do so the next morning we were on the road via a different route into Portugal for a 2nd attempt at this country.

We drove to a town called Aveiro on the Atlantic coast and parked “Fantastic” for a couple days while we enjoyed evening walks, learned a little Portuguese, played soccer in the sand, swam in the ocean (well the kids did anyway),ate ice cream and wore shorts for the whole day (because it was WARM) . It was relaxing and much needed as we had been in the camper driving and under stress the past couple of days.

While staying at the campground we got a dose of doing a what doing a whole load of laundry by hand was like and close to 1 ½ hours later we finally had it wrung out enough to put it all in the one working dryer.

After a couple days in Aveiro we headed down towards Evora. Not having a guide book or any idea where things are in Portugal we were trying to go where we were recommended by friends and to a few places we learned about on the internet. While driving to Evora we drove past and stopped at a monstrously huge Monastery in Batalha. It was a great find. We walked through the Cathedral and looked at tombs of the kings buried there in the 15th century. It was getting dark and we had already been there an hour so we didn’t pay to go in the monastery/museum portion of it but I am sure it would have been impressive. We did however hit the supermercado on the way out and bought some grapes and chestnuts. It’s chestnut season here and they have festivals with chestnuts and they sell them so they must be good right? Uh, wrong. I bought .42kg of Chestnuts (castanha’s) and peeled them tasting the most bitter nut I have ever tasted. Tob and the kids felt equally as dissatisfied with these nuts as I and wondered what to do with the rest. For now they are in a bag tucked away.

We ended up driving pretty late that night parking behind a small gas station where it sounded like people were having drag car races all through the night. We got up early and drove to Evora. The scenery was pretty along the way but Portugal hasn’t impressed me as much as Spain has. However there have been a ton of Olive and Orange orchards along with hillsides and mountain sides of grape vines. Once in Evora we parked outside a Roman aquaduct and entered the part of town surrounded by castle walls. Once inside we went to Evora museum which happened to be free because it’s Sunday J The museum had numerous coats of armor displayed and paintings from the 14th and 15th centuries. After spending a couple hours in there we tried to go to the chapel of bones but unfortunately it was closed for the day. Most things are closed Sundays or open only a few hours. We walked around within the castle walls and then outside to a park where the kids enjoyed playing for an hour or so and Tob and I drinking café. It’s been a relaxing day and there is still much to explore so we will probably stay tonight in Evora and finish exploring this city tomorrow before heading back to Espanha. We have 4 more days with “Fantastic” and then we can compare it to the rest of our trip with a car rental/hotels and hostals.

Portugal

Ok, seriously how cute is this? We headed to Portugal yesterday and then realized the gentleman who pumped our gas in Spain failed to put our gas cap back on so we had backtrack 200km about 2 1/2 hours to retrieve it. Lucky for us they still had it. Tob was not pleased. Anyway we weren't sure if we would just stay in Spain and head south or return to Portugal and we decided to give it another shot and are very glad now that we did.
Not long after crossing the border earlier today we ran across this sign. I think it's adorable. There are elderly people who walk EVERYWHERE in Spain and Portugal and they should have signs saying watch out for them. I love it. Anyway we are camping on the Portugal coast right now in Aveiro and hope to just stay here and relax for a couple of days. We have spent a lot of time driving the last week and need some down time and I can't wait to dig my toes into the sand after a good nights rest! Remember to watch out for the elderly! boa noite

Pico's De Europa

We spent 2 days in Pico’s de Europa national park this past weekend and unfortunately it rained (no poured) on us the entire time. Despite the rain it was gorgeous. I have to say Spain has some of the most beautiful mountain ranges (scenery) I have seen in my lifetime. We drove briefly along the northern coast line and spent the afternoon in a coastal town called Ribadesella and then found our 2nd camp ground we stayed at that night. As soon as we pulled in the campground and parked the kids said “um mom/dad there is a leak” and sure enough water was dripping at a steady rate from one of our cupboards and lights. I cleaned everything up while Tob dumped the toilet and hooked into electricity and placed a pot below the drip which seemed to do the trick. We played games that whole evening in the camper and got up the next morning to take showers do laundry and head on through the park. We had French toast for breakfast and after was when Tob noticed the propane was out and you have already heard that story so I will skip the details J. As for the leak it has now stopped raining, hence it has stopped leaking but we will be ready the next time it starts to drizzle.

We drove through a few village towns and then stopped in Potes to look around and eat. They had a large market that was fun to roam through. The kids bought swords and Lex was promptly poked in the eye. We bought fresh walnuts to crack and eat and a few postcards. We ate lunch at a pizzaria that had no pizza because the power was out, probably due to the weather. After lunch we drove to the Covadonga an amazing place set back in the mountains where Pelayo ( a knight) and his small army were able to fight off a Moorish army back in the 15-18th century’s sometime (ya I know big range, we are driving and can’t remember the details) Anyway, there was a monastery and a beautiful cathedral to wander around. After the Covadonga we continued on through the park. The roads were narrow with rock walls extending out into the road on blind corners and waterfalls pouring over the road flooding it in places. The river below was raging with high muddy water. After we went through the canyon we headed up 5000 ft of narrow steep highway until we were sure we would be driving straight over the snowy peaks. There was a huge sigh of relief from the driver when we reached the summit and were still below the snow line. We passed one car where the husband was driving and the woman was literally covering her eyes. This mountain pass made rattlesnake grade in the dead of winter look like a joy ride (for any of you familiar with the pass from Wallowa county over to Lewiston and Clarkston. The road may have been crazy and tense but now looking back well worth it since we are still alive.

Photo's

Here are a few photo's for those of you who don't have facebook. We were lucky enough to park somewhere where we have 3 bars of service, wahoo. Anyhow, we are headed into Portugal this morning. So above is a picture of the bull. These billboards are along the roadside throughout Spain.

Our first night in Spain we watched men with horses and sticks and bull chasing and what not.

Nojah and Alexyss in front of a Cathedral in the Covadonga

Family photo 5 miles into the pyrenees mountains

A hike through national park de Ordesa

Playing around at San Juan De La Pena
It's believed to have held the holy grail at one time.....and we didn't find it.

I was practicing for a sheep herding position. I think I can do the job.

The kids and Nala at the hobbit sized post office in Torla.

Torla, a town at the base of the Pyrenees mountains. My new dream home.

and finally the kids off to school.
Hope everyone had a good halloween. The kids didn't get to trick or treat because it was raining. They were planning on running around the camper multiple times trick or treating but instead we played a family card game of phase 10 late into the night and gave them candy each phase they won. It was a good night. Miss you all!! Thanks for all your comments. We love hearing from you while we are gone!

Not our style

November 2, 2010

Over the past 3 or 4 days we have come to the conclusion that campervanning/motor home renting, autocaravaning, or whatever you may want to call it simply isn’t our style. As I said earlier we have the freedom to roam, but what I didn’t mention is in limited area’s. We have had to stay out of large cities for the safety of both ourselves and others. If not you may find yourself driving down the sidewalks of Leon avoiding little old men with canes. I am going to refrain from telling all of you whether or not that actually happened or not J We have just come to the conclusion with our previous travel experiences that a campervan may be a bit too high maintenance for the Chamberlain family.

Our biggest struggle over the past 2 days was trying to find propane. We ran out the day before yesterday and thought we would be able to get another canister at a gas station, after all they have plenty around here. If you don’t have a camper or haven’t had any experience with them then you ought to know that you depend on your propane for not only heat, but cooking, as well as keeping your fridge and freezer cold when the vehicle is turned off. Our food going bad was of course our biggest concern so we drove and drove to gas station and gas station and gas station looking for propane tanks and found that either they didn’t carry them or they were out. We stopped at probably 8 stations who clearly had tanks and said no hava butane”. We finally stopped driving in circles trying to find propane at about 2230 and stayed in the parking lot of a Repsol station (one of their gas stations). We ate nutella sandwiches and went to sleep emotionally and physically exhausted. It had been a LONG day of driving.

Today we woke up and continued to search for propane as we are driving towards Portugal without much luck for the first couple hours. At this time we decided to stop and have breakfast in Astorga. We parked down below town and walked up through the streets and outdoor markets looking for a place to eat. Unfortunately restaurants don’t open until 1100-1200 in most towns to eat and the majority of places open are bars, YES bars, but of course nino’s y nina’s aren’t allowed in there if they are under 16. Go figure. There have been a few times I have thought of leaving them outside while I go in and enjoy the morning festivities and drinks, holding my wine glass up high grinning from ear to ear, talking loudly. Now I understand why they need a siesta between 1400-1700 each day. Well, instead of joining the bar flies we walked around as a family and went into a beautiful 15th century cathedral while service was in session which was cool to watch. Men in white robes blowing smoke on each other and the crowd of people hugging and shaking hands, praying and what not. The cathedral itself was spectacular. Across from the cathedral was a palacio Episcopal (Bishops Palace) designed at the end of the 19th century after a fire had destroyed the first one in 1887. The palace wasn’t open but was another spectacular site from the outside. After walking through town and waiting for everyone to wake up and open their restaurants we stopped at one to eat. Note to self a ½ order of a Spanish omelets could feed an entire army, which is why she may have been a little surprised I ordered it for just me. We ate as much as we could and took the rest to go. We played a little friendly soccer game in the park until Tob’s elbow met Lexy’s forehead, ate our melted ice cream from our freezer and headed back down the highway. Within an hour Nojah had to use the bathroom facilities so we stopped at a gas station with FULL propane tanks J Thank goodness Tob won’t let the kids pee in the bathroom unless it’s night (he really doesn’t like a full toilet) or we may still be searching. Anyhow, we are now headed down the hwy and plan to stop driving earlier today to work on journals, kick back and relax and enjoy our evening.

PS. I am writing as we are driving so by the time I am able to upload these posts it may be a day or two later. Also I know I haven’t posted any pictures and I will when I can but I have been posting them on my face book as it is quicker to download and share. I think most of you are on face book and can hopefully see those.

We have been traveling for about a week now and have learned a few things about Spain. We have been in Northern Spain in the mountains this past week and have loved every minute of it. As in Guatemala, Spanish is a bit troublesome for us but we always seem to get by fairly well. For instance today we were stopped at a road block by the policia and I thought they wanted to search the motor home. Tob thought maybe they wanted to know where we were taking it or where we got it from, anyway we got by with lots of smiles and phrases such as muy poquito espanol, no entiendo or comprehendo and lo siento. I don’t think he was real impressed and we frustrated him as much as he did us and he opted to just let us go.

Traveling around in a motor home has also been quite the experience, considering we haven’t camped like this before. We have listed some of the pro’s and con’s below.

Pro’s
You always have a place to sleep even if you end up in a McDonalds parking lot for the night. McDonalds has free WiFi (and the only place we have come across this past week with functional WiFi)
You always have a toilet, even if Tob describes emptying it as “disgusting!”
You can cook your own food when the kids refuse to eat anything not “normal” or prices seem a bit steep.
Freedom to roam
You don’t have to keep packing and unpacking, just picking up a little.
Vehicle gets 25+ miles per gallon.

Con’s
You have to empty your own toilet (as mentioned above this is Tob’s job :0)
Petrol is expensive and our vehicle is big. Diesel is 1.06 euro per liter which is roughly 5.90 USD per gallon.
You can’t lay down while you are driving (Nojah’s gripe)
Paranoia about breaking any part of the motor home and losing our 600 euro deposit (about $834.00), although I have to say Toby is an excellent driver with many years experience of driving large fire vehicles.
Driving through small towns. You must park outside of town and walk.
Small windy roads and tunnels can be a bit scary for the passenger but the driver says “no problema” (as long as no one’s coming the other direction)
It’s too cold in the morning to get up before 10am (at least I think that’s our problem)

We have been in the Pyrenees mountains in the small picturesque town of Torla with the majestic mountains as the backdrop. We stayed one night in a campground outside of town and two nights in the parque de ordesa’s visitor center parking lot, merely because we were too cheap to pay another 30 euros to sleep in the campground. However we did have access to a washer and dryer while we were at this campground but chose not to use them because we didn’t really need to yet. We later realized this may have been a mistake as I washed all of our underwear in our sink tonight. So far we have not found any laundry services in ANY towns and when we asked a lady today she said no only in campgrounds. On a side note most campgrounds close November 1 for the year, if not soon as we have already found out. Guess we will be the stinky tourists.

We have learned along the way that Spain is a fairly laid back country in many ways, especially out of the large cities. It has taken us a week to get things half way figured out on how they work. For example we would go shopping in the middle of the day and everything was closed only to find out they are open from 0800-10-30 or sometimes 0900-1430 and then again from 1700-2030 or so. Of course we don’t seem to get out of bed until 10 at the earliest so this usually poses a problem. I am not sure what most Spaniards do during the day but even in the city most places seem to be closed when we want to go, small markets, museums, stores of all kinds, restaurants, café’s, etc,etc. I haven’t figured it out yet but it is my mission to report back to you why. However I love the idea. I told Tob I want to work at the Correos (post office) in Torla. Their hours are 0830-1030. He said what about the medical clinic. I said the hours were too long, afterall they were open from 0930-1330.

Anyway, this has been a fun trip so far and we are having a great time just relaxing and roaming around Spain learning new Spanish phrases and seeing new things every day. I will try and add photos for you to enjoy. We are quite a bit more limited with internet access then expected, but will continue to try and keep everyone updated on our travels. So far things are good. Have been on some great hikes, seen beautiful waterfalls, watched some goat like creatures, and have been lulled to sleep by the sound of cow bells off in the pastures. W will be making our way down to a monastery believed to be one of the early homes of the holy grail tomorrow and then through Basque country and hopefully the Portugal coastline within the week.

We made it to Spain

October 24, 2010

We flew out of Boise on the morning of October 22nd. The flights were pretty unremarkable except for the one couple who had the audacity to yell at both myself and my children for their poor behavior and lack of manners on our flight from SLC to Atlanta, GA. The thing was they were quite well behaved the whole trip, however any time they opened their tray or got into their seat pouches or got up to the bathroom these people gave us dirty looks and had a conniption fit. I won’t go into the whole story but at one point I told this couple that we had limited space my kids were being careful not to disturb them and kindly suggested that maybe next time they pay a little extra and fly first class so that they are less likely to be “disturbed”. I wasn’t pleased. They made my kids feel horrible and cry which was not ok.. What I really would have liked to say is I hope you have a screaming vomiting child that sits next to you on your next full flight. I thought better of this. Our next flight (8 hours long) the attendant commented on how polite and well behaved they were, which made me feel much better.

We arrived in Madrid, Spain at about 9:30 am on the 23rd a little sleep deprived from our flight and jumping 9 time zones ahead. A gentle man was scheduled to pick us up at 11 am to take us to the campervan/motor home/auto caravan rental place. We retrieved our baggage and then waited for him to arrive. The airport reminded me of any city in the states with kids running free, and people meeting and greeting family member only speaking Spanish, not English of course. Shortly after we started discussing who had to call the company and who to ask for help our driver made his appearance. He spoke no English and our little bit of Spanish was not enough to keep the conversation flowing. There was only one man who spoke English at the camper dealership and he did our paperwork with us and then sent us off with a gentleman who didn’t speak a word of English to explain to us how everything worked. It was great. We told him we understood everything and he smiled and off we went only to return 5 minutes later trying to explain to him there was only ½ a tank of gas and them tell us, oh ya your brake lights out. Whew, got that fixed and then we were off again. We got on the highway and couldn’t really figure out how to go the direction we wanted to so we took another J

You wouldn’t think getting gas would be difficult, however it was interesting. Nothing would come out of the diesel nozzle so the gentleman Tob asked for help just used another one, unsure what kind of gasoline actually was put into our tank and whether or not our newly rented home would even run. After starting it up and a few choice words from Tob we were off to find food. We stopped at a nearby mall and headed into a super-walmart type store called Alcampo if I remember correctly. They had food which was great although we spent a lot of time trying to figure out what most of it was. We left the store with some lunch meat (we think) cheese (pasteurized I hoped), cereal, bread, fruit juice and a powdered sugar pastry treat. We made some lunch and got back on the road. It didn’t take long before I noticed Toby’s sleepy eyes and the drifting motor home, realizing we both could use a nap. Soon after that we spotted our first castle and decided to go check it out. While we were driving through the small streets we noticed a line of cars driving up above town nearby what looked like a bull fighting arena to view some sort of horse/bullfighting activity. We followed them up on the hill, parked our home and watched while hundreds of vehicles full of families and friends joined us. Tob and the kids stayed up and watched as they released two groups of bulls from the arena and then 2 goups of men on horses with 4-7 foot sticks. The bulls ran as the horses herded them, with hundreds of people chasing the bulls from behind. They went around obstacles through the fields and streets of Torjia until they finally managed to get them back into the arena. I woke up as they were finishing up and Tob went to sleep before they finished. After the crowds dissipated the kids and I went for a walk overlooking town with a beautiful shining full moon. We opted to just stay put in the field for the night and were tucked in by 8:30pm.

We had a chilly night, one kid with nightmares and didn’t get up until 10;30 am. After getting up we unpacked and organized somewhat and then walked the streets of Torjia to get a few items for breakfast as well as a cup of coffee. After that we went to the castle which tuned out to be a very cool museum, went to the park and then headed out of town towards the Pyranees mountains. The highways are much like ours in the states except with some road signs we don’t understand. All mileage is in km, there are lots of windmills, orchards and large billboard sized black bulls. This is also probably our first international trip that it isn’t obvious we are tourists. Most people expect that we speak Spanish and of course we speak muy poquito espanol. Anyway, we haven’t seen or done much yet but we are here and happy to be. Right now we are sitting in a restaurant in Huesca about 60 km from our first national park in the Pyranees mountains, which we will be exploring tomorrow. We were hoping to find blankets today at a store but most stores even in the cities are proving to be closed on Sunday’s which was true as well in Guatemala. One more night of freezing in our cheap little kids sleeping bags they provided us won't kill us will it? We hope not anyway. No pictures right now, our computer is going to die but hopefully soon. Just wanted to drop a “quick note” and say we made it to Spain.

The joys of soccer....

My friend Kristen and I coached the 8-10 year old soccer team this year and enjoyed watching each and every one of these kids grow and improve throughout the season.

The picture above not only shows Lex making an excellent throw-in but depicts a few of the different personalities that Kristen and I coached this fall. Please take note of the child with a cone on his head, one losing control of her ball, but, kindly trying to duck under the throw-in, while another sits on the bench ready to go in, or wondering what the kid is doing with that cone on his head. This picture makes me laugh simply because all Tob was trying to do is get a decent picture of Alexyss when he captured so much more.

As for Alexyss, I couldn't be prouder. This little girl has improved so much this year and just loves to play. She enjoys playing center forward the most, much like her brother where she can be right in the thick of things. Not much intimidates her and she has been a pleasure to watch play as well as coach. She scored her first goal this year when her brother insisted that she would be taking a free goal shot because she hadn't scored yet. Everyone listened to him, the ball was given to her where she shot perfectly for the corner and scored.

Nojah has improved as well, perfecting his ball handling skills, playing hard, while having a great time. Being one of the older kids on the team he was expected to be a leader and set a good example, which he enjoyed at times and not so much others. Sometimes I think it's as hard to be the "coaches kid" as it is to coach your own kid.

On a side note for some reason I have the children who's shoes are NEVER tied. Generally it's Nojah and he just chooses to not tie them, which is probably why I do not have a photo of him in the middle of the field trying to remedy the problem like his sister. I can't even count the times I have had to tie that kids shoe and you would think this would bother him (having his mommy tie his shoe and all) since he is in 5th grade and 10 years old, but much to my dismay it doesn't bother him, not one little bit.
I guess I should enjoy it while I can because it won't be long and he will grow out of wanting me to tie his shoes, and start using the word "mom" instead of "mommy" and stop crawling up into my lap and offering fewer public hugs and kisses.

One of our proudest accomplishments as coaches for the season is that each and every one of the kids on the team have scored a goal and hopefully are enjoying themselves along the way. They have not only improved their soccer skills, but also the importance of good sportsmanship and have done an excellent job of demonstrating it throughout the year.
I have learned more about soccer, coaching, and myself along the way as well and I have to thank my coach cohorts, friends, parents and kids for all their guidance and support. It's not always an easy job, but always proves to be well worth it in the end.

Yesterday Shaun, the kids and I took a drive up to Anthony Lakes and hiked around in the rain. I miss my brother and wish I got to see him more. Seems like I have seen him too infrequently the past couple years. He's hasn't been doing well and is going through a rough time so if you could keep him in your thoughts I would appreciate it. He is such a great person and has so much to offer when he is doing well and I hope he knows how much I love him.

A few days of R & R

I was very happy when Tob announced that he took a few days off of work and was going hunting/camping and wanted us to come along. 1st of all it was my first wall tent experience which was great. This beauty of a green tent his brother provided us made it nice and dark in the morning so I could sleep until 9:30 or 10. The weather was high 70's with warm clear nights. Besides my horrendous allergies I don't think I had much to really complain about.

It's been a few years since Tob and his brother have had the opportunity to camp/hunt together and it was fun to visit and catch up, although we really missed my sister and law and nephews since they couldn't make it this time around. I'll keep my fingers crossed for next year!

Lex and I took a drive one night and a walk at sunset while the boys were off hunting.
Her highlight was sitting in the back on a rough road with window open, powdery dust flying through the air and the dog at her side.

Nojah worked on his aim in hopes of having a real bow someday. Well maybe.....

While they were hunting one night they came across what Tob described as a beautiful cinnamon bear. With the camera he had this was the best shot he could get while his brother did the sneak attack around to see if he could get a good shot. He shot, but it apparently wasn't a good one. Bear got away, and probably with a big smile on his face. Nojah said he was glad the bear got away. Yes a mighty hunter, right after my own heart.

After missing a spike elk, a bear, and many walks through the woods the boys needed a photo for the album so Myah volunteered to play the part. It was a great weekend and I feel like I caught up on some much needed sleep and quality time with the kids, husband and of course my brother in law :-) Now off to clean the house, take the lunches to the kids who forgot them here at home, out for a bike ride, and then to soccer.....

Catched Two

Catched Two proved to be a beautiful lake set high in the back country at just over 8000 feet elevation. There isn't a trail to the lake from the main trail below so we climbed 2000 feet in 1 mile with nothing but a map, some learned navigational skills and of course our strong girl like common sense. Sandy and I didn't really know what we were in for but we made it up there in about 2 1/2 hours, sat, ate lunch, enjoyed the sunshine, and explored the lake a little watching the fish jump before heading back down. One story says the name of the lake came from a man who had been fishing up there and claimed "I catched two".

Well, the weather is suppose to be in the 80's this week and so far it hasn't let me down. Sorry to keep this brief but I've got things to do and places to see and sunshine to enjoy! Hope everyone is enjoying there fall!

Opportunity of a life-time

This week I may have made a slightly minor impulsive decision. I know this may not surprise many people, but this was even a little crazy for me.

The story begins after Nojah's recent surgery. I called our surgeon Dr. Rose to ask whether or not Nojah should play football this year (that's another story) and at that time he informed me that he was headed to Bangladesh again in December for a medical trip for 10 days and invited me to come along. This is something I have yearned to do and have talked about since before I even got my nursing license.

When Tob got home I could barely wait to tell him the news. I probably spent over 20 minutes telling him all about how wonderful this opportunity was and I understand all the pro's and con's and I REALLY really want to go and he said "Just do what you need to do honey." (this is one of the many reasons why I love this man) However, keep in mind I have gotten excited about other opportunities much like this one, that I have never followed up on. So the question is....
Did he believe me?

Nojah overheard me talking about the trip and stated that he wanted to go. Jokingly (or not) I said "well, maybe you could go with me, then Lex and I can go to Haiti and work next year." He thought that was a great idea. I think Tob ignored us. I smiled and then put the thought in the back of my mind for then next 2 1/2 weeks.

Talking with some girls at work I found out the deadline was Aug 3rd to sign up, so I quickly did some figures in my head and everything seem to work out, so I asked for the time off, after all it was only 4 out of the 10 days I needed off to go. I was told by my boss if I could cover it myself then I could go. Lucky for me I have the BEST nurse friend ever who in less then 12 hours checked with family and called another nurse to help her cover the 4 days and then so kindly told me to GO. I love her for this and many other reasons as well.

After receiving Chelsea's email I talked with Dr.Rose and fully committed to going on this trip. Here's the kicker....During this time I was also talking with the doctor about Nojah maybe coming along and he replied..

"I think Nojah could come. He would have fun playing with the boys at the orphanage, and helping with some of the medical. My two older daughters will be doing VBS programs, so Nojah could help them with that too."

Well, Tob has been away on a fire with no cell coverage, so not only did he not know I was going he had no idea I intended to drag his son 1/2 way around the world to one of the poorest countries in the world.
So that being said, I continued to leave Tob messages, please call me when you can. When he did call I started with how his week was going, slowly moved into by the way I committed to the Bangladesh trip in December and then said....
"However, I couldn't commit to someone else going until I asked his father."
Then he said "You want Nojah to go?" I said "yep" then again described all the pro's and con's and talked up what extraordinary experience this would be for him. Eventually he said yes without much hesitation. Another reason I love this man, because I have to say if I was on the other end as a mom I would have a hard time letting go and sending my child and husband off 1/2 way across the world to a 3rd world county without coming along.

I have had both perma grin and butterflies since I have fully committed me and Nojah to this exciting adventure. Here is the 1st paragraph of the info Dr. Rose sent me in regards to the trip. This is what excites me so much.

I would like to say again that you all are embarking on an opportunity of a life-time! The country of Bangladesh is one of the poorer countries in the world, along with being the most densely populated country in the world. Because of this, Bangladesh has opportunities for service at every turn. (Bangladesh has ½ the population of the US, but the size of the country is the same as the state of Iowa!) Bangla Hope is an organization who’s founders have been working in Bangladesh for nearly 16 years. Currently Bangla Hope owns and operates an orphanage with 104 kids, along with 13 Primary level Village schools with over 500 students. In addition, they operate a dental clinic in Dhaka, and have just recently built a medical clinic (see www.banglahope.org).

So we will be gone from December 27th through January 6th for this amazing trip, only a month after we get back from Spain and Morocco. In 3 months we will have traveled in 3 different continents. WOW! I encouage everyone to check out the banglahope organizations website. I personally know those who run it and it's a 100% valid organization where everything benefits the people of Bangladesh.

Medical Clinic

2 highest peaks in the Wallowa Mountains

For the last 2 years I have wanted to climb these peaks and for whatever reason it just never happened. My friend Sandy and I did a round trip 18 mile day from Hurricane creek trail head up Thorpe Creek Basin to Sacajawea peak and then navigated over a sketchy ridge line up to the Matterhorn, then down to ice lake and out the West Fork of the Wallowa river to Wallowa lake. It was awesome and caused perma smile most of the way. Here's a few pictures of our adventure below:

This is looking up at the ridge line we climbed to get to Sacajawea. At this point we had already hiked about 4 miles and gained 2500 ft of elevation gain.

Miss Sandy navigating her way up the ridge. Note beautiful blue skies we were not suppose to have. It had snowed on the peaks the last 2 or 3 nights, which of course is completely inappropriate for august.

Beautiful view of the Hurricane creek drainage on our way to Sacajawea.

Only had a few minutes at the top of the first peak because we were on a deadline and weren't completely sure we could make it across the ridge with the fresh snow.

After we made it safely across the scary part we were able to look down onto ice lake which is absolutely breathtaking.

After sitting for about 10 minutes on the Matterhorn Summit the clouds blew in with a dab of snow and we bee lined for the lake. While taking pictures here we looked up and saw 17 goats on the ridge over from where we were at. I took a picture but it didn't really do it justice like looking through Sandy's awesome bino's. After we made it down to the lake it was a smooth sailing 8 miles out to her truck. It was a great day and I still smile thinking about it. Should get me through my next week of work. Until next time............