Anniversario

31 years ago I went to the LA temple (the only true one) with Andy, my sweetheart. Just so you all know, I got married when I was 5! Seriously... I was 18 1/2, so I was sorta really sorta YOUNG. My daughter who is 18 and madly in love with her boyfriend says - see mom, you got married young, so you can't say anything! Not that I wouldn't marry my best friend all over again, but I do have a few regrets. I wish I would have traveled more and done the whole college roommate thingy before I settled down. I wish I would have gotten my education before I settled down and before I had babies. I wish, I wish.... Your life can be full of regrets if you let it be. The bottom line is yes, I married young, but I married the nicest, most hard working, best dad to my kids man that there ever was. And for that I'm grateful. It hasn't always been easy (UMMM, that's an understatement), but he is really my eternal companion and we have gotten (and are still getting through) some tough times together.

Barcelona Baby!

Is this blog going to turn into a food blog? Maybe. Well, when you go to Barcelona and have a 5 course meal, you gotta post pics of all of them! So this is first (forgot to take of a picture of the most delicious gazpacho. YUM.) I have a feeling I will use the word "delicious" alot in this post. This was salad, bread (the bread is red because they rub it with tomatoes) and olives. And they also brought us a salami/cheese plate.

Fried squid and shrimp. Squid was good, but some of them had weird black ink inside and a bone.

OK, I'm full now, but here's the paella. OMG, it was delicious.

Cute French guy we met while dining. He kept talking to us and I kept saying in the back of my mind "Pilar, don't tell him where we are staying tonight, have you seen the movie Taken?" HELLO, he might be a rapist! When I told Pilar this afterwards, she just laughed. This girl has traveled extensively by herself (once in a motorhome all over Spain), so she knew he wasn't a rapist. Her radar is probably more accurate than mine.

Beach. Don't look too close, some of the women didn't have their bathing suit tops on. They must have forgotten them....

Oh, here we go, more food. Mussels in a delicious sauce.

Not done yet, custard with a caramalized topping. And that little plate in the background is our little "before dessert, dessert" - little cakes with a little shot of liquor. The waiter brought two little glasses of the liquor, one was non-alcoholic and one wasn't. Well, we didn't know and Pilar drank both of them. Later he said, did your sister like the melon shot I brought her without the alcohol. Pilar drank mine! So he brought me another one.

I just had to dip my toes in the Meditteranean.

This is a church that is under construction since 1882. The architect, Antoni Gaudi, died in 1926 and they have been trying to finish it. It's amazing, but weird. It's part old church with statues and part Las Vegas with weird fruit statues and weird star things (which you can kinda see on the top here.)

Ostrich eggs at the market.

Strange fruit at market.

Another of Gaudi's buildings. Look at the strange balconies. It's sorta like the flintstones.

We walked all over the city of Barcelona. I loved it. So many people and things to see. We stayed the night in a hotel and I left for the USA on Thursday. What an incredible trip I had. Saw so many beautiful and amazing things. Thanks Pilar! I'm so lucky to have you. Can't wait to go back.

Philippe´s Office

Waterfall

Waterfall

Rushing River

Cami and Pilar are taking a break cause we are about to climb this mountain to the glacier.

The view of the valley as we climbed.

First mountain glacier lake.

Second mountain glacier lake.

So pretty.

Today Pilar said to me - we are going on a hike - just about 25 minutes, not too bad. So we drive to the ski resort where Philippe works (these pics are his backyard at the resort). And we start climbing and climbing and climbing. Um, by the way, we are going to a glacier where there are beautiful lakes. Is she trying to kill me? It was straight up a mountain and walking through snow a foot deep and then BAM! The most breathtaking mountain lakes I´ve ever seen. Totally worth it! I was in awe. OH, yeah, and waterfalls everywhere. YAWN. Just more waterfalls. Today was my last full day in Andorra. It went by too fast! Tomorrow we will take the bus to Barcelona and spend the day there. Probably go to the beach. Then spend the night and I fly home on Thursday. Have to go back to work on Friday. Can you say DEPRESSING????  I may not be able to post tomorrow night from the hotel. Cami is staying with Philippe and the kids and just Pilar and I are going. So hopefully that will go ok. It has been the most wonderful trip and I´m coming back for sure. LOVED every minute of it.

Adventures in the Pyrenees

In case I haven´t mentioned it, Andorra is in the Pyrenees Mountains. So beautiful.

Water flowing everywhere.

Yawn.... just another waterfall, they are everywhere.

¨

This means welcome in Catalan.

Did I mention we are in the Pyrenees Mountains?

Just another gorgeous day in the Pyrenees...

That is a ski lift to take you to the other side.

Water flowing under an old rock bridge.

Church in La Sua (hope I´m spelling that right) with Pres. Hinckley, Barcelona Spain Mission Pres.

Missionaries - Elder Wilkinson from Salt Lake and Elder Roco from Chile.

Well, it´s Monday and we leave for Barcelona on Wed. so I can fly home on Thursday :(.    Yesterday we went to church about 40 minutes away in a town called La Sau, Spain. The missionaries were so cute. Elder Wilkinson from SL had only been in the field 4 days, he was so green! And the mission pres. spoke for sacrament meeting with his wife, he is Pres. Hinckley´s son. The mission is the Barcelona mission, which encompasses Andorra. There were only about 30 people at sacrament. It was great. The spirit was strong there. The other missionary was from Chile. On Saturday it rained most of the day so we were lazy and laid around and watched movies. It was a cozy rain. Went to dinner last night, Yum, as usual. Enzo was in France all weekend with his soccer team. The bus got back around 10 last night. He scored a goal for his team. Go Enzo! We keep calling Enzo and Kailani the Stepford children cause they are perfect. They are quiet, and go to bed without a fuss and are little angels. They both speak 4 languages, French, Spanish, Catalan, and English. I´m so impressed. Today the sun was out finally and we went to the gym and took a long hike. There is water and waterfalls everywhere here. They are incredible. I don´t think Pilar appreciates them cause she sees them all the time. I´m always like, lets stop and take a picture, and she´s like, yawn, another waterfall?.....

Wait! I forgot one important thing that happened yesterday. Pilar gave me the most incredible massage. OMG..... finally I have someone in the family that will give me FREE massages. Cause you all know how cheap I am. It was one of the best massages I have ever gotten. So relaxing. She doesn´t believe in talking during a massage. I was in heaven. I think tomorrow I´m getting a facial. Um, heck yeah I´m coming back to Andorra!!!

France

My beautiful sister and I.

The architecture in France was amazing.

The family we stayed with in Toulouse. Penelope, Dominique, and Kenny (he´s from Baltimore, MD) They have a little boy, Emile, but he was already at school, this was Cherie, a little girl that Dominique babysat. They were the best hosts.

The castle at Carcassone. Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves with Kevin Costner was filmed here.

Castle at Carcessone.

This pictue does´nt do justice to this church. It was breathtaking.

Crepes! Filled with Nutella. YUM.

There are waterfalls everywhere in Andorra.

Another castle, this one in Foix.

We spent the last 2 days in France. Stayed the night at some of Pilar´s and Phillipe´s friends. They were so nice and took such good care of us. First of all, on the way there we ate lunch at a little place at a small town in France. I had goat cheese salad and of course bread. I cannot say enough about the bread here. OMG  you get this way yummy crusty bread at every meal. And today we ate crepes! Nutella crepes and ham and cheese crepes. Just forget trying to even be remotely low carb here. The French don´t believe in low carb. And of course they are all skinny! And they eat dinner at 10 oclock at night. This is how the schedule goes. Get up, have bread and coffee. Then lunch around 2, usually a salad or something, bread of course, then a light snack at 6, then dinner at 9 or 10. And of course more bread. And no one is in a hurry, you sit around and sip your wine and eat and talk till 11. I can´t believe they don´t all weigh 400 pounds!

We went to Carcissone Castle today. It was so beautiful and magnificent. Kevin Costner, Prince of Thieves was filmed there. It was so awesome. The church in it had so much stained glass. And while we were sitting there, some quartet from Russia was visiting and just started singing. The acoustics in there were out of this world. Very spiritual. Then we went to Phillipe´s parents house in Foix. There was another castle there. Tonight I went to one of Pilar´s friends 40th bday party. A real French party. Wine and bread and homemade stuff . Everyone was so nice and of course they all kissed me (both cheeks don´t forget!) This has been so incredible so far. I love it here. Oh, and I went to spinning class yesterday morning here in Andorra before we left. It was hard and maybe I worked a bit of those carbs off!