Toledo

For our first excursion with the JMU students, we got to go to beautiful Toledo.

As Sam was looking WAY up at the cathedral's bell tower, the clouds were blowing past quickly creating a dizzying effect. He said, "Woah. I think that tower is going to fall down on me."

 Paul patiently posing

The beautiful stained glass windows reminded me to be thankful for the pretty church in which I was raised and married.  

 We learned a lot about El Greco's paintings,

but our family unanimously preferred the ceiling. Micah and Paul were convinced that it was 3-D, "without even using the special glasses!"

 Sam has made elaborate plans for becoming a knight when he grows up.

 A smile for Grandma Bev and her plates

 Grabbing a sword for Drew

 This Jewish synagogue was built by Muslims on Christian land.

On excursions, we listen to Jesús' explanations (in Spanish) through headsets -- I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the college-level information the boys learned.

 Can you spy Micah and Paul?

 Thanks to Kristen, there are a couple of pictures of me!

Stephanie (a media arts and design major) gave us this photo.

 Jesús is a good sport who helped the boys really enjoy their first excursion.

 See?

 Micah is a budding photographer, but his finger was in several of his pictures.

 Anthony wasn't so confident in Paul's ability to take our picture.

I think this picture looks like we pulled down a fake background screen behind Paul.

 These are the 23 students enjoying a semester in Salamanca.

 One of Micah's friends had her birthday party in this fun place where Sam . . .

 and Paul got to have a little fun, too.

 The sun came out a few days in Salamanca, so we took full advantage after school!

 We crossed the bridge built by the Romans.

 All three boys were more fascinated by a 2,000 year old bridge than I had dared to hope.

 The nearby playground was fun, too.

 Our budding bird-watchers enjoyed the Tormes River.

One of the boys said, "People here probably think these trees are normal."

It was in this convent (one block from the boys' school) where Christopher Columbus asked Isabelle and Ferdinand for permission to go exploring.

 Paul often wonders if Goliath would fit through doors like these.

I have seen numerous pictures of Plaza Mayor, but I'm partial to this one with the goofballs. We usually walk home from their after-school activities through here, when absolutely everyone else is taking their evening stroll, too.

Some of our new friends are missionaries with En Vivo, a college ministry at the University of Salamanca.

 It is novel for the six bilingual kids to have friends who speak English.

 This city is also beautiful at night.

The boys had a day off from school, so we went to the Automobile History Museum, which we all enjoyed.

We also went out for tapas where the horse stables used to be. If you are coming to visit us, we'll be sure to take you there.

The boys have gotten a kick out of realizing that the New Cathedral is much older than our house, which is of course considered old in the U.S.

Micah has been playing on his school's Fútsal team. Unfortunately, they have not won a game all year.

These new church friends' parents are from Romania. Our church here has been amazingly hospitable! It is also incredible to see how there are visitors to this relatively small Evangelical church from truly all over the world every week.

While waiting between my Spanish class until it was time to pick up the boys the other day, I came upon this beautiful palace.

Yesterday, each boy was so excited when he found the tiny frog on this mural at the University. 

The humorous challenge was seeing each boy try to point out the tiny frog to his brothers -- not an easy task when it is so high up!

Can you find the frog? Maybe your smile will go from ear to ear like Sam's did when he finally found it.