Hola!

Well I thought I would tell y'all about our little trip to Spain. First of all, let's give God some praise because we had the best flight EVER with all three girls on the way to Spain! We left our house at 5:45am to drive to Bristol Airport (about an hour) to catch our flight to Malaga. So, even with being up so early, the girls were just awesome. And I'm mostly talking about Addison here, because Cerys and Bailey are pro's at flying and they entertain themselves quite well.

Addison was so happy, compliant and hilarious on the flight. She was so proud of being a big girl with her backpack full of stuff. She loved her seatbelt and putting the window shade up and down a jillion times. She did keep calling one of the flight attendants "old lady" and I was considering stuffing her under the seat in front of me. (Addison, not the flight attendant!) I kept looking across the aisle at Marc, who was sitting with Cerys and mouthing "Can you believe how good she's being?" I think I said it a few too many times on the way to the hotel (a 10 minute walk) that Marc finally said "Ok, honey, I got it, she did great, that's great, now let's move on!" Well excuse me for being so excited that we didn't get kicked off the plane!

If all of that didn't already put a huge smile on my face, we arrived in SUNNY and WARM (about 75 F) Spain! I mean, look at this: the view from our hotel balcony.

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We had an apartment in this huge hotel. I'm pretty sure the marble-floored hotel room was bigger than our whole house. There was a bidet in the bathroom and Bailey came running out shouting "Mummy, you HAVE to come see this tiny, cute sink right next to the toilet!" Aw, bless. Good thing I didn't have to explain that one. Some things are better left unspoken.

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Addison loved "frowing wocks" in the water! There was a playground right here next to us in the sand but she was not interested in the playground. I can't blame her.

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Yes, Lord, I think I hear you calling me to Spain....

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While Marc and I were reunited with some friends and met new friends and sat in meetings all day, the girls did some fun activities with a group of Americans that came from Arizona to keep the children. They did lots of VBS (Holiday Bible Club) type of activities and kept them fed and watered. One afternoon we did have a chance to walk down to the beach and the girls were in heaven!

On the way down to the beach we saw this interesting house: Rapunzel style Spanish home?

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Ok, don't judge me on this next photo:

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It's common here to carry a portable potty when potty training you child. It folds up in this little bag and comes with absorbant liners that you throw in the bin afterwards. So, I took it to Spain because you never know when you might need to "go." We were down on the beach and she was desperate and I knew I would not have time to find a toilet. So, see, it's good to have on such occasion. Marc was surprised that I took a picture. I'll show her when she's 20 years old and she will love me for it.

Also, we had fun finding different American food items in Spain. They had cheetos! and chips ahoy! the two important food groups. Just kidding.

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It was an eventful week in more ways than one. A nasty stomach bug was going around the hotel and I'm pretty sure at least one person, if not more, from each family got it. I kind of freak out over the stomach bug. There is nothing grosser (is that a word?) to me. So on our second day there, I knew we were going down. But who would it be? Each morning there were a few less people in our meeting...it seem to knock the kids out first so lots of moms or dads were missing from our group. Sure enough, Friday night around midnight I was holding a bowl for Bailey- there wasn't enough time to get her to the "tiny, cute sink" ;) Thankfully it was short lived and by Saturday morning she was running around the apartment. I'm SO thankful no one else got it. Although, Cerys did look a bit green on the flight home, but she never threw up. Also, the hotel staff were really friendly, but of course spoke only Spanish. They would squeeze Addison's cheeks and say a bunch of words to her. Well she picked up on "Hola!" and would put her hand up in the air as if to wave and shout "HOLA!" when she would walk past all the workers. It was awesome.

We had an equally good flight home, which gives me great hope for our long-haul flight to Dallas in December! The day we arrived home I had a friend, whom I've never met in real life, send us a package of candy corn! Just in time! Isn't she sweet? That bag is gone now. They were sure good.

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We arrived back home Sunday afternoon and we sent Marc off to preach at The Well. I stayed home with the girls and frantically started laundry and getting things ready for school the next day. We were exhausted! On Monday the 31st our friend's had a "Clashing Colours" party at church, so we joined in. I didn't get a picture of any of us, but Marc got one of Addison. She didn't like the balloons popping- but she loved the other silly games they played. One guy got an answer to a quiz wrong and had to have baked beans poured all over his head. The girls were cackling and Addison kept saying "Him got beans on him head!" Hahaha. I love 2 year old speak.

Here's Addison in her clashing colour glory: She was very concerned at first about wearing two different shoes.

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And finally, Saturday night was Guy Fawke's night or Bonfire night. So we went into town to watch the fireworks, but it was cold and we couldn't really see the fireworks over the castle wall. We're too cheap to buy tickets. Well, sort of. We bought tickets last year and it was not really worth the price. So we ate dinner at home (fajitas) and went to Krispy Kreme to get a donut before fireworks. Except that KK was about to close (everything closes early around here) and they only had about 4 kinds of donuts to choose from. And they were out of sprinkle donuts. And it was too long till the fireworks started. And it was too cold to stand outside. And, and, and...

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And, so I told the girls, get over it and smile for the camera!

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While Addison hid under her blanket and cried "I WANT TO GO HOME"- Yep, just another typical Verlander outing. Except we did have our awesome gap year girl with us to experience all of this. She's like the 6th member of our family, whether she likes it or not! :)

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So we headed home, put the girls to bed, made coffee and got under a blanket to watch the A&M vs. OU football game. I think it was OU that played? As you can tell I'm not that into it. I just like being in the room and asking "What happened? Is that good? Why is their mascot that?"

Also, just let me mention that I dyed my hair on Friday night- tried to do what the salon did back in May- going browner. I bought a "nice and easy" box that wasn't really nice or easy. It turned out a bit red. Thank goodness it's non-permanent and will fade. I washed my hair six times on Saturday. Not kidding.

So, I know this was a totally random post but I wanted to share our Spain pictures since the walk to school this morning looked like this:

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Most of the leaves are gone and there's a chill in the air. But God is good. He blessed us last night at The Well with 9 new faces and so that makes 23 in total last night. We were just so excited, as each person came in the front door I was bursting on the inside! I love students and it's just so neat to be apart of what God is already doing here in Cardiff. I love chatting to them, making them tea or coffee, listening to them and just watching them learn about God who loves them so much and wants a relationship with them. We covet your prayers each week as we mentor students and as Marc preaches the Word each Sunday night.

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