So we decided on a whim to go to Spain! We found cheap tickets online and two weeks after we bought them, we left! My sister-in-law watched Nathan for a week (so nice of her!) and then my parents watched him for a week. He couldn't believe it was really us when we got him back. He kept touching our faces to make sure we were real. We had a great time in Spain! We started off in Madrid and stayed a night at the temple apartments. We did two sessions in the temple which was cool, I had to go through one time in Spanish! CRAZY! 
We headed to Southern Spain next (Almeria) and spent a couple of days there with John's mission companion. They have an adorable little girl and we had fun playing with her and visiting with them.
After that, we headed up to the Northern part of Spain which is where John served. We started in Vitoria first. We walked around a TON there and got to visit with a lot of people that John knew when he was a missionary there.
Just a random pretty picture in Vitoria. We went to church in Vitoria on the Sunday that we were there. It was fast and testimony meeting which made things extra interesting since I couldn't even really pick out a topic. I was wiped out from all the walking around we were doing and I took a couple little naps through church..whoops! The people were all really nice though!
Just a random creepy picture of a door knocker...I saw several of these and thought they were really ODD!
This sign is in Basque. The main Basque population lives in the Northeast corner of Spain. This picture was taken in Bilbao. We also stopped to take some pictures of the Guggenheim and saw another member of the church there.
We stopped in Gijon last. We visited with a lot more people that John knew there and did a little bit of shopping too. Also a lot of walking around. While walking around we stopped and got a little treat: Chocolate con churros...so delicious! It's basically melted chocolate with a little bit of milk mixed in to thin it just a bit--and then you dip the churros in the chocolate. YUM!
After that we headed back to Madrid to catch our flight home! We mostly stayed with people that John knew while we were there and they were all so nice! If they didn't have an extra bed for us, they gave us their bed and wouldn't let us pay for anything. We're hoping they can come visit us so we can return the favor!
A few random things about what I thought of the place...
1. They have weird pillows! They are really skinny and long and the pillowcases are open ended on both ends...I went to put a pillowcase on and just about lost the pillow out the other end!
2. They like pig...not pork...pig. You'll see a picture in the slideshow that has me surrounded with cured pig legs. They don't wrap them in saran wrap or anything...odd. I wasn't a very big fan of that.
3. They really like potatoes-which I very much appreciated! We ate lots of fried potatoes and we had spanish tortilla a couple of times-YUM! Spanish tortilla is fried potatoes cooked with egg, kind of like an omelet.
4. They like 3 course meals. Their big meal is at lunch, and they always have some sort of dessert with lunch and dinner. One of their desserts is yogurt-we had lots of yogurt while we were there.
5. Public transportation was lovely. We took trains and buses to get from place to place. It was so much more relaxing than if we had rented a car--WAY cheaper too!
I hope you enjoy the slideshow! The pictures are in the order of how I explained things above too! Feel free to ask any questions if you want!
