Caleb's Special Day

He did it!  Caleb got baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!

Caleb got baptized two days after his birthday.  Here is the invitation.

Before the baptism we took the opportunity to snap a few family photos since everybody looked so sharp.

My handsome boys!  Growing up way too fast!

Our sweet Caleb on his special day.

Here is the sign-in table.  Caleb greeted everyone as they arrived.

Caleb sure is loved.  Here he is with both sets of grandparents, his great-grandparents, and Bev and Kelly, who are practically Caleb's adopted grandmas too.

It was a wonderful baptism!  So many family and friends came out to support Caleb in his decision to enter the waters of baptism.  The room was packed.  I was so grateful to every one of them!

The program was simple and sweet - a family affair.  Brothers said the prayers and led the music, both grandmas gave really great talks, Dylan and I sang a duet of a sweet primary song, and of course, Daddy baptized and confirmed him.  It was a joyous occasion.

I was so proud of Caleb who was so reverent and listened attentively to the talks as they were directed right at him.  He really understood what he was doing.  It was so cute, at the end, when the bishop finished, Caleb really wanted to go up and bear his testimony for everyone, but when he got up there he   decided he needed to just read it, because he had written it down to be included on the program.  Maybe he was afraid he would forget something, or maybe he figured he had already worked hard to write it down so why should he have to come up with it again?  So he read his testimony and it was just a great way to finish off the whole thing.

I personally really enjoyed this baptism.  I remember some of my other kids' baptisms being stressful for me - so many little details to be taken care of and screaming babies to attend to and such.  But this time, for some reason, I was prepared and everything went smoothly.  I was really able to sit back and enjoy the day, feel the spirit, and reflect on my love for this sweet boy, for the wonderful people in attendance, and for the Lord and his glorious gospel.

It was a very special day indeed!

It's Great to be Eight!

Now that my posts about my Spain trip is done, I have some catching up to do!  I know, I know.  I still haven't finished posting about our Great-American road trip (NYC! etc) but I thought it best to first fill in what has gone on between our Spain trip and right now, and get back to the road trip when I have more time after the holidays. Good? good.

Lets start with the most important thing that happened this fall.  Caleb turned eight!  In our church, eight is a banner year, because that is the year you get baptized and become an official member of the church.  

Eight is great!  So we did a little photo shoot on his birthday.  Here are some of my favorites.

Man I love this kid!!!

Caleb is awesome.  He is so creative and artistic, and when he gets it in his mind to create something, there is no stopping him.  He loves to stamp and make cards, and he loves to write and illustrate his own books.  He is constantly stapling papers together to make his books, and the main character of his books is "The Man", someone who is always getting into all sorts of trouble for being a bit too manly.  (Between you and me, I think the stories are autobiographical.  Caleb is The Man!)

Caleb works really hard at everything he does, and really gets into what ever is occupying him at the moment.  I love the insightful things he says at random moments, and his sense of humor.  I love this extra tall kid with his broad shoulders and small waist (built like a swimmer!), his floppy blond hair, huge brown eyes, and smattering of freckles on his nose.

He is so excited to turn eight and to get baptized.  He is super excited to be a cub scout too.  For year and years he has watched his brothers have so much fun and do so many cool adventures with scouts, and has begged to do it with them.  Now it is finally his turn and he is beyond excited.  Caleb will be a great scout!

For his birthday we took him out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory.  He insisted on wearing his new suit that his grandparents got him.  He picked out the huge bacon double cheeseburger!  No kid's menu this time.

We also had a little family party for Caleb and other October birthdays with swimming and food.  Caleb got to open a bunch of presents and blow out more candles.  Caleb was so cute.  I guess he thought his pile of presents wasn't quite big enough, so he found a bag and filled it with gifts for himself.  To: Caleb, From: Caleb!  And he was just as happy and surprised to open them as his other gifts.  See why I love that kid so much?

Eight is great!  Its so fun to have an 8 year old in the house!

Madrid: A Royal Reception and a FInal Farewell

Our very last event in Spain was a formal dinner.  After our Saturday afternoon siesta we got ourselves all gussied up for the big event.  I have to admit, I was a bit worried that I would not be able to fit into my dress after all the food they had stuffed us with this week!  I have never eaten so much in a week in my whole life!  I think I gained 10 pounds!  Luckily, I was able to get the dress on anyway.

We all boarded the charter buses and headed through the city and out of town for about 45 minutes until we got to a long stone wall out in the countryside.  Once we drove through the big gate we continued driving through the estate for at least another 10-15 minutes.  We saw numerous deer and big game on the property for hunting; a 7,500 acre royal game preserve, where the Spanish elite can come and hunt.

Finally the buses stopped and unloaded all the party goers here...

at the Castillo de Vinuelas.  This small castle with 4 towers and an intricate facade was built in the 17th or 18th century, and is fabulous, well, because it is pink.

Right across from it is a small church...

which is even more pink!

What a beautiful place!

A great place to pose for a few pictures.

My handsome prince.

The pre-dinner cocktails and fabulous appetizers (tapas) were served out on the lawn while a troupe of traditional Spanish musicians played for us.

I loved their colorful old world costumes.  They were really wonderful!

Music filled the air.

It was such a beautiful evening and a lovely setting overlooking the vast hunting grounds,

and a beautiful old castle loomed over us.

I love gargoyle spouts and the writing on the eves.

One more taste of the yummy jamon!

It was a great reception, and everyone was having a great time with the new friends we had made over the week talking about the wonderful adventures we have shared this week, and our families that we were missing at home.

I, however, we more interested in taking pictures.

When the sun got low on the horizon just before sunset, it set a bright orange glow on everything!  It was just beautiful!

Which meant I now had to take more pictures.

I love the details!

Time to head inside!

The castle itself was not that large, certainly not large enough to accommodate our whole group, but there was a modern addition built onto the back - a giant ball room that was all set up beautifully for our dinner.

Dinner, interestingly, was French, not Spanish with foie gras, crepes, and tenderloin, and a trio of yummy desserts.  Awards were given and recognitions made by the company, and I just enjoyed my dinner and thought of getting home.  Some people stayed late into the night for dancing and drinking, but we caught the first bus back to the hotel, because we were tired and still had to pack for our flight home in the morning.  Our fantasy evening at a castle, and indeed our fantasy week in Spain had come to an end at last!

We had to leave early Sunday morning to get to the airport, even though our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until later because there was supposed to be a bicycle race through the city, and the buses wanted to make sure they got out before all the traffic was held up.  Man, how I would have like to see a bit of that!  We ended up getting to the airport at about 9am, and unbelievably we did not take off until 5pm!  We spent an entire day at the Madrid airport!  And entire day!  Just think of what we could be doing with one more day in Spain.  Oh well.  Our flight was delayed, and delayed again, even though we could see it sitting right there at the gate for hours.  They we started boarding, finally.  But when I went through the gate they called me back and said my seat assignment had been changed because they had given my seat to someone else.  What?  That meant I would no longer be sitting next to Dennis on an 8 hour flight!  Why would they just give my seat to someone else when I had my ticket for weeks?
Then they announced that there was a problem with the plane and we hand to all get off and go to another gate where we waited for several more hours while they prepared a new plane and moved all our luggage and the food to it.  We finally boarded again, and this time, they told Dennis his seat was not changed, and they gave him MY old seat.  WHAT?  Why was my seat suddenly available again, and why did they give his seat away to someone else?  What the heck was going on?  Iberian Airlines was so messed up!  When I boarded I explained the problem to the flight attendant, who also couldn't understand what had happened, and I begged her to please let me sit next to my husband for the over-seas flight.  Apparently, some guy had talked them into giving him our window seat.  The flight attendant was great.  She just marched up to this guy and told him he had to move so this woman could sit with her husband.  He refused, and said that this was his seat.  She simply said, you can move to that seat over there, or you can get off the plane.  Period.  You go girl!  He moved and he was not happy, but I was thrilled to be back in my seat again.

When we finally arrived in New York, we had completely missed our connecting flight, of course, and so they put us up in a hotel near the airport.  By this time we were all tired and nearly giddy and got a big kick out of being all crammed into the shuttle bus for the airport.  At least we got stuck with some of the coolest, funnest people from the whole Mapfre group.  The bus was so loaded down that we could hear it crunch on the ground over every bump!  We were all laughing so hard that I had to snap a few pictures.

It would have been really fun to make the most of a bad situation and take a taxi into Manhattan and enjoy a night on the town, but we were all just too exhausted!  We had our complimentary dinner at the hotel and hit the sack before our 5am shuttle ride back to JFK.  We finally got home at about 2 pm on Monday, rather than late Sunday night.  I felt so bad that my mom had to teach seminary for me another day, but it was completely out of my control.

It was so good to be home again with my family.  I sure love them and missed them, but wow, what a great adventure we had in Spain!

The more I think back on that trip as I have done these posts, the more I am amazed by the place.  What wonderful memories!  Those Mapfre folks really went above and beyond to show is a great time and get us fat.  We were truly spoiled!  So grateful to my man Dennis for working so hard everyday to earn us this trip!  Hope there will be more like it down the road.  The more I think about Spain, though, the more I appreciate it.

Man, I love to travel!  Where to next?