Week's news

 Josh and I got to go see "School of Rock" at the Hale Theater (excellent as always, but so. much. energy..)

Afterward we headed out for lunch when Maps told me about the Joy Luck Restaurant. They had like 90% of the menu GF!!!!! I  had the strawberry chicken (crunchy!!) So happy.

Also, Josh is super handy - he took about our 13-year-old Kitchen Aid mixer, cleaned out the literal hard grease and ordered the new parts for the top mixed. Truly a Renassiance man. 

Found a recipe for Butter Beer. Not that good.

Easter

 We moosied down to Draper to Aunt Holly's house for Easter this year. It was delightful with tons of yummy food (gluten free too!), a nice presentation by Grandma and lots of chatting. There was also an obcene amount of candy. Happy best-celebration-day-of-the-year!

Pie and other stuff

 Check out this gorgeous strawberry/rhubarb pie! And my transplanted rhubarb is poking up, I hope I get lots this year. 

And check out the six inches of snow we got last week!

And Ellie was great in her dance concert at school. She really want to make the Z-Motion dance team for next year and has try-outs in a few weeks. Prayers are good!

Spring animals

I got my summer hat  (the floppy hat) out recently. I love it!!

Our animals are doing great - the bees survived the winter!! (Third time is a charm).

The chickens are up to four eggs a day  - yah!! 

We got our garden beds in and planted peas, lettuce, radishes, spinach, kale. Aren't we super healthy?

Wednesday

 We got up early and finished packing (everything fit) and headed out to the airport. Got through all the checkpoints, searches and customs and got on the plane. This time we only flew to Miami (no GF food again - but I pre-packed) (and everyone clapped when we landed) (and got searched, etc and finally admitted back to the USA) and then to Vegas.

It was nice to be home. We landed about 9:30 and by 11 we were on the road back home. I bought a caffeinated drink (and paid $74.00 to full up the gas tank) and drove for five hours home. Everyone slept.

When we got home, everyone went off to school! (Good because they had already missed three days that week). Josh slept a few hours and went off to work. I took a long nap. We are home!! 

We were super happy to see the puppy (who was well cared for by the Korth's). 

Nothing like your own bed!! (But this pillow in Madrid was pretty comfy - and we only had a duvet and I was not cold!)

Tuesday

 On our last day in Madrid, we went out for a small breakfast and walked about some more. Look, more GF places! (we didn't go in, I was full from the muffin at breakfast).

We got to do some shopping!! Ellie and I got some shirts and she got a skirt. Ash got a shirt - all at great prices. And some chocolate- check out the chocolate bunny. And Lyndt chocolate was cheap!

After the delightful shopping finds - we went to this cohino place (it is classic Spanish. It has rabbit, pork fat, pig totters, chicken and beef in it - along with carrot, potatoes and chickpeas). They stew it all together overnight and then separate it and serve the  broth first (they left out the little noodles in mine) and then the rest in a big dish.

It was DELICIOUS!!! Everyone agreed. That broth was amazing. And the rest was fabulous. Check out how Josh can smile!!

After that we all needed a death-nap (because we were trying to get back on the right sleeping schedule).

We got up in time to go to a Family Night at a chapel in an area where Josh served. It was like a ward FHE, with a meeting and then, classic, snacks after (my areas in Portugal would do the same thing). Josh was talking around and I think he found an old guy who knew someone he knew. He and some older members stood around for an hour chatting away. It was very nice for him.

Then we took the train home and went to bed.

Monday

 Today it turned out some of the museums we were thinking about were open for FREE!! Which is good because I would not have paid for that Sophia Reina one (it was full of weird modern art and 500 rooms - and you could never find your way out).

The first one (insert name here) was good. Lots of religious art and pretty pictures. You could only take pictures of the name plates, but I got in a few shots in.

Then we went and walked around in the big park. The kids tried their first Magnium bars ( a big thumbs up from Moo and me). Josh and I enjoyed the passiar-ing. Ashley enjoyed the ducks. We tried to go boating but it required an hour wait. 

There was another small art exhibit in the park and I took more pictures. This is Ellie 'enjoying' the trip - in her Kindle.

Ashley really wanted a dress, so we went to this department store - and this lovely thing was only 300 euros, so we left it there.