Feria, ole!

We went to the Feria in Sevilla all day yesterday and we had a great time! Okay, I'm going to attempt to explain what it's like (and the pictures will help). First, imagine a State Fair in the U.S. There are games, rides, food, animals and tons of people. Feria in Sevilla is similar, only different and much bigger. One of the most "exciting" parts of Feria, according to Spaniards, are the casetas. Casetas are extra large tents where you can go sit, eat, talk and dance Sevillana. The tents are very elaborate, some much larger than others, and each is set up sort of like a restaurant. Each caseta has an owner (sometimes two or three) and you can only go in the caseta if you have an invitation. The owner of each caseta pays a yearly fee to the city to be able to set up and sell food from his tent. The city regulates how many people can go into each caseta, thus the need for an invitation. There are actually guards at the opening of each caseta making sure you have an invitation. Each invitation allows eight people to enter. There are hundreds of casetas and each one has a name and "theme" much like we name our boats in the States. Apparently it is quite a privilege to get an invitation. We were lucky enough to go with our good friends Maria and John to Maria's father's caseta. We ate lunch there and the food was excellent - typical Spanish food: tortilla, jamon, calamari, fish etc. Mike also was able to get some invitations through his job and we went to one caseta that was very big, with very expensive food. While we were there Maria taught me how to dance Flamenco Sevillana (I still need to practice a lot). While the casetas were interesting to see, we didn't exactly understand what all the fuss was about. They were more or less very crowded restaurants inside of tents, making it very hot. Some people go to feria and stay in the casetas all day long. For some reason Spaniards love crowds - to them if there's not a crowd, it's not worth being there.

Another interesting part of Feria is the dress. Many women and girls wear beautiful flamenco dresses and some men and many boys wear traditional flamenco costumes too. Maria lent me her flamenco dress to wear. It was really fun, but got very heavy and hot towards the end of the day. People break out and dance the Flamenco, Sevillana style, throughout the fair. Another interesting thing to see are the beautiful horses parading through the caseta streets. Most pull carriages that you can pay to ride in. They were absolutely beautiful and adorned with all sorts of colorful decorations to match the rest of the feria.

The fair has many games, rides and food booths as well. This part of feria is much like the traditional American fair. The food is definitely different though; check out this beautiful paella! It was fun to watch everyone on the rides - especially the women with their flamenco dresses on. I took a lot of pictures of dresses - aren’t they beautiful?

Our friend John told us the history behind the feria. Apparently it started 150 years ago when men used to gather to buy and sell cattle. Soon people came to sell food and gypsies provided entertainment through song and dance. Each year the cattle fair grew larger and larger until the original purpose was lost and we have the current day feria. We had a fun time and Jay really liked it too. We were all very tired by the end of the day though. A little too much sun and too many people for baby (don't worry grandmas, we slathered him with sun-screen and kept him shaded as much as possible). So there you go! A look into Feria Sevilla 2007.

Baby Jay

Maria's cousin and her daughter

Jay's Spanish friend (and some really yummy olives)

And some more pictures of people at the Feria

Green Grass and Bananas

We spent an hour in the bird park a few days ago and it was so warm that Jay got to feel the grass on his bare toes. He was very interested in it. New things are always a hit. I got some cute pictures of him while we were there. (sorry to everyone who's not interested in seeing more of our millions of pictures of Jay, but we've got to satisfy the grandparents)

Other news: Jay finally is eating solid food. And what is it? Bananas! Today I mixed his oatmeal cereal with milk and mushed up platanos and Jay loved it. He loved it so much that I had to actually make him more (very unusual for him)! Then after he finished that I figured he was done, but when I went to get him out of his high chair he protested loudly until I would give him more. I tried feeding him the mushed banana by itself and he even loved that. Yeah for bananas! Mike says that he used to love bananas as a baby too and at one point, that was all he'd eat. I guess it's in the genes. He's definitely his daddy's baby - he looks like him, eats like him and even says "dada." Come on now, don't I at least deserve a mama? :)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Daddies

Daddies hold you at night when you're scared
They teach you to drive when no one else dared
They tickle and tease, wipe your nose when you sneeze
They tell you you're perfect when no one else agrees

A daddy's your Valentine at 3 and at 2
and again at 13 when that cute boy ignores you
He protects you and loves you way up to the trees
and he always gives in when you say pretty please

Daddy's are good, they are great, they're amazing
When you do something wrong they're quite understanding
And when you grow up they're still there for you
A daddy's a daddy forever, plus 2

Happy Birthday daddy! Thank you for being such a wonderful father to me. I love you!

Fireworks!

Jay es teniendo una siesta y por fin tengo tiempo para escribir. Esta semana ha estado muy tranquila. Los dias han hecho un poco de calor pero las noches han estado muy bonita. Hemos estado dando muchas vueltas y Jay le encantaba. El simpre quiere la calle. Creo que todos los ninos quieren la calle. Hay mas a ver alli. El miercoles pasada habia una mercadillo circa de nuestra casa. Habia muchos giptanos vendiendo ropa, zapatos, y fruta tambien. Compré zapatos del punto para 3 euros! Muy barato, vale? Jay los gusta. No saque nada photos de la mercadillo pero saque un photo de mis zapatos. Te gustan? Esta semana es muy especial en Espana porque es la samana de La Ferria in Sevilla. La Ferria es una celebracion muy importante aqui. No se exactamente lo que es, pero voy a ver Viernes porque estamos yendo. Tengo ganas!

Translation: Jay is taking a nap and I finally have time to write. This week has been very relaxed. It has been a little hot during the day here but the nights have been very beautiful. We have taken a lot of walks and Jay loves it. He always wants to go outside. I think that all children love the outside. There is more to see there. Last Wednesday there was a Market near our house. There were many gypsies selling clothes, shoes and fruit too. I bought dot shoes for 3 Euros. Very cheap, right? Jay likes them. I didn't take any picture of the market but I took a picture my shoes. Like them? This week is very special in Spain because it is the week of the Ferria in Sevilla. The Ferria is a very important celebration here. I don't know exactly what it is but I will see on Friday because we are going. I am excited!

Just wanted to try out my Spanish. Sorry if it's not totally correct but I'm still learning :) I really am excited for the Ferria. It will be interesting to see what it's like - and I'll definitely post more after we go. Last Saturday night we had an interesting experience. The town we live in is celebrating its 500 year anniversary this year and they had a large Fireworks display Saturday. We were excited for it because we were told the fireworks would be shot off near our house - well "near" our house doesn't exactly describe it. We were out on our balcony while Jay was in his room sleeping peacfeully around 10:30 pm when our house turned into a war zone. The fireworks were being set off about 50 yards away in the orange grove across the street! And let's just say the Spanish don't seem quite as concerned about safety as they should be. Several giant, flaming chunks of fireworks landed on the old, wooden olive oil factory nearby as well as our roof. We had to go inside to watch most of the display or risk being pelted by the hot ash. Luckily it had rained earlier that day or who knows what would have happened! We live next door to two empty fields filled with wild flowers. The wind blew all the smoke from the fireworks towards our house and near the end it really felt like we were in the middle of World War 3. There was smoke, flashes of bright light, burning objects flying through the air and scary booms resonating throughout. And speaking of those booms, poor little Jay woke up scared and crying because of the noise. Every time he would quiet down another big boom would sound and he'd be crying again. Luckily he went right back to sleep after it was all over. All in all it was quite the experience! It wasn't quite what we expected, but what is when you're in a foreign country? It was nice at first, before the smoke, and we laughed the whole way through the rest.



Well, that's about all for now. Bring on the Ferria ~ oh and check out this cool Flamenco song, the Flamenco is a special part of Ferria week!

Hasta Luego Missionaries and a New Puzzle Mat

We finally bought a squishy puzzle (pronounced pooth-ley in Spanish) mat for Jay. Since we have all marble floors we decided the mats would be a good investment for Jay's little head. So far he's loved having them. He especially likes the soft pop-out pieces that he can chew on. Yum!
The missionaries in our town were shipped out today. Now we'll have just 2 Elders for our ward instead of 4. We'll miss having them around but we know they have good things to do elsewhere.

Jay misses and loves you all!

The man in the mirror

Jay has newly discovered his reflection in the mirror and thinks he's hillarious! What a cutie.

Sitting up

Jay has been sitting up for the past couple of weeks and he is getting SO good at it! Way to go little boy. He also slept through the night for two nights in a row now. YEA!!!!! 9:00 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. Mom and dad are especially happy about that one. He is such a joy in our lives. Other updates: the orange blossoms are out and it smells wonderful here. Jay and mom take many walks together throughout the day. Jay loves his stroller. The weather has been beautiful... in the 80s every day. Of course, this makes us a little nervous about the summer! Something else really cool: Yesterday when Jay and I were out walking we saw a man and his dog walking along the street too. The man had a big trash bag and was going around picking up all the trash (most likely left by the careless teenagers around here). I was very amazed/impressed. This man didn't work for the government, he was just out doing good. It was so nice to see and it made me think I need to do more for the environment. One of my parenting magazines just came out with an issue about how we can do our part to make the earth a better place for the generations to come. So anyway, I hope I can make a better effort to help out like the man on the street.

More Easter...

For Easter dinner we had John, Maria and Johnny Perez-Hammond and the four missionaries from our ward over. We cooked all day and had a traditional holiday feast with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, beans, salad, rolls, deviled eggs and tortilla (had to have something Spanish too). For dessert we had Oreo cookie pie (thanks to our very kind neighbor), strawberry shortcake and peanut butter-chocolate rice crispy treats. It was very good! The missionaries loved it the most since they haven't had such American food in a long time. I'm slowly learning how to make a big meal and make sure everything is hot and ready at the same time. Mike was a HUGE help! No way I could have done it without him - thanks Jill for raising such a wonderful son. Jay was a good boy and slept while we cooked. He had a great time with so many people to play with at the party. He watched his friend Johnny a lot, trying to figure out how he can walk too (mom hopes it's not too soon). This past week has been "Samana Santa" in Spain. It is a very famous Catholic holiday week in which pretty much everyone participates. It's hard to explain unless you see it yourself. I'm certainly no expert on it, but it was interesting to see the religious floats and costumes throughout the week. We're sort of glad that it's over though since the marching bands practiced near our house the whole month before into the wee morning hours. We're definitely learning a lot about the Spanish culture here. Happy Easter to all. We love you!

Easter Video 2

Happy Easter!

A walk during springtime in our town

Follow the pictures to see what our little Spanish town looks like in Spring.

Here's Jay... the best part of all!

The tower in our back yard with the stork that lives on top of it.

The orange grove next door.

Wild daisies.

Beautiful flowers in the neighboring housing area.

The Paseo where everyone walks.

Jill in the bird park with a cool, random rock.

Pretty blooming tree in the bird park.

Duckies!

The church next to our house - it's 1,500 years old.

Our cutest boy!