EUROPE- Part 1- SPAIN

What a blessing to be able to spend some time in Europe this summer. It has taken us this long to write about Europe because we could write many pages. Every day was great. Europe was Europe. Those that have been there know what I mean. Those that have not, try to get there sometime. It was a wonderful place to visit.

We spend time first visiting Dave, Beth and Lucas in Madrid. They have been there for a year and a half, so it was great to see them, and to see Lucas for THE FIRST TIME!!!! Man, he is such a cute kid. Fun. He smiled at people, and everyone loved him. I was expecting people in Madrid not to be very friendly, but I was wrong. Lucas broke the ice, and people on busses and trains loved him. It was perfect.

We saw a few cities close to Madrid, Segovia and ChinChon. Segovia was a beautiful medieval town that still had a 1st century Roman aqueduct and the castle, Alcazar-what they modeled and named the Disney one after. We felt like we were in another time. In Chin Chon, we ate, and wondered around. It was cool, the next weekend they were having a bullfight, so the small town was getting ready. At first we were bummed we would miss it, but as we thought more, we were definitely OK with missing out. We heard bullfights aren't very pro-animal rights and they can get pretty ugly.

We then went to Barcelona, which was AWESOME. We loved it. The coolest city in Europe. It had everything. It had a beautiful main street, great buildings, tons of cool stores (John is writing this, I even liked the stores.). Little food places, lot of small meals and coffee shop type places we loved, There was an awesome very green part of the city, an awesome park. We took a bike tour and discovered it. And, in this huge city, is a real beach!! I have never been to a big city that has a beach. It was great. Beautiful beach that we enjoyed a ton. Our most memorable part, was when we single-handedly stopped a pickpocket ring. Check out our Barcelona pics. They were very cool.

Europe 09-Spain

Costa Rica

If you remember, we are in this cool Master's Program, Jenny for International Education, me for Educational Leadership, in which we will go to Costa Rica 4 or 5 times over these 2 years. It has been a neat time to travel and meet new friends. (This is the school in CR where we take classes, it's much different then Calvert.)



This is Brooke. Brooke is the bomb. This could be enough said, but I will say more. She is just cool and fun and rediculous and will be a friend for life. She's not getting rid of us. (I wish I could have stayed an hour longer after this pic was taken to see all the drama that unfolded....please keep me updated.)


She threw her keys away in a nasty trash can, set us up with an incredible 5-star place to stay, (for real, thank you!!!!), and we just like her. SHOUT OUT!
















And I got to see a great friend in Costa Rica. Brian Neary, just grauated from LaSalle, took a surfing trip to CR and we got to hang together and catch up. It was wonderful. To catch up on lfe, and then to surf together. We went in the evening, paddled across this river that met the ocean, I was surfing (kind of) with a full moon on one side and the sun setting on the other. Amazing. The coolest part, as it was getting dark, we decided to head home, Bri and his friend were on the beach, I rode the last wave all the way to the shore, stepped right off the board onto the sand. Could not have been better. (for me.) (FYI, i have no pics to document this because it would require swimming across a river with a camera.)

Next morning was a different story. Waves are bigger in the morning, which was great for them, terrible for me. I couldn't even paddle out the waves were so big. I tried to duck my board or roll over, nothing worked. I tried for about 20 minutes and called it quits. Just laid on the beach, watched them, and enjoyed the early morning. A Kelly Slater I will never be.


Here is one of our favorite parts of CR...the food. Specifically this Lebanese place with belly dancer and all, look at that spread! I affectionately call it Lub-Nub b/c I can never remember the name, sounds yummy.



































This is what we saw in the middle of NOWHERE on way home from the beach back to San Jose...
















Also, please note our 2 year anniversary presents to each other...(read our shirts)














We like being married.










We laugh a lot.

SUMMER 2009

SO, we were pumped to get home. Real pumped. So excited, that get this...after going into a bathroom in the Miami airport, not having to pay to go in, actually flushing the toilet paper instead of putting it into a trash can, and being able to drink from a water fountain.....we both truly broke down and started to cry at the baggage claim!! We love the USA!!


Our parents and Lori met us at the airport and we were obviously so excited to se them. John's dad greeted him with a Super-Size bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos, which I missed so much over the past year. We had our meals planned out. We headed straight for the Carlyle Grand in Alexandria. About seven appetizers and an amazing meal,Jenny got a real beer, we loved it.


Our friends had a party for us the next day where we just go to see everyone, show pics, and just share our experience. It was so wonderful. I am also so thankful that the friendships are still there. They are solid enough that after a year of not seeing each other, they hardly took a few minutes to be right where they left off.

It was just great to be home. We spent time in Virginia Beach with Jenny's family, includng Lori and Bryan, Mary Kate, Jacob and Addie Grace who came in for 3 weeks from Jackson, MI. It was just good hanging with the family we love so stinkin' much. We needed good time with our family who we missed so much last year.



We had the Kane Family Weekend. It was awesome. We loved it. Just fun hanging with aunts, uncles, cousins, and all their kids. Our family is growing every year. We hope to add to the family in about a year or two!!!!!!





Phillies game with two of my best friends, Finn and Creeden. Couldn't be home without a Phils game.


Some members of the OCC, the Oreland Cyclng Club. This was truly one of my funnest times of being at home. I got to go out on bike rides with friends. It is kind of hard to explain, but I just loved these times!!!!! It is how I would spend most of my time if I could. Biking with my best friends. Once we biked then had a post ride breakfast at the Fairlane, and this is a pic of post ride Chinese. DK, Wilo, Finn, and Lizzy G. Thanks guys. For real. Absolutely loved it.




This was cool. Got to check out my pop's job site. My dad is the man. Simple as that. He's great at what he does, works harder than anyone I know, and gets the job done. And they're big jobs. He's the man and I love him. It was so cool for me and Jenny to go see his site, his office, and see him in action.