Whose wedding was it?

A week ago, Maria's brother got married.
When we told them we'd come, they went out and got a mini-wedding dress for Anabelle... complete with a crown and veil.
Anabelle loved being a glorified flower girl and loved the wedding in general. In fact, she loved it too much... during the toast after the wedding, she took the mic from her uncle Sergio and proceeded to say "I love Tio Hugo and Krissy (the couple) and Mama Bear and Papa Bear (grandparents) and daddy (me)." (mothers never get the credit they deserve...)
She then tried to dance during Hugo and Krissy's dance, while I tried to inconspicuously chase her. I don't know who the 2 year old boy was, but he disappeared shortly after this picture was taken... maybe it was because I was to the side, cleaning my gun.... ;) She also had a blast during the dance and was enthralled by the smoke machine.
I think we killed her though... she's never before fallen asleep anywhere except in a carseat or in her bed.

At the end of the wedding, we came out wondering who got more attention... the bride or Anabelle...

4th times a charm...

We needed to rent a car for a couple things the day before leaving for D.C. Since we needed to go to Jerusalem anyway, we decided to try, yet again, to visit the Dome on the Rock.... Once again we prepped Anabelle saying that we might not be able to go in yet again (the past 3 times it's been closed or the line to go through security was too long to get in before it closed). To our surprise, the security line this time was shorter... it only took a few minutes to get in (I'm wondering if it's the recent policical situation that has made the tourist sites all much less crowded). Unfortunately, the mosques were closed to all non-Muslims (when I came 10 years ago we were able to go in... they were really cool). Anyway, Anabelle loved it, especially since ever since we saw a mosque in New York City before moving here, she's been sure that the Dome on the Rock is where Princess Jasmine (from Aladdin) lives. Through briefly a few months ago, she got confused and wasn't sure if Jasmine lived in the Dome on the Rock, or the Russian orthodox church (right) just a few hundred yards away.

What would you do with only a couple hours in Madrid?

This is what we asked after booking our flight to Washington, D.C. for Maria's brother's wedding. We had a 5-hour layover, but after customs and knowing we would have to come back through security again, we felt it only safe to spend 2 hours running around Madrid. I remembered how long it takes to take the subway from the airport to all the usual tourist sights, so those were not an option. Instead we got off at the first non-airport stop to go to the Parque Juan Carlos I, a big park with lots of cool modern art sculptures... I visited it once as a missionary. Anyway, it was REALLY cold and windy (San Diego and Israel have destroyed our tolerance for temperatures below 50 degrees F). Despite that, Anabelle had a blast and did very well in the 25 hours it took to get to Maria's family's house.



After our time at the park, we found a little cafe where we ate some delicious Jamon Cerrano (Iberian Ham) and headed back to the airport.


Ironically, eventhough we were in Israel for the whole Gaza war, this visit to the Campo de las Naciones in Madrid is the closest (location-wise) we've been to any violence. A couple days later at this location there was a car bombing