Lockdown extended - homeschooling continues

Everyday is a new adventure when your homeschooling!  I just have to ask, why does anyone CHOOSE to do this?  God bless teachers!  Nurses and teachers are all angels sent from Heaven!  God bless nurses too!

On Sunday, March 22nd, I received an announcement via text that the Ministry of Education had developed a 'We learn at home' program to facilitate learning for all students during the lockdown.  The programming would air on television starting Monday morning.  Aliah's teacher incorporated this into her lesson plans for the week.  Aliah needs to watch the program every morning between 9 and 10 AM.  Sounds great... except we don't have a TV.

Well, maybe I can stream it on the computer.  I started searching for the channel, Clan TV.  It's part of RTVE.  Ok, found RTVE a la carte.  So how do I get to the Clan channel?  Oh, here's a link.  Click on the link.  It takes me to a webpage.  On the webpage is a button that says Direct with a play symbol.  Click on the button.  It takes me back to the RTVE a la carte page I started on.  OK.  There's a little play symbol on that page.  Maybe that's the ticket.  Click that.  Wait.  Watch the urls scroll down below.  Nothing changes.  That button apparently does nothing.  Click the button next to Channels.  Oh look, there's a button for Clan.  Click it.  That takes me back to the webpage with the Direct button.  Seriously?  Is this a joke?  Is there really even a Clan channel?

Eventually, I thought I had it figured out.  There were two stations listed on the announcement, Clan and La 2.  I figured out how to stream La 2.  It looked like officials were on live TV making an announcement at that very moment.  I waited for an hour and checked for an online synopsis.  In a nutshell, our lockdown was being extended until April 12th. 

We were gifted a custom puzzle for Christmas (Thanks Uncle Boog!) and brought it with us to Spain.  Knowing it was going to be cold and rainy this week, I decided to pick up a poster board at the store on Sunday evening to use as a puzzle-making surface.  The streets were completely empty as was the store.  I miss our bustling little village.

Monday morning rolled around and I fired up the laptop so Aliah could watch her program at 9 AM.  It's not on.  La 2 does not have 'We learn at home' programming until noon, and it's for middle schoolers.  Dag nabbit!  Is this really how my day is going to start?  Why, yes it is!

I recorded Aliah at 9:11 AM asking the other Mamas for help.  We have a group chat on WhatsApp so we can communicate with each other.  It's faster to record Aliah talking in Spanish than for me to type into a translator, copy and paste.  I just realized now how hilarious this is.  The time is 911 and I'm asking for help.  The first Mama responds, "Turn to the Clan channel on your TV, it's on from 9 to 10."  I record Aliah saying we don't have a TV and asking if we can watch it on a computer.  Another Mama sends a picture of her TV.  She writes, "It's on the Clan channel."  All the responses are in Spanish BTW, so I am copying and pasting into the translator.  The second Mama then sends a picture of a webpage, www.unprofesor.com, that looks promising.  I try that, but I don't see anything for 'We learn at home'.  A third Mama sends a link to the Clan website and says we can watch whatever we want.  What?  I was still trying to figure it out at 9:56 AM.  Then I gave up.  Time to move on the next subject.

We made it through the rest of her work in record time, and she decided to do a little yoga.  Our neighbors back in Madison told us about Cosmic Kids Yoga (Thanks Walderas!), and Aliah is really enjoying it.  They have videos on YouTube, in case you're interested.  She's been doing yoga pretty regularly every since.

Aliah's gym teacher also sent some links for Just Dance YouTube videos.  That's become a favorite activity in casa de Conley now that the kids are required to stay inside.  When the girls start to get frustrated or bored, we pull out the iPad and Just Dance.  It's good exercise and good comic relief!

On Tuesday night, Aliah's teacher created a new group chat on WhatsApp so we could ask questions and send her photos of the kids' work.  She started sending a nightly video to the kids telling them what they need to do the next day.  In her first video, she asked each student to send a video greeting to the other kids.  She also asked them to send videos of themselves reciting multiplication tables.

Wednesday was the only nice day of the week.  It was a little windy but sunny and 70 F.  It's been raining almost every day, so it was really nice to see the sun and blue sky.  Both girls got through their homeschool work, and then we all played some euchre on the balcony.  After dinner, Aliah sent her greeting video and then we started to practice her multiplication tables so we could send those videos too.

I love math and find it fun, but let's be clear, a love of math does not make teaching math any easier when you have no idea what you are doing.  I think I'm making total sense, explaining that 2 x 4 is the same as 4 x 2 and 4 x 2 is the same as 4 + 4.  Aliah looks at me like I'm speaking a foreign language.  She got through her 2's table easily enough, but the 4's table produced some tears.  She was tenacious though.  She wanted to keep working until she got it, and she did.

Haila was upstairs in her room doing her work on Thursday.  All of a sudden, she's yelling for us to come upstairs.  Our rooster friend is across the street.  We sometimes see him perched on a pipe, but that day he was getting a little exercise and moving around.  BTW, when he's perched on the pipe, he can see right inside our upstairs bathroom.  It's a little weird when you're taking a shower and you realize a chicken is watching you!

We started to make a little progress on our puzzle Thursday night.  Aliah also made me a Mother's Day drawing.  I know it's still two months away, but she's like her Mama and likes to plan ahead.  She asked if she could show it to me early.  It was super cute, so I thought I'd share.  I especially appreciated her affirmation at the bottom considering my lack of teaching skills.

Aliah forgot to bring home her art book when school closed, so we skipped art the first week of homeschool.  I sent a message to the teacher this week explaining, and she said Aliah could do it when she returned to school.  Several other Mamas responded that their kiddos forgot too.  A couple of other Mamas responded with photos of the assignment; it was to create a landscape using colored paper.  We didn't have any colored paper, but we had white paper, colored pencils, and colored sharpies.  We created our own colored paper, grabbed the scissors and the glue, and she got to work.  Her art is now decorating the living room wall.
   

Saturday was yet another cool and rainy day.  Shawn decided to make some serious comfort food.  It took him several hours to cook this delicious pan of lasagna, but it was incredible.  It probably could have fed 20 people too.  I know what I'll be eating for lunch this week.  Yum!  We have a daily quote calendar (Thanks, Sally and Jeff!) that seems to be spot on during this lockdown.  The quote for the weekend said, "My hobbies are eating and complaining that I'm getting fat."  That sounds exactly right.

Aliah worked on the puzzle while her Dad was cooking.  Haila, Aliah and I completed the perimeter earlier in the week.  Now we're trying to work on the interior.  Haila sorted the pieces by color, so hopefully we'll be able to make some good progress in the next week.  Do you see something/someone starting to emerge?  No, it's not a yeti.

We did a fair amount of video chatting this week.  Now that most of our family and friends are home all day, it's easier for us to connect with people in the States.  Aliah and Tenalyn, her best friend from Madison, even did yoga together.  Haila is supposed to connect with her church youth group tonight, and I have multiple video chats scheduled for next week already.  I heard my friend Nicole hosted an extended family bingo game via video chat, so I challenged my sister Ann to do the same.  We'll see if she comes through!

As of right now, we are two weeks into our four week lockdown.  We have homeschooling next week and Spring Break the week after.  I am personally looking forward to a week of no school work!  I suspect the lockdown will be extended, but I am still hopeful that it will only be until the end of April.  Once again, I close a blog with four words... Only time will tell.

Spring Begins and everything else is CANCELLED

The week of March 9th started out like usual: back to school on Monday, homework after school for both girls, dinner, bedtime.  Aliah had dance class on Tuesday after school.  We all went to Restaurante Papa Miguel for tapas on Wednesday after school.

Haila drew this Wednesday night.  Notice the YOLO = you only live once.

We were settling back into our routine after our trip to Morocco and our week of adventure with Kayla and Greg.  Then the first ball dropped.

I woke up Thursday morning and discovered a beautiful sunrise.  Haila was awake, but Shawn and Aliah were still asleep.  I told Haila to come outside.  She grabbed her phone to take pictures and found a message from her friend Lili who was coming to visit in a week.  The message said that she couldn't come because Trump stopped all flights from Europe.  What?

Haila asked if I'd heard from Heather, Lili's Mom (Shawn's cousin, my beloved friend), and I told her I hadn't looked at my phone yet.  I ran downstairs to grab my phone and read my messages.  I had messages from Heather as well as Shawn's Mom, who was also planning to come visit in early April.  Both of them said that flights from Europe to the U.S. were suspended for the next 30 days.  I was shocked!

I have to be honest.  I didn't know much about COVID-19 at this point.  It sounded like the flu, and I didn't understand why it was causing such a stir.  We don't have a television here and I wasn't reading online news, so I was completely in the dark.  I texted Shawn's Mom, who is a nurse, "What's going on over there? Is there something they're not telling us? This doesn't seem that bad to warrant all this."

I did some research on the travel ban and found out that it was not for U.S. citizens, so I was encouraging both Heather and Dian (Shawn's Mom) to wait for more information.  When I talked to Heather (who hadn't slept much), she told me that she would come as long as Spain was not at level 3 on the U.S. Department of State's travel advisory.  I still had hope that she and her two girls could come for their Spring Break as I thought Spain was still at level 2.  I was wrong.  I was on the CDC's COVID-19 webpage, and it hadn't been updated yet.

That same morning, Haila texted me from school.  Her friend told her that schools were considering closing and that everything in town closes when the schools close.  OK!?!  Shawn and I were going to the grocery store anyway, so we added some staples (rice, beans, pasta) to our list just in case everything (including grocery stores) really did close when the schools close.

Haila's friend from school texted her on Thursday night that schools were going to close on Monday for two weeks.  Of course, I was skeptical.  I needed some confirmation from someone/something other than a teenager.  Her friend sent her a news article which confirmed that schools in all of Andalusia were closing for two weeks.

We still weren't sure what that would mean in terms of local businesses being open or closed, so Shawn and I went back to the grocery store on Friday with a menu plan.  We saw some friends there and asked if they knew if stores would be open once schools were closed, and they didn't even know the schools were closing.  Not knowing what exactly was happening, we made sure we had enough food to get through two weeks just in case everything in town really did close.

I started doing research on COVID-19 and came across an article from Madison explaining why so many events were being cancelled.  That was the first time I heard the words "flatten the curve".  I then got a text message from Aliah's school: "We must be clear that the suspension of classes does not mean vacations.  It is done so that each person assumes his civic responsibility and limits, to the maximum, his activities and those of his children outside their homes.  (...)  So please be aware, be responsible.  Health resources are what they are and hospital staff across the country are leaving their skin.  As citizens, we must assume our responsibility to alleviate this crisis.  Minimizing contagion is up to all of us."  In other words, stay home to slow the spread.

We decided to order take-out pizza for dinner Friday night assuming the pizza place was closing soon.  Shawn went to place the order.  Papa Miguel waved him down as he was walking past.  When Shawn got home, he said he thought Papa was saying that everything was closing at 8 PM (Papa doesn't speak any English, so this was Shawn's interpretation of his hand gestures and the word ocho).  I told him to take Haila back and find out for sure what was happening.  It's very odd to be in a country going through a crisis when you don't speak the language.

While Shawn and Haila were gone, I jumped on the internet.  I discovered the Spanish Prime Minister was going to declare a state of emergency.  When Haila and Shawn returned, they said Papa was telling us that the restaurants were closing at 8 PM on Friday and would remain closed.  He said the grocery stores would remain open.  Well, that was good news.

That night (March 13th), I got a text about COVID-19 from another Mom in Alozaina.  DISCLAIMER: This is a very long message that I have not fact checked. I copied it exactly as I received it.  Feel free to skip past this.  I included it as it caused an awakening for me about the seriousness of the situation at hand.  It said, "Let's see, friends, I'm going to try to explain the situation we have with this pandemic. Public opinion is not aware because the un(re)presentatives of this Government, who know the truth, have hidden it from the general population for a month. I have the information that I am going to transmit to you through medical colleagues that I have throughout Spain, who have been alarming this for weeks and for having access to scientific information. I do not want to alarm anyone, we are all adults and each one will decide what to do, but I cannot let my friends make decisions regarding such an important issue knowing that they do not have all the information. We start. Why is COVID-19 extremely dangerous? What determines the danger of an infectious agent is the combination of 3 factors: the vector of contagion, morbidity and mortality. COVID-19 has a contagion vector between 1.5 and 2.5, that is, 3 times higher than influenza. Which implies that its spread is geometric: 1-2-4-8-16-32-64-128-256 ... but worst of all, unlike influenza and SARS, which was the last 2003 coronavirus epidemic, this is also spread during the two weeks of incubation, before even having symptoms. As for the morbi-mortality, it is as follows. One thing must be clear: WE ARE ALL GOING TO BE INFECTED BY COVID-19 in the next three months. Now, of every 1000 people, 900 will pass it asymptomatically, including children and young people. 100 will show symptoms. Of those 100, 80 will pass it like a very screwed up flu: dry cough, headache and muscle, that is, two or three weeks at home worse than a dog. Of the remaining 20, 15 will develop bilateral pneumonia with difficulty breathing, which will require hospital admission to administer bronchodilators, corticosteroids, and oxygen. The remaining 5 will develop pulmonary fibrosis that will require immediate admission to the ICU with assisted breathing. Of those 5, 3 will die. And the two that are saved will present sequels that will possibly force a lung transplant. These are the figures that are currently handled in the western scientific community, since the data in China has been worse, but because its health is not so prepared. Seen like that it doesn't seem that serious, does it? The problem is that, unlike the flu, to which a part of the population is vaccinated and also attacks progressively throughout 5 months of the year, this infection is a wave (See Italy) So that in two-three months all infections will occur. So we already have the data to do the math. Of the 40 million Spaniards, only 4 million will have symptoms. Of which 3,200,000 will have a bad flu at home. 600,000 will need hospital admission with oxygen. And 200,000 will need ICU. The problem is that in Spain there are only 200,000 hospital beds and 3,800 ICU beds between the public and private health systems. Do you see the problem? The real problem is not the disease itself, despite the fact that it has a significant morbidity and mortality, but, due to its epidemiological characteristics, it comes in a wave infecting a whole population that has no previous immunity in a matter of 2-3 months, COLLAPSING THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM ... !!!!  This means that when hospital beds and ICUs are full, it will be necessary to apply what is known as War Medicine, that is, when for each bed that is free there are 7 people waiting, the professionals will have to decide who they already attend who are sent home saying that they will send them a doctor and an oxygen cylinder, which will never come because they will also be finished. That decision will be made based on age and general condition. That is, the youngest will be chosen, who will have a better chance of survival. This without counting the rest of serious and urgent pathologies: heart attacks, strokes, traffic accidents, etc. all this without beds and without ICU. This looks like a science fiction movie, but this is happening RIGHT NOW in northern Italy. Country that two weeks ago was like us now, let us not forget. Healthcare in Madrid has already collapsed. They are telling the population that if they have symptoms, do not go to hospitals or health centers or call 112, but call 900 102 112. There are people who have been calling all morning and cannot get their phone picked up . It is expected that, at the rate it is spreading, Spanish Health will collapse in early April. This is the situation. What to do then? Let's see, this is a lottery, it is difficult for you to touch, but the more tickets you buy, the more possibilities you have. Therefore, what you have to do is NOT BUY BALLOTS. In other words, for the next few weeks, go exclusively to work and buy from the supermarket when necessary. Do not eat outside, do not go to any gathering of people, do not use public transport. It will only be a few weeks. You may be wondering: if we are all going to take it, why isolate ourselves so much? As you will see, whether a person suffers the disease asymptomatically, such as the flu or needs hospital admission, depends fundamentally on the age and immune status of the patient. But also of a concept called "viral load", that is, the number of millions of viruses that have entered our body at the time of infection. The higher that viral load, the more damage the virus can do to our lungs as our defenses organize and make the antibodies to defend themselves. Obviously it is not the same to kiss an infected person, directly breathe droplets of pflügge from an infected person or touch an object where those droplets have fallen 3 hours ago and then touch our faces. Then we will try that, when we get infected, the viral load is as low as possible. That is why it is recommended not to attend meetings of people or public places. (...) I feel the beating that I have given you, I hope I am wrong and that things are contained from now on that mitigation and social isolation measures are being implemented, but I have already remained calm because I have told you the truth of the situation that I have not heard said in any media, only in specialized forums. Now everyone does what he sees fit."

This felt like an ominous warning... like this was a really big deal.  I started to learn more.  Infected people are contagious for up to two weeks before they have any symptoms, if any.  Kids are often asymptomatic but contagious for weeks.  The elderly and those with pre-existing conditions are most at risk, but viral load plays a role as well.  Health care providers have died because of their overexposure.  In a community where grandkids see their grandparents daily, it made sense that schools were closing.

The next day, I found an article online explaining that Spain was going on lockdown for 15 days.  All restaurants and stores besides grocery stores and pharmacies would be closed, and people would not be allowed to leave their homes except to get supplies.  We were ready and willing to do our part.

Well, now that we can't leave the house, we might as well play some Uno on the balcony.

We started homeschooling on Monday morning.  Haila is self-sufficient and can get through her work with minimal assistance, if any.  Aliah is in a different boat altogether.  I have to translate the lesson plans from her teacher ahead of time so we know what to do.  Then I have to translate the pages so I can teach the lessons, and then she has to translate back to Spanish to complete the work.  It is tedious and frustrating for both of us, and there are generally tears involved.  Needless to say, Aliah is really missing her teacher.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day.  Aliah got busy creating a sign right away that morning.  She hung it on the wall when she finished.  So cute!  Then it was time for "school".

By Wednesday, Aliah was hitting the "white wine" before 4 PM.  Notice, she's still in her jammies too.  Where is the parental supervision?

Well, the parents are teaching their kids useful things... like how to play euchre.

Thursday, March 19th was the first day of Spring.  Fun fact: this was the earliest first day of Spring in 124 years.  It was also the day that the U.S. issued a Global Level 4 health advisory telling U.S. citizens to avoid ALL international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19.  In addition, U.S. citizens living abroad were told to avoid international travel.

Friends and family started asking if we were considering coming home.  I had already started tracking COVID-19 data for China, Italy, Spain and the U.S.  (If you know me well, you would have expected this.)  It looks like it took China 6 weeks to hit it's peak and another 4 weeks for things to really slow down.  I estimated Spain would hit it's peak the last week of March, and Wisconsin would hit it's peak the last week of April.  By this point, Wisconsin had already closed schools indefinitely.  If my calculations are right, we'll be done with quarantine sooner if we stay.  Plus, flights were few and expensive and the lines to get through customs were insane.  Our landlord had already told us that we could stay as long as necessary, and our village is small and the residents supremely compliant to our restrictions.  My thoughts were... why put ourselves in harm's way needlessly?  I truly believe God has us here right now for a reason, and I'm trusting Him to see us through.  If I'm wrong, I know He'll be here to pick up the pieces.

On Friday, Aliah and I powered through her school work and were done by 1 PM.  This gave me time to head to the store for a few things.  On my walk to the store, I noticed bags of groceries hanging from a doorknob.  I have always been impressed by the kindness of this community we're living in, and I am not surprised by this... but it still touched my heart enough to turn around and take a photo.

On my way home, I saw the streets being disinfected.  We had learned the day before that they were going to start doing this regularly.  We have since seen them come down our street, spraying disinfectant.  I had seen pictures of this being done in other countries.  It was a bit surreal to see it being done right outside our front door.

Friday evening was supposed to peak with a reunion.  We spent Spring Break 2019 in Mexico with Heather, York and their girls last year, and Heather and the girls were supposed to come to Spain for their Spring Break this year.  They had been scheduled to land in Malaga at 9 PM on Friday, March 20th.  All of us had been looking forward to spending the week together visiting Granada, Seville, and Ronda before returning to Alozaina for a few days together at home.  Instead, we were snuggled up on the loveseat (because we don't have a couch) watching a movie.

That's become our new evening norm... dinner and a movie.  Right now, we are working our way through the Harry Potter movies on Netflix.

Haila and I spent much of Saturday catching up on her U.S. math homework.  She is keeping up with that as she's in an accelerated program and doesn't want to be behind when she goes back to school in the Fall.

More than a week of homeschool and lockdown under our belt, and we're all still speaking to each other.  I consider that success!  But who knows what tomorrow will bring?  Only time will tell.

The lyrics to a classic 1970's song keep running through my mind:
One day at a time, sweet Jesus.
That's all I'm asking of you.
Just give me the strength
to do everyday what I need to do.

I pray He does the same for you!  Godspeed everyone.

Always an adventure (featuring the Clarks)

When we returned from Morocco on Saturday, February 29th, we were originally going to stay in Malaga overnight and take the bus home the next day.  We later realized that we could rent a small car for the week for about the same price.  We opted for the car as our friends, Kayla and Greg Clark, were going to be visiting Tuesday to Friday.  This would give us more flexibility to explore while they were in Alozaina and allow us to pick them up and drop them off at the airport.  Plus, we were able to stop in Coin on our way home on the 29th for some much needed groceries.

We got busy Sunday morning unpacking and doing laundry.  It was breezy, so things were drying quickly on the line.  We decided to go for a family walk between loads and headed up the road we can see from our balcony.  It's a pretty steep climb, so we took a break.  Shawn sat down on a rock and the girls each sat on a knee.  I thought... Oh, how cute.  Let me take a picture...  The first time, Aliah had her eyes closed.  The second time, Haila had her eyes closed.  The third time, Shawn intentionally had his eyes closed.  Really?  One more, and we got it!  There was a nice view of Alozaina, so I asked my family to cross the road and sit for one more photo.  They thought it would be cute if they ALL closed their eyes this time.  All right, I give up!

Apparently Shawn can't smile and close his eyes at the same time!

I wanted to do some hiking with the Clarks while the girls were in school that week, so I did some searching online and found a few trails that were not far away and not super long.  We decided to try one of them on Sunday with the girls.  It was a trail in Jorox that led to a waterfall.  That sounded nice.  Well, there was no waterfall, not even a trickle, so we headed back to the car and went for a ride.  We found a really nice lookout point instead.  This is the entire village of Alozaina.  We live up by the church on the far left.

The girls went back to school on Monday, and Shawn and I shuffled some things around in the house to make room for Greg and Kayla who were arriving Tuesday morning.  We planned to hang out in Alozaina on Tuesday, take a hike Wednesday, and visit Ronda on Thursday.  Wednesday also happened to be Shawn's 47th birthday.

Shawn and I got the girls to school and picked up Greg and Kayla from the airport in Malaga. What a sight for sore eyes.  They were our first visitors in Spain, and we were ecstatic to see them.  We stopped at a restaurant in Casarabonela on our way home thinking we could get something to eat, but it was too early for lunch (Noon).  We ended up having lunch in Alozaina at Restaurante Papa Miguel with the girls after school.

Aliah had dance class at 4PM, so the rest of us stopped at Bar Nuevo for a beverage.  We discovered that they have a case full of sweets, so we picked up some dessert for later.  Shawn made a Moroccan-inspired dinner, and we sang a belated "Happy Birthday" to Aliah before digging into our treats.

 

Aliah had her first field trip on Wednesday.  Her class took a bus to Malaga to visit the Picasso Museum.  She told me her teacher said they needed to dress up so she chose to wear a dress.  We were instructed to pick her up at the regional bus stop at 2 PM.

Shawn, Greg, Kayla and I left Alozaina for a hike in the Sierra de Las Nieves Natural Park about 10 AM.  It was a 15 minute drive to Yunquera and another 15 minute drive to the trailhead.  The view from the trailhead parking lot was amazing.  I expected to have to hike to get that view.  We considered hiking elsewhere, but Shawn said we should at least hike a little since we were already there... so off we went.  The internet had said it was a 1-hour hike, but the sign at the park said it was a 2-hour hike.  Either way, we had plenty of time.  We started walking and talking. Before long we came to sign post that pointed us right. We turned and kept walking.

At one point, we could see the parking lot down below.  The trail seemed to be moving away from it, but we assumed it would turn back at some point.  We kept walking.  The views were incredible.

Around 12:30 PM, we realized we couldn't possibly be on the right trail.  We had been walking for almost 2 hours, and we were nowhere near the parking lot.  We also realized that none of us had cell phone service.  Someone needed to be at the bus stop to pick up Aliah in an hour and a half, and it wasn't going to be us.  Now what?  Mama Lori started to panic.  Can we get far enough down the mountain to contact someone?  Who are we going to call?  Oh, $#!%!!!

We turned around and started walking back down.  We decided to try contacting our friend Betsy.  She lives really close to the school and not far from the bus stop.  I messaged her and gave her number to Greg so he could try contacting her too.  I still didn't have service but knew the message would go through once I did.  That way I wouldn't have to keep checking my phone for a signal.

Shawn and Greg started walking really quickly.  I said a prayer.  Our plan B was to call Haila and have her leave school to get Aliah.  Regardless, we needed to get service ASAP.  It was almost 1 PM at this point.

Shawn and Greg were moving fast and were out of sight for some time.  When Kayla and I finally caught sight of them, we could see that Shawn was on Greg's phone.  Betsy miraculously answered a call from an unfamiliar number and was going to retrieve Aliah for us.  Thank you, Jesus!!!  And Betsy!

We made it back to the sign post at 1:42 PM.  It was then that we realized that the sign we were supposed to follow had fallen off the post and was lying in the rocks at the bottom.

We made it back to the parking lot about 2:15 PM.  What can I say... Always an adventure (featuring the Clarks)

Aliah and Betsy were at Los Alegria having a snack when we made it back to Alozaina.  They were also secretly working on some birthday cards for Shawn.  Since the four of us hadn't eaten lunch yet, we ordered some food as well.  Haila met us there after school, and we all walked home to get showered for Shawn's birthday dinner.

Kayla did a photo shoot for each of the girls while I was getting ready, and she took some beautiful pictures.  Here are just a few, but there are many more.  We have some pretty cute girls, IMO.

The earliest I could make a dinner reservation was 8 PM, so we had some time to play cards once everyone was dressed and ready.  We played BS, hearts rule and king's corners quite a few times while the Clarks were here.  The adults played euchre after the girls went to bed as well.  We made some good memories around our dining table this week, that's for sure.

    (Notice Shawn looking at Haila's cards.  Cheater!)

Here's a pic we took before heading to dinner.

Dinner at Restaurante Papa Miguel was really nice.  The girls and I had pre-ordered seafood paella as we knew Shawn really wanted to try it and it takes 2 hours to make.  We had also asked them to make a special dessert.  When we were setting this all up with Mama (Marie), Papa (Antonio) offered to decorate for Shawn, which was very sweet.  Along with a bunch of cards, Aliah made him a special birthday hat (as you can see in the first photo).  He said it was the best birthday he's had in a long time.

Now that's a pan of paella!

Special thanks to Marie and Antonio for a wonderful night!

Thursday was our day to drive to Ronda.  We had previously made arrangements for Betsy to hang out with the girls after school so we would have plenty of time to explore.  We stopped at a few lookout points along the way and took some pics.  One of the points has a statue honoring forest rangers.  As you can see, the men created a living monument.  There is a reason why Shawn's nickname is Turkey (and Greg's is Bitty)!

We decided to take photos of the bridge before parking in Ronda for the day.  I was glad I had my trusty paper map as our GPS couldn't keep up with us.  We eventually found the road we had walked with the girls back in February.  We were grateful to be able to drive down and back this time, that's for sure.

    

It was quiet in Ronda that Thursday, possibly because of the weather.  It was cooler with a chance of rain.  We parked in the old part of town, walked through to the bridge, and then across to the the walk along the cliff.  We realized there was another smaller bridge that we could take to the other side of the gorge.  You can see it in this next pic.

After a lunch of tapas, we headed to the other bridge.  We were crossing the bridge when I noticed a man wearing a Packers hat.  I commented, and he stopped to talk to us.  We spent a good 20 minutes talking to him and his wife (maybe more) and learned that they are fellow UW Alumni.  He worked for Epic for over a decade, and their family is now traveling the world.  They have family who live near us in Madison, and their nieces are also in the Dual Language Immersion program at Midvale/Lincoln.  Can you say small world?  They just happened to be staying in Ronda for the week.  We realized later that we know their nieces.  They were at the same bus stop as Haila a few years ago, and Shawn used to tease their niece Summer... "Hey Summer, where's Winter (or Autumn)?"  Crazy, right?

We walked around town for a few more hours.  It was getting more cloudy and windy as the day went on.  Not the best day to be outside sipping wine/beer at a cafe.  That didn't stop Shawn and Greg from hamming it up though.

We headed back about 4 PM with plans to stop for a drink closer to home.  We ended up in Yunquera at a restaurant called Enara.  We would have loved to have dined there later that night, but the small car we rented was only big enough for five.  Plus, Haila really wanted the Clarks to try our favorite pizza place, Pizzeria Maleni.  It only has take-out pizza, but it's delicioso.  We played some more cards, ate some pizza, and laughed a lot.  It was another lovely evening with the Clarks!

Shawn drove Kayla and Greg to the airport on Friday morning (boo hoo) and returned the car.  He had several hours to explore Malaga before heading back to Alozaina on the bus.  He was sending Haila and I messages all afternoon with photos from his walk through the Soho and Centro neighborhoods.  We hope to do a family walking tour in Malaga at some point.  I suspect there is a lot to see there.

The girls and I stayed in Friday night while Shawn went to listen to music.  Music is usually on Saturday night, but it was rescheduled as there was a dog show in town on Saturday and Sunday.  The dog show featured the Andalusian Hound breed which is indigenous to Spain.  We checked it out on Saturday afternoon.  There were a lot of dogs, and it was loud.  This poor pup looked scared, but he sure was cute.  We're missing Sadie the Lady with all the awesome dogs around here.

We were going to go back on Sunday to watch some of the activities with the dogs, but we all ran out of steam.  After a week in Morocco and a few days of guests, we were tuckered out and decided to stay home instead.  Sundays in Spain tend to be relaxed.  Most places are closed, so there's generally not much to do.  I kind of like it that way!