the Olympic stadium


Beautiful Barcelona Architecture


Barcelona 1992 Olympic Stadium


going down the big slide!!! it was so fun!


the whole group at the castle on MontJuic


Sam, Cammie and Chris...


riding along!!!


the view from the gondola... great!

LIttle by Little

the golden statue lady... there were many people dressed up and were acting like statues... you gave them a little money and they started moving and would give you a little token or charm... very interesting!


a flower shop in Las Ramblas...


a cute little deli in one of the neighborhoods...


the beautiful sailboats

Monday... a little bit more....

Here are a few more pictures... again it is late and this takes forever to do... so I will have to do little by little... Katie, I will get the pictures of the slide tomorrow, Mama is too tired!!
I am having the time of my life... an unforgettable experience for sure!!!


The Barcelona Cathedral


This is how Monday was spent... LOST! Our tour guide, Natalie, has only been in Barcelona for 1 month so she did not know how to get to most places... But it all worked out and we still had a great time!


A giant vending machine in the Metro.. HOw cool is that?


Another beautiful building in St. Andrue... I love this place!


the gang working folding and stamping brochures... we look might happy...I think we were happy to be sitting for the first time today!


Dinner at the Barcelo's. They were so gracious to have us for a nice meal... THey are the sweetest family!


Ashley and Leslie... Metro surfing... this is after our LONG day and we were all a little silly!

Monday In Barcelona

It is almost 2 am here and I need to go to bed but here are a few more pictures... I hope that tomorrow I will have some time to post more pictures with explanations!!!


My favorite scenery pictures of the day...


Cammie and I at LA Boqueria, a food market... with fabulous fruits and veggies... we are drinking a fruit drink and mine was strawberry and pineapple and YUMMY!!


Our group by the Sea and standing in front of the Christopher Columbus statue.

Quick pictures... cuz we r TIRED!!!

Here are just a few pictures from today... It is midnight here and we have been up for 36 plus hours and are POOPED!!! I hope to to upload some more pictures after or day out in the city tomorrow!!!

A view of the inside of the church... Cammie, Dan and Joel are hanging out after the service... which was all in Spanish!!!

Just a cute building with clothes hanging out to dry...

Some of the group having dinner at a mall close to the church...

The Chaos begins...

I am sitting in Charlotte Airport... waiting on flight #2 out of 4... OF course things could not be smooth sailing when we got to the Birmingham airport. When we all arrived, we found out the flight out of Bham was delayed causing us to miss ALL our connecting flights... NIICE!!! Oh well, it is what it is and the US airways staff got us on other flights HOWEVER, we are split up. 3 of us are on one set of flights and 8 others are on another... and then there is another group of 2 coming later... AHHHH... I am flying with Patty and Kathy and we have a doozy of a flight schedule... We left Birmingham and are in Charlotte... we leave in 20 minutes for Philadelphia... then we leave at 8:30 tonight for FRANKFURT GERMANY...WHAT??? then we leave from there into Barcelona... so, all of this to say it is going to be a very long day... or couple of days. We were supposed to arrive in Spain at 8:30 Sunday morning (Barcelona time) now we are to arrive at 3:30 pm (Barcelona time) quiet a big difference.
I am already exhausted, my eyes are burning but we did get some food here which I really needed. I will be popping my tylenol PM when I get on the Airbus to Germany and praying for sleep!!!
Another big prayer is that all of our luggage arrives there with us... that is a big worry right now AND that someone will be at the airport to pick us up!!!

Katie and Ben and Craig... if you read this I LOVE YOU guys!! :)
-Jen (Mommy)

Adios...

Well, this Saturday I leave for my mission trip to Barcelona, Spain. We had our last meeting tonight to finalize our plans and schedule. I am sooo excited but really nervous too...
Nervous to leave Katie and Ben for SO long.. I have never been away for this long
Nervous to be on a plane for sooo long
Nervous to be in another country without Craig
Nervous at the possibility of sharing my faith with strangers
Nervous about hanging with 13 other people that I do not know very well
Nervous about being away from my kids.... Did I already mention that????
I know I mean I KNOW that I am supposed to be on this trip but as it draws closer, my nerves are just on edge. I say all the time that I need "me" time, time away from the kids etc. But now that I get 9 days of that, I am NERVOUS!!!! I have been really emotional today about it... I know, close your mouth from shock, me emotional??? (hee hee) but really How will these kids live without me??? I am SO joking... Their daddy is VERY proficient in taking care of them!!! But still, how WILL they live without their mama taking them places, dressing them (oh, they can do that by themselves already), popping a frozen pizza in the oven, taking them to Walmart, giving them hugs and kisses???? Guess What? They will be just FINE, because daddy rocks!!

Seriously, I am in great anticipation to what God has in store for me. I need this trip, I need my focus to be on HIM for a change instead of ME! I need this trip, I need this trip, I need this trip... (is that self talk or what?)

The great thing is that our hotel has free WIFI sooo, I can blog while I am there since the Spanish have siesta EVERY DAY from 1-3!! I am already lovin the Spanish culture!!! Also, Craig, the kids and I will be able to talk for FREEE via Skype through our computers... how cool is that?
Ok, so now that I shared my anxieties about the trip here is what I am excited about:
I am excited about:
Experiencing the Spanish culture (something that is very near to my heart)
Meeting new people
Looking and finding the coolest things to bring home to everyone...
Taking awesome pictures
Spending time with my dear friend, Cammie and getting to know the other 13 people going on the trip
Reading the 3 books I just checked out of the library
Telling other people about My Lord and Savior
Finding a new focus for my life
Seeing my children's faces when I get Back!!!
so... check back this weekend for hopefully some blog updates... if you dont see any... that means the free WIFI was a hoax!!!
ADIOS, mis amigos y familia!!!
(yay, my high school spanish is finally serving me well!!!) :) Thank you Senora Furtado!!

Love, Jen

I love Craig's job because...

Craig made one phone call to a contact in Atlanta and we were able to get into the Georgia Aquarium at the last minute and FREE OF CHARGE!!! WOW!!!
On the way home from the beach, I mentioned...jokingly, about stopping by the aquarium to break up the trip a bit... well, Craig picked up his phone and BAM...it was done!! I mean really? and we did not have to pay to get in.. But don't worry we did donate to the cause with purchases of snacks and of course a few toys in the gift shop that they so nicely place at the exit of the place... how smart was that? We really were surprised to get to go and are VERY appreciative to everyone who made it happen for us!!!


THANK YOU DADDY for taking us to see the fish!!!


yep, no makeup... YIKES...didn't mean to scare ya!!!




This was sooo cool.. there were divers in the huge tanks, so while we walked through the glass tunnels the divers swam by... Ben LOVED this!!

Part 2 of THe Fourth in the Carolinas...

Here is the second post of our beach trip... if you have not seen the first part scroll down a bit!

The girlies at Cheeseburger in Paradise... BEFORE we devoured our Chocolate Nachos... we got 2 orders... one for the boys and one for the girls.. and the girls definately out-ate the boys... but the boys made a BIGGER mess!!! hee hee


The boys at Cheeseburger... eating it UP!


Kathy and me! Kathy is my mom's best friend and she is like my other mama!!! I love Kathy and always love getting to hang with her!


This is Katie, Emma (Kathy's granddaughter and my good friend's daughter) and Lauren (Kathy's other granddaughter) It was so neat to see our kids playing together!


Look Mom, no hands!!!


Ben LOVED the waterslides... he did them again and again and again and...

July 4th in the Carolinas....

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Myrtle Beach for the 4th! We took 2 cars and drove the looong way with my parents. It was not a bad drive when we split up the kids... they did GREAT!! In spite of our visit to Urgent Care the first night, (Ben developed a nasty ear infection), we had a really good time. We were able to visit with friends and enjoy fireworks, the waterpark and chocolate nachos. I have more pictures to post but here are a few....


Checking out all the fireworks on the beach... Now that I have experienced the fireworks on the beach not sure I want to be any other place... There were fireworks in all directions and the best thing was they were not loud at all so Ben LOVED them!

Did I ever say my kids were shy? I think NOt... they danced their little hearts out on stage on July 4th!! THey had so much fun!!

I totally edited this picture because I looked big as a house and I do believe I am crushing my poor mama... but I do love this picture of me and my mama and dad!!! and I do love them so... (thanks for having us!!)


This picture just gives me such joy!!! I am sooo grateful that my kids are so close to my parents... They just love their Mimi and Pop!!!


ok this little guy was literally running circles around us... would NOT stop for us but Craig got some great shots of my sweet little boy... here is another one...

Mama and her girl... I really do love her hair... I was so hesitant to get it cut and now I am sooo glad I did! Do we look ANYTHING alike????


Here I am with my favorite things... my KIDS and the beach!!!


Ok, if you are not a "foot" person,(sorry) which I totally understand, cuz I am NOT a foot person, but I thought this was hilarious... we all have short, squatty feet!! ha!


July 4th dinner, complete with watermelon... YUMMY-O


Mimi and Katie playing the first of their many rounds of UNO... Mimi said that Katie beat the socks off her??? I wonder if it was rigged???


Silly String???? Whose idea was that??? they LOVED it!!!


Daddy and Ben building a sand castle


Mimi and Ben hanging out!


Pop and Katie hit the waves