A year in pictures

At the end of 2007 I enjoyed very much creating a review of our year using pictures.  I started the same project again at the end of 2008, but am only now finishing it.  Many of these pictures have found their way into other blog postings, and most, if not all, are on facebook.  But I hope you enjoy seeing them here, in the context of a year in our life.  

Muxia for the holidays

On what might become a new family tradition, we took a day trip on the day before Christmas eve (December 23rd). We drove an hour and a half to Muxia. It is one of the final destinations of the Camino de Santiago (Fisterre being the other, or Finisterre in Castellano). The weather was spectacular - bright, clear, sunny skies with warm sun and warmer temperatures than we had been having recently (around 60 Farenheit). We all had a great time, and Faith and I took more than 240 pictures. I don't know why she keeps bringing up the idea that we should each get our own camera. Be assured, I culled that down to about 120 in my library, and I posted 60 of them on Facebook and on Picasa. If you click on the slideshow above you can go to the Picasa website to see bigger pictures with comments.

Picture of the Day

Castillo Santa Cruz at dusk.  Taken yesterday on a family walk not 10 minutes drive from home.

This may be true all over the globe and I'm just noticing it more here, but I love the way that light 'plays.'  It seems like the light here is always changing and reflecting in a thousand different ways.  I really like how this picture captured the light of that moment. 

Gone Fishin'

Faith blogged yesterday about our walk along the coast. It's one of our favorite places, and she already posted most of the artsy/romantic pictures. I just noticed today the fishing theme that came out on a number of pictures - here are three of the best.

If you like to fish, this might look like heaven to you.

A broader shot to show just how little this fisherman looked against the backdrop.

A small fishing boat common in the waters of Galicia.

Mmmmm.... Queso!!!!

I'll be blogging a lot about my recent trip on the Camino, but first, a shot of our little booster-seat-bound thief. We left her alone in the kitchen (momentarily) strapped into her chair thinking she was restrained from getting into much trouble. Only to return to find she had absconded the last two (yes that is two slices thick!) pieces of Gouda. As Dora would say - "Delicioso!"

Photos

I added two small albums (less than 2o pictures) to Picasa. Thought I'd post some slideshows here. If you'd like to see larger images, click on the pictures and you will be taken to Picasa.

Puente Romana

This roman-era bridge is near our house - it's on the way to and back from Ryan's school. It's reserved for foot traffic now. It's clearly not big enough for cars and trucks. This slide show is of the best pictures we've taken of it over the last nine months. As cool as it is, it's actually difficult to get good pictures of - partly because of the modern, not-so-cool, bridge right next to it.


Boats

Just a few more pictures of local boats. If you've seen previous boat photos I've taken, you may start to recognize a few.

Abscence

So I've been a little absent from the blog lately. What with a visit from my parents-in-law, a trip to a conference in Manila, raising pressure and stress as this semester of language school coming to a close soon, and not to mention raising three energy-absorbing kids - I've had little will to pound out another blog post. Faith, however, has been good about blogging - especially with pictures and the happenings of our family. You can go to her blog to fill in the last several weeks if you havn't already.

Here is a picture from the Philippines to entice you to check her blog for more.
We had an excellent time at International Team's leadership conference in Manilla. It was a long way to travel for a short 5 nite conference, but it was worth it. We were really encouraged by many people we met and heard from. Manila is a very fun and unique place. We were especially touched by the Filipino missionaries that are spreading across the globe to serve Jesus.

Más barcos (more boats)

Still havn't outgrown my fascination with the little boats here. I walked Ryan to school today, and as Kathryn and I moseyed home I took a plethora of pictures along the way.



If you'd like to see larger images just click anywhere on the slideshow and you will be taken to our Picasa album(s).

A Walk in the Park

On Friday Faith and I had a date, and we went to our favorite local lighthouse. OK, it's really the only lighthouse I know of around here, but we love it, and we go pretty often. If you've seen any of our pictures from Spain, you've probably seen the lighthouse. It's very photogenic. Yesterday, we actually paid the two euros and climbed all 202 steps to the top for the scenic view.

This short slideshow (9 pics) are my favorite shots from our expedition. To see larger sized photos, or other random picasa albums, click on the slideshow.


We took a family excursion Thursday evening to another of our favorite spots. Faith posted quite a few fantastic pictures on her blog here.

I Live Here

Today I am in awe of the beauty of this place. Brennan and I visited a park on top of a local mountain overlooking the city and the ocean. It was an absolutely perfect clear and sunny day that highlighted the beauty of creation, and by extension, of the creator. Somewhere inside this midwesterner, there is a voice that regularly states in disbelief, "I can't believe I live here... I can't believe I live HERE!!"

Note Brennan in the foreground moving lickety-split to the park. There might not be a playground on earth with a better view.

I have no words

Seriously.... I live here.

And I love it.

A slice of daily life

This is one of the local parks we visit often. There are three within a short walk from our home. This one is the most popular park of the neighborhood, I presume, because it gets full sun in the afternoon. It has been dubbed "the ria park" by our family because it is overlooking the scenic tidal river here. It is the park that we most often run into classmates of Brennan's, and a few local families we have met. Here Brennan can shyly start to play with those classmates as he feels more and more comfortable here. Here Ryan lives as large and as loud as he wants, and blends right in with the natives. And Kathryn gets to watch even more frenetic activity and hear even louder noises than she experiences at home. She also is a great tool to help us meet other parents. No one can resist her (see my last post for proof).

This is the view of the sunset over 'the ria.'

The above and below pictures are action photos from yesterday's visit.

Another boat photo. Still addicted to them.

Coruña, Torre de Hercules, and some pretty big waves.

Over our Christmas break from schools, we spent one afternoon at one of our favorite scenic spots here in Coruña. It was dusk, and the waves were really big on a mostly overcast day. The evening produced some really fun pictures I wanted to share. If you read Faith's blog you've already seen at least a few (if not all) of these. I like these pictures not only because of the memories they bring up for me, but because they also show that Galicia retains a sense of beauty even on the grey, windy, and cold days. I don't know if I ever thought that of most places I've lived before.

I love this picture above, because it really gives you a good idea of the force with which these big waves were hitting the rocky coast. Those two guys you see standing in front of the big sculpure were probably 15 feet above the place where the waves hit. It was pretty awesome in the true definition of the word.

This picture is a little grainy, but I love the subtle coloring of the dusk sky against the dark green grass, with the well lit lighthouse at the center of it all.

This picture gives you a little more perspective of the point that the lighthouse is on.

A year in pictures

I toyed with creating several different photo albums to post, but opted with one monster album encompassing all of 2007. Don't worry, I culled more than 2,000 pictures down to 88 of the very best. They are not in chronological order - but if you made it through my last marathon of a blog, you'll have a good idea when most of these were taken.

Click on the slideshow to be taken to Picasa to view larger versions of the pictures.

Two-thousand Eight-hundred and Thirty-one

This is the first (quality) picture we have from 2007: Pike's peak from my uncle's back yard outside Colorado Springs.

Today Faith and I looked through the pictures we took in 2007. It's hard to describe our year, much less describe looking at a pictorial history of that year. In one sense it seems like it was a really long year when we look back at a trip we took to Colorado in early January, because it seems like it was SO long ago. From here it almost feels like it was another lifetime, almost like looking back onto a previous life from another dimension. On the other hand, the year seems to have flown by to consider the ground we covered, both figuratively and literally.

I started to write a short time line of our 2007 - it's not that short, and would distract from the point of this post. Look for it in a post to come soon : - )

I did the math after our time viewing pictures, and by my non-scientific calculation we took somewhere in the ballpark of 2,831 pictures on the year. I'm not sure about you, but even in our family that is astounding. That doesn't count all the pictures we've accumulated from others (parents, etc). Obviously, not all of those pictures are keepers, and many have been deleted. Nonetheless, I still have 1,887 pictures in my 2007 folder.

I've shared a few of those pictures on this blog over the last several months. I'm going to try to put quite a few more out there in the days to come, before we get back into the regular routines of our lives here. Stay tuned.This is the last (quality) picture taken in 2007. Brennan and Ryan at a castle about 45 minutes drive away.

Galicia

In my thankful blog, I mentioned I am thankful for the opportunity to live in Galicia. Faith rightfully suggested I might take some time to explain in a little more detail about it.

Galicia (pronounced gah-lee-thee-ah) is the northwest corner of Spain. The Atlantic coast defines the geography to the north and west. It is known as the Costa del Muerte - "the death coast" because the dramatic rocky coasts and poor weather has meant many tragic shipwrecks over the centuries. The land is mountainous (think Appalachians more than Rockies), and Portugal borders to the south. The weather is temperate, and wet. It rains quite a bit (or so we are told - the weather has been unseasonably warm and dry since we arrived) and the result are beautiful green landscapes, and equally beautiful and dramatic rocky coasts.

It is one of Spain's autonomous regions. It is part of Spain, but also enjoys a little more autonomy from other regions of Spain. This is mainly because the people here are a different people group than much of Spain (although to be fair, Spain seems to be comprised of many different people groups). And perhaps even more significantly, they speak their own language here, Gallego (guy-yay-go). It is not a dialect, rather it is a seperate romance language that developed at the same time as Spanish. It shares similarities to both Spanish and Portuguese. Gallego is the official language for government here, so much of the early paperwork we completed was in Gallego, as is most everything that is sent home from Brennan's school. The Gallegos are proud of their language and unique heritage.

This region is truly unique, and it's been a joy to begin to learn about it. We really are only just beginning to learn. My weak attempts at explaining it in a blog will only convey so much. If you like Wikipedia, you can read a little more about Galicia here.

We have taken way too many pictures as we've had chances to sneak out and explore Galicia in the short time we've been here. I've created another album on Picasa you can peruse if you are interested. I apologize in advance for the number of photos. Just recognize I am only posting the best we have taken. I just hope it gives even a small slice of how pretty it is here. As usual, you can click on the photo below to be taken to the online album.

Galicia

Unplanned Experiences: The Sling

We continue to learn about how to live here in Spain, and continue on our pretty constant parade of 'firsts.' We made our first visit to the emergency room here in La Coruña Thursday evening. We were visiting another home, and Ryan fell in the simplest of ways. He was already sitting on the wood floor, and he spun around to do something, lost his balance, and fell over. It took us 5-10 minutes to discover that his arm was REALLY hurting, and he would not allow us to touch it.

Once again, God really provided for our needs. We happened to be with a number of bi-lingual missionaries at the time, and one of them, Leah, was so great to give up her evening and help us take care of Ryan. We had been planning on applying for the public health care system on this coming week, so obviously had not registered yet. The local clinic took a look at Ryan anyway, and suggested an x-ray was necessary. This meant a trip to the local children's hospital emergency room, where they also helped us. .

Overall, Ryan was an excellent 2 year old patient. Especially one who missed dinner and bedtime to check out the emergency room. He obviously did not enjoy having his sore arm poked and prodded. He spent most of the time in the hospital in my arms, whimpering or crying. He gave several dirty looks to the Doctors who poked and prodded him. Despite his misgivings, the Doctors were very nice to him, and tried very hard to figure out if anything was wrong. The x-ray showed no broken bones, which is good. But evidently with children this small it is very difficult to tell if there is any ligament damage. He refused to use the injured arm for the entire visit. They said it's most likely a sprain, and put him in a sling. They suggested he take ibuprofen, and if he wasn't using his arm in 5 days to visit the pediatrician.

Here is a picture of him taken on Friday.

For our first experience into socialized medicine, it wasn't that bad. We've heard that waiting for a long time is the norm. (The socialized system is known for it's slowness. Our friend Leah, who was helping us, hurt her knee almost a month ago, and will not get it x-rayed until December!!) But in our case, it didn't seem we waited any more at the public hospital here than I ever have at a US hospital. We now get to urgently complete our registration for the health care system on Monday in order for this visit to be covered.

At any rate, he perked up almost immediately after we walked out of the hospital doors. Thankfully, Friday was a holiday, so we've had a three day weekend. It's been two days, and he is still in his sling, and still not using the arm. He's terrified to take it off, even though we have made him take it off once each day since. Outside of the very noticeable sling, you'd have trouble recognizing he's operating with one arm. He climbs around, makes trouble with his brother, plays and eats normally. I've included three more photos below to prove he did just fine as we did some sightseeing in Coruña today, and at the park. You can feel a little bad for him, but not too bad. After all, he gets even more attention now than he was before when we go out.

Throwing rocks.

Looking tough at the Torre de Hercules (Tower of Hercules - the oldest working Roman lighthouse in the world).

Enjoying some time at the park.

Kids

Kids

Going through this life change with the kids is most interesting. It is obviously more challenging to make this kind of move with kids than without. But it has been a lot of fun to see them enjoy the changes. They have been very natural ice-breakers with Spaniards - they LOVE little children here. I created an album of photos of the kids we've taken since our arrival. Click on the photo to be linked to the album. Enjoy.

Boats

I have been surprised by my desire to take pictures since arriving here. Typically in our family, Faith is the photographer. But I have felt drawn to try and capture at least some of what I'm experiencing on film. I'm not sure if this is some subconscious need to process the life change we are experiencing, or what. Regardless, I'll try to start sharing more photos here.

One thing that has captured my imagination are boats. We live near a tidal river - here it's called a ria. It's a freshwater river that is not that large, and sits in a river bed far to wide for it. Each high tide fills the river with salt water and makes the entire body of water much wider. It really is very cool. At any rate, in our ria, there are a number of these little fishing boats. Many of them old, some of them painted in lively colors. Some are of questionable sea-worthiness - even to my midwestern eyes.


At low tide these little boats rest on the exposed growth and rocks.

These mostly sunken boats infer more usefulness in some unknown past. But they retain some sense of quiet dignity resting in such a beautiful spot.

Each boat is small, and uniquely made. They are very close to the Atlantic Ocean, but not very fit for ocean travel.

While these boats are pretty obviously have year of wear, many proudly display fresh paint and bright colors. As if they are struggling with all their might to remain not only useful, but pleasant.

Entering a new culture, at times I feel a bit adrift and perhaps a bit beat up occasionally. But I find incentive to not only try to be useful, but to try my best to put the best and brightest of paints on to remain attractive. I find myself looking forward to times when the tide is out so I can rest for those precious moments, and soak in the environment around me.

I wish you could experience them with me, but I hope these pictures do some justice to how captivating these simple boats are.