A Spanish Christmas

What a Christmas. We somehow survived finals, packed our bags, got away from all of the snow, and left the country. We spent the last 10 days in the beautiful country of Spain with the whole Farnsworth clan, except for Ryan, Shanna and Kenna. A week of Farnsworth's was definitely eventful, and we have 132 pictures to prove it. These are just a few of our favorites.

We went to Sol to do some shopping, walk around the city, went caroling with the missionaries on Christmas Eve, and ate Napolitana's:

We went to Toledo and saw the beautiful cathedral there, Don Quixote, the fun little shops, the Lladro's, and the Spanish Paella:

We went to Valle de los Caidos, but the funny thing is that it was extremely foggy, and we couldn't even see the enormous cross that was constructed there...

We went on a tour of the Real Madrid Stadium, which was awesome:

The Castle and the 2000 year old Aqua Duct in my favorite city, Segovia:

I love my family so so much, it was so much fun to finally spend time with them all. I can't wait for us ALL to be together this summer. We spent many late hours together playing games, watching movies, and waiting for Papa Noel to come. My parents are so absolutely amazing, and the obedience and happiness of all the missionaries in Madrid are living proof. I love you mommy and daddy, thanks for everything!

Booya!

Yep, there she is. The new company I just got hired with! I am so so so super excited. After 3 1/2 years at the Bookstore, I am finally moving on, and I can't wait! It's a great paying job, great people, and I will get the marketing experience I was looking for with all of the other internships I was applying with. I also got the internship with Deseret Book, but driving to SLC all the time was not something I was looking forward to, but good things come to those who wait!My first day is January 2nd, after we get back from Spain, and have a New Years shebang, I'll be back to work making the world a better place through my online marketing skills (or those skills I will soon have).

I have 2 finals down, and 3 more to go before Friday. 5:00 p.m. Friday, I'll be on the plane, flying to the beautiful Madrid Spain for the last time. This being my 4th time going to see my parents, and I honestly cannot wait.

Just thought I'd pass on the happy news. Go me!

My Beautiful Niece!

Congrats Ryan and Shanna Farnsworth! My wonderful brother and his adorable wife had their first baby yesterday, December 9th, at 6 lbs. 15 oz. and 20 inches long. The beautiful Kenna Rae is the first little addition, besides Sarge, to the Farnsworth family. My parents finally have their first little grandchild. Everything went perfectly, she even came 12 days early, and if I were the mom I would not be complaining one bit! I am so excited to meet my little niece in a few months, and I look forward to seeing her growing up and loving her so so much!

I wanted to cry..

I did not want to get out bed this morning, it was cold, I was tired..and I wanted to cry. I was on my way to school, and I saw the gas price at $1.49 per gallon, it made me so happy I wanted to cry! My little Brittany turned 22, she's all grown up and made me want to cry ;). I gave 2 presentations today at school, sat through 10 other 15 minute presentations and was so bored I wanted to cry. I wore heals for 9 hours and my feet wanted to cry. It started snowing, and although I'm not looking forward to driving on ice and having my toes numb up I was so excited I wanted to cry! I realized that in 12 days I will be done with my finals, and off to Spain to see my parents, and I wanted to cry out of joy! I see the same homeless kitty everyday, and once again makes me want to cry. My fabulous in-laws had left over P.F. Changs and brought it to us, so I didn't have to cook, and it was so yummy I wanted to cry! I am still on campus and it's 10:00 p.m., and I definitely want to cry.

Ok, so it's that time of year, and there is so much going on, there is excitement in the air, there is bitterness, there is joy and love, and it is all hitting me at once! So, I'm not an emotional wreck, I promise. This is just a typical day of the feelings and emotions I feel, my poor husband, he's so great for putting up with me! I love you dear!

Temple Square

This past week we got to go to Temple Square with the youth in our ward. For the past year or so, Ry has been the young men's president, and I've been the 1st counselor in young women's, so we've had fun going to mutual together and serving the youth. Anyway, we love our callings, and we love the youth in our ward. We also got to see the Joseph Smith movie on the Restoration, and it amazes me every time I see it. If you have never seen this movie, or have not seen it in awhile, then take an afternoon and go up to SLC and see it. It's simply amazing! It makes me realize that I really can't complain about the trials I face, it's nothing like the early saints had to go through. Here are all of our youth, 3 YM and 3 YW, and if you think that's small... our numbers have doubled since last year!

I had an interview with Deseret Book Corporate for an internship Wednesday morning, and she told me that they had free hot chocolate in the Deseret Book store across from the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, so if you happen to go up there this Christmas season, go get some free Stephen's hot chocolate...and browse around the store I guess. We got stuck in the Jazz traffic...so it was a late night, but totally worth it! We love the lights.

Sting-Rays, Sharks and Dolphins!

What's Thanksgiving weekend without a little bit of shopping? Midnight...at the outlets...with the fam, it was awesome! We went shopping and got some killer deals on some clothing and shoes, let's just say our bags were about to bust the zippers on the way back home.

Then on Friday we had the wonderful opportunity to go Discovery Cove. If you are heading to Orlando in the near future, it was totally worth every penny! It is associated with Sea World, but the great thing about it is that you have to make a reservation for it, and they only allow a limited number of people in everyday.

So it's a great park without 10,000 tourists waiting in 3 hour long lines. It had a big man-made beach with a huge pool of amazing fish and superb snorkeling, with enormous sting-rays and within glass enclosed spaces some sharks and eels.

Don't we look like dorks? I love goggles.
We got to feed and touch some sting-rays. Ya does anyones death from a sting-ray come to mind? We miss you Steve Erwin. Anyway, yes, we swam in a pool with them, and fed them, crazy huh?

Then they had a big aviary with tons of beautiful tropical birds.

We also got to swim with dolphins! A lovely 35 year old female named Dixie, she was amazing. We got to pet her, she showed us her tricks, and she even took us for a little dolphin ride! I didn't get any pictures of that, but we bought some, so I'll try and get those pictures on here soon, it was awesome!

We had such an amazing week away from school and work. We loved spending all that time with family, relaxing and having fun! Thank you Bob and Sue for such a memorable Thanksgivng, we love you!

Shamu Thanksgiving

Sea World, the place where dreams come true, well for some I guess. We got to see a dolphin show, a sea lion show, and the great and famous Shamu!

We went there on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, road the..."the" rollercoaster, the Kraken, 3 times and spent quality time with little Tanner before the others came.

This was a documentation of the trip. Jane Anne, and Colby...well Colby has been with us here, through text.

We've spent hours doing absolutely nothing, which has been just what we needed. If I even start thinking about all that we have to do when we get back just scares me...ah! Here's a cute little pic we caught of Grandpa and Juliana watching Cinderella...

Rob and Julie flew in this morning with thier kids right in time for Thanksgiving dinner. The family was finally all here! We had three additions to the family since the last time we had been together, so it's fun to hold all the little babies! We went back to Sea World after dinner and after an awesome nap to see the Christmas Shamu Show. It was so good, we all loved it.

Tomorrow we're off to Discovery Cove!