Summer in California, Part II

Just look at this steak! Amazing! We were very happy to hear that Fugazzi's had come back to Hanford and was doing well. We were fortunate enough to be able to eat there twice. It has always been one of our favorite restaurants in Visalia. When it came time to pick a place for our rehersal dinner before our wedding, Sarah knew exactly where she wanted to go.

Sarah's friend Shaffen has had her horse Ace for awhile now and Sarah made it a priority to go over to ride. After Shaffen rode around for awhile she gave it over to Sarah who after a little warm up was looking like a natural again.

Afterwards we enjoyed some Jamba Juice to cool off.
This is another American thing that I think would sell great in Sevilla.

Another thing we made a priority this summer was to go slip n' sliding. Jason and Lyndsie Cradduck tracked down some tarp to use and we set up a nice slide in the park behind the Bruce´s house. (Thanks for the water!) It was a little better to slide on then the old vinyl signs Cory and I used to use but we just couldn't quite get the run long enough. Ted Trager and another friend joined us from Visalia for some good slidin' fun.

This did not end well

......for the both of us.

The dogs had a great time too. The Bruces' dog Dottie wasn't to sure about the Cradducks' dogs but they managed to get along. Cosby, the dachshund, was having the time of his life. He even when down the slide a couple times.

On Thursday night we made sure to head over to the Thursday Night Market Place in Hanford to enjoy the city and see who we ran into. We met up with my sister Ashley who was wanting to buy some local fruits. The weather was nice and a lot of people were out. We love Hanford!

We saw Marlene and Lyle Bruce and met their new little friend who they have been babysitting.

We also ran into old friend Kristian Bringard and for some reason none of the photos turned out. He told us that he was waiting for Stephen Abbas, who we wanted to see as well. Stephen was the photographer at our wedding and did an amazing job.

We were also fortunate enough to be in town while friends Chris and Emily Lewis had their second baby Malachi. We are super happy for them! Soo cute!

Unfortunately our last day in the Central Valley was on my mom's birthday. We made sure to stop into Fresno for her birthday lunch at The Cheescake Factory on our way up to Salinas.
It was hard to get a normal picture of my sister, mom, and Aunt Claire.

Grandma and Aunt Christina are a little difficult too.

But, of course, we had a great time and the food was amazing.
We ate so much that we were only able to split one piece of cheescake between the 7 of us.

We were put to work once we got to Salinas because we were helping out Mark and Vicki with the Teens Encounter Christ weekend at their church. Sarah and I have helped out with a lot of the TEC weekends in the Central Valley so we were happy to be a part (especially because we owed Mark big time for letting us use his car for 5 weeks). I was a small group leader and Sarah played bass in the band. It is a lot of work but it is always rewarding to see the students experience Jesus' love in new ways.

After all the work it was time to relax. We headed out to Monterey to enjoy some wine tasting and dinner looking out into the ocean.

Mark and I are still trying to decide if the wine in Monterey is better than the wine in Spain.

And now we are back in Spain! We didn´t have any problems with our flights and were able to sleep most of the way. We are still getting adjusted to the time and both of us are alittle sick with colds, but now the students are here and its time to get to work. Classes start next week! Remember that you can keep updated on Semester in Spain happenings at
http://www.facebook.com/SemesterInSpain
http://acentosis.blogspot.com

Thanks to all who spent time with us on our break! It was great to see you all. There are many that we wish we could have seen more of and some we were not able to see at all.
Come and visit us.....if not......see you at Christmas!