spencer's in spain

scout's bestie and his family have been in spain for well over a month now,
and i have been thoroughly enjoying reading the blog that his mother,
has been posting to. she announced to us at her last book club dinner that she had started
writing a blog to document her family's one year adventure in spain. she actually started
before she left so she could document all they had to do on the 'front end'.  she asked us
ladies to give our "honest critique" of her writing as she  may consider using it to write a
book about their experience there. we were all happy to.

oh how i loved her idea. a blog would offer SO much more than Facebook or any Instagram
posts she could share.  writing would give all of us us ladies a true idea of what her days are like,
and what her thoughts are on life there. any woman who uproots a family of 5 {it was ALL my friend's idea}, to live abroad in a country where she doesn't really speak the language, excites me
and makes me want to peek into her mind a bit more.  what she did takes lots of planning, patience, courage, a true love of other people and cultures, a bit of faith and the understanding that travel is ONE of the few things in life we can buy that makes our lives richer. 

i am learning so much by following her blog....from the day to day things in her life like where
they shop for food. I've learned there are separate shops for meat, cheese, vegetables and fruit and bread. there is a megastore, similar to Costco. tourists use it, but most locals avoid it.
similar to the US, shopping in these stores is a bit frowned upon as it hurts the local economy - mom and pop shops and the local farmers and their families.  she hasn't been able to avoid it altogether but for the most part, she is trying to live as the locals do and watching her from afar is truly enriching and beautiful.  

i'm also learning how this mother of 3 is navigating her way around the city on trains and buses, about la festa major de gracias, which lasts for a week and goes until 4am every night
{not fun if you live right in the middle of it}, how to cut through all the red tape foreigners experience in order to opena bank account, get an apartment, and even buy a used car.
she explained it all in great detail in her posts. whew!

I was also reminded about the ever important 'siesta'.  this is a huge part of spanish
culture and it's still going strong.  businesses close for several hours every afternoon
{usually from 2-5/6pm}, and reopen around 6pm until about 8pm. this means dinner is
eaten late for all. children are often found in the squares playing soccer until 11pm.

life is different in spain and I'm enjoying hearing about all of it!

i am so tempted to share the link to her blog, but I need to get permission before i do.
in the meantime, i will share this adorable photo of her crew, whom she lovingly calls
'The Adventurers'. she doesn't use their proper names in her blog. instead, she has
given them all nicknames and refers to them as:

left to right: Little Angel, The Scientist, Senor Aventura, Force of Nature, Soccer Dude

mexico vacay: 2015

the boys and i spent thanksgiving week at the very southern tip of baja, mexico,
specifically in a tiny tiny beach town called los cerritos and then in a
slightly larger artist town called todos santos.

we had never been all the way down south and when i found a great deal

on volaris, the mexican airlines flying out of tijuana, i couldn't resist.

we made sure our passports were current, pesos were in our pockets,
and surfboards (2) packed well in a board bag. the trip was easy in every way...
parking, the flights, hotel, even grocery shopping. {we shopped at a local mercado
for all our staples, and we we stopped at roadside stands for fresh fruit every few days}.

the purpose of the trip was to relax as a family and that's what we did.  

days were spent reading, surfing, eating, drinking, hanging out with a 

family we met who lives just 20 minutes north of san diego
{scout actually had a sleepover at their condo with their 3 boys}.

the toughest decision of the day way was where to go for dinner.
mexican food won out every night, and most restaurants were happy to
whip up a hamburger for scout when we let him depart from mexican food.
{it used to be pizza and pasta...now it's hamburgers}.

it begins....tijuana airport

back from africa

oh it's been wonderful having c back home with us.

everything is better when he's home!
{he didn't pay me to type that}

the gerblets and i made it through his absence with just a minor mishap.
i got a call from the director of scout's preschool  

letting me know me that he didn't have a lunch one day last week.

OOPS! i had packed it, but somehow we left in my car.
he didn't starve. he enjoyed his first hot lunch from the school's cafeteria.
the irony to this is we actually arrived early that day - the first all week!
{even stopped at starbucks for a vanilla milk and coffee}.  

when c caught up on sleep, he took some time to share his photos with us.
the majority are architectural photos, rather pictures of buildings and not pretty at all}
but most structures in ghana aren't.

the very basics that we take for granted,like running water, are rare for the
average ghanaian.  yet, c tells me they are the most hard-working and appreciative
people he has met in all his travels. ok, now on to some photos.

c took this for the boys. shows his flight over the atlantic ocean

the accra airport

the hotel c stayed at 

it even had a pool {he said he enjoyed in late afternoons}

his comfy hotel room 

c worked closely with gentlemen, joshua + godwin from ghana

a typical school {piled up for cleaning}

bricks made out of of concrete are made directly on the site

a typical 'current' classroom

christopher spent lots of time with chris, the cfo of edify 

all private schools require uniforms {i love them all}

many babies cry seeing 'ubrinis' {white people} for the first time

the modern accra airport 

my favorite pictures are of the children

i hope you enjoyed those as much as  did and they give you a
teensy glimpse into what c's trip there was like.

c told the boys and i he may get the opportunity to go back in the spring
when the prototype schools he designed will start to be built. so exciting!

oh and he shared some interesting tidbits about ghana:

1. anything that can be carried will be  carried on the HEAD.
2. goats are plentiful and walk the streets
3. trash is also plentiful
4. like the locals, it's appropriate to shake with your right hand only
5. religious tolerance is high. christianity is dominant, and muslim and traditional religion is also practiced
6. most stores names have god in the title
7. everyone cooks from scratch
8. dancing is a big part of the culture
9. the people are exceptionally kind and gracious
10. the children's smiles are contagious

beautiful brussels

i don't know alot about brussels,
other than it's in belgium and it's in europe somewhere,
and it was where my hubby said he was today
{during a 7 hr layover}before a flight to DC and then home.

i was driving home from a breakfast/playdate at a girlfriends
with the boys in the backseat,
wound as tight as watches from all the fun they had.
when i heard the little beep announcing i had an email,
i peeked at my phone and saw an email from my honey.

i asked finn to read daddy's email outloud and as he read,
brussels sounded magical and made me wish i was there with him.
not to take anything away from the emails about africa.
brussels just sounded a little more romantic is all.

he said he was walking down cobblestone streets,
in this old city full of gorgeous architecture.
he said it reminded him alot of paris,
it made me smile and remember our time there together.
gosh, it was such a long time ago. *sigh*

when finn finished reading the email,
he said "daddy took a picture of a beautiful castle too".
i reached my arm back and asked for the phone because i
knew i wouldn't be able to make it home without at least peeking
at the picture he sent.  and oh, was it was lovely.

we sure miss christopher, and can't wait to have him home.
{and not because he said he picked up some belgium chocolate for us}

we'll see him tomorrow! *yay*

leaving on a jet plane

c is in full swing preparing for his trip to ghana tomorrow.
he has his passport, visa, shots and is almost packed
{after one more load of laundry tonight}.
he is pretty excited and we are excited for him.

i've reminded him numerous times to take LOTS of pictures,
so we can really get a feel for what his experience there was like.
i'll be sure to share a few here when he returns.

in the meantime, i'll be juggling life as a single mom,
something i never look forward to.
i sometimes take for granted how much c does around here,
and when he's away {especially midweek}, i'm always reminded.

after we see off c, i have a few fun things planned for the weekend.
i'm taking the boys to sea world {we're hoping scout is tall enough to ride journey to atlantis}.
tomorrow night, finn has a sleepover at his buddy's home which means scoutie and i will have
an evening all alone. last, bonnie's baby shower is on sunday afternoon.
{i also need to clean my home, grocery shop and dig out our mexico pixs and post}

since i'm a believer that every post needs a photo...or two
i thought i'd share a couple i took of miss madison last weekend.
the shoot was probably my favorite of all shoots to date.
we walked all over downtown, stopping at extraordinary desserts
so i could photograph the girls in front of the shop's funky metal facade with holes in it.
{we couldn't resist grabbing a coffee and hot chocolate too while we were there}.

~ the holiday season is officially over at the gerber casa.
our tree went to a recycle center today and our christmas bins have been
put in storage for next year. i pulled off all the holiday cards that were pinned
all over the family room and tucked away a few of my favorite photo cards.

oh i almost forgot. we even got all our thank you notes sent out.
finn was happy his younger brother took the lead on them this year.
scoutie wanted to write in each of the cards.{such a contrast to finn}
i just had to call out the letters to him so he knew how to spell the words.
he enjoyed it so much, he asked if there were more to do.

have i mentioned how much i love that kid?

my guy's going to ghana

a month ago christopher tells me he'll be going to ghana {africa} in january.
i think i my response was really? and before he could respond i said "i wanna go!"

then he explained how it all came to be.

recently he gave a tour of the high tech high (HTH) liberty station campus {5 schools total} to a director of a private school organization in africa. because the hth system is unique, giving tours to folks
from all over the world is nothing new for christopher.  he leads tours of some type almost monthly.

getting invited to come to the country of someone he's toured {all expenses paid} IS something new!

the ceo of this organization is american, and his school's headquarters is based in ghana.
he wants to replicate some of the 'big ideas' he saw at high tech high during his tour there
a few weeks ago - specifically on the flexibility of the spaces {example: classrooms have walls
that roll up or move to the side so the rooms can be flexible for other uses}. he was thrilled.

so c's been researching construction methods so he understands the standard building method there
and his goal is to be able to bring the organization better building techniques, as well as better design.

he heads to ghana in early january for a week. i can hardly wait to hear all about his experiences there. i also want to see lots of photos. c has promised me he'd be more of a shutterbug than normal.
i'm counting on it.

~ we finished signing holiday cards tonight - we're up to 150 now so it took a while!
{one of the joys of having large extended families}. it feels good to have that checked off,
but there's still more to do before the big day! i better get to it. xoxo

airstream dreams

i was chatting with an architectural designer at my company one
morning and i noticed a photo of an airstream trailer at his workstation.

i asked him about it and he was happy to tell me how he bought an old trailer years back,
gutted it and converted it to a little movie theater. how completely cool is that?
he said he used it a few times that way, but it's currently parked in a lot in arizona as he
doesn't have space for it at his home here in sd.

i shared with him that c and i bought a 22' tradewind about 6 years ago (pre-kids)
and spent  maybe a year gutting it and were starting to renovate it.
then we decided it was time to start another 'project' - becoming parents.
if that project wasn't enough of a life change, less than a year later,
we purchased our little beach home which needed lots of work - yet another project!

when we started on the landscaping in the backyard, we realized we weren't going to
have time (for a long time) to work on the airstream so we said goodbye to the 'toaster'
as christopher nicknamed her. our next door neighbor's retired father was thrilled to give
it a new home and take on the project - one that was better suited for a retired person.

someday, christopher hopes to purchase another one. instead of an older retro trailer,
he'd love one that was completely modern and roadworthy.

he has dreams of taking the family down south (mexico and beyond) to camp and surf together
for holidays and vacations. i admit, it sounds like fun, but we just aren't at that stage in our lives just now.

down the road i hope his 'airstream dream' comes to realization, for now he can enjoy these photos
i pulled from google images. who knew airstreams could be so hip?!















































































i almost forgot to mention a trailer park motel called the shady dell in the artist town of bisbee, arizona.
all the guestrooms are midcentury modern travel trailers!  so much fun.  for some reason c and i never made it here during our college days but,
we should have as it's just south of tucson.

when we get back for a visit, maybe we can take a side trip and stay here for a night.
the boys (especially the big one) would enjoy this!