April 1

This was a branch activity where we all went to the beach. You can see Maggie in her red "ladybug" swimsuit bending over like she's just finishing taking off her sandels, on the right side. I can see Daddy with his hands on his hips, and Mary and Elizabeth by the chair to the right of Maggie, but can't tell if any of the rest of us are there. (Jenny)

Some of these pictures are just stirring random memories. I thought I’d include them and maybe someone will tell me if they fit in with these pictures or other times.I remember the Sister Missionaries coming with us on some of these branch activities when we would take a bus out to a beach. The sisters would tract in the area and if they finished before the outing was over they would sit in the shade on the sidewalk with their backs to the water and visit with whichever branch member went out to them. (Maggie)


I think the beach with the branch activity was way out near La Manga. I remember that the Med was just on the other side of the road from this beach and had very strong waves (I though I was going to drown). I also remember we were a bit confused at the branch's decision to drive way out to this beach when 'our' beach was so much closer. We could walk (La Manga) out forever and the water would only get about to your waste.
Oh yeah, I think we would even rent a bus as a branch to go to La Manga. (Jacob)


The family at the table was the Cruz family. Ana, at the back facing us, was a couple of years older than me be she was so so nice to me. Rosi was Jacob's age? Maggie's age? And she was learning the Sevillana and would do it at branch activities. They had a fight with someone in the branch at the very end of our stay and wouldn't come to church. I didn't know why. But everyone was really surprised- they were really really great. (Jenny)

Rosi Cruz was actually the year between Jacob and myself, but we were all bunched together in the “over ten” Primary class, so that Elena and David Marmol, Juan Antonio, Rosi and Jacob and I were all together.I do remember seeing a picture of Rosi when Daddy and Mark went back to Cartagena, so they must have come back eventually. (Maggie)
The lady in the yellow shirt was my Sunday School teacher for a while and she really scared me. The girl next to her in the green was in my YW, but she wasn't very nice. She had another best friend and they really didn't talk to anyone else. Ana was nice and there was another really good friend, Luci, who is on the bottom right hand side with her hair over her shoulder. (Jenny)

This is Juan Antonio's mom, no? With Juan Antonio at the table in green?

I do think that is Juan Antonio’s Mom, with Elena Marmol seated next to Juan Antonio and Rosi in the background. The kids with their backs to us appear to be Juan Antonio’s younger siblings. I seem to recall that Juan Antonio’s family had some connection to the Marmol Family. I don’t know if they were neighbors, or cousins or something, but they were very close. (Maggie)


Branch beach activity



I have this labeled as another shot of the Branch beach activity, but I'm not really sure it is, anyone?


Ah. Our branch. We are out on the patio of the branch, you get to our chapel to the right of the grill on the window, that black door. Someone, the branch president?, would give kids candy out there when church was over and the kids would play out there until their parents were ready to go home. I recognize a face here and there, but the picture will need to be better to catalogue everyone. Mom? Dad? (Jenny)

Presidente Marmol would give the primary kids candy as a reward for good behavior. We had to line up next to his office and give him a besito to get the candy. Mommy wouldn’t ever let us have any if we had not been good, and we thought it dreadfully unfair since all the other kids got candy and they hadn’t behaved either. I seem to remember that Mommy didn’t like the idea of the candy at all. (Maggie)


There on the second floor was our chapel. You can see our yellow van and the fact that it was a Bingo parlor underneath. You can almost see our church sign above the banner and behind that tree. (Jenny)

The Alfonso street picture reminds me of the street where our church was. I remember that the branch met on the 2nd floor of the building and there was a very nondescript sign in the window with the church name on it. I vaguely remember that there was one of those call buttons to be able to go into the building. -Elizabeth

Yes- my school, Daddy's school, and the branch building were all on Alfonso XIII. Jenny



Another shot of the branch. This branch supposedly had a reputation for being the best one in the Barcelona mission. They called it the "rama de oro". (Jenny)


I think that this is the city hall in Sevilla, the one where they filmed part of Lawrence of Arabia, which Daddy told us, very excited, and received blank stares in return. (Jenny)

March 25

I can't remember anything about this beach....anyone?


Field full of beehives.



Isn't this the same beach where we took the Christmas tree picture? Just looking from the beach toward the road you came down to get to the beach? I remember it being one of the closest beaches to our home, and I remember that you approached it from up on the cliff and had to kind of hairpin your way down to the actual beach. (Jenny)


I remember the little island at the beach close to home and that there was some kind of army outpost on the cliff on the Cartagena side of the beach. (Jacob)

The Christmas Tree beach was the one closest to Cartagena. The other beach, with the steep hike to the road, and really rocky, was one that we would go to out on La Manga. I seem to recall it was all the way east, before the sleeve starts to go North. (Mark)

I think that Mark is right and the other beach was out at La Manga. My friend Patricia's father had a restaurant out there and I spent several Saturdays there with her family. (Maggie)





Beach in Spain- memories?


Now I think this is the same beach as the first two, from another angle, right? I seem to recall that this was one of those beaches we had to travel further to get to. And it was the one that made Mommy realize that she was so glad that the furgoneta was so bare-bones, because it made it so much easier to get all of the sand out of it after we went to the beach. (Jenny)

I'm not sure, but I think that the first two pictures are of a beach that someone in the ward raved about and convinced us to go. We went, but weren't that impressed as it was further away from home and not much nicer. I think we only went once or twice. (Jacob)


Christmas tree on the beach. They didn't have Christmas trees in Spain, but our friend MariCarmen from the ward had one stored away for years that someone had given her, so one day at her apartment about a block from my school she gave it to me so we could use it for Christmas and I carried it home on the bus (many strange looks) and we decorated it using tissue paper, suckers, the foil from some chocolate or something, and some red paper. We were really proud. It wasn't warm on Christmas morning and we didn't have any competition for the beach when we went and had this pictures taken. (Jenny)

I remember "our" beach (the one with the Christmas Tree). It was always a big goal to be able to swim out to the rock. The older kids did it all the time, but it was harder than it looked. I also remember snorkelling out to the left of the beach. (Maggie)




Mom...Dad...? I don't know what this is.

The Dry rid-looking picture. I remember Mommy taking some pictures of things and places that reminded her of Utah, so that she could take them back and show the people in Spring City that Spain was not all THAT different. I remember a sheep herder with his sheep, but with the similarities this one has to southern Utah, it may have been one of those. (Maggie)

The dry arid looking picture was of a part of Andalucia where some of the Hollywood westerns were filmed to take advantage of "American" looking scenery and lower costs. Dad


Barranca del Feo- Branch activity. I remember the branch members telling us about this "park" we were going to for a branch activity, and how beautiful. I guess I was thinking "Versailles" or something, because I remember getting there and thinking "THIS is beautiful?!?!?!" Now I look at it and think it's beautiful. It was one of those activities where a few people had pans of stuff and everyone brought something to eat and we all put it together for a big meal? (Jenny)

I just remembered a bit more about one of our ward outings (I'm not sure if it was Barranca del Feo or not). I think it was potluck paella and I remember we Maggie and I were exploring with David and Juan Antonio when they suddenly started yelling something and told me to go get help. I walked back to where the grown-ups were and asked daddy what 'serpiente' means. By the time anyone got there it was long gone and Juan Antonio was telling all of us what he would have done to protect Maggie from the snake. (Jacob)

I remember that out in Barranca del Feo we would often have Paella. I remember the way the ward members would share a two liter bottle of Fanta Naranja by pouring the soda down their throats without ever touching their mouths. We always tried to do the same, but could never get it to work, not even with water. (Maggie)

I remember that too, now! Everyone in Spain drank like that. And they left their mouths open while they swallowed- that's the part I could never get... (Jenny)



Barranca del Feo

March 18

Ayuntamiento from the water


Atalaya group from above- this was an activity that we went on with the branch and the missionaries- I don't even think we'd been in Cartagena for a month- we hiked up to a castle/fort that was on the hill looking over Cartagena. It was longer than we'd expected and we were all pretty sunburned when we got up there. I was just abandoned- no "Parks Service" kind of information or anything. (Jenny)

Wasn't the trip up the Atalaya on July 4th? And didn't we get some
tee-shirts made celebrating the fact?

The thing I remember about that trip is that the Missionaries told us there
were going to be some "investigators" coming with us and I thought it was
really exciting because I had never seen a real live spy before. I remember
being very proud of myself because I hiked up the whole mountain and
Elizabeth and Mary Jane had the missionaries carry them up part of the way. (Maggie)

I remember the atalaya most. It was the fourth of July because I remember everyone was excited as Jesus (last name?) came up later with fireworks (unfortunately we passed him coming down as it was getting dark). We played capture the flag with some squirt guns or something. (Jacob)

I remember Atalaya because the missionaries were standing out on the edges of the building, with a fifteen-or-so foot drop, and Mommy was cringing horribly, thinking Jacob and I would try it next. (Mark)

Ah, yes, I remember that too- the missionaries standing on the edge of the building, and there are pictures of that later... They bought some meat to put in their sandwiches that ended up being horrible so they took turns throwing it off of the ledge while the other took a picture. (Jenny)

I actually remember being quite proud of myself that I didn't have to climb all the way to the Atalaya. Later I bragged to one of my classmates that I had climbed all the way to the top. I could see the Atalaya from the window at Mococetes. He didn't believe me, which was probably warranted, since I really didn't climb, but let the hermanas give me piggy-back rides. I guess I must have been cute, because I can't imagine a 21-year-old girl wanting to carry a 5-year-old up a mountain. (Mary)


Atalaya from the water


Atalaya- looking down on Jacob and Mary? (Really, guys, we shouldn't look down on Jacob and Mary....) (Jenny)
I am the one with Jacob being "looked down on". I was wearing the turqoise shirt. (Elizabeth)

Ayuntamiento and alley- that building to the left is the ayuntamiento, city hall. I remember going down there and watching some of the Semana Santa processions and we ran into some American sailors also watching. (Jenny)

I had a choir concert on the steps of the Ayuntamiento. It was a huge city-wide choir made up of fourth graders. I still have the program somewhere in my book. (Maggie)

Yes- and I used the pictures of Maggie's concert with kids filling the square as pictures of the student protests that our school did when I did my Sterling Scholar portfolio. It turns out that Mommy and Daddy didn't take pictures of my civil unrest. (Jenny)

The ruined church seen above the Ayundamiento and alley was bombed by the Franco forces during the civil war and left as a reminder of that sad time. Dad


Alhambra garden and construction- We joked that everywhere we went there was construction on major sights. (Jenny)

Castle tower- I think this is the one we went to when we visited Elder Roundy after he'd been transferred to another town. I don't remember the name of the town. (Jenny)

The castle was in Lorca or something like that, wasn't it? (Maggie)



Alhambra arches- I think that's me under the arches, and I think this was on the trip I went on with Daddy and Grandma. (Jenny)

Alhambra

Activity at the church- The girl puffing her cheeks out across from Maggie was the Branch President's daughter- Marmol.... (Jenny)

The president's daughter's name was Elena, and the girl directly behind her
was Rosi Cruz. The girl with her back to us was the from the family that
Daddy had to go pick up every Sunday from La Union? (I don't remember the
name of the little town). Daddy would drop us off early for church and all
those other activities and then go pick up the people that lived in that
area and bring them to church. (Maggie)