A week with the Clarkes

Ari, Lindsay, Avery, Lucy and Asher in 2005

LIndsay, Avery, Ari, Lucy and Asher in 2012

I hugged the Clarke kids goodbye last night and went into the kitchen and cried as I washed the dishes. I remember a similar night weeping as I washed dishes 6 years ago when Pete graduated from Business School and they moved off campus. I love those kids so much – they are like cousins, and the thought of not having them in our house and in our lives makes me so sad. They are settled in Amsterdam and not planning to move back to the States, so we have vowed to meet again for a vacation some day.

We arrived home from Granada on Monday, and the week flew by!! It was amazingly not stressful to have 12 people in the house - Lucy and the twins would disappear into one room; Lindsay and Avery into another; Sophie would float between groups (causing some friction, but not too bad), and Stone and Aaron jousted joyfully with foam ninja swords and clubs, played Lego Star Wars, and ran around together every day without a single argument.

Memorable Moments, some with photos, some not:

• I led a walking tour around some major attractions – it was fun to synthesize the info I’d heard and read and show them some of my favorite places, including climbing La Giralda Tower

• We loved their participation in our morning walk to school, and Ari came with me both days to pick Stone up

• Eating at our favorite every-day restaurants: Aladdin’s Jordanian and Mr. Pizza. Sharing our regular lives here was really fun.

• Pete working out at Cross Fit with Erik

• The Festival of the Nations, near our house. Like a travelling fair with booths from all of over the world, and the kids’ favorite part: the bungee trampolines.

I didn't pose the kids - I just saw them trying to imitate this statue at the Egypt booth

There was no line waiting for the bungee trampolines, so the workers let all the kids jump for free and let them stay on for 15 minutes each!

Eating in the Italian restaurant that we always see across the street from the kids’ school (that has a photo of Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz eating there – apparently they filmed part of a movie in Seville and ate there). The food was good, but the atmosphere was really special – it’s down some steps into a converted ancient Arab Bath House.

It's a shame this picture didn't turn out better - We saw a Flameco show, featuring a different guitarist, singer and dancer than we saw last time. It was one woman dancer, and she was INCREDIBLE!!! It was interesting to see a totally different personality – the other dancers’ performances were much more internal, with pained facial expressions and explosive, almost aggressive movement. This latest one was still powerful and confident, but she also expressed a lot of joy and some flirtatious moves that I hadn’t seen before. And that guitarist’s fingers!!! I wished my brother Scott (he’s a guitarist) could have been there seeing it with me.

• Churros con chocolate, homemade ice cream, long walks around our city (it does feel like "our" city!!).

• Aaron helping me make chicken curry, peeling carrots, setting the table, clearing the table, giving me little kisses and hugs and constantly holding my hand. I told Pete he could leave him with me if he wanted, but they seem to like him too.

• Beautiful sunny weather for the first two days, then a downpour – ceiling dripping water into rapidly-filling buckets, lightning illuminating the skylight, all of us soaking wet as we kept going out when the sky would clear and then get caught in the storm coming back.

We had been saving the multi-person bikes through Maria Luisa Park for the Clarkes’ visit – we walked to the Plaza de España (above) and took some pictures, and then as some drops began to fall we rented the bikes and began our half-hour. It was SO FUN!!! We raced each other, took turns letting the kids drive on the sly (not supposed to do that) and got soaking wet. Then walked home in the rain.

Raindrops beginning to fall...

Sophie took this picture of the park as we sped past in the downpour

Sophie loves walking in the rain!! She got home and hopped in the tub in her clothes - they were already soaked so it didn't matter, and she thought it was hilarious!

The kids have always loved doing Art projects with the Clarkes, and again it was fun to see how much creativity could result from a long table full of plain white paper and lots of markers. Stone has had almost no interest in doing Art (as noted by his school teacher)…. Until he saw Aaron drawing pictures!! Suddenly he was intrigued, and right off the bat he produced the most amazing drawing of our whole family plus bungee trampolines! I’ll post a picture of it later – my favorite part are Erik’s arms made of lots of circles – “These are your huge muscles, Dad!” 

A popcorn and movie night last night (why, oh why did I not grab my phone to snap a picture to bring this post full circle from the top photo!! They were even sitting on a green couch!!) and then sad hugs good-bye.

OH!! And two more things from this week:

1. Yesterday Erik and Pete arrived home from Crossfit in a downpour. They rushed into the house to get out of the rain, and Erik quickly rescued the papers from his soaked backpack, then stepped back outside to bring his bike in…. and his bike was gone!!! Stolen, within 5 minutes, right as it was tipped against our house by our front door. We had heard about bike theft in Sevilla, so we are always careful to lock them up – but so fast and nearly in front of our eyes!! We couldn't believe it. Erik was calm and philosophical about it, and I reminded that Jean Valjean had been a thief too, and maybe the bike thief had stolen it because he was in desperate need or was helping someone else. Who knows? And we might as well assume the best and be forgiving. But it really stunk that it happened. It was not a cheap bike, and Erik is the only one in our family who rides it multiple times every single day. L He took a taxi out in the storm to buy a new one last night, and rode home with 6 pairs of rain boots and matching umbrellas in his backpack.

2. Stone continued with regular school this week, and it seems that we got over the hump again! I pick him up “extra early,” which means he sees me there waiting for him as he comes out for recess, and his answer to “how was your day?” has been “AWESOME” for two days in a row. On Wednesday his teacher was beaming and told me that he did his work much better, and when he colored a whole tree’s worth of leaves on his coloring page, the whole class applauded. I still have things to say about the exclusive valuing of fine-motor skills for preschoolers, but I’ll hold my tongue and feel over the moon grateful for a smiling teacher and an applauding classroom for my Stoney!! He was just thrilled.