Ana and Sergi: Part One, the Civil Ceremony

Looking ready for a lifetime of wonderful days together!

We arrived to Spain on Wednesday afternoon, and did not do too much - we all had prep to take care of for the upcoming wedding on Saturday. But important not to forget was the small civil wedding ceremony that Ana and Sergi had that Thursday. We all gathered around noon and walked through Vilassar to the Judge's office. There they had a small, very short civil ceremony. I'll admit that while my Spanish is improving, I did not understand much of what was said...but I knew what was going on!


A photo of the couple listening to the judge, families are in the background. I'll admit - this picture is posed! Almost everyone was taking photos the whole time - I think it was a more photo documented ceremony than the Prince of England! So in the end I asked if everyone would mind if I took a pic while everyone was sitting down, and fortunately they all obliged me.

Well then it was time for family photos, and boy did they abound! We held a whole miniature portrait session in that tiny room, thanks to some pretty terrific light. But I think that it was how happy everyone was for Ana and Sergi that made them all look so good!


With Eda and Primitivo, her very proud parents!


With Fina and Joan, Sergi's proud parents!


With Felipe and I.


And then it got silly...


With Sergi's sister Gemma and her husband Francesc and nephew Pau and niece Ariadna.


With Ana and Felipe's Aunt Elisa.

Afterward we went to another small town nearby and had a really wonderful lunch together. The place was called Casa Roura, and was in this very old large mansion/estate. The inside was beautiful and we had a nice private room to dine in. We all had a really terrific time!

The rest of Thursday was spent preparing for the arriving guests the next day, there were six people coming from Brazil, and some other small preparations for Saturday's big event.

The Last Train from Paris

Felipe and I dressed as Khover T. Ageante and Mary K. Trarie.

Last night we had a fun murder mystery dinner with a few friends. We purchased a "murder mystery game" online and have had it for almost a year now. We wanted to invite all our friends, but unfortunately there were only 8 roles. The next game we'll arrange for more roles so we can invite more people!

The "Suspects"


Barbara Z. Enhussie (Sammi)


Malcom R. Conntint (Mike)


Duke Schwazhe B. U. Klare (Cord)


Belinda Screete (Eva)


RAF Group Captain Weyland W. Awfcorse (James)


Princess Idelle Chattre (Amelia)


Khover T. Ageante (Felipe)


Mary K. Trarie (Silva)

The Task:

We were all guests on the last train leaving Paris before the Nazi's occupation on June 14, 1940. Each of us was invited by a mysterious person to join on the train. This person it turns out was murdered shortly after the train left Paris. We were all to try and solve the mystery a la Orient Express.








Getting the night underway with introductions.


Idelle and the Duke during introductions.




Barbara explains the cyanide she bought from Mal...


Wey, is he telling the truth? or could he be hiding something?


Khover doubts the "facts".


Belinda, Wey and Barbara


Khover and the Duke, listening carefully in case of an revelations...


Mal - is he revealing information or is he concealing something?

The story was a bit complicated at times, but over all a lot of fun. I cannot reveal who the murderer was, as I may be passing this game on to someone else to use...but let's just say it was a shocker! We'll definitely be doing another murder mystery party in the future, but like I said we'll try to get one with more characters. Felipe says he may try his hand at writing one himself, so maybe if he starts now it can be ready by next halloween ;)

What?! Snow?!

So yeah, it's snowing in NYC! A big old nor'easter. It is hard to believe that it's snowing in NYC before it's snowing in Wisconsin! Well folks, I have a lot of catch up to do on this blog - I have TONS of photos from our recent trip that I need to work though and post. I've been putting it off because I was sick with a cold, but now that I'm feeling better, expect to see some posts coming up!

¡Felicidades a Los Novios! Congrats to the Newlyweds!

Congratulations to my beautiful sister-in-law Ana and her terrific husband Sergi who were married yesterday! It was a beautiful day, a beautiful couple and a great time with friends and family from around the world. We even danced until three a.m.!

I'm on vacation, with limited wifi, so posts will be infrequent until I get back. I promise it will be with the wait, as posts a from Spain and France (PRis and Avignon) are yet to come :)

Guests Abound!

Tim, Gina and I on top of Rockefeller Center


Tim and Gina at the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park


Tim and Gina on the Staten Island Ferry

This last two weeks we had some lovely visits with friends. First we had my college friend Gina and her husband Tim visiting us from Minnesota. It's been quite some time since we saw Gina and Tim last - in fact I think it was at our reception in Madison in July 2008. They arrived on a Friday night and stayed through Monday morning. Boy did we pack in a LOT in the few days they were here! We saw EVERYTHING that NYC has to offer - all the sights including landmarks, New York City characters, and good food. The time went too quickly, but we certainly had fun! I'm looking forward to the next time Gina can come visit with our other college friend Anna - it's been since 2006 that the two of them visited together.

Our Second visitors arrived on Tuesday morning - David and Nieves came from Dublin (they are friends from Spain).

David and Nieves waiting for the train.


At dinner at Virgil's BBQ.


and a photo of Felipe and I :)





We had a terrific time with David and Nieves - at a bit slower pace than the weekend before with Gina and Tim (mainly because we had a bit more time for their visit). We had a couple of nights in for dinner, even including a homemade pizza night, and we went out and about too. It was nice getting to spend some more quality time with David and Nieves, as most of our hanging out time in the past (at least for me) was at a lunch or dinner, or wedding - so this was a great chance for me to get to know them a bit better. I hope we have more opportunity for that in the future!

I'll catch up a bit with more posts this weekend. Sorry for my huge absence - September has turned out to be an EXTREMELY busy month...and has flown by!

P.S. - I was so tired from all the excitement of having guests the two past weeks that I was exhausted. David and Nieves left for the airport last Sunday around 5pm, and I was in bed by 8:00pm - something I never do unless I'm sick!