Today is Diane and my 38th anniversary.. I love you my girl.. so glad you married me. Its so fun to all be together …

We woke up the day after the wedding.. lots of happy, sleepy [people// Some elves (Deb !) had woken early and the place was pretty clean.. evidently the party when on till about 5AM.. lots of water being squirted, drinking,. all the stuff that is supposed to happen at a wedding

 

around noon a local cooking place came in to make paella  and we all had a great lunch before all goign on our seperate ways

 

 

we checked out some of the yet-to-be-renovated parts of the chateau before leaviong .. pretty cool !

 

then it was time to say goodbye

we’d made lots of memories !

We headed out back to spain in the direction of our next airbnb in Vega de Paz Spain.  It was a beutiful drive .. back past San Sebastian/Donastia..  past blibao and then up in  to cantabria.  We stopped oin the way for groceries.. and got caught in one of the most amazing rainstorms id ever been in. THe casheir at the store gave us plastic garbage bags to make into raincoats so we could get to our car.. 

Eventally we got up into cantabria.. As we were nearign the town of Vega de Paz where we’d be staying, we saw this crazy fire.. we think it was a barn

Soon after we foudn our wonderful cottage.. it was up a really long sketchy driveway that branched off steeply from a very fast and narrow mountain road.. It is a beutiful, beutifal place.. 

Max and Becky showed u soon afterwards. Theyd picked up Max and Beckys freind Stephen.. Hes from Australia and satyed with us in Cantabria.. he is an amazing guy..it was so much fun having him with us !

we all got together for a late dinner.. then off to bead

More from  this beautiful place tomorrow !

nite all, nite sam
-me

Today is the big day.. Matt and Leyere are getting married !

I’m getting so behind in my blog !.. I’m going to put these pics in here.. in the hopes I can add some text later !

WHat a day.. COngratulations Matt and Leyre.. We are so happy for you two !

Nite all, nite sam

-me

So.. yesterday was american night.. with touch football and burgers.. Today and tonight were all basque..

Diane, Olivier and I decided to take a very rainy run aroudn a nearby traill.. it included a very nice pond.. and lots of very nice mud !

We spent lots of our day playing with baby Rory.. .. he’s so cute.. such cute  faces !

People came and went all day.. meeting new freinds. exporign the hose and the grounds.. super chill !

By afternoon it was time to start making dinner.. we all chipoped in to to make pixhos.. basically tasy salty horderves.. (my mouth is woatering thinkign of them !) 

Olivier taught gabe a new card game called Koi-koi.. its played with hanafuda cards (whatever those are) ..   they played all day.. and gabe evidently was reallllly good at it !

THen it was time for games.. We did tug of war.. and our blue team won !!

then sack races !

then .. time to eat !  Pixhos, quiches and lots of beer !

The day ended with Charades.. fun.. and challengign given all the languages !

then off to sleep.. Tomorrows the big day.. 

noite all, nite sam

-me

Tody was the day we all moved to France for the wedding. Matt and Lere had found a cool  place Called Cateau Mayo just across the French boarder in Biorette.

First order of biz was to go get the car. ,,, that involved a bus ride.. actually two bus rides because I for got the car keys. We parked out near the bull ring (yes.. such things still exhist !)

We went back in to town , picking up Alex, one of Leyre’s freinds on the way.. We parked long enough to  get out bags then headed out of town. 

We were all hungry soe we decixced to stop for lunch atone of the next towns over , Pasaia. It was a pretty little town.. kind of ccongested. we tried to fidmn a pl;ace to eat.. whcih wasnt as eaasy as it sounds..we walked down by the watershore of the bay.. and finally found a small place to eat. 

 

After lunch, we got in the car and quickly reached the French border… There was absolutely no formalities. You didn’t even see a “welcome to France” sign… An hour later we got to château Mayo. It was a big old 400 year old manor house that was in various states of repair. It was beautiful place and beautiful grounds. As we arrived, we were assigned to our rooms. We got on our play clothes and went outside. The first day was called “American day”… Or people celebrated with American games and we met at American food l. It was fun… But I didn’t really feel like playing touch football so Becky and I went off and search of fans because it was pretty hot. We bought five of them and the time it took to play touch football.

Dinner was really fun.. we cgot to meet more of matt and leyeres freinds and relatives.. some folks spoke spanish.. some ienglish, some basque.. we all had fun getting to be freinds there was plenty of beer, hambergers and hot dogs.. lots of music too

 

Later, the party moved inside .. Matt and Leyre played the “shoe game”… Each of them sat back to bThe two of them sat back to back. Each had one of their own shoes and one of their partners. As questions were answered each of them had to bring up one of the shoes to indicate which partner they thought most fit the question… Somewhere easy somewhere embarrassing… all were fun

 

as often happens, I had more fun watching than playing.. 🙂

AFter the gamne.. folks drifted off into small groups. Gabe had a microscope attachment for his phone and was showing people pictures of the business end of the multiple hornets that were flying around the venue

Long fun day. more tomorrow from Biorette 
nite all, nite sam

-me