Where in the world are they?

You are probably wondering what happened to us? Well after 6 glorious months in Europe, we stopped home in California briefly to have Christmas with the Coplins and Noryko's. After a quick stop we headed east to PA to see family and friends on the way to Sydney Australia (we were never really good with that Geography thing!!)

So now we are down under! We were met at the airport and are being hosted by the Ray Coplin family! Our first day here we had a baby shower to attend and have been enjoying our time with Anne Radmacher (a very pregnant Anne and glowing Anne) and Adam! We are learning our way around Sydney and looking to get ourselves set up for a few months!

Sarina has already seen and fed Kangaroos and Koala's. Joe is on his trypical schedule of staying up all night (but now he really has to work all night) and is playing a bit of golf during the day!

It was a bit rainy for the first few days but now it is all sunshine and summer!!!

We miss you all and will post pictures soon!

Love,

Sandy, Joe and Sarina

A week in Portugal

We spent a week in Portugal during November. We enjoyed Villa nova de Geia where we went to many port Lodges and tried porto. Then we headed for the Duoro Valley where we went to Quinta's where they grow the grapes for the Port Wine. We had a lovely dew days at the Vintage House hotel where we did a bit of eating and port tasting, we even took a class - as if we did not know how to taste port???

We then headed to Lisbon where we celebrated Joe's birthday. We had a terrific time in Lisbon where the highlights included: going to a traditional Fado show, seeing a musical in Portugese, being part of the Fatima celebration where thousands of people chanted in the streets while holding lit candles, ate traditional food and saw all the wonderful sites of Lisbon!

On the way back to Spain we stopped in Evora and saw the Chapel of Bones?? Yes it was a chapel made up of 5000 skeletons?

Spain and Portugal

We spent 5 weeks in Spain and 1 week in Portugal in November and December.

How we spent our time in Spain: Some of the highlights included; San Sebastian, Santiago, Rioja Wine Country, Salamunca, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Jarez, and 2 weeks in the Costa Del Sol. The Boylans met up with us for Thanksgiving and we spent a week in Marbella (Puerto Banus) with side trips to Granada, Gibraler, and Morocco/Africa. We had a traditional T-giving Turkey - Sarina and Nicko put on a play! It was lots of fun.

Where in the world are they?

Dear Family and Friends:

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and we wish you all the best for 2006!

Love,

Sandy, Joe and Sarina