BG's Pics
Kiddo's Pics
Friday, December 30, 2016
Portugal: Kids' Pics
We gave the kids their own disposable cameras to use on our Portugal trip (Brandon's awesome idea!) and they finally came back from being developed. Here's a few of their best pictures:
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Christmas Stuff 2016
Christmastime!
BG did an amazing job as a duck at the nativity, and had a great time at her class Christmas party.
Kiddo's school program happened to coincide with Christmas this year, and so they sang a a bunch of spoofs. It was pretty cute.
Brandon was out of town for the first week of Christmas break so the kids and I had to find our own entertainment. Since the weather was so nice, we went hiking around Spring Creek Nature Center.
Luckily, Brandon came home from his business trip the night before Christmas Eve. We learned last year that Christmas Eve is the day to do things that would normally be crowded because--surprise!--no crowds, so we went to the zoo and had a blast.
Christmas Day started early, but the kids are well-trained and don't open anything until the parents get up. Presents were mostly practical, but there were some fun surprises, too. Kiddo loved getting a Pokemon binder and a Bop-It, BG loved her dress-up dress, and G2 loved getting a little chair just her size.
We got dressed up in our Christmas finest and went to church for a wonderful service and then came home and had a delicious Christmas dinner. After all that, the early morning (and jet-lag, for Brandon) caught up with us and we all went to bed early, resulting in my most surprising Christmas gift: a full nine hours of sleep!
BG did an amazing job as a duck at the nativity, and had a great time at her class Christmas party.
Kiddo's school program happened to coincide with Christmas this year, and so they sang a a bunch of spoofs. It was pretty cute.
Brandon was out of town for the first week of Christmas break so the kids and I had to find our own entertainment. Since the weather was so nice, we went hiking around Spring Creek Nature Center.
Luckily, Brandon came home from his business trip the night before Christmas Eve. We learned last year that Christmas Eve is the day to do things that would normally be crowded because--surprise!--no crowds, so we went to the zoo and had a blast.
Christmas Day started early, but the kids are well-trained and don't open anything until the parents get up. Presents were mostly practical, but there were some fun surprises, too. Kiddo loved getting a Pokemon binder and a Bop-It, BG loved her dress-up dress, and G2 loved getting a little chair just her size.
We got dressed up in our Christmas finest and went to church for a wonderful service and then came home and had a delicious Christmas dinner. After all that, the early morning (and jet-lag, for Brandon) caught up with us and we all went to bed early, resulting in my most surprising Christmas gift: a full nine hours of sleep!
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Soccer Stuff
Kiddo usually plays on a soccer team twice a year, so I don't always post about his soccer seasons, but I wanted to post about his last one. His coach was incredibly enthusiastic, which caught on with all the team members. They were all pumped up and ready to play every week. Even though it wasn't the most skilled team he's ever been on, they played their little hearts out.
We were in Portugal for Kiddo's last scheduled game, but it was cancelled due to rain. And then it was rescheduled and cancelled again. So by the time the game was scheduled again, we were back in town.
Kiddo doesn't usually get emotional when he's happy, but he did during that last game. When his teammate scored to tie the game, Kiddo got teary eyed as he patted his back. I asked Kiddo about it during a break and he said they were "tears of joy." When the game went into overtime and no one scored, it went to penalty kicks. When our team won, I thought Kiddo would burst!
We were in Portugal for Kiddo's last scheduled game, but it was cancelled due to rain. And then it was rescheduled and cancelled again. So by the time the game was scheduled again, we were back in town.
Kiddo doesn't usually get emotional when he's happy, but he did during that last game. When his teammate scored to tie the game, Kiddo got teary eyed as he patted his back. I asked Kiddo about it during a break and he said they were "tears of joy." When the game went into overtime and no one scored, it went to penalty kicks. When our team won, I thought Kiddo would burst!
It was a great way to end his soccer season here in Houston.
Wednesday, December 07, 2016
Portugal: Lisbon and the Long Journey Home
Our last day in Portugal was supposed to be a day full of touristing in Lisbon, but it didn't quite work out that way. The night before, Brandon checked our flights online and it said that one of our them had been cancelled! What?! Apparently Lufthansa's pilots had decided to go on strike that day and so the portion of our flight using Lufthansa was cancelled. Lufthansa said that they had already contacted us about the cancellation (uh, no they didn't!), but they couldn't help us with flights because it was originally booked through United yada yada yada we had to talk to United Airlines. Of course, customer service is located in the US, so we had to wait for 8 am EST to figure out how we were getting home. Since we had time to kill anyway, we went ahead with our plan to spend the day in Lisbon.
We said good-bye to my parents, (Lisbon is outside of their mission area, so they weren't able to go touristing with us there) and went straight to Castelo de Sao Jorge. Because you can never see enough castles! This castle required a bit of a hike, but it had some great views. And after two weeks of wandering around castles, the lack of railings and cliff-like walls hardly fazed us anymore!
After we finished exploring the castle, it was time to call customer service and figure out our flights home. An hour or two later, we had it settled: instead of leaving the next morning, we had to leave now. We headed to the airport just in time to fly to Paris, drive to a hotel across the city next to a different Paris airport to spend the night so we could then take a flight to Newark, NJ the next morning and then from there we could catch our flight to Houston. Phew. Our kids were awesome with the last minute change of plans and the flight to Paris. We even saw the Eiffel Tower from the freeway! I can check Paris off my list!
After a short night's sleep, we headed to the airport again and flew in a half-empty plane to Newark. We went through passport check and customs, got our bags, checked our bags again, went through security, and then ran all the way to our gate only to be told that--even though our plane hadn't left yet--the doors had been shut and they wouldn't let us on. To customer service we went where we were told that the next flight with five available seats wasn't for six more hours! So we were put on stand-by for any flights available before then. The girls ended up flying home after about two hours, and on a flight about one hour earlier than the boys. But we eventually all met up at the airport in Houston, and finally headed home. Not the best way to end our trip, but definitely memorable.
And, I'm sure, good practice for things to come.
We said good-bye to my parents, (Lisbon is outside of their mission area, so they weren't able to go touristing with us there) and went straight to Castelo de Sao Jorge. Because you can never see enough castles! This castle required a bit of a hike, but it had some great views. And after two weeks of wandering around castles, the lack of railings and cliff-like walls hardly fazed us anymore!
After we finished exploring the castle, it was time to call customer service and figure out our flights home. An hour or two later, we had it settled: instead of leaving the next morning, we had to leave now. We headed to the airport just in time to fly to Paris, drive to a hotel across the city next to a different Paris airport to spend the night so we could then take a flight to Newark, NJ the next morning and then from there we could catch our flight to Houston. Phew. Our kids were awesome with the last minute change of plans and the flight to Paris. We even saw the Eiffel Tower from the freeway! I can check Paris off my list!
After a short night's sleep, we headed to the airport again and flew in a half-empty plane to Newark. We went through passport check and customs, got our bags, checked our bags again, went through security, and then ran all the way to our gate only to be told that--even though our plane hadn't left yet--the doors had been shut and they wouldn't let us on. To customer service we went where we were told that the next flight with five available seats wasn't for six more hours! So we were put on stand-by for any flights available before then. The girls ended up flying home after about two hours, and on a flight about one hour earlier than the boys. But we eventually all met up at the airport in Houston, and finally headed home. Not the best way to end our trip, but definitely memorable.
And, I'm sure, good practice for things to come.
Portugal: Porto and Castle of Santa Maria da Feira
Chelon went back to the UK and the rest of us went to church. It was great to see the people that my parents have been serving with since they started their mission!
After church we drove up to Porto to spend the night. We had an amazing dinner and ordered desserts purely because of the names: Camel's drool was an egg custard (which we didn't get), and Bacon from Heaven was an almond egg yolk tart on phyllo dough (which we did get). Honestly, the chocolate mousse was the best dessert at our table, but can you really pass up a dessert that has the word bacon in the name? I think not.
The next morning we went touristing. Lello Bookstore is famous (you have to buy tickets to look at it), and it was every bit as Harry Potter-esque as we imagined.
Then we went to Clerigos Tower and climbed to the top (because apparently we can't be in the vicinity of a wall or tower without climbing it). The tower got narrower as it went up, so by the time we got to the top it was pretty cramped.
Before we left town, we stopped at the Sao Bento train station to check out the tile work.
On our way back to Caldas, we stopped to see the castle of Santa Maria da Feira. Unfortunately it was closed, but it looked pretty great from the outside. Next time....
(The kids made up the entire primary that day. And grandma is primary president, so it worked out great!)
After church we drove up to Porto to spend the night. We had an amazing dinner and ordered desserts purely because of the names: Camel's drool was an egg custard (which we didn't get), and Bacon from Heaven was an almond egg yolk tart on phyllo dough (which we did get). Honestly, the chocolate mousse was the best dessert at our table, but can you really pass up a dessert that has the word bacon in the name? I think not.
The next morning we went touristing. Lello Bookstore is famous (you have to buy tickets to look at it), and it was every bit as Harry Potter-esque as we imagined.
G2 obviously didn't appreciate it as much as the rest of us.
Then we went to Clerigos Tower and climbed to the top (because apparently we can't be in the vicinity of a wall or tower without climbing it). The tower got narrower as it went up, so by the time we got to the top it was pretty cramped.
On our way back to Caldas, we stopped to see the castle of Santa Maria da Feira. Unfortunately it was closed, but it looked pretty great from the outside. Next time....
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