Thursday, September 24, 2009

The little things in life... make me smile

The other day Kayden dug a little too deep into her toy box. Of course before rescuing her, I had to record it!

For her next trick, Kayden will be saying "hi" and waving.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Portugal


To celebrate the end of summer, we spent a week in Southern Portugal. We rented a house with our neighbors that had a wonderful pool and central location, close to beaches and fantastic little towns. The week was spent exploring different beaches, golfing, heading to the spa for beauty treatments, relaxing with wine poolside and just enjoying the last few days of summer.



The beaches were beautiful. To our surprise, Kayden was incredibly scared by the first beach we went to. I think the crashing of the waves threw her off guard. She became more relaxed with each beach we visited and loved eating sand. Yum?



We were lucky enough to trade off babysitting nights with our friends and were able to go on a few romantic date nights by ourselves. What a treat! There is nothing better than watching the sun set over the ocean while eating amazing fish with the love or your life.




A highlight was going to the "End of the World". We visited the most south western tip of Europe, which at one time was thought to be where the world ended. It was crazy to look out at the vast expanse of ocean and think that hundreds of years ago, people had no idea other continents existed.



The house we stayed in was an adventure in itself. Our friends beat us home one day and found the old housekeeper cleaning the patio in her bra. Yipes. Geckos would come into the kitchen at night. No toilet paper was supplied. We ran out of water for a few hours after the pool guy refilled the water in the pool.


Our last day we ventured into Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. The city had little cable cars all over, conquering the steep, San Fransico like streets. Many of the buildings were completely covered in small colorful tiles, making for incredibly exteriors. We went to the fortress that overlooks the city. The view was amazing and the history of the place dated back hundreds of years. Such a neat place!



Despite some issues with the house, the trip was perfect and relaxing. We would highly recommend Southern Portugal to anyone who wants to just soak up the sun in hidden beach coves and escape from modern day life into the twisting petite streets of old Portuguese villages.