Braga

Our visit to Braga. We traveled up North again. The boys have enjoyed the long train rides we take. They like to get down from their seats and run around on the train and hold on to the bars when the train stops.
Willie asked me the night before we left what I would like to see in Portugal before we had to leave. I said 'this may sound silly but I would really like to find some playgrounds.' Boy did my man deliver. When we were in Braga we found three playgrounds. We let the kids play on one of them for about an hour. I just kind of wish we had one near our place.

This particular playground was just outside of a McDonalds and a really cool old building with some historic value.
Parker looks so silly in this picture.





I think Parker is just about done for the day.

GOOFY!
The closest we have gotten to real American food. It was delicious. Willie didn't want any, but I really enjoyed my hamburger.

Little Blessings.

I have a difficult time when we move. I am a shy person and I like to stay in one place because it's comfortable to me. I am grateful though for the little blessings we receive when we move from place to place. We have met many wonderful friends along the way. Each of our friends is a blessing to us. Everyone we have met has been so great to help us when we are in need.
A recent blessing to us involved Lincoln. On Sunday we were invited into the home of a family in our ward (Ferdinand & her husband, Sarah). We ate the most wonderful meal with rice, chicken, vegetables, pao (bread), strawberries and a pastry. It was a great meal. Lincoln however was not feeling very well and we though it was just that he missed his naptime. We laid him down and he went to sleep around 4:00. We took him home and he kept sleeping, until the next morning. We thought this was strange so he must have been getting sick. We were invited to another home for Family Home Evening that night. I stayed with Lincoln all day and he seemed very listless and hot. Our thermometer wasn't working well because the battery had died. I knew he had a high temp though. We reached our host just before he arrived to our home to pick us up. We asked Cesar to assist Willie in blessing Lincoln. Cesar did so and then suggested we still go to his home and have dinner while he and Willie take Lincoln to the doctor. The doctor gave him some fever reducer medicine that goes up the rear end and some antibiotics for an ear-infection. It was too soon to tell for sure if there would be an ear-infection but they told us to give him the antibiotic. So we returned home after a long evening of taking car of the boys and having yet again another wonderful meal from Christina and her husband Cesar. Their son Luis is 19 and he plays the piano for Sacrament. Christina's mother is Cecilia and she brought us four bags of clothing for the boys and us. It's all warm clothing because she knew we don't have the warmest coats for our boys. We have been extremely blessed by these wonderful brothers and sisters. I am grateful that no matter where we go we can be assisted by our family. We love everyone. Lincoln woke the next morning feeling much better but still not fully recovered. He at least ate something. I am grateful that Willie holds the Priesthood and can give us blessings when we are in need. We have used this powerful gift many times and know of the blessings that come from having it in our home.

Confluence.

We thought of planning a larger trip for Valentines weekend but in the end we couldn't think of what we wanted to do. Willie said that he heard of an area that was really cool to see. So we took the boys down to the Atlantic Ocean where the Douro River meets up with it. Have you seen a fresh water river run into the ocean? It's cool to see what the water looks like. We set off the the day knowing that it was going to be a bit chilly. The weather has not been what we expected. The first signs of spring were showing up. Even though the weather was chilly we did find that lunch time was superb for soaking up the rays. We ate lunch down by the river. It was so nice to be in the warm sun. Once we headed out again though we felt the cool breeze and put our jackets back on.We took a trolley to our destination. We thought Parker would have enjoyed it more but he wasn't really interested in this old fashioned train. He would much rather take the 'real' train. They boys had fun on the pier. Parker loved watching the waves and Lincoln loved walking around. He doesn't get to do too much walking when we are being tourists. It was a very pretty day do be out-and-about. I like that you can see one of the many cool bridges along the Douro River in the picture with Lincoln just below. I wish we could get more pictures without the binky, he rarely uses it. I love that you can see his smile in his eyes though.Parker was so funny when I was taking this picture. I have about four of them and he would scoot a little to one side then say 'cheese', then he would scoot again saying 'cheese' again. He kept repeating. We have many good smiles from this boy now-a-days.Here's our only Valentines weekend photo of us. Well, the only one that turned out okay. On the way home we got off the bus and Willie said, 'uh, keep walking, I'll catch up in a minute' with a smile on his face. The bus stops us off right at a flower shop. He's funny. We had talked about him saying something like that if he wanted to get something without me knowing about it. Today it was a little obvious. I am grateful for the surprise that he got me. The flowers are so pretty and they do fun arrangements here in Porto. They use really big leaves; the one that is kind of flat is actually really huge and there is one that is folded that is huge too. Thanks Willie for my Valentines flowers.

To Be Or Not To Be...

We decided that we wanted to see a soccer/football game while we were here. We wanted to get geared up for the upcoming World Cup. We bought tickets online after much tribulation of the translation process. We asked friends what would be best. We decided on the only game available to us because all the others are played on Sunday. The boys would have to stay up late, but we were okay with that. I prepped Parker for the big day, telling him he had to take a good nap because the missionaries were coming for dinner and then we would get to see a soccer game. He did really good. We fed the missionaries after a long process of trying to get our food cooked. That's another story though. Then we rushed out the door with our kids bundled up. Lincoln was ready for bed time the moment we left the house. We took the bus, then the train with one transfer to another train. This was quite the ordeal. We asked a man where we were suppose to pick up our tickets and he helped us. We asked someone else to make sure we understood the first guy and the second guy informed us that we wouldn't get to take our kids in. WHAT!? We came all this way (w/o the stroller mind you) to find out that we couldn't use our tickets. We couldn't get a refund because the ticket office closed by the time we got back to it. So we left upset that we couldn't use our tickets and let Parker see the game. Once we were on the train we decided to go back and at least walk into the stadium and watch two minutes of the game. Willie went first and then I went second. The rule here is that no kid under 3 can go in the stadium (too crazy for the big games). This would have been useful information. One of the security guards felt bad that it was the rule and had told Willie he had kids too and that he would love to bring them. He did say that there was one entrance where you could see a part of the game. So we walked over, stood outside the gate with the kids and pointed to the game. Someone got hurt on the field where we could see. We watched as they took the player off the field. Parker sees the few pictures we took and says "someone got hurt, huh?" He was happy to hold his ticket though. He was a good sport the whole time. We were all disappointed. Lincoln finally fell asleep on the way home. Parker enjoyed the many train transfers we took and hanging out with his family. One day we will have to come back to see a game when our kids are over the age of three.

quart and hugs

We have slowly introduced money to Parker. He sees it and he wants it. We use cash more often now that we are in Portugal. In fact one of my goals is to use cash more often when we are in the States. I don't want the boys to learn that all they need is a credit card. In Portugal they use the Euro. The 1 euro is a coin as well as a 2 euro. The smallest bill they have is a 5. Needless to say we end up with a lot of change. Parker always asks for money. Sometimes it causes him grief if he doesn't get 'his' money. Back in the summer we received a quarter that had a train on it, yeah Utah. Parker loves his quarter. Recently though Parker has been calling the change 'quart.' It doesn't matter what kind of coin it is, he say 'quart.' We try to encourage him to say dime or coin but he won't let up. When we were at Guimaraes he tripped just outside of the castle. He was in tears, not because he tripped but because the 5 cent euro he had fell out of his hand. Willie caught this on camera, pretty funny seeing his feet fly up in the air. I probably won't post video while we are here in Porto so I'm sorry you missed out on this hilarious part of our day.

This picture shows Parker playing a game that I made up. Basically it's Candy Land but Parker has to get the Engineer to the Locomotive with the quarts following the train tracks. He loves it.Lincoln has become Mr. Lovebug. He must know that Valentines day is coming up. He loves to give me and Willie hugs. On occasion he has tried to give Parker one, but he's to quick with his get-away. Last night Lincoln would walk fast to give me a hug then he would turn around and walk fast back to Willie to give him a hug. He is so cute. He loves to sit in our laps too. I think this might be in part because we don't have a seat for him at the table so he is either in our laps or on the floor begging from one parent or another for food. I love that he shows us his love everyday. He likes to give kisses, but we have to convince him to give a kiss to start him off.

Guimaraes

Which is more interesting, a cool castle or a terrific train ride? Depends on who you are asking. We made the decision to take a day trip up to Guimaraes, Portugal. We were told that it's the birthplace of Portugal. Guimaraes was suggested by many people. We didn't get out the door as early as we would have liked but no matter we still made the best of our time. We first took the Metro down to Sao Bento station. We then went inside an awesome train station to buy tickets for our hour long journey. The train station alone brought smiles to our faces, it was so cool. Parker and Lincoln had a similar response when they saw the 'real' trains and tunnel. The station is surrounded by old apartment buildings and it gives the station an extraordinary feeling. Here is Parkers excitement for the trains. He ran all the way down to the end where the tunnel was. Tunnels, tracks, trains their all so COOL! Here are the boys near the big tunnel.I didn't take too many pictures of the train station. There were many tiles that were like the one bellow. There were also war scenes painted on tiles. The place was really awesome.
Welcome to Gimaraes, Portugal! This was one of the first historic buildings that we came upon. It has a really long title so I won't post it. We had fun taking pictures but we found more excitement as we traveled along the bumpy path.Speaking of bumpy paths. . .When we first saw this sidewalk we were amazed at the work that went into it. All the stones were irregular in shape yet they were placed to make a consistent pattern. We find paths like this all over Porto. We do enjoy them but I don't think that our stroller does. The terrain is a little rough on our well-worn wheels. A bit bumpy but we seemed to manage.We figured since everyone else was taking pictures by this guy we would do the same. We even found a cardboard cut out of him with the face open for people to put their head in. We did a picture with Willie like that, but I chose not to put it in. Welcome to the Guimaraes Castle. This place was so cool. We only had two hours in Guimaraes and most of our time was spent walking through the castle walls. Not quite what I expected. It had a large open court and the only place for living was in the tall tower in the middle. I guess it was more of a fortress than a castle. We didn't get much info on it, maybe next time we go. We assumed that the hole we are looking out of was used for shooting the arrows out. The next few pictures were taken of the very historic area as we walked back to the train. We didn't get to stop because we were short on time.Willie made sure we had enough time to make one stop at a 'pastelaria', pastry shop. I would think we are going to get fat with all the pastries we've been eating but I guess we are compensating by all the walking around we are doing. I'm hoping to find someone who knows how to make these delicious desserts and sandwiches so I can make them back in the states. The boys are waiting for their treat. We had to run for about a block and a half to catch the train. We made it with just enough time to get the kids out of the stroller and into our seats. Yikes, that was close. I planned on putting up some video, but it was just too big to post.