The Run Down

Here is the run down of the last month and a half. Hopefully this will be an outline to future posts.
-Willie sprains his ankle four days before we move back to the States. (still injured)
-Parker and I have a date. Travel to the river to find some souvenirs and arrive home after General Conference starts.
-We plan to feed the five missionaries before we leave. Easter Sunday and the power goes out one hour before they arrive.
-A blessing of two taxis to get us to the airport. The Porto airport, nice and relaxing.
-A 13 hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany. Willie's ankle looking pretty swollen and turning black and purple in new places.
-A nice 10 hour flight to get us home to Atlanta (Avatar covered three of those hours). Two hours to get out of the Atlanta airport.
-Staying at the Foye home. Taking care of their puppy, Reese. Oh how we love the Foye's.
-Finding an apartment with a bum ankle.
-We found the apartment, now when do we move in?
-A nice American dinner provided by our ex-Canadian friend. The burgers were divine. The company was fantastic.
-The move in took place on a Tuesday night where we had loads of help from our faithful friends and church members. I guess it helps having been in two wards while in Atlanta.
-Willie finally gets his ankle x-rayed. Just a sprain but not taken care of too well. Too bad we had to travel. Crutches for my beloved.
-Unpacking, unpacking and unpacking.
-Toys, toys, toys. I didn't know we had so many flippin' toys.
-Parks, YES we have parks and a playground!! We can actually go outside. Let's just get unpacked.
-So now we get to settle down. We can relax. We can watch a movie. I can go to a yoga class. We have friends that we can always call.
-In Portugal we only called family on the weekends and for maybe a half an hour or an hour. I think that I have already talked to family and friends for the same amount of time I talked to them the whole time we were in Porto.
-Well all of this has been happening with a wee little one on the way. We are expecting baby number three and we are very happy to add more joy and excitement to our lives. At this date I am fourteenish weeks along. Of course this will get posted after our family finds out.

Our New Home.

It's so nice to have a new home. It's great to be back in Atlanta. I know I am very worldly because I missed some of our 'things.' It was nice to be back in our own bed. For the kids to have their toys. To have all of our cooking appliances and utensils.
One thing that was a wonderful comfort was the support we had when we moved back to Atlanta. I am grateful to everyone who helped us to move in to our new home. We had help from so many people, I love every one of you. We had many men help us but I am grateful for their wives and family members who gave up their time with their husbands and fathers so they could be of service to us. Thank you.
Our new home is one we hope to stay in for awhile.
Here is the boy's room.The master bedroomThe dining areaLiving room

Last day in Porto.

Let's see. The Thursday before we were flying out from Porto, Willie had decided to play a little futbol. Not bad, exercising and all. Until he came home that evening and said "I don't feel well". I was a little upset because he didn't get home when I thought he would (about an hour later). He had done something to his ankle and he couldn't even walk on it. Oh my! We talked to our Bishop who just happens to be a physical therapist. He said it was just a sprain and told us what to do. He said that if it hurt anymore then he should get an x-ray. It's good it was General Conference weekend. Willie could relax his ankle for at least half of the day while enjoying some spiritual insight. The first night I told Willie that we needed to wrap his ankle, but we didn't have the right resources. So I searched to see what we could use as a substitute to an ace bandage wrap. We had attended our last day at church so I decided to use my nylons. I think they worked really well. We did, however, go to a store and pick up a wrap about a day and a half later. Willie's ankle had some pretty gruesome bruising, which cannot be seen in the few photos we took.Parker and I enjoyed the last Saturday afternoon heading down to the Douro River. It was fun taking Parker on a little date. He didn't know that we were going to ride the train. He was so excited when he found out. My little guy did so well keeping up with me. We did a lot of walking searching for souvenirs and playgrounds. In the end we found a fun toy for Parker to take home with him and we were able to play at a playground. We had fun.
Sunday we decided that we would feed the Missionaries lunch and then give them a few things that we knew we couldn't take with us back to the States. We had been preparing to make crepes all morning long. I had everything ready to start cooking. One hour before the Missionaries were to come the power went out at our house! What?! This was Easter Sunday, who would be shutting off power on Easter Sunday! We felt horrible because we were feeding FIVE missionaries. We decided that we would give them the food and they could take it home to cook. When the Missionaries arrived the more Senior missionary asked if we checked the breakers. Yes we checked the breaker. He said 'the one outside the apartment?' What? There's a breaker outside of the apartment too? He went out into the hall and flipped a switch. Voila. Power. Yeah. He said that once you live in Europe long enough you are bound to find out these little secrets. Little did we know the wonderful blessing we would have that day of inviting the missionaries over for lunch. They really did help us and we were able to feed our children without having to break the Sabbath. Thanks Elders.
Willie was feeling confident about his ankle on Monday (departure day). We did our best to keep it elevated and not walk on it too much. Willie's buddy from work sent us some cabs to take us to the airport, thanks JP. This was a huge help. Two taxis and we were to the airport in no time. We were also VERY blessed to be able to check our 8 bags all the way through to the States (even with a 13 hour layover).

The beginning.

Here are the beginning pictures from when my family came out to visit. Beware, lots of pictures and a little bit of commentary. One thing that I really enjoyed was that Parker and Lincoln could spend time with family that they don't see very often. Our first day out we took everyone down to the Douro River. We had a late start but that was like most days of their trip. Who doesn't mind sleeping in every once in awhile?
Grandma took this picture of me because it was a great reminder of how the streets were in downtown Porto. It also captures the clothes hanging up on the line (you really have to look right behind me to see this though).
My mom and dad were so great to have around. They are sure to bring smiles to our faces. It's about ten times more fun with Grandma in the mix!
Boats!
The Parque de Cididad was a fabulous find. The Eucalyptus trees smelled wonderful. Here's my mom getting a close up sniff. There was this awesome drinking fountain at the park. You had to be careful or it would really get all over the place. We have some fun video of my Grandma attempting to drink from the fountain.

A nice pond where we could feed the ducks. Parker really loved chasing the ducks back into the pond. Lincoln loved walking around.
I love the pictures with Grandma and the boys.

This is one of my favorite pictures from their trip. Isn't Parker such a sweet heart giving Grandma a flower that he picked? What a gentleman.

By the park was the Atlantic Ocean. So with a short walk we could enjoy the sound of the waves and the view of the open waters.
We watched a few people fishing. Parker and Willie found a fun tunnel to go through. We picked up seashells and walked along the rocky shore.
A view of Porto from the Gaia side of the river.
We had planned to go on a boat ride up to the Douro Valley to check out the vineyards. We found out that they would start a week after my parents left. We were a bit disappointed. Instead we decided to take a long walk for the day. We found a playground for the kids to play at. My dad got us started into the fun.



We took a tour of the Sandman wine cellars. The casks and barrels were so huge. It was pretty chilly inside. The building of the Sandman company was in an old convent. It was interesting learning about the wine. We were really lucky, they gave free samples at the end of the tour. What a great opportunity to share the gospel. Too bad we didn't have more people to share the gospel with in our group.

Lunch at a little diner. Good food. Good company.


We made our way to a botanical garden. This was a long walk. Along the way Lincoln dropped his binky somewhere. We couldn't find it and we even went back to look for it. After visiting the garden we walked back the way we came and to some extend we had all thought of looking for the binky. My Grandma had huge success. She saw it on the ground next to a building. Amazing that she found it. Thanks Grandma.

We took a train ride another day. We visited a part of the Douro Valley. Since we couldn't get there by boat we decided to go by train.



It was a bit rainy on the way up. We did enjoy seeing the hillsides where the grapevines were just beginning to bud. Just after arriving the rain stopped and didn't start up again until later in the afternoon.


Mostly a group shot. On the far right you can see a figure on top of the hill, that's the Sandman Company vineyards.
Parker did well holding on to the umbrella. I realized that it would have been nice to have a rain guard on the stroller while we lived in Portugal.
So many bridges. I usually forget to get pictures of myself with those who come to visit. I'm glad I got this picture of me and my mom.


For Parker, a train.
You've gotta love Grandma!