Portugal Pictures

Well, we have been staying quite busy despite a few days of rain. It seems that even on a sunny day, if there is a cloud in the sky it is filled with rain. This means having to be dressed for almost anything. One minute it feels super warm and the next the wind is blowing and it's starting to rain. Yesterday we spent the day at Zoo Marine. It is an outdoor Marine Park with tropical birds, dolphins, seals, sea lions etc. It also has quite a few rides to keep the kids entertained. Below is a picture of all of us on the two storey carousel.

There was also a ferris wheel. As many of you know I suffer from vertigo and don't like heights but I didn't even have to use that excuse to get out of going on. Check out the sign below! : ) Mike and I were killing ourselves laughing because it said 'No pregnants allowed'

The girls loved all of the little rides.
Here they are sitting on the carousel again with Grandma. The girls had decided that this was Cinderella's carriage. : )
On one gloomy and rainy day we took the girls to an indoor play structure. They had a blast playing with a few of the other British kids.
We also discovered yet another beach. This one is geographically stunning but it was very windy and the surf was crazy.
One day as we were walking back to the vehicle from the beach the girls met some locals that were dressed up and decorating the square with ribbons for Carnaval. They had a great time running around with their little friends wrapping the ribbons around trees and even a few passerbys.

That's it for now. The sun is shining and Maya is already in her bathing suit. Guess where she wants to go?!

Love to you all,

Kristen

Holiday

Well, we have been here for almost a week now. Mike and I did a day trip into Spain last Friday. The weather was quite miserable that day, pretty much raining sideways the whole time. We spent the day in Seville which is a beautiful city. We toured around one of the biggest cathedrals in the world, saw the tomb of Christopher Columbus and ate lunch at some little Spanish restaurant. It was quite funny as they had an English menu but there was nobody there that actually spoke English. Mike ended up spending 10 Euros on some Spanish specialty that looked and tasted like a small plate of Summer Sausage! : ) The rest of the tour was done on the bus as everyone was pretty much frozen. I won't complain as that same day they had snow in Madrid!

Down here in the Algarve the temperature has remained rather warm but we have had a few days of rain. We have managed to get down to the beach a few times now. By some miracle of nature it happens to be one of the most sheltered spots around so even if it's cool and windy up in the town it can be almost hot down on the beach. The beach is surrounded by yellow cliffs that the girls have nicknamed 'The Golden Rock". I myself, have found it a little too cool to actually jump in the water but that hasn't stopped Calla and Maya. They would spend all day every day down on the beach if we let them. They are mesmerized by the waves and love to try to either jump over them or run away from them. The first day that they were down there they ran around without taking a break for two hours! Maya was sick of her bathing suit so she decided to throw it aside. It was so funny!

We have taken to watching the Olympics in the evenings. The live coverage starts around 4:00 pm here and goes on into the night. We tend to just watch after supper and the girls have gone to bed. We really enjoyed watching the snowboarding last night. The coverage has been quite good and I do love to listen to the Scottish announcers and their lovely sayings! The other night they were commenting on some 'untidy' skiing. : )

As promised here are a few pictures:

Beach Bums!

Loving the waves!

Doing a dance at the 'Golden Rock'.

Exhausted after a long day at the beach.

Love to you all,

Kristen