cousins and a new home

We headed for Kelly's to meet baby Adam and the kids couldn't have been more excited. Charlie jumped out of the car and both were running for Kelly's house "baby adam here we come" they shouted. All the kids delighted in the chance to hold him and look at him. Even cameron sat so still as Adam was in his lap and he seemed so proud to have "his turn" to hold the baby. The kids slept terribly and got up early. We took Adam on his first park and beach adventure--he slept and ate his way through the whole thing. The kids had a good time at a cute state park with a lake that had floats and a slide. We took care of Adam while Kelly and Bryan went out to dinner and had a nice walk around unsucessfully looking for geocaches.

Tuesday afternoon we headed for our new house and the kids were again excited. They ran around the empty house looking at their rooms, playroom and the pool. They were so excited to get to try the pool that we had to get in as soon as we had unloaded the car. Jeff's mom came that evening. The next day our stuff from long storage was delivered and the kids loved finding toys and stuffed animals that they hadn't seen in a long time. We got all the boxes unpacked but have a few more moving around of things to do. The kids enjoyed a few dips in the pool and played with our new neighbor. So far the move has been very smooth and we are excited to start exploring our new space.

The Long Trip Home

Friday morning everyone got up and we frantically finished shoving things into bags. Mid-morning we headed out for final errands and a trip to the park where Heather couldn’t overcome her fear of sliding down that darn pole. It will forever be unconquered!! Our friend made us lunch which was really nice, then Jeff and I headed over to a CE lunch before dropping off our bags. Sad goodbyes after final frantic packing…it’s always the kids who set me crying because they change so much! So a hug from Isabelle was all it took to start the waterworks. We said our goodbyes, one more picture in front of the house, and went to wait for the plane. At about 8 (we’d been there for 2 hours) they announced that the plane would not be leaving until tomorrow and to stick around for a showtime. An hour later we were heading for the Oceanview restaurant for a later dinner and an early showtime. We surprised a few friends, played some games and crashed late—another good “last” night in the Azores! Saturday we got to the terminal at 8, boarded a plane at noon and made it to Norfolk safely. The kids were pretty good on the plane ride as usual. We picked up our car and had dinner with a guy Jeff deployed with 3 years ago and then headed to the hotel to crash (well Jeff took Heather and Charlie swimming and Cameron and I crashed).

Final Countdown

Our last few days on the island were great! The weather was pretty nice and we got to do the last few things that the kids had to do. Wednesday the kids played in the morning while I ran some errands and we all went to the beach with several families. The kids had a good time and I even go in the water with Cameron—had to do it once before we moved!! After the beach we headed for one final bullfight at a friends in Fontainish which was really fun—definitely a great thing to get in before we left. I ended the evening with one more glee night and then crashed! Thursday—Our last full day on the island we took a few spirit house pictures of the kids, got t-shirts and looked for kindereggs (none to be found) before heading back to base so the kids could play with friends. When we got back we went to a park on base for a picnic then to library time where they did the final library summer program day. It was fun—the librarians Anna and Anna are awesome and we will miss them. Finally dinner at a friends and games, games, games at our house.

making the most of our time

Friday we made the most of a beautiful day playing outside at a few parks, Heather had her last day of summer school and we celebrated with a picnic lunch. Friday night we took the kids to the pool party on base. Cameron loves the water and can’t wait to play in the pool that we’ll have at our new house. Jeff tossed him up in the air and Cameron would go under and come up sputtering but want more. The other two kids did great swimming around on their own with friends or sliding the slide or off the diving board. There was a raffle for prizes and we won four of the eight prizes (our friends that we came with also won two). Not that we really needed anything but it was kind of fun to win—now where to fit those giant darth vadar m&m guys in our bags…Saturday we packed in a lot of fun starting with a water birthday party in the neighborhood. All the kids got along great and played for hours with water, balloons, slip-n-slides and more. We will really miss the fun neighborhood activities that we’ve become used to over the past 6 years of base life. After a bit of rest we headed out for exploring around the rocks in Porto Martins and our last dinner at a fun restaurant which ended up being full. We managed to console the 5 kids and head to Praia for dinner at another little place. Sunday we did a bit more organizing and then headed out with some friends to a few geocaches and the Angra park. Again the kids played for hours (not quite as peacefully but still very well) before heading out to find a geocache (Which we did not find) and then home for dinner. We found our neighbors playing a game so we crashed their house for games. Yesterday we played around the house then went down to the pidgen park which was on Heather’s “to do” list. Today we headed to a cook out at a new families house in Biscoits. They had a pool and a beautiful view so everyone had a lot of fun! It is a beautiful place here and we will miss it a lot! (oh yeah and we will miss our friends a lot too!!)

fitting it all in

We're trying to fit in everything the last few weeks we're here. Friday Jeff and I decided to go out on a date for one last time and left the kids to go to a movie with a sitter (cameron sat in her lap the whole Shreck 4 and they all got to see the whole movie!!). We chose a place called the whale restaurant (it has a Portuguese name) because there's a huge whale diving through the outside wall and two dolphins hanging from the ceiling. We sat with a view of Angra and the ocan and enjoyed a delicious "steak on a tile" where we got to cook the delicious steak ourselves. It was probably the best meal (and most expensive) that I've had on the island. After we went to walk the walking strip in Praia and got a crepe with ice cream and caramel--it was DELICIOUS!! A beautiful night with the waves crashing-I am quite certain we will never stay in a place like this again...Saturday we took it easy and cleaned in the morning when it looked a bit questionable outside. Our friends had a going away type cookout and the kids played and played with their friends. Saturday night the kids had two friends over to spend the night and had a great time. In the morning we all headed for a park that the kids wanted to hit one last time, had a picnic, and then enjoyed the beach. We finished up with more playing outside.
Heather is enjoying the last week of summer "school" and had parents day today where we got to see what she had been doing. Charlie and I got the turtles ready to go to his teacher at the Santa Rita school where they wil l live their happy turtle lives. The kids were sad but knowing they were going to some other kids made it better. We've eaten with friends several times this week and have enjoyed a few game nights and just hanging out. We took all the kids and three sets of friends and their kids to the whale restaurant on Tuesday night so that they could enjoy. It was great and Heather was overwhelmed with the coolness of the place.

baby Adam

My sister had a baby two weeks ago and he's a cute little red-head with doting mom and dad and grandparents. We can't wait to see him in a few weeks until then we've gotten to see him on skype and the kids (especially cameron) like to say "hi" and point to him. Cameron is pretty good at identifying "be be a um" on the computer and now most babies in books are "be be a um". I can't wait to see what he does when he sees the real thing! Congrats to kelly and Bryan and we can't wait to see you guys ;-)

easy mondays

The kids have settled into playing all over the place on nice sunny days. I usually keep up with everywhere they are but with cameron napping and trying to get a few things done today I lost track. So nice to live in a place where I can let them just go from house to house and run around the neighborhood without worrying that something will happen. The kids are really enjoying their last few weeks on the island. I got to go out with the girls for dinner last night to a restaurant right on the water looking over split rock. We got chicken in a tile and they use roof tiles (not used ones) to cook the food and it was really good! Cool presentation and a nice time with friends who I will really miss (and know that because of the friends that have already left that I miss ;-(). We had a bit of trouble finding the place and stopped along the way to ask a lady with a pot of beans if she could give us directions. She spoke enthusiastically in Portuguese and then got a guy driving a truck to give us directions...you just go this way and then left and it's right there down. Clear as mud--we found it with no problem and a lot of laughs!