Convento de Cristo, Tomar e Castelo do Almourol

Last day of the trip... First stop Convento de Cristo, a huge, old beautiful convent that sits above the city of Tomar. After spending the morning wandering through the Convento and enjoying the scenery we headed down into the town of Tomar.

Tomar is a super cute little town, we quickly found a little restaurant that Ana Maria (Tirza's teacher) had told us about. It was great, delicious food and lots of it for not a lot of money! After eating we wandered around the town, enjoyed watching the ducklings and boys jumping off bridges. So fun!

Then it was on to the Castelo do Almourol, an old old castle that sits in the middle of the Tejo river. We took a little boat to the castle, and hiked our way to the top of the castle. The view was amazing! We enjoyed the scenery for awhile and then when the 2 French guys, who apparently decided to strip down to their underwear and swim to the castle, showed up we decided it was time to head back. :)

We finished the trip off by stopping at a gas station for treats, Lindsey's pick, and then back to our fav city of Lisboa! It was a great trip, there are SO many wonderful places to see in Portugal!

Day 2

Day 2 of our Spring Break adventure we went further North to a little city, Aveiro, that we visited and fell in love with over the summer. It is a small town but as charming as anything with 5 canals running through it. We rode a boat, enjoyed some lunch and the city's typical treats called, ovos moles, YUM!
After that we decided to explore a new town in that area called Costa Nova. It has a big beach and cute striped fisherman houses... we found a surprise treat there called Tripas. Oh my SO tasty, made fresh while you wait! Then it was back to Aveiro for dinner... the girls dishes were all looked like faces... to cute!

Ferias da Páscoa: Day One

We decided to take advantage of the girl's time off from school to take Lindsey to see some of our favorite Portugal places outside of Lisbon. One of the top activities on the list was to go to Nazaré and rent a room from one of the grandma that hang out on the main street. We ended up getting a great little apartment... we had a charming time in this little charming town!

Festa da Páscoa

Last Saturday we had our annual Festa da Páscoa (Easter Party). It was SO much FUN! We started the morning out dyeing the eggs. The kids did such a great job we had a table full of colorful eggs!

Then we used our great Resurrection Eggs to tell the Easter story. The eggs are such a fun way to get everyone involved in the details of Jesus's Resurrection story. 

Next it was on to decorating the bags for the Egg HUNT! The Dads headed out to the park to hide the eggs for us while the kids worked on their bags. After the bags were done and the eggs were well hidden  we started our parade to the park:)

It is always so much fun to watch the kids all dash off in a mad rush to find their eggs. This year was no disappointment, we had to hold the big kids back and let the littler ones get a head start! 

After the eggs were all found, and all the prizes and candy discovered we headed back to our apartment for lunch. We ate and talked and the kids played and played... it was a super fun day!

Thank so EVERYONE who sent stuff to help make it such a special and fun day for all of us!!!

Sahara's field trip

Guest Blogger: Sahara Marie Bustrum

This is my field trip that I went on, it was fun and interesting.  We walked a lot, we stoped and ate our snack and then after a few more hours we ate our lunch by the Castelo de São Jorge and then after eating we walked some more to visit more places.

I hope you guys like it a lot because I loved it.

*We are experiencing some technical difficulties, the slideshow won't upload to blogger today:( It is on Facebook so check there to see the pics Sahara took of her big Lisbon Field Trip!

Valentine's Day 2011

Did I warn you that the blog might be random and out of order for a little while... I am enjoying the new computer so much, being able to organize my photos, make slideshows...

I couldn't miss posting about V-day because Bria was SO excited about it this year. She started planning and making cards weeks ahead of time. She planned the dinner, made cards and presents for everyone, did a show for us... it was SO cute! We all had a sweet day together:)

Prague

Last month Mark and I had a meeting in beautiful Prague, Czech Republic. We left the girlies in Lisbon with sweet friends, it was a whole week so we were a little nervous but they had a WONDERFUL time. Thank you friends!

Mark and I loved the seeing Prague, being with friends, going to dinner, seeing snow, going to the OPERA... and just having some time together! It was a fabulous week! And on top of all the fun it was a helpful and encouraging meeting. We did FREEZE, we are NOT used to that kind of cold, bbrrrrrrr! It was alright for the first few days and waking up to beautiful snowflakes falling was great. But we were happy to come home to sunshine and 3 sweet little girls!