tan dulce a ser seis años

So Sweet to be Six Years Old

diez dedos del pie, dos dientes

Ten Toes, Two Teeth

Loving my baby from head to toe!

la rana

The Frog Look at what we found at the bottom of our pool last week! The children were very excited about this new pet but I was grossed out that our pool was murky enough to sustain pond life! After 5 days of draining the pool, scrubbing every inch of it and filling it back up, our pool man has left it in sparkling, refreshing shape. And the kids haven't missed a day splashing in it since. The girls made up several different habitats for him and we all enjoyed a detailed nature study on frogs for the rest of the afternoon.

A couple of days later, our cat met up with our little green friend. (or so we think) End of story. :-(

Off to Prague

This morning we all woke up EXTRA early to get Travis off to the airport by 6AM. The worst part of it is that we were all suppose to be getting on that plane with him, initially. However, after multiple attempts to find cheap airfare for all of us, we finally had to make the decision to cancel family vacation plans to the Czech Republic this week and just send Travis off by himself to enjoy his all-expense paid business trip.

He arrived this afternoon and promptly emailed me after he arrived and got settled into his hotel. He'll be spending the next 6 days at the international dermatology conference in Prague while we stay at home and keep up our regular schedule of activities. Actually, we're going to throw in a field trip to the local zoo in a couple of days so that's pretty cool... right??? Well, I'm trying to convince myself of it. I mean, if you've been to one zoo, you pretty much know what to expect for the animal exhibits. And after spending hours and hours in the San Diego zoo over several continuous years, I've never seen a better zoo around. But, my kids love going to the Jerez zoo and really, they don't even remember the San Diego zoo, so that's our big plan for the week.

We sent Travis off with the camera and are hoping he'll find time to do some sight seeing and souvenir shopping for us home bodies. As for the money we're saving by not joining him on this exciting business trip, we'll be able to travel to some other European destination where we can all be on vacation and enjoy the sights. I was feeling up to the challenge of basically being on vacation with just the kids and I while he was in his seminar classes because we were also planning to meet up with a friend. Isn't this crazy? Travis' friend from high school is going to be in Prague also because her husband is one of the dermatology presenters. They live in Montana and although we've never met her husband, we've gotten together with her every time we go back to Billings. We exchange yearly Christmas card pictures too. Well, I'm glad that Travis has someone to meet up with and he's really looking forward to all the good training and info he'll get this week. I just hope the week goes by fast and nothing "too exciting" happens to us while he's away! Maybe I'll spend my evenings blogging this week. This seems to be a good distraction for tonight anyways.

HEAR we go baby

Inviting you to visit a new blog that I've been working on. I've added a picture on the sidebar of this blog for easy access to it. All you have to do is click on the picture link of Isaac.

If you're interested in seeing monthly pictures of my baby and/or are interested in the little details of our struggles, successes, worries, triumphs, etc. of raising a baby who is hard of hearing, this will be the blog to visit.

Obrigado

That's "Thank you" in Portuguese.

Here's a few photo's of our weekend getaway to Portugal.

One of the wonderful benefits about traveling around the world is the unique experience of simply eating like the locals. It's not always the best part, but it usually makes great memories.

Take this sidewalk menu for example.

To be honest, we decided to walk past this tempting menu

in search of Portuguese cuisine of a different flavor.

I couldn't resist shooting a quick picture

of what we couldn't bring ourselves to try. ha/ha

(Thanks to the English translations, our decision was a bit easier)

Examples of the walkways all through out the city center were like this. Lot's of different geometric shapes and designs.

castle hike

beaches of the Algarve

It was once believed that the above two photos were the locations of THE edge of the world. (I have to look up some interesting facts, in our guide book, about this place and then I'll edit this post with a better write up).

This is the classic Lagos ocean view. Amazing natural rock formations::

Simply strolling the sands of the Algarve beaches::

seeing Orange

How's this for a little splash of color to brighten a room? This was the hotel room we stayed in, in Portugal.

GROSS!

Isn't this an adorable picture of Isaac!

He looks so innocent and happy and content.

He was playing so nicely in "his office" (as the big kids call it).

While I was in the kitchen making dinner, Travis walked in to greet me after his long day at work. I asked him to please check on Isaac, who was in the other room, because he'd quieted down a few minutes ago. Much to our surprise, this is what Daddy found below this cute face...

"Welcome home honey! You're just in time to help out."

Isaac is having bowel movement problems and is now on medication to help him poop.

Looks like it's working, don't you think?