Unexpected Paradise in Portugal

Sometimes we plan trips way in advance, for what seems like months, looking up the best places for our family to stay, making sure the costs are manageable, setting and resetting itineraries that will allow us to see what we want to see in a new city yet still keep our young girls happy. It's a lot of hard work, and many of times everything we've planned goes wrong.  For our Easter 2014 trip, we quickly booked a trip to the city of Lagos in the Algarves on the southwest tip of Portugal a few weeks prior departing, didn't do any research into the area or give any thought into what we were getting ourselves into. The flights and condo were cheap, so we went with it. We knew to pack bathing suits and pray for sunshine as it was still quite early in the spring season........ and we lucked out.  Our trip to Portugal was probably the best trip we had so far. We saw amazing coasts we never expected, ate fantastic food, lucked out with great weather for the time of year, and our girls had an amazing week building sand castles on the beach.

Lagos is a town with more than 2000 years of history. It has a significant history from the age of discovery and was once the center of the European slave trade....... all very neat facts, but let's be honest, we loved the fact it was on the coast, with a cute city center littered with shops and restaurants and had clear blue water, soft sand and numerous beach front bars to relax while watching the girls play on the coast

The view from Meia Preia, a mile long sandy beach that looks back into the city center

Shopping in the city center. We loved walking to and from the beaches through the mostly car-less streets, picking up trinkets along the way

One of our favorite things about Lagos was that the beach area was not lined with ocean front condos or homes. Some of the bigger beaches we went to had at least a half mile between the beach to any significant building structure. This left a beautiful, natural feeling and plenty of room for a few discreet beach bars. We spent most afternoons sipping cocktails at the bar, overlooking the ocean and the girls playing in the sand.

Since it was mid April when we visited, the water was still frigid cold. The girls didn't mind too much, and we loved the fact that the water was cold enough to keep them safely above water. Hours were passed dipping their toes in the water, then running away with chattering teeth.

We were so surprised upon arrival to find out about all of the beach coves that lined the coast of the Algarve's. This beach cove, Praia de Camilo was well worth the 300 steps through the cliff it took to get down to the seaside!

We hired a local Portuguese tour guide to take us through all the coastal grottos. We got on the boat not knowing what to expect, hanging on for dear life to our small children on some choppy cliff side waters. For 45 minutes we got to go see and go in and out of some jaw-dropping, coral filled, bright blue and green grottos. It was the best part of our trip.

Our days started with trips to Cafe Odean. A super friendly hole in the wall, seating for 12 people restaurant with unbelievably low prices and the best pancakes we've ever had in our lives. Ever since, our new taste benchmark for pancakes is from those at Cafe Odean. I doubt we will ever find any as good. (Thank you Trip Advisor for the recommendation)

Spending the day in relatively deserted beaches, relaxing in the sun, and seeing our girls enjoy everything around them made for the best holiday we could have asked or planned for. We are bummed we didn't head to Portugal earlier in our time overseas, as we would have made more trips down to the sunny coast of the Algarves.

Dreaming of beachfront bars and to-die-for pancakes,

~L, L, A&S

Oh yeah... I have a blog I'm supposed to be updating (Feb -April 2014 update)

Well, its officially been over three months since my last blog post. But come on people, remember my first blog post? I told you I wasn't promising a thing in regards to if I actually kept up or not on this little writing adventure ( seriously, I doubted it way back then, (remind yourself here if you don't believe me). Three LONG months, in which the rainy, colder weather of winter allows so little to happen, yet at the same time, this uneventful time of year ended up being quite exciting for the Flood family.

February 2014

Lane works obscene, unfair, can't be legally or morally just hours late - making our relationship with him throughout the week consisting of us seeing him on Facetime nightly from the office, and him seeing.... well, "toddler Facetime"of things like Stella's feet.

Stella starts preschool! 

Due to having both girls in school four hours every weekday, Mom was looking forward to having lunch with friends, keeping the house clean, finally learning to use her camera, keeping up on her blog...... except one small complication of extreme exhaustion and constant head-in-the "loo" bathroom visits caused by this news

(Flood Baby #3 due October 15!)

March 2014

More late nights for Lane/ single mom days for Lo... in the winter, when its hard to go outside leaving us stuck in our flat, and things like the flu come around and attack my sweet babies

St. Paddy's day celebration - spring started nice and early here in London so we got to do typically wet and rainy events under sunny skies with our coats off!

Visit from Ken and Karen Hale- so nice to get hugs from home after a long winter!

April 2014

Easter term break- London schools get two+ weeks off of school for term break ( spring break), leaving the girls and I over two weeks to hang about London, in (luckily) beautiful 60 degree weather with friends.

A Visit to Cambridge University

 A view from high above the city of London on the Emirates air tram

 Discovering the London Zoo - and becoming zoo members cause we love it so much and it is so close to us!

Hanging with Girlfriends ( Elizabeth and Abi Wolf, Mary Rogers and Stella's new BFF from school Lily!)

 

Flood family trip to Lagos, Portgual... more to come the next time I write! 

So as you can see, we found ways to enjoy the long winter months. We were lucky with weather, Lane's busy work period ended pretty much as scheduled, and the exciting news of our expanding family kept us looking forward...especially Lo who after the twelve week mark in early April started feeling much better and actually enjoying being pregnant again.  We are now starting the countdown until we leave London to head back to the states in two months..... so should have last minute trips and London-based adventures to share with you all ( should people, should. Doesn't mean my next post is  going to happen anytime soon!). 

~Lucky in London, 

L, L, A, S & Baby?

Facts About Our Four Year Old

Avery turned four this week.  I feel like I was blogging about her third birthday yesterday, and here I am again sitting down to reflect on the last year of her life and all the things we adore about the birthday girl (and some things we just shake our head and roll our eyes at).

To commemorate the last year of her life, here are four of our favorite facts about Avery:

1. "Can I tell you somethin". We hear these words at least 30 times a days. Usually she is telling me random or crazy things like that it is her imaginary "big sister Casa's birthday today" or that her friend Hugo from school "likes yellow". These things just pop in her head at random times and she just has to tell me right then and there.  I know with certainty that one day I am going to miss Avery "telling me somethin" and knowing what is in that head of hers.

2. Waffles and Maple Syrup - The only way to start the morning off right with Avery. "I want bref-fist" is the first thing that comes out of her mouth in the morning. Being that a bottle of Aunt Jemima maple syrup requires a trip a few towns away and costs about 12 US dollars, you can imagine the allotment of our food budget that has to be proportioned for her morning habit. In her next year of life we are going to work on correctly pronouncing the first meal of the day, as well as maybe adding some variety.

3. Daily dress up - She rarely goes a day without shedding her street clothes all over the flat, leaving a trail along the way to the dress up clothes box. Rapunzel, Ariel, Merida, and sometimes a combination of many different princesses comes out from the wreckage of the dress up clothes thrown all over the living room. This past year, she has enjoyed the excitement of not only dressing herself up, but also her little sister and friends ( even if nobody else is interested at the time).

Halloween Dress up 2013

Avery, Stella and their school friend Thuba on an afterschool playdate 

4. A is for Avery and Adventure - She refers to our routine outings to the dry cleaner or grocery stores as "adventures" and often asks me what adventures people passing on the streets are going on. In London, people are always dragging suitcases or computer bags, and to Avery they must be going to "visit their grandmas" or on a holiday ( they are most likely just going to work....but we don't kill her spirit by telling her so).  This spirit for getting out in the world makes her a joy to travel with. Its hard to keep her contained as we walk on streets of a new city as she wants to walk herself and look at everything. She's seen a lot this last year of her life, and we pray that it is only the beginning of her adventures. As we did not get to travel the world in our own childhoods, its such a joy to see Avery experience everything from famous city landmarks, to castles, to street musicians along the way. 

When she sees me get out her pink suitcase, she starts packing immediately

She will go by train, by car, by plane...doesn't matter to her as long as she's on the go

She stops to smell the roses, and takes in everything possible in every city we go to

Her favorite traveling companion

She loves dropping coins into musician's cases. This one was on our recent trip to Salzburg, Austria.

Avery~ You make us laugh daily with your antics. You are so uniquely you and we hope that never changes.  We are so excited to spend yet another year with you ( and many more) and can't wait to hear all the "somethins" you have to tell us. ~ Mom, Dad and Stelly

Time goes too fast,

~L, L, A&S

A Fall to be Thankful for ( Part 3 of 3)

I've tried to write this blog post for weeks.  I've wanted it to be witty, charming, and most of all to describe how important the last round of visitors are to us and how much we appreciate the time we had with them here in London.

I can't come up with anything.

Nothing witty, nothing charming, nothing that is going to make anybody feel like jumping on the computer and purchasing a ticket to come again anytime soon.  The best I can come up with is saying things like "our last visitors in the fall of 2013 were great because we didn't have to impress them by cleaning.....they know how we are" or "our last visitors spoil us rotten", or " I don't remember our last  visitors because we drank too much wine".

I guess that is what you get when your last two sets of visitors are Morgan (MoMo/ our best friend) and the parents (BeaKay/Larry a.k.a Grammy and Pa)..........so I'll skip the cheeky introduction (cheeky= an English word for cheesy or annoying) and get right to it.

September 19th - October 6 : MoMo is Here!!

Me: "Morg do you want to go out to dinner?"

Mo: No, let's go to the grocery and buy food

Me: "Morgan, lets go to Windsor Castle"

Mo: "you mean take a train, to stand in line for tickets, to walk through a castle and do what?..No"

This is why we love her and loved having her with us. She just wanted to hang with us, doing our daily routine with us, and we had to basically force the London tourist sights on her. (Morgan works at a salon, and all I kept thinking of was her clients asking her all the things she did, and her only talking about our flat and the numerous mexican meals we cooked her). The girls loved having her and all of her girly makeup and cuteness, and I loved sitting on the couch with her and gossiping for hours.


We did get her to stop by Buckingham Palace for a quick glance inside the gates....if only to look for Harry (they would make a fantastic couple!)

We don't feel comfortable putting all of our guests to work, but Morgan we make earn her keep. Like cooking.....

entertaining the children on the trains....

and mowing our garden lawn, with a push mower no less, after dark. 

Avery just wanted to watch her do her makeup, and of course got a few special MoMo hairstyles

Doesn't she look great as a public transportation, city gal?

On our last day together, Lane took us to the hot musical "Book of Mormon", which was inappropriate and hilarious, just like her visit with us. It was the perfect way to end an amazing week.

October 25 - November 11 : Grammy and Pa are here for a European Adventure!
Last of our visitors, but certainly not least, were the highly anticipated Grammy and Pa Flood. They arrived a few days after Stella's second birthday, and agreed to be with us for a long haul of 15-ish days ( they obviously hadn't seen us in a while, otherwise they may have shortened their trip dedicated to living and traveling with us and our madness!). We did so much with them, created so many memories, and even experienced two new countries along the way.

Over the months apart we missed celebrating together some major milestone birthdays. Ladies never tell their true ages, but lets just say that 2x30=60 ( and Avery just wanted to participate in the celebration). 

The San Francisco 49ers were in London, so we got to tailgate on Trafalgar square with some classic American tailgate beer - Bud Light! ( not usually available in London)

Lane and his parents in their "niners" gear prior to heading to the game!

Their seats were fantastic!

After a week at home in London, we headed to Munich, Germany and of course that meant The Hofbräuhaus! 

Our table in the courtyard ended up looking like this... Bier Steins and crafts, typical Flood outing

The girls loved the Glockenspiel in the town centre in Munich

And Grammy and Avery of course loved shopping in the markets

After a day in Munich, we took a train over to Salzburg, Austria....



Where it absolutely down-poured on us for our first 18 hours there. 

Salzburg was high on our "todo" list while living overseas. Growing up I watched "The Sound of Music" on repeat. I will never forget the day a few years ago when my guy's guy, football loving, all dude Father in Law (a.k.a. Pa) admitted that it was one of his favorite movies. So heading to Salzburg, and going on a Sound of Music Tour with him and our girls was so special to us all.

Avery loves the movie, so seeing the gazebo where Liesel was 16 going on 17 was super cool to this 3 going on 4 year old

A quick stop while on tour heading into the lake region of Salzburg with a breathtaking view

Avery walking down the same church aisle as Julie Andrews did for the wedding scene in the movie 

Flood family shot on the lake to the back of the VonTrapp family house from the movie. So many revelations onto how they taped the movie.... they used a different house to shoot the front of the house, back of the house and back patio/lake of the house

Pa and Aves on the Mozart Bridge

 When you know the notes to sing........ (Mirabelle Gardens)

We got to leave our mark forever on the Salzburg Bridge

After 5 days on the road with us, we got back to London and Grammy and Pa quickly jumped on the next train out for a little alone time in Paris where they saw the sights and got the passport stamp..... well deserved after a long few weeks with us

The last weekend was the weekend of November 9th. Of course it was a perfect opportunity to see Father Christmas at Harrods ( I am going to have to work on my Harrods reward point status to get us into these events at more seasonal dates. Buying a pack of candy a few times a year puts us in to the Christmas Grotto quite early!)...... and yes, those are reindeer antlers on all of our heads. This group of adults would do anything necessary to make those little girls have a special time.

To close out our posts about our fall visitors, no matter how long it took me to write them, we just want to reiterate how THANKFUL we are for EVERYONE who spent the time from work and family and the money to travel to see us. Your time here with us created memories that we will cherish forever as we look back on our time here in London. We are so glad you could experience this with us. 

But now that the delayed posting had landed us into mid-winter....Who's next to land on the Flood Flat door? We have vacancies!

~grateful, 

L, L, A&S