Finishing Up in Portugal

It's taking me forever to get through the posts about our trip, but I'm motivated to document them here before we start to  forget some of the details of it.  This is the last of the posts on Portugal!

November 1-2, 2016 
(these pictures were taken at two different beaches--Praia Grande and some other I'm not sure the name of)

The weather was so warm and pleasant while we were there, that we decided to visit the beach!  

Although a lovely day, it was November and a tad too cold for full blown swimming, so the kids mostly played in the sand...

and just dipped their toes into the water.    We figured out that we were pretty close to directly across the Atlantic Ocean from home there on the beach in Portugal, so we made sure to wave to our friends across the way! 

Spence found some cool rocks to climb and believe me when I say that these were some very sharp rocks.    I won't lie and say that I didn't feel a tad nervous about him scaling to his precarious position  across the jagged rocks, but he made it up and down without incident, so all's well that ends well!

After exploring the beach for a while, we discovered a steep set of stairs that  beckoned for us to climb them!

We climbed and discovered along the way that there was some well preserved fossilized dinosaur footprints along the cliff wall. Apparently about 60 of them.   (Click here if you want to read more details) 

We admired those for a bit and pondered on how there were footprints on the side of a sheer vertical cliff, but really just couldn't wait to get to the top, so we could take advantage of these amazing views overlooking the beach!   

Wow, wow, wow!    

It was worth every step of the steep climb!

Hiking and exploring are two of my favorite things to do in any circumstance, but  doing them in a beautiful foreign land alongside people I love is pretty much what Lara dreams are made of!  

My only disappointment with it all....

was that I couldn't make my camera capture the full measure of the beauty we experienced there.  

That little hike was not all that strenuous, but it was like a salve to my soul.  I wanted to absorb that serene beauty right into my body and take it home with me.   

We'd loved so much of our time in Portugal and this day hiking and exploring at the beach, was a perfect capstone to a perfect  week!   This is exactly why I love to travel!

Eventually the time came to say goodbye to the beach and head back to the villa.  On our way home, we stopped in a cute little port town called, Cascais.

We didn't really have a plan while we were there, but enjoyed wandering around for a while....

and especially loved this little town square with its patterned cobblestone.

The next day, we just packed up our belongings...

practiced our braiding....

loved on baby Ben (even though he pickpocketed Spence earlier in the week)   😂...   

took a few more group pictures...

 

and got another picture with my Emma girl...

And then headed to the airport...

where Matt's family and Emma headed back to England  and Spence, Adam, Kristina, and I took off for Spain!    

Emma's Turns Sweet Sixteen In Portugal

After spending two wonderful days in Lisbon, we rented a car and headed to a quiet villa near Sintra where we spent the remainder of our time in Portugal.  

We were right next door to what looked like a cute little hobby farm, complete with ducks, geese, chickens, and large garden plots.  

 

The villa was large enough for us all to stay there together.   Since it was homey, it  meant that we could get settled in and get comfortable for our time there.  There was a kitchen to cook in, a washing machine for laundry, and beds enough for everyone but Spence, who slept on a couch.   

Portugal apparently has a thing for castles on hilltops.    In Lisbon, there was the one where we surprised Emma and in Sintra, there are two.    One, called the Palace de Pena,  is bright and colorful, the other a moorish castle is gray and dull by comparison.   We opted to visit the colorful one built by King Ferdinand II in the 1800's.  

We enjoyed admiring the beautiful view from high atop the hill...

and enjoyed walking around the lovely surroundings.  

It was another gorgeous day...

and it honestly was just quite nice to spend the time outdoors....

The fact that we were at a lovely castle on top of a mountain in Portugal was just an added bonus!  

My little nephews  decided that photobombing Emma was a fun past-time!  (THEY ADORE HER and will miss her when she comes home in a few weeks!!!)

Here are some interior pictures....

And these little cuties were melting my heart!

Another day there in Sintra we visited Quinta da Regaleira, a UNESCO world heritage site.  The interior was a little more boring than Palace de Pena, but the grounds were SUPER COOL!   

We walked through interesting tunnels,

got put in the dungeon....

and crossed through alligator infested waters (haha!  There weren't really any alligators, although we teased that there could have been underneath all that algae.)

These cute stairs were crying out for a quick photo shoot!   I miss my sweet Emma! 

I had to take a picture of my footwear for the day, since I laughed every time I looked down.   It rained so much during our trip in May, that we all packed Crocs for our main shoes.    They were actually surprisingly comfortable and other than feeling a little unfashionable every time I wore them, they were actually great shoes for traveling--lightweight and totally waterproof!

I loved spending time with all these awesome people!

I was totally obsessed with finding missionaries  on our trip.   Walking through the town of Sintra on a Monday (their preparation day) was the only time we did other than at church on Sundays.    I was so excited to find them and take them out for ice cream!    Imagine my surprise when Spence walked up while we were talking to them and knew one of them from our home stake.    It totally made my day!

Speaking of church, we went to the Mems-Martins ward near Sintra on Sunday.   Of all of the times we've attended church in foreign countries (New Zealand, Iceland, Italy, France, and Portugal), this one was by far my favorite.  

The fact that it was our favorite had mostly to do with the fact that we happened to be there the day of the Primary Program.  Talk about a beautiful tender mercy.  Listening to those sweet children (all 12 of them) bear their testimonies and sing the beloved primary songs in Portuguese was something I'll never forget.      

My favorite comment from my 4-year-old nephew, Jack, upon hearing the familiar primary songs playing from the piano, "At least the piano is in English!!!"  

Emma turned Sweet Sixteen while we were there!     Mostly it was just a day of exploring and enjoying, but  we did take her out for a special meal to celebrate.    Too bad the menu was all in Portuguese and  google translate wasn't much help.

We ended up with a few weird things...

but mostly it was pretty good! 

Overall, we loved Portugal and we loved being with Emma on her birthday!    I definitely want to come back here with Glen sometime!