Storming the Castle

Yesterday was a holiday so we decided to head out of town and visit some place new. We went to a super cute city in central Portugal. It has a huge castle/fortress/church at the top of the hill. Here's some pictures from our adventure.

Jonathan was very sweet and offered to carry Katie in my sling for a while. We turned it inside out so the pink and brown flowers didn't show as well. What a guy...

Mommy's Little Helper

...doing the laundry... ...or rather pulling the wet clothes off the rack... not really so helpful, little one, but kind of cute none the less.

It's been pretty rainy and cold so the clothes are drying inside. Katie seems to think that crawling under the rack and pulling all the clothes down is a great game - because Mommy puts them back up and she has more to pull down!

Cooking Lessons

I had my first Portuguese cooking lesson yesterday! Our teammate Terri offered to teach me some recipes since I've been wanting to learn - and she's a great cook!

So, what did we make? Balcalhão of course! It's dried, salted codfish and one of the most typical Portuguese foods. They say they have 365 ways to cook it so you can eat it everyday of the year and never have it the same way. Wow! We made balcalhão a bras which is cooked with fried potatoes and scrambled eggs. It was really pretty good, and I'm not much of a fish person!

This was a big step for me! I mean really, who would have thought that I'd be shredding raw fish with my bare hands??? Not me!

It really was fun and tasted pretty good too! Thanks, Terri! When's the next lesson???

Came visit, I'll make it for you! :-)

It is usually served with creamed spinach so that's what you see here. mmm...

Can you believe it?

Katie has molars!

Yes MOLARS!

She's very advanced.

This picture makes me think of "Get in Shape, Girl." Anybody remember that?

Teri got married this weekend

and it was wonderful!

I'm sure there will be more pictures later but it's 1:45am and Katie is finally asleep - hopefully I will be soon too!

Free Fun!

On Sunday afternoon our neighbors took us to a small public petting zoo. It was great! It's nearby and free! I'm sure we'll become regular visitors as Katie gets older. It was a very fun afternoon!

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