Too much time on your hands?

So I found another great book series. For those of you who liked Stephenie Meyers Vampire Series....here's some books for you. They are by Libba Bray. The first book is called "A Great and Terrible Beauty". Book two is "Rebel Angels". And book three, which just came out is called, "The Sweet Far Thing." I read book one while I was in Portugal and didn't know that there was a book after it. That was not fun. I had to wait until I came home to finally read book two. By the way I liked book two a little more than book one. Then of course I finished book two and think, "There has got to be another book." Yep! And it just came out last week. Just my luck. I can't wait to read it... I can actually... I'm too cheap and I'll wait until the Library has it, but when it's there... I'm there. Try these books out. You will love them and your husbands will hate them almost as much as Edward Cullen.

I love vinegar!

So I'm back. Finally. My excuse? How about 2 weeks in Portugal. Yes, the country. It was there that I learned how much I liked the taste of vinegar. Here is how it happened.... So I'm at a restaurant and I get a salad for part of my meal...just a little background information: I don't speak Portuguese. But Shayne does. He went to Portugal on his mission... I don't know how to say ranch in Portuguese and I wasn't about to ask Shayne to embarrass himself and me by asking so I went with the vinegar and olive oil on the table. Okay. So YUM. From then on I was hooked. The rest of the trip I wanted nothing more than vinegar. I even devoured a bag of salt and vinegar chips. Normally I would have thought, yuck! But not any more. Actually I ate other things which were also very de-lish. So thank you Portugal for introducing my taste buds to something they had been lacking.

Okay, so you probably are also wondering about my trip besides the food. It was awesome. We were gone a day under 2 weeks. My little sister Sadie came down to watch our girls for the whole time. Yes, she is amazing and the girls couldn't have had a better time. Thanks, Sadie! (and Christian, and my mom, and Shayne's mom for also helping out). Also, one of Shayne's mission companions, Ryan came with us. Weird? Not at all! He is awesome and made our trip 100 times better. Have any of you seen The Amazing Race? You know how there is always couple that is constantly fighting and arguing and yelling how much they hate each other? That would have been Shayne and I (well not the hating part). If Ryan had not been there, I would have had to take a more active role in the decision making (I'm horrible at that and Shayne is too. Bad combo) and then the navigating. Now that would not have been pretty. Can you imagine me trying to read a map and road signs in Portuguese? So, thank you Shayne and Ryan....my job of sitting back and enjoying all the sites couldn't have been any better if I planned it myself.

Shayne did a great job travel logging our whole trip on his blog, so you should really read about it there. But here's a few pictures.

We had a day layover in London. We walked everywhere. It took me a little while to adjust to looking the other direction first when crossing the street. [You know how the drive on the other side of the street there.] Let's just say we are very lucky I made it home safely. Thank you London for thinking of me when you painted the direction to look ON THE ROAD.

This is Flat Stanley. Clayre had us take him along for the trip. You can see Big Ben and the British Parliament in the background. That view is from The EYE.

While in London, we also got to see Wicked. Sooo good!

In Portugal we drove around in this little car. It was perfect because the roads are tiny and you can park pretty much anywhere you can fit...so sidewalks, freeway exit ramps, even blocking other cars is free game. There are huge roundabouts everywhere. When it came to driving around, let's just say we were all glad I didn't have to drive.

Most everyone there lives in huge apartment buildings. Some look very shabby with clothes drying on lines out the windows...you would think the poorest people lived there. Not so. Pretty much every building had clothes out drying. Even the wealthiest don't have dryers. This is a picture of one of the church branches. It looked like a warehouse on the outside.

We got to see a lot of amazing sites. Century old castles, Roman ruins, and even a chapel made of human bones. It was amazing to be around so much history.

But the best part was meeting amazing Portuguese people. Families and friends that Shayne knew from his mission. That was great. I of course had to endure conversations in Portuguese and every now and then a translation from Shayne. But it was still great. I also really enjoyed watching Shayne. He did an amazing job speaking Portuguese, amazing because it has been 14+ years since his mission. We had a great time together. This trip was a nice break from our busy lives. I don't think I have laughed so much and so hard in a long time. I can't wait to go back.