Soccer

This was Kaelin's first game. They are the blue dragons. In later games she has scored a few goals and is really having fun. The soccer season here is really short because of weather restrictions. Her last game was rained out after about 10 min. Everyone was soaked but we had fun.




She was very excited to get a jersey and wanted me to take a picture of her number.



Savanna does really well at the games and practices. We got her, her own ball (not the one in the picture) that she takes with her and kicks on the sidelines



At one of Kaelin's practices Sean and Grant wanted to wear their jammas.



So at Sean's practice Kaelin wanted to wear hers



Doing some stretches with their coach, who Sean says, lives at the soccer field.



More stretching, this is his favorite part of soccer



One of her first practices
Kaelin stretches. Its a lot of fun to watch kids stretch because of their lack of coordination. We have really enjoyed going to practices and games. It'll be over really soon and next the kids want to sign up for Flag Football and Cheerleading


On a side note my spell check tells me that cheerleading is not correct BUT cheerleader is. Why is that? Katie or Keri maybe you have some insight?

Our island photo tour

Alright Rob and I signed up for a 4x4 island photo tour a little while ago. There are tons of our pictures and I only posted a few, but there are still a lot. So much that I don't feel putting the in "real" order or making any major captions. So you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. So there!


If you really care about the proper order, start from the end and work your way up.
This is our tour guide, and his fancy shmancy camera. The pictures he took of us turned out great! I hope we can frame one or a few but we see.





This is our tour vehicle it got a little over heated at the very end.





Parts of the tour looked like we were in the jungle but most just looked like farm land.




This is on the highest point of the island and the ground was so weird. It looks like Rob is going to fall on a mound of dirt or a rock, but it was completely soft like a pillow. You would step and sink in at least 2 inches and sometimes up to your shins.




Here's the view from the highest point. Usually it's not clear from up here but we got lucky. By the way, any and all "hills" you see are actually volcanoes.





We stopped for lunch in Angra (largest city on our island)

I just love the logo of Casa do Peixe.



Pensively waiting for lunch




You would have that relaxed look too if this was your view while waiting.


This is the interior view of the restaurant





At one point we stopped to see a group of cows right the side of the road. They came right up to me.



Only because they were waiting for this guy. They followed him everywhere as he dumped piles of feed around the field.



This is actually the beach right outside the restaurant. The only sandy beach in Angra.




You take the stairs down from the road to get to the sand.





Along the road they have these cute viewing seats.



Getting to continue our tour
A view of Angra, you can see the beach.



We off-roaded it up to this point and Rob went for a little adventure to see what was on the other side.


This mountain is protected land, but the companies would rather pay the fines than not use it for construction. There is SO much volcanic rock around I can understand why this dirt and sand is so valuable to them.



Lighthouse











Alright, so these pictures are great because we have been to this place before, we referred to it as Cloudy Mountain where we swam in the clouds. Click here to see the old post.
Anyway this is the same place on a clearer day. We didn't even know there were windmills right next to us until later on.
This is the view we would have had. And this large valley is actually a volcano. We are standing on the rim. Crazy huh?

Alright, That is a summary of our photo tour. Hope you liked it!

Hogwarts in Portugal???

Alright so a while ago they had a Harry Potty "haunted" house for all to enjoy. I thought "Alright, this will be fun for the kids" but it was awesome. I have read all the books and seen the movies. This haunted house was so cool. I was told that the majority of the decor came from one woman who usually does this for Halloween in the states. I couldn't get great pictures because of the lighting. But, each room had great lighting and I tried to take a few pictures without the flash just to show the lighting. Here we go!


We started off by walking in and being able to look in a little window that looked in on Harry in his room under the stairs. I'm sad now that I didn't get a picture of that because I thought it was a pretty good touch. While we waited for our tour we got to sit and watch the movie on a projection screen.


Then on to the Dursley's home. Where Uncle Vernon met us. (BTW, if I make any mistakes I humbly apologize, if you care to correct me in a comment, please do)

Also, if you look there are letters "flying" out of the fireplace and all over the room. They had so many cool touches that just made it more cool. Let's see if I can say how cool it was some more.




Here's a shot without the flash, it really doesn't do it any justice. This room really felt like a cozy living room. The lighting was very warm and soft, but in the picture it looks glaring in once spot. So sorry but I need to try and show just how awesomely cool this place was.





Then we were walked through the "Leaky Cauldron".


In the Leaky Cauldron, there were a few wizards arguing about "You know who"




All the while a brown was sweeping the floors all by itself. Cool!




Then down an alley way where a which tried to sell us some of her wares, but before we could purchase she would run off chasing away a thief.






Then of course we had to go onto platform 9 3/4 at "a bit of a run" Again, Cool!



Where we saw all the luggage, an owl cage and the Hogwarts train





Once through the train station when went in to Hogwarts, into the Great Hall (? someone please correct me if I'm wrong) Where the feast had already begun.




Where each house was represented. BTW, there is a man here you did all these decorations out of Styrofoam. He carves and paints them and they are...you've guess it...Cool!
Do you see the colored jewels in the bottles? Oh, and while we were in here Dumbledore placed the sorting hat on each of the kids (which was made out of Styrofoam) and it placed them into their own houses.





Then we pasted by the Owlery. Each room had its own lighting, I'll keep reminding you about that, don't worry. And Styrofoam owls on the wall.





The kids each got to try the hand at "wingardium leviosa" and made a feather float


There is the green feather floating on the table.



and here is Vanna doing it too.







Herbology, replanting screaming Mandrakes. We all had to plug our ears while they screamed...Cool!

No flash







One of the mandrakes, once again looked cooler with the cool lighting.

Potions, Snape was not the teacher, but he was stalking around the whole time.


No flash.







I can't remember the name of this one. Someone help me out.
I know it was Professor Trelawney. Oh, Divination!






Then we went into the woods. I, again, don't remember the real name. But Hagrid was there with some of his creatures.






Then it got a little foggy and scary.


Some big spiders. Savanna was not scared, Sean was a little bit.



At the end we visited Ollivanders, where the kids made their own wands. Cool! and then onto the candy place, I need help again with the name




All the wand boxes are made from Styrofoam, the ladder too.


Here's their finished, and glittered wands




We finished off the whole tour with some chili and desserts. All in all it was a fun night, I loved it the kids wanted to watch the movie again and again. IT WAS COOL!