Alagoa Da Fajanzinha

The beginning of the week we had some cool weather. It was windy and got into the 50s. Brrrrr. (: It's funny how that can be cold. The weekend was back to sun and comfortable temps and today was a short sleeve day.

I made tamales this week and they were delicious! I've eaten them, but never made them. I had a fun time watching videos online on how to make tamales. The inspiration to make them came from Maelie who came home from school one day and said they talked about cultures and talked about tamales and she didn't know what a tamale was or what it looked like. All the kids liked them very much and some requested them for their birthday meals, months away. We ate Spanish rice and refried beans with them.

On Saturday we took the kids on a hike. It wasn't hard, but still fun.
We hiked to a lookout point at Alagoa Da Fajanzinha. It was a beautiful place! Do I really live here?





It was windy and cold and the waves were crashing.

On Monday we decided to make the 9 mile drive to Alagoa Da Fajanzinha and have home evening there on the rocky shore. It was much warmer and the waters were alot calmer. More pictures, I loved this place and couldn't choose which ones to put on. (I didn't put ALL my pictures of Fajanzinha on here)


The sound of the rocks rolling back after the waves came up was awesome. It sounded like a storm hearing the rocks roll. The rocks are all smooth and round. We've heard them called dinosaur eggs because that's what they look like.
Definitely too rocky to be a swimming area, but it was so nice to enjoy the sound of the waves and smell the ocean air.




We had a lesson about the power of God and also on missionary work, using the ocean and the rocks to make comparisons about the topics. It was a fun FHE and one the kids will not forget easily.

We saw this boat far in the distance. This is as close as my camera would zoom in on the boat. It was pretty far away from shore.
Denver found the roundest circular (not smooth, though) stone that he really wanted to keep. It is our FHE reminder.
On Sunday our Branch President called AGAIN! Last week it was to give me a new calling. This week he said the District President wanted to meet with Denver. Oh great, now what!

So 30 min. before church we met with him and he called Denver to be 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency! We were shocked because the week before I got called to be RS President. Of course he said yes and his head has been spinning ever since. The whole Branch Presidency was revamped so they are all learning together. Of course he feels inadequate, but I know he'll do great.

I found this cute craft and wanted to make it. However, living on a small island with limited resources, I wasn't able to find all the stuff I needed to make it. I had to wing it by using canvas instead of wood (it's hard to find wood here-it has to be imported in which can get costly). It's also very hard to find ribbon. I was lucky to find this one. I had so much fun making it. This one will be hung in Maelie's room and then I'll try and make a more manly one for the boys room as a constant reminder of the temple.
That's it for us this week.

birthday

The kids have been to the nurse at school a lot this last week. Garrett went in with a bleeding lip. He fell at the playground during recess. Maelie went 3 times in one day (nothing bad, just her thinking she was sick) and then again another day because she lost another tooth.

The school PTO put on a Winter Bingo. We went and played and the kids got some books, snacks and fun all in one hour.
I bought this treat at the Portuguese store thinking it would be cream filled licorice like in the states. It tasted like wet sugar filled licorice and was very sweet. I liked it though.
The water here doesn't have fluoride so we purchased this water so the kids and us can have fluoride in our water every once in a while.
On Sunday our branch president called to see if he could meet with me. He came over and gave me a new calling. Relief Society President. I was overwhelmed, needless to say. I haven't been in RS for almost 6 years! I've been in YW and nursery. I'm excited for the call, especially because it is in a branch. I can learn how to serve in this calling on a small scale. The other nursery leader in nursery with me got called to be the Primary president the same day. So...watch out for nursery :).

This is my 1st time making my own fondant and my 2nd time using fondant on a cake. I made a marshmallow fondant which tasted much better than the store bought kind and it was much cheaper. It was really fun to do. I'm excited to do the kid's birthday cakes and already have ideas on each one.
Denver's birthday was on Monday, which is why I made a tooth cake. I had no idea what else to make for him that would be easy enough for me. For dinner he requested egg rolls so that's what I made with rice, sauce, and fortune cookies.


32 whopping candles! The candles lit up like this on the face of the tooth makes it look freaky.
After his birthday dinner and cake we sent him on a 32 hint scavenger hunt. It took forever, which would have been okay except it took us forever to get through dinner and cake so the kids didn't get to bed until late.

Christmas came again this week. Denver's parents sent gifts, but the mail here is slow to come. The kids were so excited to have more Christmas presents again!

A shot of what our afternoons look like every day. The kids doing their homework at the table. They get quite a bit of it.

That's all for now!

Bringing in the New Year!

Last week Denver went back to work on Tuesday. It was hard to get back into things, but we didn't totally have to because the kids were still home from school. We took our Christmas tree down and Sterling cried. He insisted that Christmas was NOT over. Poor guy.

During this last week we went to a Chinese restaurant. Believe it or not, there are a quite a few Chinese on this Portuguese island. Denver was able to talk Chinese to the waiter in Portugal! Who would've thought...

We went with another couple.
The food was authentic and delicious and inexpensive! We will go there again if we can find it again. The restaurant is in Angra and that city is just crazy to drive through.

I forgot to take a picture of the food, but I did get a picture of our fried ice cream dessert. It was good, but I was expecting it to be like the fried ice cream I've had before.
After dinner we walked around the city.

We stopped at an ice cream shop. The ice cream in the shops is different here. It looks like pudding, but tastes like ice cream with a little marshmallow 'y' creamy taste. It's hard to explain.
For New Year's Eve we got together with the Binghams and celebrated the end of 2011, the beginning of 2012. There were 8 boys and 1 girl (kids-wise). Maelie was very outnumbered. We had a fondue theme and ate fondue meat style, veggie style and dessert style. It was all very good and we were stuffed! We also had some other snacks around that hardly got eaten because we had so much food.

All of our kids, except Colson stayed up until midnight. The next day we had church at 1pm because the time changed. Hooray. It would have been torture with the kids if church was at 9.

Monday was a federal holiday because New Year's day fell on a Sunday so Denver had the day off. We headed over the mountains to the other side of the island to check out the free gardens in Angra.
We drove through clouds on the mountaintops.
The Gardens at Angra.

We entered and saw a man sweeping with this broom. It was working well too. What a great idea.
Everything in the Gardens was beautiful. It was big too. I didn't expect much because it was in the middle of the crowded city.




These plants are from all over the world. Each plant from somewhere else has a plaque next to it saying where it's from. Pretty neat.



I thought this tree with these rose size flowers was pretty. The flowers had fallen and lay perfectly on the bench and ground.
A lot of stairs in the gardens. This is a view of a part of Angra from a high point in the garden.
Behind the stairs is someone's house. I put this picture on to show the laundry hanging out. You see this all over the island. This house also shows how poor some people are. This home didn't look very homey.

At the top of the Garden is this monument.
A view of split rock from the top. By this point I wished we had our binoculars with us.

My favorite flower- bird of paradise. I learned about this flower when I worked at a flower shop. I love them. They are so unique and they grow every where on the island. On base, etc. But I didn't see them in the summer so they must be a winter plant.


This tree was Denver's favorite. He thought it looked cool. I wish I remembered where in the world it comes from. Next time I'll have to check that out.

A look at the plaques/tile that has the name of the plant and where it's from.
this was an interesting plant. Looked like a swan's neck.
Some bushes were shaped to make something neat. A bird:

This lady was feeding the pigeons. She would even feed them from her hand while they stood on her fingers! This reminded me of the bird lady in Mary Poppins. "feed the birds, tuppence the bag"


My favorite shaped bush- a teapot.

Stopping to smell the flowers. At one point sterling said, "the yellow ones smell soooo good"




Going back up the hill to where our car is parked. See the license plate on the car? That is what ours looks like, except the Portuguese have a P on them and the Americans have a U on ours. It's good to have when you're driving around Angra. A lot of the streets look like this. There are many one ways and no street names anywhere. You learn how to get places from building colors and landmarks.
On the drive home, saw this beautiful view. Cameras just don't do it justice.
We also saw this tree on the way home. The flowers look like a poinsettia flower, but on a tree!