Moments 06 22 :: Week 04

Father's Day. Cole had to work most of the day, so we didn't do much. But my sister invited us to her place for dinner so we got to celebrate later. 

Dad and his girls. 

Family photo. 

Of course, Bluey was int he mix too. He's so cute. And loud. Very loud. 

It was super hot out again this week, so Brian and I made plans to see Top Gun. It was really good. We were the last ones out of the theater, and even the cleaning people were lined up ready to get going. But we had to look for our friend Greg's name in the credits. 

Rare evening when everyone who lives at home was around. 

Cole and I are spending 3 nights in the Indianapolis area. His team made it to Regionals. Very exciting. We celebrated the first night with a nice dinner, just the two of us. 

Starting line up. Sadly, they ended up losing the game in the last few seconds. It's too bad. They definitely should have won this one. Two more days left.

Maiden voyage (for me) to Top Golf. It was really not competition at all for last place. I was terrible. It was super fun though. 

Moments 06 22 :: Week 03

Finished another book. (It was a good one.)

Brian's been out of town, and this is what I've been waking up to. See that little spot to the right of Van? Yep, that's where I sleep. It's not Van taking up all the space. Look at Gretel. Ugh, she's so annoying. This is a new thing. I don't love it. 

Last week Brian was in Austin. He was home 10 hours before I had to take him back to the airport for Paris. He's there for work, but Jesse has some time off and ended up joining him for a few days. So fun. 

Beautycounter has a new CEO, and this week he visited Milwaukee. It was his very first field visit, and it was so fantastic meeting him. He was charming, honest, and excited about the future of the company. 

Favorites. Wish they lasted longer.

Those eyes! Seriously, all this guy wants to do is be with his people. He's so freaking cute I can hardly stand it. 

She used to be such a lone wolf, and has decided she wants to be around us more too. So that's kind of funny. She had a very rough week with temperatures in the high 90s and lots of storms which caused her to go into hiding. 

Hudson had a visitor in St. Louis this week. His friend Matt was in town with his family. His dad is a coach at Bavarian's and his soccer team won Presidents Cup so were playing the area. They came and visited Hudson while he was working. They are getting together a few other times too. So fun. 

Moments 06 22 :: Week 02

We missed watching Cole's U18 team play State Cup. Fortunately, they won all of those games and moved on to Semi-Finals the following weekend. They won on Saturday, but unfortunately lost on Sunday, which means they came in second place. The good news is, however, they made it through to Regionals in Indiana so they are still moving on. 

Well, Brian and I tested positive upon our return from Portugal. This has been Cole's home away from home the past week. Let's just say, it's officially broken in. He's back it the house now too. Our 10 days are up and are testing negative. It's nice to be in the same room as him again. 

Last day of his Junior year of high school. He had two big finals the last day, but is so excited for summer. And, he finished the year strong. He started the semester without and IEP -- after having one since kindergarten -- and ended up having his best semester yet. We are super proud. Time to have a great summer. 

Portugal :: Day 9

Boo, time to leave. After a couple quick photos from our room, we meet Jesse and went to the airport together. Turns out, he was on our flight to JFK. Can you even believe what an amazing trip this was? Now that a few days have gone by, it's hard to believe we were even there. I'll tell you one thing, Portugal is a place I'd love to go back to. It's a lovely country, with lovely people. We would love to see more of it. We will have to make that happen. 

Portugal :: Day 8

After a hectic morning of packing and checking out, it was time to leave Troia. Fortunately, a few of us decided to spend the evening in Lisbon so were able to meet up again. But first, Greg, Yvonne, Brian and I drove to Comporta. We couldn't believe we didn't visit there sooner. It was really charming. There were giant stork nests everywhere, which we saw along the highway on the back to Lisbon too. After dropping off the car, we arrived to our hotel (Browns Central) around 3pm. Fortunately, most of us got rooms there too, or close by. Brian and I took off and walked around the Castelo de S. Jorge area before meeting up with everyone again. Once we met up, we headed back to the castle with the group, and actually went in, which I was super happy we did. We had the best views -- and I loved the peacocks roaming the area. Afterwards, we hit the street market that had set up right outside our last hotel on Praca da Figueira since last time we were there, and met up with more from our group. We sampled a few things before moving on to the Time Out Market for dinner. So many good things. I wish I had taken some photos, but it was also very hectic, especially with our size group. Still, very fun, and perfect so we could all try different things. I left with some people, while Brian stuck around for awhile then joined a group for some port wine in the lobby. 

Portugal :: Day 7

Everyone was starting to slow down on the last full day. I woke up before everyone and decided to walk the property. There were miles of boardwalk, which was just amazing. When I came back, Alex started making breakfast for anyone who wanted to stop over. We had a house full, and it was great. Alex is a James Beard Award Winning chef! He really wanted to make dinner, but breakfast worked out best -- plus since all of us in the apartment love food, we had so much to use, so it was absolutely perfect. Alex made a feast and used almost all of it with delicious potatoes and frittatas. Yum. It was kind of a cloudy day, so I didn't even make it to the beach. At night, we had adult charades then dinner at a steak restaurant in Troia before more dancing. Thankfully the Austrian crew was really good about hosting the final night, because we were kaput. 

Portugal :: Day 6

Greg, Brian & I went to Troia in the morning to walk around a bit and for groceries. I love grocery shopping in foreign countries. Afterwards, it was beach time again, before Kim's big dinner celebration. It was held at the beach restaurant which was absolutely perfect. And we made it just in time for a perfect sunset. Kim's had some year, which made it quite the emotional, but also such a special night. After dinner, we had dancing until the wee hours. I called it a night at 2am, but people were at our place until 4am. Let's just say, the jet lag since we've been back hasn't been terrible, because we never really adjusted to Portugal time. Our apartment also gained the reputation of the chill place, so we always had a few stragglers not quite looking to give up the ship, but wanting to wind down for the night. None of us minded. Everyone was fantastic.