Portugal! Our first week

waiting for our flight...

Easy vacation slip on shoes....I relaced her shoes before we left with stretchy bra straps.

trying to kill some time before our flight, we sent the kids on a scavenger hunt to see what the most interesting thing they could find in an old run down parking lot...strawberries won. 

We are in PORTUGAL!!!

We were picked up at the airport by a guy holding an Ipad with our name on it.  He had a Mercedes mini van and he knew right where to take us.  The transfer was 45 euro which was really pricey but the guy who is renting us the apartment scheduled it. It was an easy way to start our vacation so I'm glad we did it. Sometimes it's worth paying for convenience. Aunt Sue, you'd be so proud. lol.

the balcony with our view

just got checked in and time for a quick run to the grocery store

We walked 45 minutes to find this place 'Piri Piri' from Trip Advisor. All you can drink and so much to eat for 60 euro. 

beautiful tiled portions of walls/houses all over the city.

never a bad time or too early for swim goggles

Our apartment is new, so there are no beach towels or pool toys that anyone had left behind. Of all the things to forget to bring, I forgot the beach towels. My cousin, Annette even brought us some from the States when she visited us a few weeks ago! After a lot of searching at small shops along the water (expensive) and some other places including LIDL, we found Continente! It had the best prices for beach and pool items. Of course we had to rough it and 'save money' this time by walking there. It took over a half an hour in the noonday heat on some back road. We were overheated yet happy when we finally got there. We picked up some beach/poolside chairs for 6 euro along with some towels. They also have regular smaller-ish towels that you pay by the kilo.

what's the beach without a body in the sand?

breakfast...

waiting for our bus...

Vilamoura Harbor

Elee is the master of this game. Most of the time he wins. 

Pace got sick after the first two days. He had a fever for several days and an ear infection so we took him to the doctor. He had a middle ear infection in both ears!! He's on antibiotic now and feeling so much better. This is the first time any of the kids had antibiotic...isn't that crazy?

fresh squeezed orange juice at the apartment.... oranges are so cheap...50 cent euro a kilo at the market (that's $.25 a pound)

guys come around and sell Bolas de Berlim (Portuguese custard donuts) on the beach.

sick little guy

Pace is feeling better, and we have 'beach' towels, and the weather has been sunny everyday. Life is good. Actually, life was good even when Pace was sick. He wanted to cuddle me every minute of the day so I stayed home with him a lot. It doesn't happen so much anymore so I took it happily! It's all about perspective.