Haircut in Portugal

While in Portugal I got a haircut. There was a salon next to one of the restaurants we ate at. Since having Cade I have not had a chance to get a haircut and really needed one. It's hard to make an appointment when Collin can be off to watch Cade. Collin went and asked how much it cost and they said 10 EUR. What a deal! So I told Collin I would just get it cut there. In Germany it costs 35 EUR + for a haircut and it's really a hit or miss kind of thing. This haircut included wash, cut, and style. It ended up costing 15 EUR because of my long hair (13 EUR plus we tipped 2 EUR) but still, I have yet to find that kind of deal in Germany. The lady who cut my hair barely spoke any English but ended up doing a great job. I told her I wanted some simple layers and about 4 inches cut off. One thing I found interesting was when she dried my hair she had me lean over with my hair upside down, the way I'd dry my hair at home. Usually at salons they don't make you do that. I didn't have a problem with it though, I just thought it was kind of funny. Collin thought it would be neat to take some pictures, so here are some before and after pictures of my Portuguese haircut.

Before, at the restaurant by the salon

Right before getting it cut

After the haircut

Paradise in Portugal

Early Monday morning (around 2 a.m.) we got back from a wonderful vacation in Portugal. Portugal is beautiful! We left early Wednesday morning to take a train the Frankfurt Airport for our flight. We arrived in the Algarve a little before 9 a.m. and spent the first day checking into our beautiful hotel in Albuferia, a city in the Algarve, walking and eating in the old town and strolling along the beach. Our hotel was a beautiful four star hotel with a private beach and our room had a balcony. We used the balcony more than any other hotel we have stayed at. Since Caden goes to bed early (around 7:30-8pm), we took our dinner to the room 2 nights and ate it on the balcony. When we didn't have dinner we sat outside and talked while enjoying the beautiful weather.

Collin was finally able to speak Portuguese in a country that speaks Portuguese. He studied the language for several years and it was really neat seeing him communicate so well with the locals. Hardly anyone guessed we were from the U.S. They thought we were from the U.K., Germany, Brazil, or Canada. Apparently neither one of us has a "Texan" accent either because people were very surprised that we were from Texas. I enjoyed talking English with the many tourists from the U.K. as well as the Portuguese who spoke English. The Algarve is a popular tourist destination for Germans and the British so many Portuguese speak Portuguese, English, and German.

We took two bus tours on our trip. Thursday we took a tour of the historical Algarve where we visited 5 pretty towns in the Algarve: Lagos, Silves, Sagres, Cape Saint Vincent, and the Sagres Fortress. At Cape Saint Vincent we saw where people used to believe the end of the world was.

Friday we took a bus tour to Lisbon. Lisbon was a really neat big city with lots of history and culture. We saw the "Queen of the Tagus River," took the bus over the 25th of April suspension bridge where we saw the majestic statue of Christ the King. With great misunderstanding between us and our tour guide (who was unfortunately pretty terrible both in her rudeness and guidance), we were dropped off at a subway stop at the edge of town with another couple. There we took the subway to see the Belem Tower and the Monument of the Discoveries. After walking around admiring the great monuments and exploring the Belem Tower we took a taxi to the center of Lisbon and ate a nice lunch and walked around the city.

Saturday we spent the day at the beach, Caden got his feet wet in the Mediterranean Sea. This was his first trip to the beach and he loved putting his feet in the sand. He even went swimming for the first time in the hotel's heated indoor swimming pool. We had a great time. Caden is a great traveler and quite experienced as he has now traveled to 7 countries and is not quite 5 months old yet.

Sunday we took a tourist train around the city, ate lunch, packed, and came back to Germany. We road Tui Fly and the airline was awesome! I cannot say enough good things about this airline. We were served breakfast on the way and on the way back we were served dinner. Each person also gets a free bag to check and carry-on. They even provided a bassinet for Caden to sleep in and gave him a blow up Tui Fly beach ball. Hands down Tui Fly is superior to Ryan Air. We enjoyed our restful and wonderful vacation very much and look forward to traveling to Portugal again.

Here are some of the pictures from our vacation.

Beach in Albuferia, Portugal

At the end of the world - Cape St. Vincent, Portugal

Belem Tower - Lisbon, Portugal

Behind us is the 25th of April Bridge and the Monument of the Discoveries

Caden's first time to swim

Our hotel's private beach

Caden getting his feet wet in the Mediterranean

Caden's first time to put his feet in the sand

Marisa ate fish and chips every day!

Collin is more adventurous and ate foods such as sardines

Fun at the Vogelpark

Last Sunday after church we took Cade to the Vogelpark in the town next to us. A Vogelpark is the German word for bird park. They have lots of birds from all over the world. The park is outdoors and the smaller birds are in huge cages and the big birds are in fenced-in cages. Collin and I have been wanting to visit this park since we found out about it. Sunday was such a beautiful day so we decided it was the perfect time to go. We had a good time and Cade enjoyed seeing and hearing all the birds.

Outside the Vogelpark

Eggs from various birds at the park

Cade and Marisa in front of a big bird cage

Cade and Collin in front of the big open area

Family picture

Cade laughed and smiled a lot while we were there

4 Months Old

Cade is 4 months old today. He has grown so much these past 4 months it's amazing. We took him to his 4 month well baby doctor's appointment Friday. He is now 18.6 lbs and 27 in. long! The doctor said he looks great and he is a strong and healthy boy. The doctor also said we should start him on solids soon because most babies over 18 lbs cannot get enough food from breast milk. That made me sad because I really wanted to breastfeed exclusively for the first 6 months of Cade's life. The doctor told me once he starts waking up in the middle of the night that we should begin then. Right now he sleeps on average 11 hours a night with the longest stretch of 7 hours between feedings. I read that for many babies sleeping 5 hours straight is considered sleeping through the night. I have felt more rested since he started sleeping longer. We went ahead and bought some rice cereal and several organic jars of baby food to have on hand. However, I'd really like to wait as long as possible before starting solids. If I can make it another month that would be great. I also don't want the poor baby to go hungry, so if it is sooner than another month or two then we'll give him baby food.

We recently sat him in his high chair at the table. Usually we either take turns holding him or put him in his car seat while we eat. The other night we decided to try his high chair since he's sitting up really well now and we want him to get used to it before we start feeding him solids. He seemed to like it.

Cade has also refused to take a bottle since we returned from our trip back to the States. So we tried a sippy cup with breast milk and he enjoyed holding it and drinking from it.

Cade has been smiling and laughing more. It's so much fun to watch him grow and learn. He has the cutest smile but once you bring a camera out he stops smiling and stares at it. We try and take pictures when he's not looking to get one of him smiling.

Here are some new pictures of our sweet little boy!

Cade and his tiger

Flying with Dad

First time to drink from a sippy cup

Sitting in his high chair

Just being cute!

Long Weekend in Switzerland

This past weekend we took Caden to his 6th country. We traveled to Switzerland and visited Interlaken and Spiez. This was our first time to visit Switzerland and we thought it was beautiful. We stayed in Spiez but spent most of our time in Interlaken. We stayed at a very European bed and breakfast and decided to pay for half-board for Friday night. Half-board just means you want dinner in their restaurant. We had a 3-course dinner which included spaghetti and tomato sauce, fish and potatoes, and ice cream for dessert. All for the price of Fr. 22 per person plus our drinks. I ordered water and it cost Fr. 4, which is around $4 for a glass of water, no refills. You would think in Switzerland water would be cheaper than beer and wine, but it's not. Even soft drinks cost more than most of the beers, wines, and soft drinks.

One of the most disappointing things about Switzerland is the inflation of the Swiss Frank (Fr.). Although the Fr. is comparable to the U.S. dollar when you convert your money most items cost at least twice what they would in the U.S. For example, there is no dollar menu at McDonald's. A happy meal costs Fr. 6.90 and the value meals cost Fr. 11.90+. So if Collin and I wanted to eat at McDonald's and both get a meal we would spend close to $25 for two meals. So we decided not to eat at McDonald's and go ahead and splurge a little more to eat real Swiss food.

We arrived in Switzerland Friday around 11am and had a nice lunch. It was raining Friday so we mainly drove around and explored the cities by car. We drove up several mountains and got our "bearings" so to speak. Saturday we woke up to more rain so we canceled our plans to visit an outdoor museum and went to the mall and had lunch. We had hoped there would be several restaurants in the food court but there was just one. The food was okay. That afternoon the weather cleared up and we walked around Interlaken and ended up eating at the Zum Baren, an old Swiss restaurant. The restaurant is over 200 years old and was built in the 1700s. I ordered cheese fondue (fondue is famous in Switzerland) and Collin ordered a meat and veggies dish. I was hoping for Fr. 25 I would get more than just a pot of cheese. But for that price I only got a pot of cheese and cubes of bread, which is typical. Thankfully, it was the best fondue I've ever had.

Sunday was a beautiful day so we drove around and went to the Trummelbach Falls. We hiked up a mountain to see 10 glacier-waterfalls inside the mountain made accessible by a tunnel-lift and illuminated. The Trummelbach drains the mighty glacier defiles of Eiger, Monk, and Jungfrau and carries 20.200 tons of boulder detritus per year. Its drainage area is 24 km2, half of it covered by snow and glaciers. Up to 20.000 liters of water per second. The only glacier-waterfalls in Europe inside the mountain and still accessible. It was an awesome experience. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Trummelbach Falls

Trummelbach Falls - lots of steps

Spiez, Switzerland

Jungfrau Mountain in Interlaken, Switzerland -

there is snow all year and is considered the top of Europe

Interlaken, Switzerland

Interlaken, Switzerland

Beautiful rainbow after the rain in Interlaken

Interlaken, Switzerland

Interlaken, Switzerland

Barbecue Season

Collin went to a German grocery store last week to pick up a few things for dinner. Collin has learned how to cook some really good German food. We also finally bought a grill in August and have loved grilling again. Collin wanted to get some German sausages to grill and asked a German man standing near the meat aisle what he would recommend for grilling. The man replied, "grilling season is over." Collin looked at him shocked and the man said since it was now fall, the season is over and there are not many good meats available to grill. And we thought people grilled at least through American football season. By the way, we still are grilling. We plan on grilling until there is snow on the ground.

3 Wonderful Months!

We can hardly believe that Cade is already 3 months old. Collin and I have really enjoyed being parents and having Cade as our son. He is such a joy!

Last Friday we started putting Cade in his room to sleep at night. He has done exceptionally well sleeping in his room at night. We thankfully have been able to get him down without crying. The first night he slept 4 straight hours! Saturday was a little harder, we couldn't get him to sleep until around midnight and we had to get him up for church so he didn't get much sleep, poor guy. He woke up at 4am and then 6am and then we had to wake him at 7:30am. Then Sunday night he slept 5 straight hours, Monday night 7 straight hours and last night 7 straight hours. So I have been able to get 4-6 hours of sleep a night which I am so thankful for. I'm not a napper so what I get at night is what I get and I have a hard time falling back asleep after feeding Cade in the middle of the night. Although last night I was so tired I put him back down and fell right back to sleep. Basically after his long stretch of sleep he then wakes up every 2 hours and will typically sleep for 10-12 hours a night after waking up to eat and have his diaper changed. I am really enjoying his new sleep schedule. Collin and I actually got to watch a movie last night. Cade went to bed at 9pm and after he went to sleep we watched a movie. It was wonderful! We're trying to put down Cade between 8-8:30.

A few new things Cade is doing include having better head control. He can put his hands together and grab things. He is doing wonderful at tummy time and can lift his head pretty high and turn his head from side to side in the air. He's laughing a lot more, is very chatty, and went for his first stroller ride Sunday afternoon sitting up. He loved it! Our German buggy allows us to have him face us or out so we had him facing us and were able to talk to him and he talked right back. His looks are changing and he's getting bigger. He's already doubled his birth weight and is getting longer. Praise God I been that I've been able to exclusively breastfeed Cade. My goal is for him to have only breast milk for the first 6 months. I am now halfway there! On the downside, Cade is teething and has been having a hard time with that. He is drooling a lot, biting everything he can, and is generally uncomfortable. It looks like his bottom two teeth are going to come in first.

Here are some pictures from birth to 3 months.

1 day old

1 month old

2 months old

3 months old! Sitting up in his stroller!

3 months old! We love his all gum smile!