The Tree Catastrophe

So Matt is out of town for work, I am home after a morning of swim lessons and lifeguarding and enjoying a quiet moment while reading the newspaper when I hear a "pop, pop, pop, POP" in the front yard. I think it could be some kids playing with firecrackers or something but it turns out that it was much bigger than that....

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The tree in our front yard decided to lighten its load and shade off a branch or two (but more like six) and then drop them right on our mailbox. Lovely.

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The carnage. Luckily Becky and Ryan had left on Sunday night or their van would have been a part of this mess. And luckily no one else had decided to park there that day either!

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I pulled the poor mailbox from the beneath the branches but knew it was too late to save it when I saw a portion of the base of the mailbox still attached to the post on which it stands. Oh well.

Now, three days later, the branches are chopped up (thanks to Mark and Jeremy) and hauled away (thanks to Kyle, Peter and Jose). And a new mailbox is on its way and will be here Monday.

A nice little adventure in homeownership for me.

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And as my grandma said, "The bad things always happened when Dale was out of town." Well I guess I know what she means now :)

The end of our stay in Portugal

So the trip came and went (almost 2 months ago) and I am finally finishing what I started. Here are the final days in Portugal. We had so much fun traveling all over Northern Portugal that it was fun to see what the city of Porto had to offer us. Matt, Callie and I went on a walk to this old park which used to be the gardens of a large estate. It was fun to play in the shrub maze and fountains with Callie for a while.

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Then we all went on a little trip to have McDonalds for dinner to celebrate Callie's 5th birthday and to see more of the main square in old Porto. Here we are at the subway stop by mom and dad's house.

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We did a little bit of walking and saw some older buildings in the town center. Tessa just liked to have a good ride on Matt's shoulders more than looking at the old buildings, churches and architecture. And Matt was more than happy to play with her outside while the others were taking it all in.

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Mom and Kelly with a view of the city below. We started our walk at the top of the hill instead of climbing up it like Matt and I did earlier in the week. Such a beautiful view with all of the red tile rooftops!

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We took this photo on our way down the stairs from the top of the city. Another great view and a great group of girls!

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In the old Porto town center, this man playing the saxophone and he began playing a fun song for Callie and Tess. Callie danced a little but Tess just watched, mesmerized by the sound of it. It was so cute! And he got a kick out of her too.

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And thus ended our european adventure! Hopefully I keep up better next time :)