Lexi, finally

Sorry, I posted these backwards. If you want to start from the beginning of our trip, go to the post titled, "Portugal Extravaganza" and go up. :)



I left Brandon to go home to Utah, and I went to Georgia to pick up Lexi, and I stayed a few days to play with my in-laws. It was so fun! But unfortunately these were the only pictures I took. We were looking through Brandon's old things, and found his missionary name tags. Lexi loved wearing it.

Sorry Lexi doesn't look great. She had been eating and I hadn't done her hair yet. :)

But she sure loves smiling for the camera, and saying "Cheese"!

Palacia de Pena

This is by far the coolest palace I've seen. It's the most colorful, that's for sure. This was the last place we went to the day before we left. It is in a city called Sintra, right by Lisbon. It was rainy and cold, but pretty good while we were at this palace. It was built in the 1500's, and the emperor wanted it to look tropical, and used lots of different styles from different countries as inspiration.
This is Brandon and Jason, the last coworker with Brandon that day. I love how the castle is built right around the rock of the mountain.
This was a pretty cool tree that we liked, and a bench right underneath.
Evidence of all the color. I like the red tower. It reminds me of Disney castles.

Here's the view from the palace. Pretty cool, huh? It was gorgeous.

All around this palace were other cool buildings that we wanted to see, but it started raining and cut our trip short.

Another castle next to the palace.

Evidence that the emperor took inspiration from other countries. This looks pretty dang Arabian. I'm singing "Arabian nights" from Aladdin to myself right now.

That's all we did in Lisbon. It was so fun!

Brandon's Jig

This is at the 10th century castle. Thought it was hilarious. Brandon does this kind of stuff all the time, and it cracks me up.

More Lisbon

This is a really old cathedral, that was unfortunately closed once we got there. So we took some pictures in front of it, but that was all.

Brandon's in front of it, though it's hard to see.

Here's Brandon showing his booty to the camera, and I'm rolling my eyes at him. We're in front of the cathedral door.

Here's a kissing picture, that I personally think is very cute.

This is the main entrance to the city, with my handsome hubby posing for yet another picture.

S. Jorge's Castle

This is S. Jorge's Castle, built in the 10th century. In other words, it was really, really old. Being from Arizona, I've never seen something so old. That was pretty cool.

Here is the view from this castle. It was pretty amazing.

Here is Brandon, contemplating the meaning of life while looking at the city below.

Here I am, contemplating what I'm going to order for dinner.

Here's a lot of steps. I'm at the top. Sorry I don't have a good view of the whole thing, but it was huge!

Dinner Group

These guys are coworkers of Brandon, and we had dinner with them every night. From left to right: Brandon, Jason, Andrew, Wade, and Nic.

Nic works in the England office, and both Brandon and I both came to separate conclusions that he looks like Michael Buble. Now I wish I had a better picture of him, but seriously. Just compare the two, above and below.

Again, wish I had a better picture of Nic to prove it better. Nic thinks Brandon looks like T-1000 from Terminator 2. I have provided pictures for you to compare as well.

I think he actually does look like him a little. I just hope Brandon's arm doesn't turn into a huge sword too. :)

Portugal Extravaganza!!

This will be Cassie talking, not Lexi. :)
Well, we are finally back from Lisbon, and it was so fun! We dropped Lexi off in Georgia with Brandon's parents, and then we met up in DC and flew to Lisbon together. These next few posts will give you an idea of what we did. WARNING: There are a lot of pictures! This is us in the Metro together. We tried to go sight seeing the first day we were there, but we went to a not-so-great spot, and were exhausted, so this is the only pic we took.
This is the second day. We are on top of... well, I don't know what it's called. But it's a tribute to all the explorers that came from Portugal or something like that. In the background to the left of Brandon's head is the famous statue called "Cristo Rei," pictured below.

Still on the same monument, but in the background is the tower of Belem, which you will see in future pictures. Brandon's trying to pose all cool.
This is the front of the monument we were on.
And the side of it. Those men on the sides are the explorers I was talking about.
This is across the street, and it's called Jeronimo's castle or something. They weren't great about posting the history of the building nearby, and I didn't look for it online, so shame on me for not exactly knowing. But it was pretty. :)
Inside the castle. This is the cathedral portion. I always made Brandon pose for pictures, but sometimes he got sick of it.
This is Vasco De Gama's grave. He was the first to sail around the bottom of South America. right? Gosh, I have to brush up on my history...
They kind of turned the castle into a museum, so we got to see some mummies. That was pretty cool too.

Another cheesy couple picture. Isn't Brandon cute?

This photo and the one above are taken in the Tower of Belem, and there's a good pic of the tower below.

It's so big, and really old. Not quite sure how old, but it was used to protect the Lisbon port.

There I am at the top. This day was one of the cooler days in Lisbon. We got to see so many sights because they were all close together.

Note to self...

Do not leave the door to the litter box closed through the night. If so, you will find a whole lot of cat poop in the baby's bathtub, and all her bath toys covered in cat poo. You will spend the entire morning cleaning and bleaching and disinfecting the entire bathtub making sure baby toys are clean for baby. At least this is what my mom tells me.

-Lexi

Punk girl

Lately, I've been saying "Dada." But I refuse to say "Mama," which is weird since I'm completely and unhealthily attached to Mom. But I will not say it. Will not. And here is proof.

sleeping habits

I know most of you babies have much weirder sleeping poses than I do, but I rarely leave the confines of my cozy bed. So when Mom and Dad saw this, they thought it was pretty funny.

There's my leg, just hangin out.

Just another angle.

My parents were able to get three flashed pictures without me waking up. Nice, huh? Yes, it was Sunday, and Mom makes me take my morning nap in my dress so they can wake me up and just go to church.