The Stevenson Ohana

Feb 17-19 We flew into Lisbon in the evening so was fun to wake up in a new country with a whole day to explore! Our friend, Colby Dalton, served his mission here and made us a great spreadsheet with all the ideas. It was fun to walk this city. The culture and architecture felt really different from our other travels. It was a bit edgier and dirty than other cities but felt that added to the beauty and charm and personality of the city. We loved all the tiles cover the buildings and ground in all shapes and designs and colors. We made a game with the kids finding cool tiles around the city to make a collage. Another thing that really stands out is how nice the people are in Portugal— we decided the nicest people in all our Europe travels so far. Everyone was really friendly and that includes the many cab drivers we met- Portugal is really cheap and we were shocked to see how little the cab was from the airport, so we decided to take advantage of it. Probably took more taxis that weekend than we're ever taken in the past 2 years of living here. A few highlights of Lisboa was going on the beach and standing at the foot of a monument in honor of the explores and pretending to be explores ourselves on the trip. Seeing the monastery in Belem and trying THE best pasteis de nata. Portugal is definitely up there with the best food we've had. Multiple pasteis de nata on the daily was a must, chorizo bread was delicious, and Bifanas hit the spot. Also had the best fish.  We attended Sunday mass in Belem which was fun to see how many young families were there, always comforting to know that there's still some religious people out there. Then made it out for Sacrament meeting on the Lisboa temple grounds which was really nice... also to be noted Clay puking in cab and Lucy getting her ears pierced. 

This picture is included because I want to remember I got in trouble at security. They stopped me and made me delete the other photos but approved this one :) 

the taxi ride puke, not sure if my kids are just not use to cars? We always manage to have one kid that gets car sick a trip it seems.

The roads in Portugal were so bumping and hilly, not stroller friendly. 

so we carried the two littles, Lucy peeking out :)

Warm enough weather and sunshine meant getting in some beach time to break up the city walkin. 

the beach finds 

big fans of pineapple drinks.. after this trip I ordered a pineapple cutter. I asked the shack we got this how they made drink and its just pineapple, ice, and coconut milk. 

THE BEST pateis de natas. This place has been pumping them since the days of the explorers. Perfection. 

Lucy approved 

we have three little humans

My explorers

Spontaneous ear piercing for Lucy in Lisbon. I went for a solo walk with her and Riley stayed with the kids for bedtime and came back with some bling 

Morning walks exploring before the city wakes up. 

Church out by the temple. 

Bumped into some Fado on the way home one night and it was amazing. 

One of the many perks of getting a bonus day in Lisbon on the tail end of our trip from a cancelled flight, was got to go to this absolute gem of diner and have amazing fish from good local folk.