I don’t know how we got here so fast…but here we are (insert cry emoji). Happy 11th birthday to my first baby, and the one who officially made me a momma! I couldn’t be more proud.

For your birthday this year you did your usual pre bday spa treatment and we took a special little momma and sissy day to head to the mall. I am so thankful for that alone time and to see quietly (w/o a baby and a little sister around) how beautifully you’ve grown. I mean i see it everyday but it was more amplified w/o the outside distractions for a change. Your personality, style, ideas, confidence, mannerisms, all of it, just make me so proud.

In the past 3 days I have watched you help out 3 different strangers without any fear. You didn’t know I could see you because I am typically busy entertaining Toobs, but I saw you.

You walked up to man in the water and ask him if he needed help with this board, stopped playing with friends to ask an older lady if she wanted some help getting her kayak out of the water, and then with all confidence hung with a group of teenagers, and practiced with one trying to teach her to swim. This was 3 different days in the past week. I mean, you are representing 11 yrs pretty damn well.

I heard you talking with the teenager in the canal and I thought wow…if I was a teenager and just met you, I would think you were one cool kid. I could see that she thought so too. She hung out with you nearly the whole time, curious about your life and asking you all sorts of interesting questions. You are so mature- but not in a serious way- in the most fun-loving, adventure seeking spirited way! That is what makes you so epic!

You are now speaking 2 languages almost fluently, and soon to begin on your third this year. You are open to all sorts of people, all ages, all races, all walks of life, and have the greatest good egg/bad egg instinct that I have seen. I hope you always follow your intuition b/c I know that it will lead you to the right places.

You are a genuinely curious person and love to learn. I am so grateful that we never put you into a school system b/c i truly think your personality flourishes with the freedom to navigate your learning journey. You still despise math and that’s ok b/c thankfully nowadays we have phones with calculators and google and all that fun stuff.

What we don’t have is a phone that will tell you to go help someone, go speak to someone new, have confidence, be kind, take the jump, make someone smile, be silly, be adventurous, step outside your comfort zone, follow your own path, lead by example and live your life to the fullest…nope there isn’t an app for that. This is the key. You are this app.

You are the most powerful combo of two very important qualities. You are kind and strong. Lots of people can be kind. Lots of people can be strong. But to be both kind and strong…that is your superpower. Hold on to it. Keep being you and shining your light all over this world.

Happy 11th birthday Sissy! I love you and am so very proud of you!

Wow, that was a marathon to get through. I didn’t realize how many pictures we took in the Azores and they were all so good that I couldn’t pass them up. Then there was Ericeira, and Sintra, and a baby who thinks sleep is overrated so I was just a tad bit behind.

This was our first time on a plane in a year, and the longest we’ve gone in 10 years without flying. Toobie was a lap child last time we flew and now she is a full on toddler who surprisingly loves flying! She was cracking me up on all the flights, never watched the ipad, and I actually enjoyed every minute of it. Obviously Sissy and Rae Rae were champs as always. They have been on so many planes in their little lifetimes that they just got right back into the swing of things.

Traveling was a bit weird with the pandemic, and there were delays and lines in a lot of places, but well worth the effort to get back to exploring.

Oh man, we had so many funny memories and special adventures. There was knife lady (a kid favorite), statue man, Toobs classic food critic video, Sabs falling into a trash can, Toobs new love for a “nehorse”, many sleeping car rides, Toobs new love for the “yellow” beach, Rae Rae getting stung on the forehead by a jellyfish w/o even entering the water, climbing sand hills, Toobs new travel partner “baby” who had to come on car and plane rides and needed a voice each time, Portuguese pastries, yummy mexican food and Rae Rae’s new love for quesadillas (which she will forever call tortillas it seems), Sissy’s birthday mood board, Dada’s cliff trail hike that lasted 5 minutes, Dada’s epic “miradouro” that was a nauseating car ride up a hill to look at clouds in the misting rain, watching Dada get to boogie board and sitting with Toobs singing songs about him on the beach (where’s my dada, wheres my dada, there he is, there he is), drain flies, nasty smells, knocks on doors while eating, painted faces each morning, Toobs water beach bucket/pool, oohhh so many memories! It’s always funny to see how the memories tend to be made on the travels to the destinations and just the simple things that happen in between it all.

Thankful for this adventurous little family and hilarious moments we share together. This trip was such a reminder of what a nomadic family we tend to be and how we make everywhere home when we’re together.

Now on to a birthday girl who is turning 11, and back home for an epic Danish summer.