And who taught him to do this?

Gage has this habit...of putting things in his mouth and blowing them out into the air...learned it from someone, I think. Can't imagine who...

More pics...various Madeira

Rainbow

This was one evening when it was a little rainy

Feeding Auntie Carrot

These are pretty hilarious-- esp. when viewed together :)

Some pictures from Madeira

Here are some of my faves :) We are all back in Barrow now, enjoying the 30 degree weather and even some snow!

Swimming in the ocean

(continued from below)...post whale watch, we returned home and Sid and I went for a swim in the somewhat cold ocean :) Gage watched signing time with Annie (see the first picture). It was chilly, but not so bad once you got in. We took a walk to the market afterward and Carol made a wonderful meal. Gage was pooped and basically told me he was ready for "night night" which was pretty funny! We had a lot of fun :) Annie leaves today and I am SO thankful for the help that she has given me over the last couple weeks. It was so nice to have her here and she took such good care of Gage. I think she had fun too -- though I know she will be so happy to see her family :) We wish her safe travels!!! We can't wait for Ken to arrive :) We wish him safe travels as well :)

Whale watching

Wow- so yesterday we had a great time- we went on a whale watch from 9am-1pm. It was on a really nice catamaran and was arranged via folks from IWC. There were some of the top whale observers on board within the crowd, so it was pretty neat. We saw Bryde's whales and sperm whales on the trip. Gage was really good on the boat-- seemed like he had a nice time :) Skipped his nap and started to fall asleep on Uncle Sid (whom he has taken a serious liking to...Aunt Carol too!) but then there were several sperm whales sighted, some very close to the boat. Gage really go to check them out. We then came into Funchal, checked out the market, had some gelatto, went home and... (see the next blog entry :) )

Trip to Porto Moniz

Trip on Saturday afternoon took us to the opposite end of the island-- wonderful cliffs and beautiful scenery! Then we returned right over the top--- through the center of the island. It was wonderful and green and there were cows everywhere :) Annie has had some cow problems...we had a charger! But she was able to hop back in the car and the car was spared any dents. The cows here seem to be somewhat unfriendly though! I will let her tell the story on her blog, but it sounds like she had a bit more cow trouble yesterday at the Madeira theme park...Everyone is ok though :) That is where the banana pics came from...and the hat. I will put that in too...he is just kind of looking at it like "what the heck is this huge hat doing here?Apparently Annie had some problems getting him off the banana (he really liked it...). And I will let you know that the push-up popscicle that he is holding in one of these pictures popped out of its holder and melted on his lap, causing him to have a meltdown so severe, that Annie and I were left laughing hysterically...it was pretty funny. He was COVERED with pink poscicle!

Flower Boy

Smoe cute pics of Gage in the Gardens at the IWC venue :) THanks Annie :)

Windy Annie

As promised, I have gotten Annie to load up some pictures of HER onto my computer :0 Here you go Vance. She misses everyone-- she will be home before you know it :)

Cheryl

PS- Annie was very brave the other day (for many reasons...)-- mostly because she killed a HUGE bug that was in my room for me! I was very impressed :)

Toboggan Ride :)

Well, here are the pictures from a couple of days ago. To explain: you take a cable car 2 1/2 miles up into the moutainside above Funchal. It stops at a place called Monte and there is a wonderful botanical garden there :) THen you can go back down on the cable car OR take a street toboggan ride :) We took the ride (we saw pictures of people doing it with kids in the brochures..and it doesn't move THAT fast, so I decided it was ok for Gage). Gage LOVED the cable car ride up, which was kind of surprising (he definitely is not afraid of heights!). The toboggan was ok for him-- he wasn't squealing with delight, nor was he afraid, but he seemed more...curious about things than anything.

Oh well, here are the pics. And Vance, I am trying to get more pictures of Annie here--- but she keeps only giving me pics of me and Gage!!!

The killer swan

OK- So, yes, it kind of bit me, but Gage loved it :) All is well today- a little misting of rain in the am, but now it is beautiful and we are heading to the west of the island. Think it will be a busy weekend for me, so Annie has a side trip planned to the Madeiran theme park and then a whale watch for all of us on Tuesday :)