Baby's car

Rarely have I seen such joy on Ginger's face as when she saw that they had 'baby cars' in Portugal. Actually, in Portugal, I think you can drive these cars without a license

Portugal

just looking at the pictures from Portugal makes me breathe easier. It is such a beautiful place. I love the scenery, but even more, I LOVE the people. It was so wonderful to see my friends and catch up with them.


At the beach with the Cruz family near Setubal.
Ginger is holding Ema Cruz--ginger loved playing with the kids in this family!!
Catia, my mission companion, and her husband



Waiting for the bus with Rogerio--one of the nicest people ever. He was one of the only members in Cartaxo where I served for 9 months of my mission and was an amazing member missionary.
At the park in Santarem with Nanashara (a former mission companion) and her two girls.

My turn

This is Erin. I suppose it is my turn to post something since I've been holding all the good pictures of our trip hostage :)

Interlaken, Switzerland




Appenzell, Switzerland


Ginger is watching as Jeff's plane takes him back to America (Ginger and I went to Portugal and then to Barcelona and the Mediterranean).
Jeff is eating delicious fondue in Interlaken
On a drive up to Grindelwald, Switzerland
Luzern, Switzerland
Neuschwanstein Castle near Fussen, Germany


The title of the blog is also apt because lately Ginger's been saying it is "baby's turn" to do everything. She is quite independent and likes to try and do things on her own. She often says it is "baby's turn" to buckle her seat belt, but after a minute if we ask her if she needs help, she will concede and let us help her. She is also insistent to have her fair share of turns saying prayers these days. It is so adorable because her prayers usually consist of "Fodder...tankyou...food...Christ. Amen". But occasionally she will throw in a random thought like "puppy" or "baby Jesus".

Switzerland and Bavaria

We went to Switzerland and Bavaria for vacation. I had to come home to work and Erin and Ginger stayed to have fun. They're still there actually (Europe, I mean). They are on a Mediterranean Cruise with Erin's mom and a couple of her aunts. Here's some of the pictures I took. We flew to Zurich then rented a car and drove to Bavaria to see Neuschwanstein. After that we drove back to Switzerland and stopped in Lucern. Then Interlaken, then Gevena, then I flew home while Erin and Ginger flew to Portugal to visit friends. Erin stayed in Portugal for about five days then went to Barcelona for the Cruise which is where she is now. Anyways, here are some of my pictures:

JFK airport

Hohenschwangau Castle

Erin thought it would be fun for Ginger to dress like a princess while went to the castles. Funny enough, she wasn't the only little girl dressed like one.

Neuschwanstein

Erin and Ginger pose with a duck in Lucern

Ginger and me next to a really old bridge in Lucern

The Eiger

Bern (now with Bears!)

Gevena

The world's largest fountain in Gevena

Picture Button

For those who have a blog on blogspot, you'll know that to put a picture in the blog, you just click on the picture icon in the tool bar. Well a few months ago I tried to post pictures of our new house, but the icon was no longer there. So I gave up and never posted any pictures. I finally decided that I would figure out a way to post pictures without the icon, but now as I am writing this I see the icon has returned. It really did disappear, I promise. Why would I make that up? I don't appreciate your tone and what it implies. Anyways, here's some house pictures:

This is what it looks like when you stand in front of it



The deck


And here's an old picture of Ginger with her hand on Erin's leg

Hernia Surgery!!!

So I just had surgery for a hernia I've had for about 5 years, and I'm trying to stay positive, thus all the exclamation points. But why would you wait 5 years to fix this? you may be wondering. Well, it's because I got a bad diagnosis from an ER doctor. When I noticed the hernia about 5 years ago I thought, 'dang, another hernia.' I had already had a hernia is a different place. This hernia was different though because it would hurt sometimes. One day it hurt really bad so I looked on the internet to figure out why a hernia would be painful. I result I kept coming up with was that is was probably strangulated. If that was the case, then the hernia could kill me, so erin and I went to the ER. I had to wait about an hour to talk to a doctor when I got there. When I did, I told him that I had a hernia and that I was worried it was strangulated because it hurt so bad. the doctor agreed it was a hernia and then said he would be back. A new doctor came and I and told him the same thing, he then got another doctor to figure out what to do. They were planning to pop it back in, but then another doctor said," that's not a strangulated hernia because it doesn't hurt enough. It's probably a cyst. Get it checked out by a specialist." then they kicked me to the curb (after I had been there about 5 hours).
So I kind of forgot about it until it started hurting real bad a couple of months ago and erin convinced me to do something about it. I saw a general practitioner and he told me it was a hernia. So I went to see a surgeon who confirmed it and I just got surgery on thrusday. So that's a long answer as to why I waited 5 years to do anything about it.
One thing I learned is that you should take your pain killers even if you don't think you need to. It's not fun when the pain comes back to get you. I was thinking I would post some before and after pics, but I decided against it because I figure you can already find something like that on the internet elsewhere, and this is not one of those websites.
I'll try and post some pics of our new house as soon as I am physically able to move again.

Price Canyon Recreation... something something

What's up fans? I'm sorry to keep you all waiting for news from the Johnson family, but things have been so crazy. And by crazy I mean a regular amount of busy as opposed to the leisurely schedule I am accustomed to as a stay at home dad.
This weekend we went camping at the price canyon something something. It was really fun. We were invited by my pledge brother, Rylan Hayes. He planned the trip and invited a whole lot of people, including Josh Sato a.k.a domo arigato, Mr. Josh Sato, a.k.a. Joshua Prime, leader of the Sato-bots.
There was something like 15 people who went. We didn't know many of them, but it turned out okay because everyone was nice. I felt pretty old even though I'm not older than any of them, especially Sato. I felt that way because while most the people on the trip brought a significant other, I brought a baby too. Everyone rode down to the camp site in the "Dream Catcher," an RV that Rylan and Max bought together. Everyone except us. We drove down separate because we had Ginger. We got to the camp ground earlier than the dream catcher and set up our tent. Ginger had fallen asleep and we tried to move her to the tent without waking her but with poor results. The dream catcher showed up shortly after we did. I found a can of gas that someone had left at the camp and started a very impressive camp fire. We stayed up late (late for me anyways) talking and instructing Sato in the correct methods of making a smore. He surprised us all with his curiously effective smore making procedure.
The next day we had to come home while the dream catcher stayed to have fun. We had to come home to get the keys to our new house. It's pretty exciting to finally get the keys and start moving in. I'll put pictures of it up someday. Anyways, here's some pictures of the camping trip.

Campfire time!

Sato teaching Ginger the ways of the ninja

Family portrait