Bright blue from the back:
Sunny front;
Monday, July 25, 2016
Foggy, Hazy Rio de Janeiro, but Sunny Christ Statue!
This is a photo post. My children have been amazingly blessed this past year in terms of seeing incredible natural wonders: they've been up close to the Matterhorn, the Momt Blanc, and Jungfrau mountains in the Alps; then a few weeks ago we went to the k credible Iguazu Falls and today we arrived at a very foggy & hazy Rio. It was still great (and hopefully better tomorrow) and staying at the local house of friends is very special!
Foggy city below:
This was supposed to be an incredible view of the Sugarloaf mountains:
A few more:
And Incredible sunset with "sea" of clouds:
Looking forward to 2nd & last day tomorrow.
Saturday, July 23, 2016
The Brasil Trip Continues
sorry for leaving the z out, I prefer Brasil with s the way we write in Portuguese :-)
I'm visiting my brother's house for the first time in 10 years! He lived 8 years abroad and I haven't been to Brazil for the past 2.5 years.
A quick summary of the past two weeks: after we arrived back from the trip to the state of Paraná and the Falls, my sons spent a week hanging out with their cousins who are closest in age (sons of "K2" who lives in Egypt). They rode bikes, played tons of WiiU and some Minecraft and we all spent an afternoon making tie-dye t-shirts for ALL the kids in the family -- the 8 grandkids of my in-laws + K's aunt's 2 grandkids and 2 shirts for my twin friends' kids (the two that were there with us), plus two t-shirts for my mom and one for me). And I still dyed a giant towel with the leftover dye.
My sister-in-law was at her mom's house all week with my niece (who is 3 and the cutest, sweetest little girl ever) and nephew (4.5), so I spent as much time with them as I could.
In the middle of the week I went clothes shopping with my mom at a nearby town that has lots of textile factories and stores and we also got hundreds of liters of spring water from a local spring (my parents do that every few months so they don't have to buy good drinking water).
Then my husband arrived on Friday (7/14) and his family members started to arrive, one brother on Saturday and the other o Sunday for the BIG reason for this trip: his grandmother's 90th birthday party and family reunion. My mother-in-law's two sisters and two brothers and their children were there on Saturday already and we had a lovely lunch celebration at her cousin's house. The birthday celebration on Sunday night was awesome and the next day nearly the whole family went to a hot water springs resort a few hours away where we stayed until yesterday (Friday).
It was great, but a lot of the kids got sick with the stomach flu. :-(
I hate to end on this negative note, but this will be a BIG week -- we're going to Rio for a whirlwind pre-Olympics tour!!
I'm visiting my brother's house for the first time in 10 years! He lived 8 years abroad and I haven't been to Brazil for the past 2.5 years.
A quick summary of the past two weeks: after we arrived back from the trip to the state of Paraná and the Falls, my sons spent a week hanging out with their cousins who are closest in age (sons of "K2" who lives in Egypt). They rode bikes, played tons of WiiU and some Minecraft and we all spent an afternoon making tie-dye t-shirts for ALL the kids in the family -- the 8 grandkids of my in-laws + K's aunt's 2 grandkids and 2 shirts for my twin friends' kids (the two that were there with us), plus two t-shirts for my mom and one for me). And I still dyed a giant towel with the leftover dye.
My sister-in-law was at her mom's house all week with my niece (who is 3 and the cutest, sweetest little girl ever) and nephew (4.5), so I spent as much time with them as I could.
In the middle of the week I went clothes shopping with my mom at a nearby town that has lots of textile factories and stores and we also got hundreds of liters of spring water from a local spring (my parents do that every few months so they don't have to buy good drinking water).
Then my husband arrived on Friday (7/14) and his family members started to arrive, one brother on Saturday and the other o Sunday for the BIG reason for this trip: his grandmother's 90th birthday party and family reunion. My mother-in-law's two sisters and two brothers and their children were there on Saturday already and we had a lovely lunch celebration at her cousin's house. The birthday celebration on Sunday night was awesome and the next day nearly the whole family went to a hot water springs resort a few hours away where we stayed until yesterday (Friday).
It was great, but a lot of the kids got sick with the stomach flu. :-(
I hate to end on this negative note, but this will be a BIG week -- we're going to Rio for a whirlwind pre-Olympics tour!!
Monday, July 04, 2016
Safe, and Frantically Traveling, in Brazil
We arrived safely here on Friday, but the delay made the trip into a 24+ event from leaving our house to arriving at my parents'. The bus we could have taken at noon to go to the town closer to them was full and we could only take the 2pm bus. Thankfully, a dear friend who had come to pick up a suitcase from her mom that we brought, had prepared a big bag of food for us! Such a great gift!
Saturday was a great day spent with family and friends (including the same friend who had gone to the airport), but in the evening when we saw what the forecast was for the week and that a cold front was coming to Iguazu Falls (Foz do Iguaçu -- foz doesn't mean falls, BTW, it means the meeting of several rivers), we decided to leave on Sunday & started packing.
We couldn't leave as early as we wanted, but the trip went well and we reached our friends' house before 7:30 pm. This morning we left earlier and arrived at the Falls before sundown (5:30). Tomorrow we see the falls (five minutes away from where we are!), both the Brazilian and the Argentinian sides. I will share photos in the evening if possible. I need to empty a bunch of photos from my iPhone's memory so I can photograph and blog from the phone.
The best of the trip so far is having Wi-Fi in so many places -- people's houses, restaurants, lodging. That way I can be in touch with my husband and friends & family. Hope to be back tomorrow with more!
Saturday was a great day spent with family and friends (including the same friend who had gone to the airport), but in the evening when we saw what the forecast was for the week and that a cold front was coming to Iguazu Falls (Foz do Iguaçu -- foz doesn't mean falls, BTW, it means the meeting of several rivers), we decided to leave on Sunday & started packing.
We couldn't leave as early as we wanted, but the trip went well and we reached our friends' house before 7:30 pm. This morning we left earlier and arrived at the Falls before sundown (5:30). Tomorrow we see the falls (five minutes away from where we are!), both the Brazilian and the Argentinian sides. I will share photos in the evening if possible. I need to empty a bunch of photos from my iPhone's memory so I can photograph and blog from the phone.
The best of the trip so far is having Wi-Fi in so many places -- people's houses, restaurants, lodging. That way I can be in touch with my husband and friends & family. Hope to be back tomorrow with more!
Friday, July 01, 2016
Flight delayed
Our flight was delayed for a technical problem, but hopefully now we'll depart uneventfully!