Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

A few weekends ago, we went up to the city of Campinas. They have an antique train there and we took the kids for a ride. 

The station played some great samba, and the kids really got into it! They also made friends with some of the other children there and a random cat. 

The trip took us to a different station that had one of the first telephones. On the way back we were entertained by a band with an accordion player, singer, and drum player. The accordion player was amazing and it was super loud and fun.

Yet Clara still managed to fall asleep with all of this going on.

On the way back home, we stopped by the Campinas temple. It was neat--it has a church owned hotel right next to it for those that need to travel to visit. The temple and grounds were gorgeous.

We've also had some wonderful things happening closer to home--we got our stuff!!! We got our sea container with all of our furniture and some other things at the end of February. It has been amazing having things that are actually ours. 

An interesting thing about our move--the day the movers got to our house in Michigan was super stressful. They wanted to pack things backwards of how I wanted to pack them, and I was so worried that things would get put in the wrong place. I insisted that toys and kitchen things go in our air container (the shipment that is only supposed to take 3 weeks) so that we could move into our apartment immediately and the kids would be happy. We had air mattresses, all of our bedding, and towels in there as well. Wouldn't it just be my luck that our air container takes 3 months instead? We got  I guess I am supposed to learn a lesson from this, that planning is all you can do, and hope it works out. 

Also, our couch wouldn't fit through the door. But the movers were super great and brought it in through the window!!

Also that week, my sweet Grandpa Deaver passed away. He was such a sweet man, and I was lucky to be his granddaughter. Peter and I were sealed by him in the Las Vegas temple. He always spoke so sweet to us and was such an example of faith. 

Peter's company was very kind and has a policy that allowed me to fly back for the funeral. I also have some amazingly sweet friends here that watched my kids for me while I was gone.  I flew into Atlanta, got into the car with Amanda and her fam, and drove the 8 hrs straight to NC. The kids were great and it was awesome to see everyone, even considering the circumstances.
Here's the cousins of that side of the family, minus my brother Dustin.

My mom and her sisters:

The funeral was really moving and we got to hear some fascinating stories about my grandpa's life. I felt like I got to know him a little better. 

Amanda's poor boys got sick while we there, so we left the next day to go back to Georgia.
While there, we of course had to get some American pizza at Costco.

I got to spend the next day or two with some of my favorites before I had to go back! We had lots of fun and Steven let us sneak out and have a sister date.

It was so great to visit, but the girls were so happy to have me back. Charlotte sobbed when I left and when we skyped, so she was especially happy.

School

We've had a fairly low key last week or two, especially due to Charlotte's broken arm. It's put a damper on our beach trips! :) 

We did manage to go to the Sao Paulo Aquarium, which wasn't huge but was plenty big. The most exciting exhibit by far was the mermaid exhibit. The girls spent probably an hour looking at these girls in their mermaid tails. Charlotte kept asking me questions like, "How did they get here?" and "Why do they have tails", and "How come they were born mermaids and I wasn't?". It is just so sweet that she thinks they are real mermaids!! Love that sense of wonder. 

Charlotte started school last week and this picture is from the parent day when we got to know the classroom. Her teacher is really sweet and speaks fantastic English. The lessons are all in English but her friends are all Brazilian. We are hoping she can pick up some Portuguese from them on the playground.

 Here's the entrance of the school right past the security guy and the finger scan. Yeah, intense! But it's nice knowing they are so careful about the security. The security guy had our faces memorized before we even got there and knew who we were. (We had to send pictures of us all with the application.) The drop off and pick up are kind of crazy since the school is on a small road and the only parking is parallel. That and I am driving the biggest car of all the moms, and I am a silly foreigner who has still not mastered parallel parking. Also, we get some funny looks because I always have Clara with me and all the other kids her age are enrolled in the school. They often ask me why she doesn't attend.

It seems to be a really great school and Charlotte loves going. There was absolutely no crying when we dropped her off. They serve a snack every day of a fruit, some type of bread thing, and juice. On Fridays they get to wear dress-ups!

Our park by our hotel has these trees with giant leaves that make the perfect umbrellas.

Last Saturday we went to Parque de Cantereira, which is on the North side of Sao Paulo. It is massive and has botanical gardens and a mountain. We did the hike not quite knowing that it was sooo uphill. We were so glad Russell had come with us (not only for the awesome company) but he also helped us push the girls. The girls adore him and want to hang out with him all the time.

Charlotte was getting a picture taken of her uniform and Clara wanted to pose too. 

Our favorite of the uniforms: the cute red polo dress! Her school has the cutest logo of a little bear and a Canadian flag.

And some of the weirdness we saw: Why hire a sign guy when you can use a mannequin instead?

Peter's work has been going well but he travels up north to the plant for part of the week. I don't think any of us will be too sad when he has finished the track up there! A funny fact about Pernambuco (which is close to the plant), the beach is the 10th deadliest for sharks. They have a natural reef that you are not supposed to swim past and they made surfing illegal. Crazy! 

We are also hoping that soon they will get our things through customs and we can move into our apartment. Life will improve quite a bit with more space and toys :). 

The good, the bad, and the snuggly.

We have had an interesting last week and a half, full of ups and downs! We'll start with some of the ups.

This is Clara at the park right by our house, Parque de Povo. Mostly I had to put this in because she looks so dang cute! I'm glad I mostly brought dresses for the girls because it is all they want to wear. 

We go to the park almost daily to get out of the apartment so the maid can clean. (Since it is basically a hotel room, the maid comes and cleans every day too. I haven't done many dishes since we've gotten here!!) 

After we get home and have lunch and naps, we usually go down to the pool. One of the days this week though our friends in the room below us invited us over to swim in their hot tub! (And by hot tub I mean lukewarm water tub.) They are a Brazilian couple that went to BYU and has two cute kiddos close to our kids age. It is pretty awesome that they have this on their balcony for now and we are lucky to be friends with them. 

On rainy days we like to get our nails done. It is only 10 reis (about $4) for the kids to get their nails painted, and since we are stuck in a hotel with very little to do I don't mind spoiling them a little. It was funny, I don't understand much portuguese, but I did understand the nail girl telling her coworker that I let the girls get them done every week, silly American. Haha!

 Now for the bad. Friday night while at our park, Charlotte took a spill while running and broke the bone by her elbow. We could tell pretty quickly that it was not just a sprain and took her to the ER. In this picture she had already gotten some medicine and her cast and was in much better spirits. The hospital was amazing and we only had to wait in the waiting room (a special one for kids!) for about 10 minutes. Another awesome thing they did was after someone went into triage, if the nurse thought they were contagious, they made them wear gloves and a doctor's mask. SO smart! We probably had the best experience possible there.

Charlotte had some rough nights, but seems to be feeling so much better. On Monday we went to an orthopedic specialist (that we had to pay up front before even seeing the doctor) who gave us the good news that Charlotte will most likely not need surgery. Yay! She is adapting well at her one-armed-ness. We are hoping it will only be 4 weeks. 

Even with Charlotte's arm the kids and I still go to the park almost daily mostly to get out of the house. Sometimes they don't even get out of the stroller but it is nice to take the walk. And on days when it is hotter than heck they know they might even get a juice at the end!

 More good news this week--our air container has finally arrived! It is so funny to me to think of the amount of care and effort I put into packing some things in the air container and some in the sea when in reality, we will probably get both at about the same time. I feel like a big lesson I am supposed to learn in my life is patience :). We've got another big week ahead of us with Charlotte starting school so you know I will have to post some pictures of her in her uniform!!

And lastly, I drove--without Peter, with traffic--to a friends house. I can't lie, I was pretty proud of myself.

Update

Life being as it is sometimes, we found out our international health insurance does not go into effect until the beginning of next month. We did take Clara to the doctor and they diagnosed her with a throat virus of some sort that unfortunately will continue to give her a high fever for the next week or so. The best we can do is keep her as comfortable as possible with some medicine.  Peter and I are going to see what happens and hopefully we just have the same and can all get better soon.

Never assume, because when you do . . . you know how the rest goes

This has been an interesting week. A week full of highs and lows and also a very educational week.

Let's start off with Sunday. I assumed since the roast I bought said to cook it for two hours that 3 would allow me plenty of time before we had to bring it over to our friends. Wrong! 6 hours total and the thing was finally cooked. Thank goodness for pizza.

On Tuesday we had to drive a couple of hours away to get a special number (like a social security number) in a different city. Our appointment wasn't until Wednesday but we had to stay the night in order to get that number in the city. (We couldn't get it in Sao Paulo because they give preference to the refugees and they have had a huge influx. And we can't get our stuff shipped until we get this number. So it was worth the effort.)
Getting to the hotel we checked in and went up to the room. Surprise--only one bed. We ask the front desk for a different room and they kindly let us know that they do not offer rooms with two beds. They do set up a trundle in our room, though, and after an interesting few hours, we end up with Charlotte in our bed and Clara enjoying the trundle by herself. The next morning we all wake up feeling pretty yucky but dink around for a while until our appointment. We get to the address we were given 1/2 hour early, and,  you guessed it--not the right address. We barely make it to the correct address in time and things gratefully go smoothly. I am still crossing my fingers that our stuff will quickly come!
Thursday we all wake up still pretty sick--sore throats, goopy eyes, bad coughs--but the girls and I need to go apartment hunting. The relocation agent picks us up and we start looking. Clara is insisting on being held as we walk everywhere and her little body gets hotter and hotter as the day goes. She is so feverish and Charlotte is bored to tears. Peter rescues us and sees the last few places with us. Something good came out of the visit--we picked an apartment! More fingers crossed that it all works out.
Tonight we are all just kind of miserably sick and are going to go to the doctor tomorrow. I'm sure once we feel better my outlook will be better too.

Feliz Ano Novo! (Happy New Year!)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! 

We had a very non traditional Christmas this year and had a great time. Our Christmas Eve dinner consisted of one of the best churrascarias (where they bring the meat around on skewers to your table) in Sao Paolo and we ate ourselves silly. 

We let the kids open their present a day early pretending it was Christmas so that on actual Christmas day, we could hit the beach when the crowds were low. Also we haven't had many toys for them to play with since we have gotten here and they definitely needed some. They were so happy with everything they got (thanks Grandma and Grandpa, Nana and Papa, Mimi and Papa, and the Haymores!) Clara was very excited to use her new towel from Santa.

 We went to Guaruja beach (about an hour east) and it was a beautiful sunny day. So sunny, in fact, that we all got awesome sunburns except for our little tan Clara. The ocean was warm and it was an awesome day.

Later that week, we headed to Burle Marx park in Morumbi (a newer area, where the temple is located). The designed of the park (Burle Marx) was apparently a pretty renowned landscape architect. It was gorgeous and felt like a jungle!

Part of the park was an ancient tree that had fallen and was then converted to a play structure.

Here's our extended stay hotel:

The girls decided to do some posing in front. It isn't the biggest, but we get amazing breakfast every morning and a maid that comes and cleans.
There is also a lot of staff (front desk, garage attendants, and security at the front) and they are soooo nice and so sweet to the girls. They are always talking to them and calling them princesas (princesses).

One day the girls and I decided to go get our nails done. For R$65 (like $24), we all got our fingernails done and I got my toes too. The girls were so patient and the workers there, like most people here, were so excited to see the girls and to do their nails. It was pretty funny though, when it came time to do my feet two workers each had a foot on their laps. I was glad I hadn't worn a skirt!

We went to another beach with some friends that same week, Barra do Sahy, that was amazing!! It was in the middle of a cove and had the most amazing sand. The waves were tiny and there were fun crabs everywhere. Pretty much perfect for a family. It was in this cute town and it wasn't too crowded.  

We went with some amazing friends that are working down here and they have two fun kids for ours to play with. I really feel so blessed that we have met them--they have made our adjustment about 100x easier. She also gave us peanut butter, and that officially made us friends for life.

Peter catches crabs almost anywhere we go (haha!)

We were lucky enough to have our meals paid for the last few weeks, and we have been enjoying that. One of our favorites, Rascal, makes fresh pasta daily and makes you fresh juice.

They also make the best cheesecake we've ever had, and they put this yummy guava paste on top. The cheese and guava combo is big here; they call it Romeo and Juliet. It is delicious!

People seem to stay up later here, and as a result we have been too. So we have had lots of snuggle sessions and long naps.

For New Year's Eve a Brazilian family in our ward invited us over. We went to their family members house and swam. We ate dinner at 10:30 and then had ice cream at midnight. The kids loved it and we had a blast too. I only understood about 2% of the night's conversation but everyone was so nice it was fun just to be part of it.

We went to this restaurant Hecho en Mexico (Made in Mexico) that had such fun ambiance and styling. For all you Nacho Libre fans, there were pictures of Luchadores all over the walls and some authentic corn. It was pretty funny though, they brought out each of our entrees 15 minutes apart from each other. The kids got their food, then peter, then me, and then the corn. I think the slow timing of things will have to be something that we just get used to. 

Although we miss everyone, we are having a blast and are all doing well. Hopefully we can find a place to live soon and then we will even better! Tchau Tchau!

First Week

This week so far has been interesting, to say the least.
Some great things about Brazil:
There is a special line at the grocery store if you are pregnant, have children, or have a disability.
People love kids here! They always smile at us and try to talk to the girls.
It is warm enough that we have gone swimming twice this week.
The food is delish and we have tons of options in walking distance.
People are really friendly and don't seem to mind when I tell them I don't speak Portuguese.

Things that haven't been so super awesome:
The sidewalks are definitely not meant for strollers. Especially my double wide, not so great at maneuvering stroller.
Our specific area is very business oriented and so the kids and I often get some strange looks when we are walking to and from the park. (either that, or they are mesmerized by how cute my girls are ;))
Certain things take FOREVER. So far any time we go out to eat, it takes a good 20 minutes from the time you get the check to get out that door. But depending on how you look at that, it gives you 20 minutes to chat, so it is probably just my antsy American self that is bothered by it.

It is crazy to think that Christmas is just next week seeing as how we have zero cookies baking in the oven, warm sunshine outside, and family far away. But it will be quite an experience and I am really excited for this continued journey. We look at apartments next week (some which are AMAZING!) and hopefully finding one will be our Christmas present to ourselves!

The girls are still their usual sweet selves and are really enjoying the fact that everyone stays up later here--including them!
We did manage to get a picture of them with Santa before we left Michigan--they both did great and were so excited to talk to him. He was really sweet and promised he would bring the girls their presents down to Brazil.