Tales of a trip to Brazil, Part 1

Two mornings ago, I sat in warm, beautiful Brazil, sipping a cup of coffee and watching my 6-week-old nephew kick around on his play mat, visiting with my family. 

 
Now I'm sitting here, at 5am because my body feels like it's at least 8 or 9am, with a fleece blanket and sweatshirt, shaking my head at the forecast for another snowstorm.

I want the first morning view back!!!  I honestly woke up expecting to be in N's nursery.  To say I was disappointed to realize I wasn't, and that I have to go back to work after 13 days off, is putting it mildly.

Our trip to Brazil felt like a whirlwind, like the days were put in fast forward mode, and yet, oddly enough, it was also a refreshingly long and glorious trip.  I had not given much thought to the snow, the responsibilities, or the schedules back home, until our last morning.  I embraced the moment, being there with my family, and set everything else aside to make the most of it.  It felt like both a vacation and just normal family time. It was amazing.

I want to remember every moment of this trip and capture everything here, but 12 days of fun will make for a looong post. I might have to divide it out into several.  Consider this your warning, if you dare follow along.

Flying down here was not great.  It was an overnight flight, about 7 or 8 hours, and I slept for maybe 3 of them at best.  I don’t know why it’s so hard to sleep on planes – I was exhausted and I was armed with a travel neck pillow, blanket, and even an eye mask. It's all you can really do to get comfy in the small square footage you’re given.  But oh, my back and my behind…those seats are not comfortable, especially for a side or stomach sleeper like me.

But there was the anticipation and adrenaline, so the lack of sleep and comfort was ok.  We finally arrived, saw my sister and dad waiting for us when we exited customs, and our 12 days of fun began!

The instant we walked into their home, I ran to wash my hands (from all the nasty airport travel) and then snatched N from my mom’s arms.  After all, she had had 2 weeks with him already so I knew she wouldn’t mind handing him over.  It was love at first sight.  Well wait, no, because I was already in love with him from the moment they FaceTimed me to introduce me to him mere hours after he was born.  But oh gosh, it felt so lovely to hold him at last, give him kisses, stare at his beautiful face…  I was elated.  While Kristen took the guys to the grocery store, Mom baked and I snuggled in on the couch with N napping on my chest. 

It was pure heaven.

I also took a zillion photos of him, like any photo-obsessed proud auntie ought to.

 The first few days we stayed in Brasilia, and hung out as a family. We went for a dip in their rooftop pool, cooked yummy dinners (well, they cooked, I watched), oooed and awwwed over the baby of course, searched for footage of the Olympics (or anything that was in English), played Mexican Train Dominoes, and just relaxed. 

We also took a day trip to Pirenopolis, a couple hours from Brasilia.  It is a charming town with lots of vibrant colors.  We wore shorts and t-shirts and soaked in some 95+ degree sun on our pale skin.  We managed to avoid severe sunburn, tasted our first Guarana (Brazilian soda), Skol (Brazilian beer), acai (Brazilian favorite berry gelato) and Brazilian beef, and I broke out my camera for my first official photos of the trip.

We had to take two cars, so the boys went in one and the girls (plus N) in the other.  The countryside was stunning - so green.  We were also amused by the stands at the speed bumps in each town that were selling cheese curds.  Or something cheese-like.  We opted to pass on buying roadside cheese that had been held in the sun all day. 

Another day we headed to Paranoá Lake in Brasilia.  It is a massive man-made lake built when the city was built in the 1950s, as the area was so dry, and spans the entire length of the city.  Yes, my parents are older than the city of Brasilia - isn't that weird?  The capital of Brazil used to be in Rio but one of the president's decided it was better to have the capital somewhere more central, so they up and built a new city.  The city is shaped like an airplane, with a central sector as the body of the plane and neighborhoods stretching outwards like the wings. 

The sun shone bright just about every day we were there, which we were thankful for as it is technically rainy season there.  At the lake, we decided to try standup paddle boarding.  Man, it was difficult.  Not only do you have to have good balance and strong legs, but then you have to figure out how to navigate with the paddle, avoid hitting others, and stay balanced when boats race by and cause wakes in the water.  All that aside, it really was fun, and so refreshing to be outdoors. 

The water looks disgusting close to the shore, due to the red sand that they have here, so don't think we were swimming in nasty, dirty water.

This guy wanted in on some lake fun, but then ended up nursing and passing out for the duration of our time there.  After some auntie snuggle time, of course.

 

This second photo makes me laugh.  Clearly Jon was not taking the photo like I wanted him to (how dare he) but N looks super amused by it all.  This won't be the first time he is amused by Jon.

We also had two special birthdays to celebrate – my mom and dad’s birthdays are two days apart, and fell right in the middle of our trip.  My sister and I baked a birthday cake, and I brought my new cake decorating kit I got for Christmas so we could make a beautiful cake.  The battery-powered frosting gun apparently takes some practice and technique, and it had a mind of its own, so I can’t say the writing, or the other designs came out like I had imagined.  BUT it was delicious, and was made from the heart, and my sister and I had a great many laughs throughout the process. 

 

 

Note how my yellow "flowers" really look like blobs of frosting piled up.  And we ran out of frosting to frost the sides of the cake.  Meh, details, schmetails. 

Aren’t my parents just the cutest?  I adore this photo of them.

The first few days in Brasilia were wonderful (as were the rest of the days, but I've only gotten through 4 of them here so far).  I loved spending time with my sister - while we keep in touch pretty much weekly, there's nothing better than hanging out in person.  And to see where they lived and how their lives were there was fascinating.  I heart her.

 And I really can't express how wonderful it was to meet N and spend so much time with him.  If you are an aunt, you know what I mean.  The time I spent holding N, staring into his gorgeous dark eyes, bouncing him to sleep, snuggled in my arms, taking photos (oh, the photos of him...I have a whole separate folder for all those photos), giving him kisses...that time was perhaps the most precious of my trip.