Adventures of a Mission Presidents Wife: Campinas, Brazil

Adventures in Brazil with the McGarry's.......after a very, very, very (did I say very?) long plane ride where no one slept...these guys were anxious to start their adventures in Brazil.

I loved hugging and playing with my grandkids!

Uncle Jared taught Landon how to play "Praise to the Man". In all of Landon's free time he was on the piano or talking with Grandpa.

We had fresh hot bread or hot cheese bread every morning from the bakery right by our house.

Easton's favorite part was going to the Campinas Temple.

The kids loved meeting the missionaries.

Jared and Bruce watched the kids and Natalie and I did some "serious" shopping. The clothes in Brazil are so cute.

Natalie had her birthday while she was here...we made her favorite dessert...German Chocolate Torte...mmmm!

You can't go to Brazil and not eat "Sergel's" ice-cream...it's amazing!

The grandkids loved the pool!

Oaklyn and are became "best buddies" .

We had "Leonora's" famous Feijoada the first night they were here.

At night we played with these fun glow in the dark tops, shopped, played games, watched movies and ate popcorn and drank guarana. We played bears come out at night with the grandkids for quite a few nights. We had to limit it because if they had their way they would play every night. It's like hide and seek but with more growling and grunting :) Uncle Jared was the best hider. The coolest hiding spot was in a closet. There is a fake wall in the closet that leads to a little hidden room. I discovered it about 6 months into the mission. The grandkids thought it was great fun.

Here's some pictures from the Itatiba Zoo. It's a small zoo and you get to interact with the animals. We found some moneys outside the cages too.

This monkey wasn't even in a cage...

There was a fun tram ride at the zoo. The adults enjoyed it too.

Oaklyn is "obsessed" with ballerinas...she was always wanting to show you her "moves". Her "moves" usually ended up where she was falling over...it was quite funny. We were at this big park called Taquaral and there was a big aphitheatre where Oaklyn had to practice her "moves". We had to tell her over and over again not to get to close to the edge of the stage because we didn't want her pilerating off the stage :) She was in Ballerina Heaven!

My nephew Jared "Uncle Jared"...was a saint. He helped on the plane rides and through out the whole trip. The kids loved him! He is seriously amazing! We had so much fun with him!!

We had to take some picks in grandpa's chair with my missionary tag and Bruce's tag on. They make cute missionaries.

Landon was always in the office with grandpa... discussing life, the scriptures, and the missionaries.

We had fresh squeezed "cane juice".

We drank chilled coconuts at the park...and no one threw up this time ;)

They enjoyed some hammock time and some sweet treats...

We went to the "Hopi Hari" amusement park. It was really cold that day and all the Brazilians were were wearing hats, gloves and scarves. It was only 21 degrees celcius...so we hardy Canadians had no problem with the cold. We stayed until dark and had a blast. For the last ride the kids wanted to go on was the log ride. We never realized that it was a water ride and that we would get completely soaked. We were kind of wondering why no one else was on the ride. Despite the cold Landon and Easton loved it and had to ride it a couple of more times before going home. We all went home cold, wet but HAPPY!

Oaklyn singing Gethsemeni

Brazil knows how to do "churros"...they inject them with fruit, pudding, Nutella, chocolate and tons of other good stuff. If that wasn't good enough they also coat the outside as well with lots of yummy toppings. They also have Churros that you can dip in sweet sauces too.