i got out the big camera

i don't even know how long it's been since i took real pictures of the kids.  and today, i still didn't.  but, at least i got out the big camera and captured a moment.  

i asked the kids to sit next to each other so i could get a quality shot.  but brady immediately wrapped a fuzzy sock around his neck and then abigail took one glance and decided to do the same.  the next picture i took was my favorite of the day.

the rest are just bonus for fun.

maybe since the weather is warming up, we'll have an opportunity soon to take some quality pictures.  in the mean time... these sure make me smile.

29 weeks

How far along:  29 weeks  (3.19.15)

Total weight gain/loss: 20 lbs.  for the past two weeks, the numbers have been higher during the week, but when thursday rolls around, it's already come back down again.  i'll take it though!

Maternity clothes:  same as before.  i'm honestly shocked that i'm doing so weel with my jeans still.  although the ones that are still fitting fine now are the ones that were always falling off my hips before.  i wore my black maternity dress on sunday for the first time.  

Sleep:  not the best but not horrible.  i hate to complain because i'm not getting out of bed a million times a night for bathroom breaks or up for hours at a time... but i'm still having weird dreams, and the past few nights, i've had a lot of airplane sleep where i feel like i'm awake and dreaming.  also, i'm waking up more easily so like this morning, i was aware when chris woke up sometime during the four o clock hour and then aware when we went to the bathroom, ran on the treadmill in the basement, shaved, showered, got dressed, etc.  i wasn't wide awake, but i was fully aware of everything going on and just half sleeping through it.  as a result of all of this... i am exhausted all day, every day.  so so so tired.  not falling asleep on my feet like i was with abigail, but i'm almost incapacitated with fatigue.  i spend a lot of time sitting in bed and browsing the internet because i don't have enough energy for life but yet, i can't go to sleep in the middle of the day while the kids are running around.  

Best moment this week:  man, i dunno.  it's been just a fun and normal week.  nothing in particular, but it's all been nice.

Movement:  holy cow it keeps getting stronger and more constant!  what week does it start to slow down from lack of space?  because this is intense.  i love feeling the baby moving all the time, but it's kind of consuming and tiring.  also, i can tell she's getting bigger because she is so down low and so high up in my ribs.  and she still prefers my right side.  

Food cravings:  it's getting kind of hit and miss with eating again.  i still like frosted flakes with whole milk (in bed) every morning.  and i still like my usual scrambled eggs on toast for lunch.  but after 2 o clock... food just looses its appeal and it's such a struggle to come up with something to feed the kids.  and i haven't made a proper dinner for honey since we got back from our trip.  i need to get with the program but i'm just so tired and any food requiring more than five minutes of prep time just isn't worth it.  i will say that i've had a few otter pops this week that have really hit the spot.  

Symptoms: fatigue, laziness, weird dreams, airplane sleep, headaches, and nausea

Gender:  girl  ; )

What I miss:  having energy

Milestones:  ehhh...
Theme: the week of being sooo tired
What's different this time around:  with abigail, i started getting really tired during the beginning of the second trimester and it stayed until the end of pregnancy... no burst of energy or nesting at the end.  with brady, i never got the extreme fatigue, but i think i got a normal amount of tired during the third trimester and then got the burst of energy from 36-38 weeks.  so this is just kind of in the middle i guess.  

Extra:  i'm too tired and lazy to think of anything right now.  

3.21.15 at 29 weeks, 2 days

3.21.15 at 29 weeks, 2 days

we're entering a new stage of life

i'm at the point in pregnancy where i have to remind myself that i'm not going to be perpetually pregnant... with two kids.  eventually i'll turn into not pregnant... with three kids.  that's kind of terrifying to me because this current stage is really nice and easy and i feel like i have the benefits of three kids while only having to do the work required for two kids.

the transition from one kid to two kids wasn't a huge deal.  i mean, brady was kind of a nightmare of a newborn, but in all of the practical aspects of having kids, it wasn't a big deal.  we were already used to having toys in all corners of our house, a highchair at our kitchen table, and diapers in my purse.  adding another carseat to our car wasn't a big deal and adding a kid to a previously empty bedroom was also no big deal.  the transition from two to three though is requiring more of an adjustment.  first, we've kind of maxed out the bedrooms in our house.  i realize i'll sound spoiled explaining this, but it should come as a surprise to no one that i'm high maintenance so let's just get over the spoiled part, okay?  we have a four bedroom house.  one is the master bedroom, one is abigail's room, one is brady's room, and one is the guest room.  we don't have any spare bedrooms this time around and every day i'm changing my mind and freaking out and having all this anxiety over how i should configure things to make life with this new baby as easy as possible.  with abigail being our easiest and deepest sleeper, it makes sense to put someone in her room with her... either brady or new baby. the problem though is that i don't really want to mess with brady, and i have no clue what new baby will be like.  another idea is to put a pack n play in our master closet, but from my experiencing having brady sleep in a moses basket/carseat by my bed for several weeks, i've gotta say that it's a pain having your child sleep in a place that doesn't have a designated spot for nursing, diaper changing, and dressing.  i need everything to be in the same spot.  we could also put new baby in a corner of the playroom but i'm not sold on that.  or we could put new baby in the guest room (as a guest herself) and just make do for a while... which is actually our best option at this point... hoping that after a few months, it will be clear whether we should move brady in with abigail or new baby in with abigail.  another option is to just finish our basement... but that's not the most financially sound thing to do because we won't recoup the costs when we sell... which will likely be before baby number four.  anyways... those are my thoughts during the day.

also, i was planning to keep my rav 4 until we had four kids.  it's really small, but i figured that i could make it work if i bought three slim fitting carseats.  well, after a lot of research online about our rav four, i discovered that the latch and seat belt configuration and spacing wouldn't allow for a safe install for any carseat in the middle position.  so that eliminated my dreams of fitting three across and i talked to chris about needing a new car.  well, we're likely going to get a minivan in the next two weeks.  i'm excited for the change, but also getting really nostalgic and sad about letting go of my rav 4.  i've never really loved this car, but lately i've realized how much i've actually learned to like it!  i really enjoy driving stick... not just for the extra safety in the snow, it's just kind of nice day to day.  although it is a pain when i need to do something like collect brady's banana peels before he throws them overboard.  because driving stick requires all four limbs.  but even aside from being fun to drive, it's just a nice little compact car that turns well and is easy to park and whatever.  also, it's not super nice or flashy... it just blends in and makes you feel at home.  and has never made me anxious to have my kids eat in the car or get their dirty or snowy shoes all over.  it was really basic and had cloth seats and, as i said, never stole my heart or had me excited to drive it.  whatever minivan i get will be far nicer... so that's great.  but the rav 4... i've known it the whole time i've known my honey.  this was the car he had at byu when we met.  when i got interested in my honey and learned that his car was manual, i told him i'd always wanted to be able to drive stick shift (goodness bless diana and lisa, because despite putting in so many hours with me during high school... i was still horrific) and he took lots of time teaching me.  when we got engaged and realized i would need to be able to actually drive that car in traffic and on hills, we had even more lessons.  it's crazy to me now that i've been driving this car for our entire marriage.  who would have ever thought on those first few dates and group outings to the ice skating rink that years later, i'd be trucking our two kids around in that car... to preschool, the library, playdates... and that we would take family roadtrips and outings together in that car.  it's been fun to have it grow with us over the years.  my first memory in that car was sitting in the middle of the back with my roommates and honey's as we drove someplace super exciting like to ice skating or wendy's.  i remember listening to some sort of punk rock music and berating honey for not wearing his seatbelt and laughing with sawah about who knows what.  it's all pretty crazy since that was in january of 2006.  ; )

back in the game

holy cow!  i can't believe we've already been back for an entire week!  that's so crazy how fast it has blown by!  we got back sunday evening and i feel like i've just been trying to catch up since then.  no playdates or hours at the library this week, but hopefully we can do it all next week!

monday- we stayed home while i did a million loads of laundry.  normally this wouldn't be an all day event but for some reason i woke up at 7:30 super energized, and was dead to the world just two hours later.  soooo tired all day long and i was 100% dragging.  but, eventually laundry got done and put away so we'll call it a success anyway.  the initial plan was to go grocery shopping as well, but that definitely didn't happen.  not a huge deal though because i'd left two unopen gallons of milk in our fridge (that i'd gotten just a few days before we left town) and had at least a dozen eggs as well as bread, cheese, etc. so even though we didn't really have any fresh produce, we were fine not to immediately rush to the store.  and that was really really really nice to have that option.  my biggest win of the day though was that brady slept til noon and i didn't get him out of his crib til 12:20!  can i just say that we put the kids to bed at 7 the night before so that kid must have been exhausted?!  17 hours of sleep!

tuesday- abigail had preschool so i dropped her off and made a quick stop by the library to return a book and pick up a book i had waiting for me on hold.  then we made our way to walmart and shopped there til it was time to get abigail again.  the rest of the day was pretty standard with naptime/quiet time and then honey came home early and we went to texas roadhouse for dinner.

wednesday- i had my 28 week appointment so we went to that (side note... one time we got chick fil a chicken biscuits and ate them as a little picnic on the hill outside of our doctor's office.  when we walked past that hill on the way to our car i thought to myself "mmmm chick fil a" at the exact time that abigail said "mom, maybe we should go to chick fil a for lunch."  ha.  but also, after our previous appointment, we'd met honey for lunch at costa vida, so when i got to the car i kept thinking "mmm, should i call honey and see if he wants to meet up at costa vida?"  happily for my waistline, i did neither.) and then stopped by our neighborhood playground on the way home and played there for a long time while i talked on the phone with grandmother and then with mom.  it was such gorgeous t shirt weather... probably sunny and 55.  brady went down the big green slide by himself a bunch of times.  and then went down on his belly and busted his lip.  poor guy.  ; )  we had lunch and nap time and then at the end of quiet time, abigail and i went outside to play on the driveway for the rest of quiet time.  so i brought my book and she played.  lucy and presley came out and decided to come over and join us.  so i pulled up a camp chair for stephanie and we had a blast talking about the joys of parenthood while all our kids played and covered themselves in their homemade paint (when you combine sidewalk chalk with fistfulls of snow melted and rubbed on top) and it was just perfect.

thursday- abigail had school again so we dropped her off and brady and i headed to costco.  we ran into kylee in the parking lot so that was fun.  and even though there were no samples at first (and only a few later), we had a pretty good time.  brady spent the first while whining about what i thought was a basketball? which confused me because we hadn't seen one but he kept pointing back where we'd been.  eventually, i stopped and focused on what he was saying, realizing it wasn't working to just brush him off and he wasn't going to let it go, and found out he wanted a hot dog like he'd seen on the big menu at the front of the store.  so once we decided to share a hot dog at the end of our shopping trip, we were golden.  $300 and a hot dog later (but i need to write down for my memory that brady kept calling me "mommy mommy" any time he wanted another sip of lemonade "i need more juice please, mommy mommy mommy."  why he always did two or three mommys... who knows... but it was making me laugh out loud), we were off to pick up abigail from preschool.  the biggest plus to running errands, but only making one stop, during preschool is that we're always ten minutes early to pick abigail up.  the rest of the day was kind of down hill since abigail lied about going potty and then wet her pants during story time.  but honey came home early because he was in the area for a meeting that got cancelled, so he picked up abigail and took her with him to walmart to fix his broken glasses and to hobby lobby to frame a painting we got in brazil.  meanwhile, i talked on the phone with emmy and she gave me parenting advice from a book she's been reading.  brady woke up and i sent him outside with honey and abigail.  we survived the rest of the night just fine but it wasn't the best.  why have i been getting soooo tired lately?!

friday- the house was in major need of some love so we stayed home.  the kids got up late i think... maybe close to ten?  i got them up and we read books in abigail's room for a while (apparently we were having a princess party and she had decorated so we just needed to read books???) and then headed downstairs for breakfast.  but it was so late already and one of the kids asked for cereal so i decided we could all enjoy a bowl of cereal.  and then we all thought it would be a great idea to turn on a dora show while i did laundry and cleaned the kitchen.  lucy came over around 12:30 and presley came by not too much later.  so that wasn't really going well for brady's nap, but the kids were all having a great time playing together.  eventually, sometime after two, the girls all decided to go to lucy's house and even though brady got his shoes and tried to put them on by the door where the other girls were getting their shoes on, he had to stay behind and nap.  so brady and i enjoyed some bagels and cream cheese... in the great room at the end table since i'd just swept the kitchen and had taken the chairs all out in preparation for mopping... and then i put him down for nap.  i did laundry and put all the sheets and blankets back on our bed and gave the kitchen a thorough mopping on the counter tops and cabinets and floors and got brady up at 5.  and then honey came home and i picked abigail up from lucy's and we all went to texas roadhouse.  i ordered my steak medium rare (as i've been doing for a few months), but this time it was a super thick steak and it was more rare than it's ever been.  it tasted great, but honey kept making faces at me because he either thought it was gross or was worried our baby would die from rare, diseased meat or something.  came home and put the kids to bed and we were out.

saturday- honey went skiing.  the kids and i went to the library and treated it like a normal weekday.  we had eggs and cutie for lunch and then naptime and quiet time.  i struggled to stay awake.  honey got home sometime after 3.  quiet time finished around 4, and right on cue, lucy, presley and kalia came over to play.  brady semi played with them too.  he wants to be involved but a lot of times just isn't interested enough if they're playing something complex with a lot of pretending.  we hung out, played outside a bit, ate paninis for dinner (with costco rotisserie chicken and provolone on french bread) and both kids downed theirs... and the remainder of mine, as well as too much avocado.  man, those kids know how to eat!  and then we went to bed.  so so tired.

28 weeks

How far along:  28 weeks  (3.12.15)

Total weight gain/loss: 19.5 lbs  when i got back from my trip, my scale said 137 and even though i knew i'd been eating soooo much in brazil, i kind of freaked out that i'd already gained 22 lbs considering i only gained 24 total with each previous pregnancy.  happily though, the scale kept going down day by day and finally rested on 134.5 so i'm breathing a little easier and still helping myself to sugared cereal.  ; )

Maternity clothes:  yes... same as last week.  just maternity shirts.  and occasionally i'll break out my maternity skinnies... but i have enough options without them.

Sleep:  not awesome.  the first night home in my bed was glorious.  but since then, i've just had trouble sleeping well.  and even if i wake up feeling rested, it's only an hour or two before i'm exhausted and by 2:00 (and for the rest of the day) am having trouble keeping my eyes open.  i'm still averaging at least ten hours of sleep each night but i'm just sooo tired and out of motivation during the day.  is my body more tired because i'm more pregnant? or just more tired because my sleep at night is less quality than what it has been?

Best moment this week:  getting back in town and seeing the kids. and spending that morning in atlanta on sunday when we picked them up. trips are nice, but it's great getting back to the familiarity of normal life too.

Movement:  still on the rise in terms of frequency and intensity.  last friday morning, honey and i were snuggling in bed when he was trying to wake me up and i was trying to go back to sleep.  later, after we were up for the day, he said, "does all that kicking wake you up in the morning?!?!"  he's barely felt my belly this pregnancy and i think it shocked him how constant and powerful those kicks were.  

Food cravings:  i have not been eating healthily at all... mostly out of sheer laziness.  i've been so tired during the day that i've taken to snacking on chocolate and toffee and starbursts all day to keep me awake.  it's bad.  also, i'm still loving sugared cereal for breakfast.  mostly frosted flakes or peanut butter crunch (it's just like reese's puffs but it's the captain crunch line and it's cheaper).  i ate two huge bowls of peanut butter crunch before my appointment on wednesday and dr. claggett asked what i'd had for breakfast.  "umm, sugared cereal."  "ohhh, that explains it... you had quite a bit of glucose in your urine."  whoops.  maybe next time i'll just have a glass of milk and save my sugared cereal for later in the day.  i'm glad to be home and eating my scambled cheese eggs on toast for lunch every day again.  dinner is a struggle though.  typically by that time i'm just soooo tired and dinner foods don't really appeal to me so much.  i'm so sick of everything i make.  i have been really loving beef jerky though.  mom sent me home with a bag and holy cow (as always), it is blissful.

Symptoms: nausea very rarely and not wanting to eat dinner, lack of motivation for parenting and the mom guilt is back, fatigue.

Gender:  my little self is so happy to be having a girl.  brady isn't into kisses and his reaction when you try to kiss him is to punch your face out of the way... so even though he's adorable, it does make me a little happy that our house will go from boy/girl balanced to tilted in the girl direction.  sorry, but it's true.  

What I miss:  not being so so tired every day.  i hope this doesn't continue for the rest of this pregnancy!

Milestones:  i think you know you're getting towards the homestretch of pregnancy when your doctor asks at your appointment what kind of birth control you'll be using after you deliver your baby.
Theme: the week of trying to get back in the groove of life but just lacking all energy and motivation.
What's different this time around:  with abigail and brady, i'd gained less weight at this point, but only by a few pounds.  also with both of them, my emotions were difficult and i was experiencing some pregnancy depression/apathy/etc. even if it wasn't all day, every day.  and with brady, apparently i wasn't having these crazy bizarre dreams that i've had this pregnancy and with abigail.  this pregnancy really does so closely parallel abigail's.   

Extra:  i'm doing alright, all things considered.  the biggest thing on my to do list right now is to have honey buy me a minivan.  ; )  my biggest concern on my mind is still the bedroom configuration of getting three kids into two bedrooms (because i'm not willing to give up our playroom or our guest room) and i change my mind every two seconds about pairing abigail with brady vs abigail with new baby and then i'll just tell christopher that i love our house and want to finish our basement instead, which we've always been decided against because it doesn't make sense financially, and then i'll hop on zillow for a few hours and scope out any 6+ bedroom houses in our area.  i'm all over the place.  really though, i would love a space to go ahead and start getting stuff set up for new baby, but as far as brady is concerned, he's sleeping so great with his current set up that i don't want to rock that boat at all.

3.12.15 at 28 weeks

3.12.15 at 28 weeks

RIO!

wednesday, 3.4.15 

Wednesday morning we woke up bright and early at 5am and threw on our clothes, zipped up our bags, and headed outside to meet our cab to the airport. The airport in foz do iguaçu is really small, so combine that with skipping to the front of the line with my "preferential treatment" for my "condition" and we were at our gate in no time. I loved how compact the airport was because it was barely any walking. Especially when you compare it to the Atlanta airport or something on that scale. I journaled for a while while we waited and then we got on. It was another short flight, only two hours, and I slept for most of it I think. When we arrived, honey's uber account was working and then disabled again (we figured out the problem... It's that we're switching cities too much and you have to rescan your credit card each time when you log in in a new city) so we just took a cab to our hotel. Traffic here is at least as bad as São Paulo so it took about an hour. We're staying on leblon beach at the marina palace. We checked in a ten and they already had our room ready for us. They even said that breakfast was being served until ten thirty so we could help ourselves to that. We hadn't eaten at all that morning because we left our hotel before that buffet was served so it was really nice to be able to catch this one instead of immediately having to hit the streets looking for a place to eat. This breakfast buffet here may well be the best I've ever had at a hotel. I'm sure it's got at least twenty different fruits at the fruit bar and everything I tried was amazing, especially the pineapple and melt in your mouth mango. They even had sliced guava and figs and huge green grapes that were beautiful and delicious. The very best thing they had might have been the bacon though. It was insanely flavorful and cooked to perfection. I normally have trouble eating eggs cooked by people other than myself (especially in buffets like this) but if I ate a bite of eggs with a bite of bacon, it was delightful. Every bite we took, we just kept gushing about how amazing it all was. Then honey and I looked at each other and laughed and he was all "is this actually this amazing or are we just starving?!" because he was reading my mind. Then one of the buffet servers came to our table to let us know they were starting to clean up the food and we should get anything else we wanted. So we both filled another plate and continued to eat and hang out and enjoy the view. Can I also say that they had an entire enormous table devoted to rolls and cakes and breads and sweets and pastries and it even had toppings, with my favorite of course being the dish full of sweetened condensed milk. I drizzled that right over some chocolate bread cake and it was great. They also had chocolate milk and regular milk for drinking (even soy strawberry milk which I was tempted to try but didn't) which was wonderful since their juice was super watered down (probably from the ice melting). The room was full of windows that faced the beach and all of the tables had French flowers and beautiful linens and place settings and I was just downing tons of delicious food and I was in heaven. We'd been at the hotel for less than an hour and it was winning. Hardcore. We went to the lobby to ask questions of the desk people about certain sights we wanted to visit and info regarding any soccer games going on during our stay and they were really helpful. So then we went to our room for a few minutes and we're ready to head out for more exploring. We decided to try the bus system since it had stops all along leblon beach and there was one going right to sugar loaf. Let me tell you, we about melted in that sun in two seconds flat. Holy crap it was so hot. We enjoyed the little city tour of watching all of the sidewalk happenings and shops and whatnot as we drove past. Traffic was still bad but I think that's just pretty much the case all day long. Eventually we got there (which is always an adventure because you're trying to figure out what stop you need to get off at, unlike a taxi where they dump you our exactly where you're supposed to be) and man, if you go to rio, put sugarloaf on your to do list. We got our tickets at the bottom and road the first cable car up to the top of the one mountain and walked around and took pictures before we took the second cable car up to the top of the higher mountain. It was amazingly beautiful because as we were riding up each time, we could see the clouds swirling around the mountain. And while we were up, we'd have moments of it being as if someone turned on a fog machine. We could literally see the clouds swirling around us as close as two or three feet away and then it would disappear as it passed around us. It felt so nice and cool and wasn't hot while the breeze was blowing the clouds all around us. We ran into a woman and man we'd seen/met on the elevator at the Brazil side of the falls. We also ran into three Hungarians. I didn't notice they were Magyars because everyone here is speaking a language other than English so it typically doesn't even register for me to listen to figure out what language someone is speaking. Mostly if someone is speaking English or French then my ears will pick it up. If it's Portuguese or Spanish then it's more common and I tune it out. But honey said "hey, they're speaking Hungarian!"  He'd overheard one guy play a joke on the other guy and chuckled at it (I'd seen it happen and noticed honey laughing and kind of thought it seemed weird that honey was laughing since we didn't understand what they were saying) and was just overhearing and listening to their conversation, understanding it perfectly, before he realized that they weren't speaking English. Ha. Once he pointed it out to me then it was totally obvious they were speaking Magyar. It was two guys from Budapest and they were hanging out with this girl from Debrecen. She'd been out with her friend the day before and happened to meet these two guys and then she was out by herself this day (her friend with her on the trip was out of commission from getting wasted the night before) and ran into the guys again. It's crazy how you can keep running into people you've met before. Honey talked with them for a bit and it was fun listening to the language. Also, I'm seriously impressed with how he speaks it so easily even though he's coming up on ten years of being home from his mission. Anyways, there's not a whole lot about our experience being up in sugar loaf (Pao de asucar?) other than that the clouds were so cool swirling around us and the views were amazing and the weather felt so perfect.

After we were done at sugar loaf, we asked some street venders set up at a bus stop which bus we needed to take to get us to the Christ the redeemer statue. We stood waiting and eventually that bus came. When we got on, we confirmed with the driver (who spoke zero English) and the guy in line behind us (who spoke some English but had little knowledge of the bus system) and all worked together to make sure we were headed in the right direction. The bus was soooo crowded. Immediately I had a woman a few rows back offer her seat to me (remember? Because I'm pregnant and there are signs all over the bus about preferential treatment) but before I could make my way to her, the man I was standing next to got up and offered me his. In the states, I would typically decline this special treatment (like if it happened on a train at the airport or something) because my body usually feels pretty normal while I'm pregnant, but this trip with all the walking we've done, my feet feel bruised on the bottoms and my calf and ankle muscles are sore and my feet have been swollen at times (especially my left foot/ankle... Not sure if that's because I have a lot of bug bites on that foot or if my body just likes to swell one side more than the other) and I've been taking every opportunity to sit down as much as possible throughout the day. Because the bottom of my feet hurting really really is painful and the swelling... Well I've never had swelling at all during any of my pregnancies so it kind of freaks me out to get it now since I'm so unfamiliar with it and it isn't normal for me. Anyways, I sat, but poor honey had to stand. And the bus was packed. While I was sitting, a girl that was standing behind honey leaned over and tapped my shoulder to tell me something. Not knowing Portuguese, I was really confused and didn't move so she kept repeating it. Then an older lady that was also standing behind honey explained to the girl (still in Portuguese but I figured out the situation as I kept watching. And people always use their hands in that certain motion when talking about a pregnant belly) that I was sitting and not offering my seat to the older woman because I was pregnant and needed to sit. So someone else that was sitting nearby overheard this conversation and offered their seat. People are very serious about preferential treatment. Although I've got to mention that most preferential treatment is for four groups of people. Elderly, disabled, pregnant, and people with children. The public bus is the only thing I've found so far to also add obese people to the list. In fact, they're the first on the bus preferential list. Anyways, moving on, it was a long bus ride because buses don't always take the most direct route and honey was getting a little frustrated with the time we were wasting getting from one place to the next. As we got off the bus he told me "I know you like buses, but... No more buses. Taxis are cheap enough that it's just not worth our time to wait for a bus and take a long ride."  I understood... But luckily it only lasted a day. ; )

We got off at our stop and wandered a bit before finding the entrance to where we needed to buy tickets to get up to the statue. I want to say it was around 4 o'clock or something at this point. We got our tickets and boarded the train that takes you to the top of the mountain where the state is. The train ride takes a while and has stops (not sure why the stops) and is probably 20 minutes long but through the jungle with occasional views out over rio. When we got to the top, we hiked up a bunch of stairs (I would have taken the elevator if I'd known there would be so many) and holy cow, it was amazing. The views were absolutely stunning. We went to the overlook area and took a million and one pictures and got some of us and the Christ statue as well. It was so crowded but we did a pretty okay job at not getting too many people in our pictures with us. I'd been worried that it would be too cloudy up there since the statue was covered in clouds when we were at sugarloaf and the Magyar girl had said that when she was at the Christ the day before, it was so cloudy she couldn't see anything. But the clouds had all cleared by the time we got up there and it was perfect. We had just enough clouds higher than us to offer shade and good lighting for pictures and looking at the statue, but the clouds below us and around us were all cleared so we could see the sights and all of the city. The Christ statue was the thing I was most excited to see in rio (everything I know about rio, I learned from the movie... Which I watched for the first time last month. I didn't even know the movie was named after this city but when we watched it as a family, honey said we were going there and when I saw the Christ statue in the movie, I got excited to see it) and it did not disappoint. There was even a tiny room chapel inside the back of the base of it. We took pictures (holy cow at people constantly taking selfies!) and walked around and parked ourselves in some chairs to admire the view and made our way back to the train at 6. I guess we juuuust missed the train because we had to wait for the 6:30 train (last one of the day since the place closes at 7) and it didn't leave til 6:40 because it had to wait for stragglers to get out of the statue park area.

We got done by 7 and found a plug at the bottom train station to charge honey's phone since it was on 1% battery. Then we wandered a bit and grabbed a taxi to an area that was supposed to have outdoor shopping and whatever. I was starting to get a bit stressed about money (not sure why though because honey always takes care of us) because we didn't have much left, it was hard to find a money exchange open after 6pm, the most common ATMs were hsbc and they didn't recognize our debit card, and I didn't want to get stranded somewhere and not have a way back to the hotel. The shopping area ended up being kind of a bust (maybe it only happens on weekend nights?) and of course the atm we found was hsbc and that was only after talking to a few ladies with little English skills about "it's kind of like a bank but [use hands to make the shape of a box like freestanding atm and then swipe a card and rub fingers together like money]... A T M."  Eventually they got it and I was amused that for the rest of the conversation, the lady kept referring to the atm as a box. "And there you will find a box."  She said there was one in a part of town that was unsafe and we shouldn't go there and also that there was one by the subway station which was a long walk. We found the one in a drug store just by chance... But yeah, no dice. Eventually we were both getting a bit sketched out since it was dark and we were by a public park and it didn't feel that safe and we obviously looked like lost tourists. I put my trust in honey (he kept saying we'd be fine on money) and we grabbed a cab to the soccer stadium. Our cab driver spoke zero English so, like with all our other rides, honey showed him the destination on the gps map on his phone and we were off.

The soccer game didn't start til 10 pm (it was the only one happening during our time in rio so we had to make the most of it) and we got there around 8:30 I think. Our night wasn't going exactly how we'd planned it out in our minds and so showing up a this stadium an hour and a half early and having the streets packed with the madness of tons of people dressed in red and black striped jerseys went right along with that. Holy crap was it crazy and kind of scary and it wasn't even supposed to be a big game. We made our way along to where the police officer had told us tickets were sold and saw the longest line ever filled with all sorts of scary riled up people and I was getting a little less than enthused. Luckily, we found a preferential treatment line that was only like five people long, and mostly older single people or young families with kids. It moved crazy slow but it was about a hundred people shorter than what we would have been standing in, so I was super grateful snag that special   treatment. We eventually got to the ticket window (it's set up in a way that it's impossible to hear the people inside so it's difficult and takes forever) and managed to get the seats we wanted. They were only selling two kinds and luckily accepting credit card (we'd anticipated but you never know sometimes). Seats on the north end by the goal were 50 real and seats that were on the west on the side line were 60 real. Since the difference was barely over $3 a ticket, we got the west side tickets and walked forever around to gate A and found a preferential line (well there wasn't even a line... Just the sign) and walked up. You have to get in. More specific line after that and apparently we were in the wrong one. A lady asked to see our ticket and then instead of trying to tell us where to go, just motioned for us to follow her as she lead us there. Not sure if that's because we're white or because I'm pregnant, but I appreciated it. Also during this time I'd been eating an apple from the hotel that honey had in his bag and was afraid wouldn't be allowed in the stadium (so I went ahead and ate it so we wouldn't have to toss it out) and no one said anything to me so honey thinks that's just because they didn't want to take food from a pregnant lady. We got inside and it was practically empty (most everyone was still outside buying tickets or not allowed inside yet) and we looked for an outlet for honey's phone. There were zero and I had honey check the bathroom. No luck there either. Then I saw what I thought was a handicapped bathroom so I popped in there thinking there was no way, but... There was a plug right below the light switch! Luckily honey had the power adapter with him (most of the plugs this trip have accepted both but some of the places in rio have only the three circles... But we have an adapter that an employee at the last hotel gave honey for free) so we could charge his phone. I stood in there wth the phone while honey went to get us food (we'd eaten the huge breakfast at the hotel but hadn't been hungry or eaten since). I actually still wasn't hungry so I told him to just grab me a drink for now. While he was gone, I noticed that I was just in an oddly shaped room that actually had nothing in it. No toilet or seat or bench or anything. Honey came back empty handed with a smile and said "bad news... They don't take credit card in the stadium for food."  Ha, whoops, good thing I'm not hungry. We couldn't spend our real on food because we only had enough for a cab back to the hotel. Then honey said, "wait! I'll go see if they'll take my US dollars!"  He was gone for a while and came back with a burger for him and a coke for me (apparently coke was the only thing they had... But I've been a big soda drinker this trip) and told me his funny story. The workers wouldn't take his dollars, but a guy in line behind him said he would. So they agreed on a 2.7 exchange rate and the guy gave honey enough reals for $20. Woohoo! We're rich! I drank my soda and we had fun joking about how weird we must look to the worker guy standing across the way by the men's restrooms that we were in room 200 that's labeled handicap but actually empty. Then we unplugged honey's phone and sat in our seats. By this time it was almost 9:30 and the whole west section was constantly singing songs. That's like the student section at Stanford that they were just jammed packed more than any other part of the stadium and constantly standing and cheering and singing songs and everything. It went on from 9:30 until the game started. And then literally most all of the game. And they had so many different cheers with different clapping and hand motions etc. it was great. There were also flags and streamers and Pom poms. Our section was less crowded and more tame and had most of the families with kids. Much of the stadium was empty because the game wasn't a big one and they only sold certain sections. The actual game was good. It was fun to watch and I found out before it started that it was the first professional soccer game honey and myself had ever been to. So it was cool to experience it together, especially in one of the most iconic stadiums in the world. Our team scored two goals (one in the first half and one about ten minutes into the second half) and everyone went nuts. It was a lot of fun. I can honestly say that I didn't see a single soul wearing a jersey for the other team. Honey and I were two of the very few people that weren't wearing red and black jerseys. We headed out 25 minutes into the second half to avoid the crowds and rush because we didn't want to risk being in a dangerous position in rio after midnight. There were a number of taxis waiting outside so we hopped in one and headed to the hotel (while watching the game since the driver had it going on a mini tv on his dashboard. After waking up at 5am, and exploring rio all day, we were exhausted. We each took a quick shower and passed out in bed. Whew. What an awesome but crazy day!

Thursday we woke up and hit the breakfast buffet and got dressed for the beach. The beaches here are all public and then across the street from the beaches are the hotels. So it's super convenient. Our hotel has a tent on the beach with beach chairs, umbrellas, and towels and we were all situated before 11. The sun was scorching and laying out, I was burning up in no time. The ocean water though is ice cold and felt AMAZING and even though I rarely fully get in a pool or the ocean, I was loving this ocean water. Over the next several hours, I probably got in four or five times. My body was in a state of physical bliss. I can't even remember the last time I felt that good. It was absolute heaven. Laying out in the sun and then swimming in the super cold ocean and laying out again. I even carved myself a little hole in the sand so I could sleep on my belly and positioned my chair to keep the sun out of my face. That was a nice treat to be so comfortable sleeping on my belly. The view is gorgeous because we're kind of in a cove next to a big, lush green mountain with a city on a hill and the water and waves are pretty and there are these great islands out in the ocean that are so nice to look at. It's really just an awesome setup. Add the boats and the helicopters and really it's so entertaining just sitting here. I really could do without all of the scantily clad Brazilians though. There are far too many of those. ; )  Also, there are far too many beach vendors. Selling a variety of hats, swimsuits, sarongs, swim coverups, and food. They've got a variety of drinks, ice creams and popsicles, empadas, globo (we still don't really know what this is but its textured like a cheeto, shaped like a donut, and off white like a potato chip), and something grilled (i first thought it might be spears of pineapple because that sounds delicious but it actually looks more like tofu which doesn't really interest me). We've also been approached multiple times with fruit salad, sandwiches, grilled shrimp, headbands and hair ties, massages, and even by a guy selling a phone. But by far, the most common thing sold is the globo. It is literally a constant stream of vendors.

We stayed on the beach til almost four and then caught a bus to the end of copacabana beach (where honey proceeded to sing "copa, copacabana!!!" for the next several hours) which is just down the street. I like that our beach is less crowded and more tame, but it's fun to visit the busier spots like copacabana beach. We walked around the inner streets a bit... exchanged some money and grabbed some pizza and a two liter of guarana before heading back out to the beach and finding a nice spot to hang out and eat. Then we walked the strip. The sidewalk had tons of little beach shop restaurants and street art and people selling jewelry and trinkets. Once it got dark, a ton of people started putting together metal, pvc style tents to set up shop and sell their goods. We got a small oil painting and two little stone birds. We also ran into the Magyar guys again and briefly said hi to them. We took our time walking back, stopping occasionally to check out nice hotels, and enjoyed the sights and the beauty of the full moon over the ocean. By the end, my feet were definitely feeling bruised, but it was a perfect temperature with just a slight chill and it was really nice. I think we got back to the hotel around 8:30 or so took 20 or 30 minutes to use the hotel lobby wifi, and headed up to our room for showers and bed. I stayed up journaling for a while and by 11:30 could barely keep my eyes open. I slept well.

Friday morning the plan was to wake up early and hit the botanical gardens before it got too hot. Honey and I both woke up and 7:30 but then he was snuggling me (supposedly to wake me up) and it lulled me back to sleep til a little after nine. We got ready, stuffed ourselves at breakfast, and caught a bus to the gardens. I've been surprised at how easy it is to use the bus system and this route to the gardens was quick and direct and not crowded at all. Botanical gardens in the US are pretty expensive. Here though? Only seven real a person... It's like $2.25 so less than $5 for the two of us to get in so we were curious what it would be like. Honey had been making jokes that it probably looked like the rest of Brazil, they just built a fence around it and charged admission. The funny thing is, that's probably the most accurate way to describe it. It had trails leading around and occasionally little areas where you knew you were looking at the herbs garden or the cactus plants or the orchid house, but for the most part, you just wandered trails among the usual trees and lush plants. It was so hot and my body started breaking down on me real fast. That's when honey started making up new words to the copacabana song and making me laugh and giving me a hard time about falling asleep again this morning despite his "best efforts" to get me awake and out of bed. Ha.

By far the biggest jewelry maker down here is H. Stern and they have windows and shops and advertisements in all the nice hotels. The previous day, we'd gotten one of their envelope advertisements in our room with cards for conplimentary taxi service to their headquarters and a free tour of the building and how they make their jewelry. I like seeing how stuff is made and looking at crazy fancy jewelry so we caught a cab to H. Stern and took the tour. It was really cool seeing how they cut the stones and use different abrasive powders and cutting wheels. I also liked seeing the actual jewelry guys setting the stones into the prongs of the rings. When that was done, we took the h.stern shuttle thing that took us straight to our hotel where we secured our Saturday late checkout and tour to the state park. I can't believe how these past few days have flown by and that we leave tomorrow!

After we changed into our swimsuits, we headed to the beach and hung out under our umbrellas (I got a bit too much sun yesterday so I opted for no sun this time around) and tried the mystery grilled item (it's blocks of mozzarella cheese so it kind of tastes like pizza... Not as good as pineapple but definitely better than tofu... Pretty salty though and not really a refreshing beach snack) and globo (seriously tastes like nothing, like plain toast but even more tasteless) which was a disappointment but is now successfully crossed off our rio beach bucket list. We only stayed for maybe two hours and then headed up to the hotel pool around 4:30 maybe. I read my Harry Potter book and honey swam and checked emails on his phone. We didn't feel like searching the town for a place to eat (all of the restaurants on leblon beach are super fancy, which I wasn't in the mood for... But it seemed like a lot of work to take a bus to copacabana beach just to get a street vender burger) so we decided to eat at the restaurant at our hotel (which probably also would have been fancy, but just not over the top) but as we passed by the pool bar, I caught a glimpse of that menu and we thought that seemed like the easiest option of them all since we wouldn't even have to run to our room first to change into clothes. We ordered a cheeseburger and a grilled chicken something or other sandwich on focaccia and the sandwich was the winner, only because the hamburger was some different sort of ground beef that wasn't hitting the spot for me. And although I was hungry, I knew I'd get full fast. I told honey we should just share one thing but that never fills him up all the way so we ordered two. He ate all of his food plus all the fries that came with both plates. I ate most of my half of chicken sandwich and barely half of my half of burger and some fries and was sooo done. When we'd come over to the bar area, a couple we'd seen walk past us at the pool was literally passed out on the stools at the bar. Neither of them moved but they had a bottle of wine between them. Part way through our meal, the bartender set up some towels on the two nearest pool lounge chairs and first literally dragged the woman (she was really petite) over to a chair and then after moving her purse and things over by her, was able to wake the man enough that he walked himself over to the other chair and laid down there. They were still completely passed out when we finished our meal. We walked the stairs to the highest level (the pool is on the roof and the bar kind of next to the pool and then there are two levels to walk up that have more pool chairs) and checked out all of the views of rio at night. I love seeing the Christ statue lit up on the hill. It's so breathtakingly beautiful. And even though it was still early, we headed back to our room to call it a night. We took showers and probably had the lights out by 8:30. Gotta be fresh for the last day in rio!

Saturday was pretty low key. While I was still sleeping, honey took off walking for the slums, which I've previously referred to as the city on the hill. When he got back we went and enjoyed our last breakfast at the hotel buffet and, I won't lie, I got a little teary eyed about it. It's really nice. Ha. The little dish of sweetened condensed milk won my heart over. Anyways, we got our swimsuits on and were out on the beach by a little after ten. It was nice and overcast so it wasn't hot at all and, being Saturday, all of the Brazilian families were there with their children and the kids were cute to watch. Honey and I just lounged and slept and then headed in at one to get ready and pack up our stuff.

Hotel check out was at two so we just hung out in the lobby while we waited for our 2:30 pick up to go to the state park. We got picked up and sat in the back of an open top truck jeep of sorts. There was already a German lady, a French couple, and a lady that I think was from some place in the baltics. Luckily, our guide spoke 13 languages, so he was able to easily converse with everyone. We picked up one more couple from the Sheraton that ended up being from Phoenix and they were kind of fun to talk to on the tour. The jeep took us to the state park which is the largest urban park in the world. It's just this massive area of jungle land in rio. We saw monkeys while we drove and stopped at a pretty waterfall. Most of the outing was just driving through the jungle and since it was overcast and we were higher in elevation, it was nice and cool on the drive. On the way back, we drove past the slums (favela I think?) and they looked so cool and intricate. I wish we could have done the slums tour too but we spent the morning on the beach and then could only choose the state park tour or the slums tour. The tour was supposed to take four hours but ended up being barely three, so when we got back, we headed upstairs to the pool and ordered steak and potatoes to share. I wasn't expecting too much but the steak was really good. We took our time eating and hanging out and then headed downstairs to catch a cab to the airport.

We ran into a little hiccup though that we needed more real for our cab ride to the airport and the front desk couldn't exchange any money for us because they didn't have any real at the moment. And we couldn't go to the atm around the block because it didn't accept our card and it was raining and dark out. Honey ran to the hotel next door to try them but they also didn't have any real. While he was gone, I waited in the lobby with our bags and grabbed an apple from the bowl on the reception desk (I've probably eaten two a day since we checked in) and started munching away. Maybe 30 seconds later, one of the luggage guys walked past and noticed it was getting kind of low so he took the bowl to refill it. Out he came two minutes later with the bowl completely full and he had a plastic bag (like what you put fruit in at the grocery store) with two apples in it. He walked over to me with the bag, arm out stretched. I must have looked confused because he got a huge smile and patted his belly and then motioned to mine. I just laughed and said thank you. It was a sweet moment. Although my honey was super perplexed when he got back and was all, "you got a bag of apples?!"  Ha. Anyways, we called an uber (which for some weird reason in rio is more pricey than the taxis) and got to the airport by 8:15. There was no line at delta check in or at security and practically no walk at all so once we got to the terminal, we headed through the shops to scope out how to spend our last reals (which we'd been planning on putting towards our taxi fare so we wouldn't have this problem) and ended up getting some food. I was so excited to see they had cheese breads for sale. They've had them at every breakfast buffet we've eaten at and they're so good! Is probably liken them to a cheese stuffed breadstick or something in taste and texture except that they're little ball shaped. The ones at hotel buffets have been the size of golf balls but the ones we bought at the airport were bigger, like plums. I would have also gotten a guarana if they had them, but no luck. That's another thing I'm going to miss, even though I'm typically not a huge fan of soda.

This trip has far exceeded my expectations but I am so ready to see our kids. I dreamt about them the last two nights, and I got teary eyed and sad when I realized that they'd probably be really sad to see me back and return to Colorado with me. But you know it's time when you start staring at other people's kids too long and saying stuff like "awww look, she's wearing an Ariel shirt. Abigail would think that was so cool."  I think honey is most excited to see Abigail and I'm most excited to see Brady although I have my reservations about getting my hopes up because when we went to Hawaii a year ago, that mama's boy wanted nothing to do with me and clung to my mother like she was his sole lifeline. We waited a bit for the plane to start boarding and then headed over to that area where a massive group of people was gathered. I had to put something in my carry on bag and as soon as I zipped it and stood up, the flight attendant behind the line elastic thing got my attention and motioned me toward her. "Ma'am, you may board now... right through here" as she opened the stretchy line divider. I told her I was fine because I needed to wait for my husband, but right then Chris came back and she opened it again. Well okay then... so I have no idea what zone they were boarding but we got to go first. The only situation in our entire time in Brazil that I sought out preferential treatment was at the mericana when we got in the shorter line to buy the soccer tickets and get into the stadium. Everything else was just Brazilians seeking me out for it. They are extremely accommodating!

The flight was 9.5 hours from rio to Atlanta. I watched the hundred foot journey about an Indian family that starts a restaurant in France. It was good and wholesome. I liked it. Our flight didn't take off til 11 and I've found that it works best on long overnight flights to wait several hours before attempting to sleep. So after the movie ended, I slept from probably 1:30 until 7 maybe when they came by with breakfast. I think it helped that I remembered to take my vitamins and sleeping pill. I've been so fortunate to avoid morning sickness this whole trip but started feeling it on the plane after we took off and realized it was probably because I was awake so late and without taking my pills, but it turned out fine.

foz do iguaçu

sunday march 1 - tuesday march 3

We arrived in foz do iguaçu sometime after four I think. We were on a small plane and landing at a small airport, so we got parked outside and walked off the steps of the plane. The weather felt wonderful and it was a beautifully sunny day. We caught a cab to our hotel and it was nice that it was only a few minutes from the airport. Honey said he picked it because of it's perfect location and it really was so convenient for the places we needed to get to and from.

First thing at the hotel after checking in, we went to the information desk and had a nice girl help us with arranging our next two days. The lady was nice and reminded me of McKaylee who was one of my laurels when I was in young women's. I think it was her round face and the way she smiled. Anyways, between waiting for the older Indian couple in front of us from New Zealand and our own planning, we were sitting at that desk for an entire hour. Then we made our way to the room, the pool (honey swam while I hung out on my phone), and dinner.

Dinner was either buffet or a la carte (at the restaurant since its a small town and everything is closed on Sunday night anyway) and since I never eat enough to get my money's worth out of a buffet and they never look too appealing to me, we opted for a la carte and took a seat at a table. Little did we know we'd be there for over an hour and a half. Ha. We made it fun though. The waiter was a polite, quiet guy who reminded me of Sorham for no reason other than his hair probably. Honey said the guy didn't make him think of Sorham at all but I know by now that my people resemblances I see are frequently not based in any fact.

We both ordered penne pasta but honey got a meat sauce and I got the four cheese white sauce. It was clear after a few minutes that our service wouldn't be prompt and I think our server was the only server working a la carte and even then, it seemed he was sometimes helping with the buffet. After a while, he came back to us and said it would be twenty minutes until our food was ready and that we could help ourselves to a plate of the buffet from the table on our side of the room that included salads and breads etc. So we each filled our plates with food and I got fruit and bread and I made a little ham sandwich with a French roll. And of course after that we weren't hungry but continued to make jokes about how the good news was that we probably would be hungry again by the time our pasta was done cooking. Meanwhile, two French ladies sat at the table behind me and we started jokes about how they, plus all the people from the buffet side of the room, must be confused why some of the a la carte people are helping themselves to parts of the buffet. Also, one of the French women brought her touristy Brazil guide book with her to dinner and had it on the table next to her. I literally laughed out loud when honey motioned towards the book and made a comment about how this lady must be a veteran a la carte customer since she brought some reading to pass the time while she waited for her food. Maybe you had to be there, but it was too perfect for the situation. I loved it. We also kept saying "leisurely" because when honey was checking our flight to come here, he looked online and our flight said something like "no change" or whatever that Igor had said meant it was on time. But apparently all the other flights had some sort of word that honey googled and it translated to "leisurely."  What it means for your plane to be leisurely... who knows. Ha. Anyway, we decided if our pasta was on a flight board, it would likely have a "leisurely" status update next to it. Eventually our pasta did come (just a bowl of penne with what seemed like jarred sauce poured directly on top. No side of a salad or bread or even sauce stirred in. Just noodles and sauce. Ha. It wasn't bad but we weren't too hungry at that point (despite being at least 45 mins from the initial "it'll be 20 minutes" comment) and so I ate half and honey actually finished his, just because. We ended up leading close to 9:30, despite having arrived before 8pm. Part of me is surprised we're not still there actually. ; ) Anyways, my favorite part of dinner, besides hanging out with honey and cracking jokes, was my fanta. Mmm how I was loving that fanta.

Monday morning we set our alarm to wake up early enough to get a good start on our day. I was sooo tired though because honey had set our room temp at 18 degrees and the only covers on the bed were a sheet and a thin waffle knit blanket. So I think I was asleep but I must have been dreaming that I was just shivering under my covers all night. Once we got moving though then I was alright. We did the breakfast buffet since it was complimentary and there was a nice variety of breads. They had a lot of things available to eat but most of them didn't appeal to me. I had eggs, watermelon, orange juice and the little bread balls filled with cheese which quickly became a favorite for honey and myself. Also, we enjoyed looking at the English translations of the food and got some good laughs. Mainly the little sugared twisty bread called "underwear tuner" and there was also some ant bread or ant hill bread. I can't remember. Even at public places though, there are some pretty horrible English translations of things.

Anyways, we took off walking to the bird park and it was like four minutes away. I was expecting it to be cool because the tourist desk lady said it would be, but it was definitely beyond cool. It was like they carved out pathways in the jungle and then built some wire cages for the birds. There was nothing cement or zoo feeling about it and the birds were all so close and easy to see. And while there were tons of birds to see in cages, there were also three huge areas where you could go in and hang out with tons of birds too. Like a butterfly pavilion except with a bunch of big tropical birds. They also had a butterfly pavilion and a spot where you could hold a huge snake (we opted out) and we took advantage of the opportunity to hold a mccaw. The whole experience was really awesome and we stayed for several hours. 

We headed over to the waterfalls around noon I think. We took the bus that takes you part way up, where the pink hotel is, and started the hiking trail that goes along the river. The first view is gorgeous and you think you're going to see more views like that, but you're completely wrong. Because each lookout point gets more intense and more beautiful. And as you make your way closer to the main falls, you're making your way around corners that allow you to see even more huge falls that you didn't even know existed. It was awesome. When we got to the endish part, we went out on the walk way that takes you into the mist of some of the falls and it felt so good and was so breathtaking. Words seriously can not describe the natural beauty of this place. Honey took a million pictures, mostly panoramic, trying to capture it all. On our way back off of that walkway, we ran into two groups of elders and we were excited to see them. I totally thought we would see tons of elders on São Paulo and was surprised we didn't see any. And I wasn't at all expecting to see any at the falls, but we saw two sets just out enjoying their p day. We got our picture with them. 

Once we finished the trail, we headed up for lunch and got burgers and fries and a drink. As always, the drink was the best part and the burgers were a little tough to choke down, but the fries were actually not too bad. At this point in the day, the bottoms of my feet felt bruised and my lower leg muscles were still sore and easily tired from our previous days of walking and wearing heels and my left ankle was still swollen (I think from bug bites? Not entirely sure) so I told honey that I would take the bus part way down while he went back by way of the trail and that I'd meet him at the pink hotel at 3:30. I got to the hotel at 3:07 and explored a bit. It was really nice and old fashioned and it had the feel of a southern plantation. The parlors were decorated like the 1930s, I loved looking at the miniatures displays of men designing rings in the jewelry shop windows, and then I plopped my pregnant self down in a comfy shaded lounge chair by the pool. Several of the pool attendants came by to bring me towels and glasses of ice water but I declined and just enjoyed the scenery and passed the time until I met honey in the lobby at 3:30. We explored some together and went in that jewelry shop to look around. It was one of the crazy expensive ones but I always love looking. And they offer you free guarana so that was a bonus. I like that stuff. 

Eventually we took the bus back down and walked back to the hotel. On the way back though, we stopped at a roadside blanket and bought a turquoise and hematite necklace. The lady initially quoted and 20 real and I wasn't obsessed with it, but then she dropped to 15 and quickly to 10. I decided if she was that willing to sell, maybe she needed my 10 real and I needed her necklace. Hopefully it lasts longer than my precious turquoise necklace. Although not such a big deal when you're only paying $4. We got back to the hotel and put on our swimsuits and headed to the pool. Once again, my honey got wet and I stayed dry and inherited a few more big bites on my feet and arms from some atrocious gnats. The pool bar closed at 7, so we decided to try our luck ordering dinner out there at 6:30 so we could choose from a more hamburger and hot dog type menu and so we wouldn't have to wait as long. I ordered the hot dog because I thought a hot dog would be hard to screw up but I was sooo wrong. It came with tons of ketchup sauce all over. And it was open faced with a huge bun and each hot dog cut in half and strategically placed on each side. And sprinkled with corn and canned peas (I struggle with canned peas because of their specific green color) and smothered with crunchy little fry things. It was revolting. Honey got a pizza and we shared both (that was the agreement when we ordered... I got the better end of that deal). The pizza was your traditional pizza that seemed like a frozen pizza cooked in a microwave but it tasted wonderful compared to the hot dog. Honey ate his entire hot dog first since he knew it would be easiest to eat it when he was most hungry. I tried that but quickly got too grossed out and switched to the pizza. And when I finished my pizza I tried my hot dog again. I ate like three bites before I had to give up for good because I was almost gagging on it. But we did order a coconut water which was delicious and after we drank it all, I told honey to bang it on something to crack it open. The server guy came back out and took it from honey as he was banging it and he came back out of the kitchen with our coconut nicely sliced in half and offered us two spoons so we could dig out the meat. It was so good. Tricky, but worth it. Then we headed to our room to shower and go to bed since we knew we had our longest day of the trip ahead of us... The Argentina side of the falls.

After another crappy night of sleep, we woke up at 6:45 to get ready, eat breakfast, and get our taxi at 7:30. There was a cheaper option with the tourist booking lady to take a shuttle with other people staying at the hotel but then you're with them all day on a tour. Normally I love tours, but mostly because I like the extra info that a guide provides. Well, since this tour was going to be in Portuguese and we were afraid of the group going slow or spending too much time doing worthless crap like eating lunch or looking at shops, we thought it was well worth it to pay more for a private car and stay the entire day doing everything just how we wanted to. The Argentina side had a lot more hiking trails and more options as far as what you can pay extra to do so we mapped out what we wanted to conquer and the best way to do that. 

We'd planned an hour to get to the falls but even with stopping twice (passports and the Argentina reciprocity papers), we were there by 8:20 and immediately took the train to the top to do the devil's throat trail. It's less like a hike and more like a walk along a metal bridge that leads you over all the water and stops right at the top of the major waterfall. It was so misty that if we had stayed longer, we would have walked away dripping wet. As it was though, we were perfectly damp and it felt really good and kept us cool on the wall back. One of the things we'd been most excited about doing was the water motorboat raft ride that takes you along the river and into the falls but I happened to see on a brochure the night before that pregnant women were not allowed. We remained hopeful though that they wouldn't be strict about it or that I could sign a waiver or something. Well, fail. Once again, these people take pregnancy very seriously and no amount of our convincing could tempt the guy at the desk to sell us a ticket. He said everyone in his company (that did these rides and excursions throughout the park) was trained very strictly on not letting pregnant women on the rides and we're all very aware that they would get fired if they knowingly turned a blind eye. Sad. But I convinced honey to still do the full excursion (motorboat ride plus jungle tour) and that I could just wait and then meet him at the end. So we bought a ticket for honey's excursion, and then we bought tickets for a gentle rowing raft ride down a pleasant river (the "ecological tour") that was approved for pregnant women. The funny part of this was that the guy wouldn't take our credit card but he would take our US dollars for the converted real amount... And then he gave us an overly positive exchange rate like 11 or something. Honey gave him 55 dollars or whatever but didn't have change for the 45 cents and the guy wouldn't accept any less but said he could give us change in real so we did that and honey gave him an extra five (total $60 for the $55.45 amount and got back more real than what five dollars is even worth. We were so confused by this (a similar thing happened at our hotel with a super high exchange rate... I think the Internet said an even exchange was 8.7 maybe) and came to the conclusion that maybe they have more people that convert dollars to real and so they can rip people off and make a profit when people are trying to get their money back to their initial type. All very strange. Anyways, the guy said the ecological tour would leave in five minutes and I got a happy surprise when I realized that my honey and I were the only two passengers. It was kind of like Brazil but a little like Venice as we sat in our private raft while someone rowed us under bridges and through the jungle. It was beautiful and so pleasant. I think they said it was 40 minutes long but of course time flew by way faster. 

We hung out and killed a bit of time as we headed in the direction honey would need to go to the meetup spot for his excursion. We got me a popsicle (strawberry slice) and rested my feet a bit too. After we set up our meetup plan (life is different when you can't just rely on calling or texting to meet up), I went to kill time by myself wandering around, finding spots with AC where I could put my feet up, looking at gift shop stuff, and eventually getting another Popsicle because those things are so delicious. Then I started out along the path to make sure I had plenty of time to get to the meeting spot. The path was along the metal grates walkway that led through the thick of the rainforest trees. I slowed down when I saw a group of people gathered around and then saw the bright orange of a toucan bill. It was like it was posing for all of us because it just kept getting closer and closer, hopping on branches and eating stuff and looking this way and that. I was probably the only person not taking pictures (my phone was at the hotel and honey had his with him), but it was great to just soak up the moment. The map I had was more of a drawing illustration of the park and less of an accurate map and the signs were inconsistent and not too informative so I tried to use both of those things combined with asking an employee for directions and eventually I knew I was headed in the right direction and got to the point where I felt I could abandon everything else and just follow the soaking wet people. With each wet person I passed, I felt my confidence grow and I waited at the top of the steps until 1:20 when my honey came up. 

We walked down the stairs to where the motor boat raft docks and took pictures down by the rocks. It was really pretty... as was everything else, honestly. We decided to find upper trail to hike, but using our inaccurate map and signs, we ended up taking the wrong path... which we didn't even completely realize until it spit us out at the Sheraton hotel. It ended up being such a happy mistake though because along the path, we saw this family of at least ten monkeys and they were not at all shy. Several came within less than a foot of me and same with Chris. And we saw multiple babies that would ride on their parents' backs and it was adorable. We were running ahead of schedule at the time (we set our taxi to come get us at seven) and they had a bench right there, so I plopped myself down and honey said I could watch however long I wanted. ; )  Which we totally did until a park person came and shook tree branches to scare all of the monkeys away. Not sure of the purpose of that though. Avoiding too much interaction of humans and monkeys?  Or maybe there were other people watching the monkeys (a large group had gathered) that were being too forward with them or something. Anyways, I'm glad we accidentally happened upon that monkey scene because it was awesome. 

Once we realized that we'd taken the wrong trail to the Sheraton, we decided to at least go in and check it out. We sat in the AC and rested (I needed lots of rest being pregnant and with it being so hot) and honey filled up our water bottle and was checking some emails using the free wifi (we were in Argentina so he had his phone on airplane mode the whole day) when all the sudden, it started to rain and then it turned into a downpour. So we watched out the window for a while while honey kept checking emails and charging his phone. After an hour, it was still pouring down rain and didn't look like it was going to let up anytime soon so we went upstairs to the Sheraton bar and ordered one of the most delicious hamburgers I've ever eaten. They gave us a plate of potato chips while we were waiting and then served the burger with fries and so even though we shared, it was the perfect amount of food and we finished eating right at 5:00 which was perfect timing because that's exactly when the rain stopped. Then we weren't ahead of schedule anymore since we'd just spent two hours at the Sheraton while it rained. 

So we took off for the last trail that we hadn't hiked yet. It was great and we were living seeing everything and taking pictures and it was so nice since it was less crowded because the rainstorm probably drove most of the people out of the park. And it cooled everything down really nicely so it was so pleasant. Then around 5:30, one of the park workers found us and told us the park was closing (we knew it closed at six but we thought we could stay in the park until 7... apparently they start kicking you off the trails sooner than that though) so we hurried along the trail as he followed behind us and informed everyone else he came across that we all needed to hurry and finish the trail. The good part is that we were able to still see the entire trail and the funny part is that towards the end, there was the whole group of us people moving along with the guy just watching us and shuffling behind us all. Then we came across another family of monkeys and it was awesome. The park guy didn't even push us along, he just let us stay and watch them for 5 or 10 minutes and take pictures and everything. It's crazy how they'll jump onto the fence railing like a foot away from you and aren't even phased by it. They're so much more active and fun to watch than seeing monkeys at the zoo who are limited by their cages and do a lot of sitting around. These monkeys only stop long enough to put food in their mouth or scratch their leg or something. They are always moving and jumping and it's so awesome. And then we walked just a little bit more and saw two toucans who were also not shy. The toucans just kept hopping closer and closer and never got scared. But eventually the park guy moves us along and roped off the end of the trail. 

So then instead of taking the train, we walked down the green trail which wasn't along metal grates through the forest, but more of a dirt path that probably runs pretty parallel to where the train takes you down. Then we sat and waited for the train which took us to the main entrance. It was probably around six at that point, so we looked in a few shops for 15 or 20 minutes and then headed out to the curb where our cab was already waiting for us. Even with the two passport related stops, it was only 30 minutes back to hotel and we played pool in the entertainment room for a bit (honey whooped me, although I was significantly better than I remember being back in high school) and then headed to our room to shower and get to sleep since we had to be up so early in the morning.