Heading Home :(

Heading Home :(

It all passed far too quickly. How could we have actually spent nearly 4 weeks in Brazil?? We packed so much into that time, a lot of things we did that I didn't include in the blog posts, but all in all our trip far far exceeded our expectations in many ways.

We were thoroughly spoiled by Mom and Dad. We can't even begin to count the ways they sacrificed and bent over backwards to accommodate us and our family. We were so grateful to the other missionary couple who were able to pick up on Mom and Dad's missionary responsibilities while we were there playing, so they could play with us!

Dad did an incredible job planning all the hotels, the car rentals, the adventures and being super flexible as we shifted our plans around. Mom constantly amazed us with her "Mary Poppins" abilities to calm fussy, overtired children, make delicious meals (both familiar and foreign!) and plan for even the smallest details.

The kids had so much fun just being together. There really weren't any other kids to play with except for a few times to the park, but they seemed to be just fine with that.

On the ride to the airport we found ourselves stuck in a flood for 3 hours, standing still in the streets of Sao Paulo.

Our wonderful driver, Cobra, saw that we stayed away from the worst of the flooding. We thought for sure we had missed our flight - but thankfully when we arrived at the airport we found out the the crew of the flight was still stuck in the flooding (which meant even more waiting). It actually worked out better than the original plan because we were rebooked on a direct flight from Atlanta to SFO and ended up arriving at about the same time as the original flight.

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Quotable Kiddos

C: "Mayman is donn" (mailman is gone)
E: "Mom, is heaven inside of mommies' tummies?"
C: "watee" (his word for water)
E : "Mom, will you sit on the lovey couch with me?" (referring to the loveseat)
Nate to N: "You're being argumentative." N's reply: "No, I'm not!"
E: "Dad put on his cape and flew to work. He's superdad!"
C's first sentence: "Hi, Bird!"
L: "maybe C will be a Lampaterian! He loves lamps!"
Nate to E: "are you doing jobs?" E to Dad "No, I just want to play at parties."
C: "nah-norn" (his word for popcorn)
L: "Dad, do you know about the Nerf System?" Dad: "I know about nerfs, but not a system." L: "Oh! well we know about the nerf system inside of your body!"
L: "Mom! 'incorrect' is the password!!!" (thinking he figured out the password when it gave him the error message 'the password is incorrect')
E: "people who have glider suit pajamas can fly at night!"
E: "mashed topatoes"
Nate to the kids: "I'm busy right now. Busy lying down."
E: "When I was like baby Christian, I cried with pear in my mouth. That was so funny when I did that!"
L:"I think I'm never going to be a grown-up. Because it takes me too long to have a birthday!"
L:"this is a mother board and that is a fatherboard" (speaking of the computer parts from Nate's old computer)
L:"I ate so many bites my tummy is gonna blast off into space and break my bones!"
L: "This is my work. When I do this, fire comes out. It's a fire-work!"
L: "We can't put anything in our noses. But we can breathe air in our noses!" (reinforcing 'the new rule' after getting a lego stuck up his nose)
N: "We're just not tired. We have no tiredness in us. We just have hundreds of energies in us and we don't know how to get them out!"
N: "I'm putting up the toppy tip of the tree!"
L: "I am NOT a highness!" (after N called him "your highness")
N: I'm getting tired of cleaning tables!"
L: "Mom, I'm done with my ice cream, now can I have some zucchini?"
N: "I'm a brave girl. I can do without dinner."
N: "Wait! I forgot something. I love you."
L: "someday I will have three babies. I have eight muscles."
N: "I think I just saw dreamland! up on the moutain. It was a very small dreamland."
M to N: "can you close the door please? It's kind of loud." N: "I can. I'm going to close it right now. I'm going to get married quietly."
N: "That smells like our freezing cold campout. I can smell really good because I have good 'sense' - 'Lijah has really small sense."
L: "how old are my toes?"
M to N: "i need some peace and quiet right now, please" (while preparing FHE lesson), N: "I want to help! Can I help with peace and quiet?!"
N: "They were the Nephites' anenomes" (when asked who the Lamanites were)
N: "Is today Sunday at Grandma Goldberg's land?"
N: " I just mowed the lawn. Doesn't it look mowful?"
D to N: "Who remembers yesterday?", N: "Everybody in the whole wide world!", D: "Are you sure? there's somebody in the van who doesn't remember yesterday." N: "Dad, of course!"
L: "I know the muffin man, he knows the way!" (singing a mixture of "do you know the muffin man?" and "follow the prophet")
N: "Look at all those sticks!" (pointing at a bunch of sticks on a big piece of farmland) Dad says "It's a stick farm!" A few minutes later N sees an empty piece of farmland and says "Look- it's a dirt farm!"
L: "hey mommy, when our car's a train, we can drive on the train tracks!"
We were talking about campfires and what to sing around them, and L said "some people call it a marshmallow song! we'll sing happy birthday to the campfire." N: "and we'll have to get some water", L: "and we'll just have to get some cake!"
N: Can you tell me when my quiet time is done? It's supposed to be an hour." L: "can you tell me when my quiet time is not done?" Dad: "Are you the little contrarian, Lucas?" L: "No, I'm not!"
L: "someday I'll be a daddy! And I can reach up high to get my green stapler!"
N: "overneath"
N: "Mom, noone knows anything. Except Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father know everything."
L to N after flushing the toilet for her "it was really nice of me, Natowee!"
N after getting a recipt from the lollipop she got (we were 'learning the value of money') "...and I got a RECEIPT!" M: "so which do you like better - the lollipop, or the receipt?" N: "the receipt!!"
N: "is that the bay? (yes) so...all the toilet paper is there, right?"
L: was asked during FHE lesson on service "who can we serve to today?", L responds "Mommy!", Mommy asks "how can you serve me?" L responds "I can serve you ice cream, and I can serve you cake!"
L: "watch out for kid-year-olds!" (while jumping on the couch)
N: "you're boiling cold!" (to Dad while playing hide & seek)
N: "that's not agua - it's water!!"
N: "I'm trying to make the best fort in the holy world!"
L: "I'm not a human, I'm a humidifier!"
N: "I can't do it 'cause my leg is all hurted up!" (an excuse for not wanting to do her sweeping job)
L: "I've got my lawn mower, I'm going to lawn the grass!"
N: "I have half a tummy ache...after dessert I'll have a full tummy ache"
N: "Do you know you're a prophet baby? Prophets do not cry!" (to E)
N: "Lucas, if you cry, I'll still be here"
N: "Even babies are humans. Human, I like you!" (to E)
L: "I'm going to drive to work - I'm going to get some pizza!"