The End of Summer Vacation

Yesterday we took our three youngest children hiking at Jardim Botânico while Jack stayed home for his last day of sleeping in. We went with the intent to find a geocache, which we did (and got covered in ticks in the process), but there were so many creatures and things to see that the geocache was largely forgotten.

The look on Olivia's face is because there was a sign on the trail in portuguese with a giant viper on it. She was terrified of getting eaten by a viper or one of the crazy spiders we saw.

After a while of remaining alive, she adopted a better mood. Especially when several families of monkeys came by to say hello.

 No idea what was in that hole, and no one was too keen to put their hand in, either.

 Random caterpillar shot Grace snapped.

Not sure why Grace took this ant pic, as on any given day this scene can be found somewhere in our house.

Mitch and I celebrated and the children mourned the last day of summer vacation with a traditional Brazilian barbecue, and then off to bed nice and early for my little darlings.

And here they are, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the crack of dawn this morning:

 Yes, I locked them out of the gate. I didn't want to take a chance that they'd sneak back in.

See ya, suckers!



I sent Mitch off to return the 3rd grade classroom goldfish that we kept alive for six weeks (I know! I can't believe it either) and came in to my blissfully empty house. After doing some chores, I put on my workout clothes and headed back out to take the dog for a walk around the lake. This was the scene that greeted me:

 That's a two foot wide trench directly in front of my house, about five feet deep. No notice, warning, nothing. And the hilarious part is, the workers have disappeared. Oh, Brazil, you so funny!  Well, I'm off to find some kind of plank to throw accross it so my children can get in the house this afternoon.