Rio

From the moment we landed in Brazil in 2011, Mitch has been trying to get me to go to Rio with him. Without the kids.  He goes there all the time for work, but I've never been.  I've also never left the kids before, because I'm a little bit psycho.  Anyway, a few weeks ago, he walked into the house and handed me my non-refundable plane ticket.  I started working out a childcare plan and when Jack saw how much I was going to pay a Brazilian empregada to stay with the kids, he was all, "I'll do it for half that amount of money".  And, because I feel like he'd be doing all the work anyway, and because I'm psycho, I agreed. So, four kids, alone for four days.  Granted, one of them was more mature than me, but I'm at least a better cook. I made all their meals and packed my bags.

We had an awesome time.  Mitch picked a gorgeous hotel on Copacabana beach, a stone's throw from Ipanema.  And everyone at the hotel spoke English, but I found myself using my portuguese a lot, so I could set myself apart from the loud Americans.  Because, I'm native now, you know?  We hired a guide to show us around Rio (not the famous stuff, but cool, out-of-the-way places, and of course, tons of architecture) the first day, which was amazing and exhausting.  Then, we lazed around the rest of the time, gorging ourselves on seafood and caipirinhas.  One weird thing, every night at dinner (around 9:30-10pm because I'm native now, did I tell you?), I broke out in hives and my eyes glued shut.  Last night was the worst, because my throat kind of closed up a little.  Nothing a little lot of antihistamine couldn't clear up, though. I refuse to believe that I'm allergic to Rio.

The kids did great without us. Jack even organized a treasure hunt for chocolate gold coins left by the "Leprechaun" on St. Paddy's Day and played tooth fairy to Olivia, who had the misfortune of losing a molar.

More about our trip to Rio here, and here.

 I can't begin to describe how much I loved Rio, so here's a handful of pics from our trip:



Neimeyer's MAC Museum in Niteroi

Inside of Monastery of São Bento



Outside of Monastery of São Bento built in 1590!


 



View from Parque da Cidade



Jurujuba-fishing village



Selaron Stairs



Random cuties playing in front of their house.

We waited all day for Christ the Redeemer to come out of the clouds. Turns out, we had to get high enough to see that he was above the clouds! Rio below.






Street vendor



Our hotel balcony, where we had a three hour lunch while watching beachgoers at Copacabana



Art from the Hippie Fair

Pão de Açúcar



Our mom and dad went to Rio and all we got were these lousy  tank tops.