Vaca over.

We went, we partied, we returned and now I'm pooped. It was a fabulous weekend and one worth repeating! Only in Brazil can you pay a buck to enter an amazing zoo and then spoil your child by spending 50 cents on a toy! Actually, even though we did some really fun things what made it fun was spending time with our good friends Mike & Kelli and their little girl Emily. Before we went on furlough the four of us (before Emily came into the picture) did a lot together but then we went on furlough and when we returned life went into chaos mode. So it was really nice to have a few days with nothing pressing on the agenda and visit with them!

Ok, not to get off track. Here are a few pics of the animals. The first guy we saw was this hippo. He (she?) was HUGE. I mean, MASSIVE. It was amazing to see the little stubby legs and try to figure out how they were supporting all that weight. Karis was thrilled to see these in person. 90% of the doodles Karis draws on her doodle pad are either 1) A beetle 2) A roach or 3) A hippo (or so she tells us...amazingly all three of these drawings look very much alike:-) Ok, here's hippo...

This dude was hilarious. Obviously quite bored with the thousands of onlookers who stare, laugh and talk about him...sitting there.

Jonathan took this great picture of the tiger. Doesn't it look like a postcard?

All throughout the zoo there were food stands with popcorn and these little handmade fans stuck in the ground for sale. Karis kept asking for a fan but I guess we were in the don't-indulge-them-by-buying-their-expensive-souvenirs mindset and kept telling her no 'til we asked how much they were. R$1 (equivalent of 45 cents with today's exchange rate). Hmmm...$1 for the entrance fee and 45 cents for a toy? I think we can handle that. We even spent an extra 45 cents on a bag of popcorn for her (what can I say, we like to spoil her).

So here she is with her 45 cent fan (that she is still carrying around and playing with)...


We also went to the hippie fair downtown. There are a ton of booths with lots of handmade items from woodworkings to soapstone to paintings to handwoven clothing to dried flowers...a very dangerous place to send me! It is very difficult for me to stay controlled and not buy lots of house items that I don't need but want to buy and then find a place for them to go. I was very good and only came home with a hippie skirt, a few adorable hippie shirts for Karis and some dried flowers to go in a clay pot that the previous owners of our home left.

There is also a tall tower in the middle of the hippie fair (don't remember what kind of tower or what the purpose of it is) that you can take an elevator ride up and go to a lookout point. It is an amazing view! I wasn't planning on going up since the elevator ride is a bit frightening (all the thoughts of "do they maintain this elevator?" and "I wonder if the cable is 200 years old and strong enough to hold the 25 people who just crammed into this 4x4 elevator?" kept going through my mind a few years ago.) But I was a good wifey and went for the enjoyment of my hubby (those thought still went through my head but it wasn't quite as frightening as last time). All of that to say I have a few pictures from the lookout point! I'm going to quit typing and show the pictures now...

I just love the hippie shirts we got for her.

I'm actually writing this at ladies night while the other ladies are working on crafts. Looks like it's time to go!



PS. Don't have time to proof read so here's my apology if my post doesn't even deserve the elementary reading level rating it received...

PPS. I have been informed via email that what I have been calling a fan is actually a pinwheel. Awesome. A pinwheel for 45 cents sounds even more impressive than a fan for 45 cents!