Back to the USA

We just got back from Brazil last week after an adventurous couple weeks in Brazil by myself with Alec. We were supposed to meet my parents in Atlanta to take the same flight to Brazil, but Alec and I never made it to Atlanta that first day after waiting standby for 7 hrs in the Oklahoma City airport. Next morning my parents called and said they slept in Atlanta as their plan had mechanical problems and only left that next morning. Then Steve drove Alec and I 2 hours to the airport in Wichita, KS, and we finally made it to Atlanta that morning. I must say I came to know that airport pretty well. We had 6 hours to spare before our flight to Rio, and my parents had left that morning so it was up to me to keep Alec entertained. We went up and down elevators and rode the train a few hundred times (at least that's what it seemed like). But Alec did amazing...such a happy boy! When we got to Rio, our bags weren't there. After going through the whole process of reporting the lost bags, immigration, customs, etc, we were finally able to leave the airport about two and a half hours after we arrived, by then Alec was ready to get out of the stroller and eat some breakfast...poor boy. He's been such a trooper. He slept on every plane ride for pretty much the duration of each flight. My parents rented a car in Rio, and it made me realize I'll never rent one there! It's soooo crazy. We thought we were going to get hit a few times. A friend told us that if we put the blinker on, then no one will let us switch lanes...so we kind of have to just go for it. We had a great welcoming party in Rio from my dad's side of the family, with lots of food and a live singer who kept everyone dancing. It was great! Then we got to visit friends, family and the neighborhood my parents grew up in. I really enjoyed spending time with my grandparents, ages 91 and 81. They loved Alec and admired his Portuguese speaking ability :) We also loved the beach there, it's sooo pretty. After a few days there we missed our early morning flight to Sao Paulo due to stopped traffic in Rio...but thank goodness Alec was already a pro at waiting in airports, plus my parents were there to help me. In Sao Paulo, we visited my mom's side of the family and friends from when I was about 4 yrs old. We had lots of fun seeing everyone and eating such good Brazilian food. We were busy most days there, waking up early and staying up late, and were kind of ready to get back to our comfortable beds here in the US. We had a great flight back to Atlanta, and found out then that we wouldn't make it to Denver on standby cause the flights that day got overbooked all of the sudden. So we purchased our tickets that morning, and it was such a relief to make it to Denver. Now we're just missing Steve, who will be driving here from Oklahoma tonight. I can't say that everything went perfectly as planned, cause it definitely didn't, but with a good attitude and a happy 18 month old, this trip was unforgettable.

Next week...Alaska!

Arrived in Rio!

Family party
Biscardi Family at a traditional national June party in Rio

(people dress up kind of funny)
more family
grandparents and aunt with Alec
eating out with friends, pizza rodizio

Alec loved the beach

addicted to guarana

Go Brazil! parents celebrating soccer game

I'm Brazilian too!

aunt, dad, me and Alec

arriving in Sao Paulo with lots of bags

mani and pedi at my grandma's house for $8

a very full car!

with cousin and uncle

parents and Alec, at another restaurant

at the biggest ammusement park in Brazil

eating again, rodizio style :)

another June traditional party at church

Alec loved this pool at my great uncle's house, I'm copying that idea

18 months of...

…fun, love, laughter, patience, learning, joy, more patience…Alec has been such a blessing in our lives! We love him so much and could never live without him :)
We decided to go sightseeing the other day and went to the OKC Zoo and the OKC Memorial (for the bombing in 1995). It was an eventful day and we enjoyed driving around town and spending the day together. I took some cute pictures of the animals. I was super excited to take a picture of Alec at the petting zoo, but that was the last thing he wanted to do. He wanted to push his stroller around the whole time, and he called the animals “Buddy” (my sister’s dog). He might enjoy it more when he’s older…
Then, we decided to do a last-minute/surprise visit to our families in Colorado for Memorial Day weekend. It was fun though it was short. Alec was able to spend lots of time with his cousin Ethan, and they are just 1 month apart.

At the zoo

At the memorial, very beautiful

In CO, getting his hair cut...

Life in OK

I can't believe Steve's over halfway done with training, and we only have a few weeks left here. Time has gone by fast as Alec and I try to find fun things to do and Steve's been very busy with training. He's been doing great on all his tests, getting 100% on most of them. About a week and a half ago we definitely experienced Spring in Oklahoma with tornado warnings, softball-size hail, and strong wings. The tornado actually went through the next town south of us, but the hail made a lot of damage to our car (see picture). A few windows broke in our apartment complex, and many homes had holes on their roof from the hail, some holes made all the way through inside the house. Oh man, it was NOT FUN! Then again last Sunday another bad storm came through with strong hail which damaged lots of cars and buildings north of here and didn't come near us, but still was scary to think about the possibility of damaging our rental car too. Then yesterday the whole state of OK was under tornado watch with a few tornados touching down in different areas. I was watching the news all the day long but thank goodness we didn't get much where we live. It was still scary to think about the possibility of a tornado and more hail damage as the news kept saying we had a 9 out of 10 chance for tornados... Wow! Thank goodness for bathrooms! (Where they say it’s the safest place to stay in case of a tornado, if you don’t have a tornado shelter or basement). Besides all this violent weather we've been having fun at the library, parks, malls and hanging out with some people in our ward. Everyone here is very friendly! This whole time I've been here I kept forgetting to take pictures, but a couple days ago I decided to get that camera out. Here are some pics of Alec at the park, who turns 18 months in a couple days!!!

the hail

the carlots of homes look like this, with roofs patched from the holes

Alec eating fruit after the park

Silly boy

At the park

All he wanted to do was push his stroller around for over an hour

Picking "flowers"