Thursday, March 16 was our second full day in Torres. After breakfast in our condo, we headed down to the beach.

We all tried the coconut water (because that’s what you do on the beach in Brazil) but Daddy is still the only one who likes it.

Raine and I walked down to the tide pools to see if we could find any cool creatures. All we found were some camouflaged crabs, mussels, and barnacles.

After lunch we drove up to the lighthouse, Farro de Torres.

We had a great view of the cliffs the we hiked the day before.

As well as a nice view of the city and the tide pools that Raine and I explored earlier.

We stopped in town to do some souvenir shopping but didn’t get a chance to buy anything because Carter had a raging earache. He got too much ocean water in his ear and was in bad shape. At a little pharmacy, DJ told the pharmacist what was wrong and she gave him a box of ear drops. We had no idea what they were but with the help of Google translate, we figured out that they were some kind of antibiotic. Daddy had to break a little glass vial with his fingers and dump the powder into the dropper bottle of liquid in order to activate it — not something that the FDA would ever approve, especially for an over-the-counter product! Despite the glass shards in Daddy’s thumb it turned out to be just what Carter needed. We were glad that we didn’t have to find a medical clinic in order to get a prescription.

For dinner that night, we walked down the street to a local pizza place that had good reviews on Google Maps. It was a little hole-in-the-wall complete with ants on the tables. The pizzas were really good, although a little different than in the US. Here is a photo of our vegetarian pizza. It had a regular pizza crust and cheese but in-between it was piled high with broccoli, corn, tomatoes, palm hearts, and some sort of green legume that looked like peas. The kids’ 4 cheese pizza had sliced tomatoes instead of sauce and more cheese than anyone could possibly eat!

Here are a few other photos from Torres, including a pic of our apartment building.

This apartment was pretty typical Brazil, according to Daddy. The only hot water was in the bathroom shower. You can’t tell from this photo, but when you were standing in the shower you could see the exposed copper wires running into that white box.

Tuesday March 14, Raine and Carter went to the mission office with Grandma and Grandpa while Daddy and I packed our bags for the next leg of our vacation. Once we were packed we hailed an Uber and headed to the airport for our flight to Porto Alegre.

Everything was going well until we arrived at the car rental office and they told us that they gave away our car and didn’t have any more for us. Daddy walked to the lot next door and found that they were completely out as well. It was getting late in the afternoon and we still had a 2-hour drive ahead of us when we re-boarded the rental car shuttle headed back to the airport to see if one of the other companies had a car available. Fortunately, Hertz came through for us and soon enough we were loaded up, heading to the coast. We arrived in Torres about an hour after dark and settled into our apartment.

Wednesday morning we walked to the local grocery store to buy warm sweetbread and fresh fruit for breakfast and a few other things to stock our little kitchen. After that we walked down the cobblestone street and across the boardwalk between the dunes to the beach.

The water was the perfect temperature and the beach was littered with seashells and sand dollars to be collected. It was fairly windy, which churned up the sand in the water, but otherwise we could not have asked for better beach weather.

Our apartment had beach chairs and an umbrella for us to use, it was great for us fair-skinned sun-seekers.

That afternoon we drove out to Parque da Guarita to hike the cliffs.

This view is looking toward the southwest.

There was a surprising number of cacti on this lush green rock.

This view is looking northward, toward Torres and the beach we played at earlier.

That night we had a delicious seafood dinner out on the beachfront patio of Restaurante Cantinho do Pescador. Carter LOVED drinking Guarana the entire time we were in Brazil.

Saturday March 11, we boarded a plane on the first leg of our journey to Brazil. After a brief stop in San Salvador, El Salvador, we continued on to Bogota, Columbia. (Since we were buying tickets for four people, we got the absolute cheapest flights we could find. We had a few stops along the way, but it was worth it to save about $2,500.)

We were scheduled for a 14-hour layover in Bogota so the plan was to leave the airport and find a hotel to spend the night. Unfortunately, we went the wrong way after disembarking the plane and ended up in the terminal rather than the customs line. There was no way for us to leave the airport after that mistake so we spent the next 15 hours (because of a flight delay) sleeping in and roaming around the airport terminal.

This was our only view of Bogota. I was surprised at how cold it was there. I had envisioned a hot, equatorial jungle, but Bogota actually has a cool, mountain climate year-round. We had to buy sweatshirts to keep us warm in the airport.

Daddy and I had some great, authentic food in airport.

The kids were not as adventurous.

After what felt like forever, we finally boarded the plane to Sao Paulo, Brazil. When we arrived, DJ had a little deja vu as we stood at the baggage claim with only one of our two suitcases. Twenty-one years earlier, as a new missionary fresh out of the MTC, he stood at that exact same baggage claim with only one of his two suitcases — watching the last of the bags go around and around. Fortunately, this experience had a different outcome. When we went to the baggage desk, the attendant told us that the bag had arrived on an earlier flight and was waiting for us upstairs. You see, when we checked-in at DFW the agent accidentally sent our suitcase down the belt without a baggage tag. She immediately recognized her mistake, but it was too late, the bag was already down in the luggage labyrinth. We checked with the gate agent before boarding and they told us that they still hadn’t found it. We checked again in Bogota, but wasn’t sure they really understood what we were asking. Luckily, they found it and got it down to Brazil while we were hanging out in Bogota.

Grandma and Grandpa Anderson met us at the airport and drove us to their apartment where we happily settled in for the rest of the night.

The next day (3/13) we rode the bus into the center of town and walked around a bit. We rode to the 46th floor of the Edificio Italia and walked around the observation deck.

It is impossible to capture the unbelievable size of Sao Paulo — the 3rd largest city in the world. In every direction there are high- and mid-rise buildings as far as you can see.

We rode the bus home at rush-hour and were amazed at how many people kept cramming into that bus. Grandma and Grandpa don’t live very far out, so the bus was at max capacity when we had to make our way to the back to get off.

We spent the night in Grandma and Grandpa’s apartment again. They have a view of the Sao Paulo Temple out their living room window — it really lights up at night.

A few weeks ago, I came across a Groupon to an exotic animal park in Oklahoma that appeared to let you interact with the animals. We’ve been to a couple big cat sanctuaries and this one sounded similar, except that it was run by a redneck who didn’t seem to be concerned with things like liability insurance. I bought the Groupon and we headed up to Ardmore on Sunday evening so that we could be at the Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park first thing on Presidents’ Day morning.

It rained all night Sunday so there was mud everywhere. It was also rather chilly — at least compared to the 70-80 degree weather we had been experiencing. Carter is convinced it’s summer and failed to heed my advice to pack warm clothes, including a jacket. Fortunately, I had an extra sweatshirt for him.

Our tour started in front of one of the big tiger enclosures with a long explanation of how the “zoo” started, as well as their breeding philosophy — it was very anti-regulation and involved breeding as many “mut” big cats as possible before PETA makes it illegal to do so. Did I mention we were in rural Oklahoma? It really showed during the lecture. Our tour guide swore like a sailor and said a lot of things that sounded more conspiracy theory than science! But he kept us entertained by interacting with the cats through the fences.

We were not allowed to take cameras on the tour because they didn’t want any animal rights activists recording their secrets. Instead, we were allowed to purchase a CD of photos that their photographer took — for a mere $30. We were going to be playing with a tiger cub, so of course we gave-in to the blackmail, but the photos weren’t that great.

The first photo-op was with a quarter horse (not real exotic there).

Next, we made our way over to Cleatis the kissing camel. We let Daddy go first on that one!

Raine and Carter both opted to hold their cookie out on their hand rather than their lips.

I really wanted to hold it in my hand too, but I succumbed to peer pressure and attempted the kiss. I was so tentative though that I ended up dropping the cookie before Cleatis got too close!

We saw several more big cats including a territorial lion and a sneaky black leopard. Then we came to the wolf enclosure. As we approached, our tour guide opened the gate and welcomed us all inside. It took a little will-power to walk inside that cage. After all, the whole point of a cage is to keep the animals away from humans, right?

The kids loved petting the wolves. Unfortunately, they didn’t get a photo of Carter, but you can see the joy on Raine’s face.

Our next adventure included holding all sorts of little varmint. First was some variety of skunk.

Next was a weasel.

Then an albino skunk of the same variety as the brown skunk.

This little kinkajou was supposed to sit on Raine and Carter’s shoulders but instead, it climbed right up over the top of Raine’s head!

Last was a ferret.

Finally, it was time to play with a 7-week old tiger cub named Merlin.

The photos don’t really do justice to the experience. We played with Merlin for at least a half hour. He climbed up into Raine’s lap. He climbed up onto my lap, trying to escape, and I got to hold and hug him. We fed him a bottle. It was awesome!

Here are a few photos that I took as we walked around the big cat cages before and after our tour (when I could take my own photos).

Carter loved these face-cutout boards.

On our way home, we stopped at 2 Frogs Grill for a late lunch. The purple leopard print walls went right along with our exotic animal day.

This weekend was the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo finals night. Daddy and I decided to go by ourselves this time since the kids, especially Raine, didn’t appreciate it last year. We started the evening with BBQ at Railhead Smokehouse — is was D-E-L-I-S-H, definitely the best barbecue we’ve ever had!

We didn’t have the best seats, but we had a great view of the most exciting events — bareback, saddle bronc, and bull riding. This rodeo features the best cowboys and cowgirls in the world, it’s a very exciting show.

Carter decided to buy himself a skateboard yesterday. He got a great deal, paying only $7.50 at Academy Sports.

He has gotten the hang of it fairly quickly — just needs to figure out how to turn.

We all had Monday off work/school for Martin Luther King Day so we went to local roller rink to rollerblade!

Carter wanted to learn how to skate backward:

We also hit Jason’s Deli and the library, where Raine made this paper dragon.

December 22 – finishing some Christmas shopping at the Galleria.

December 27, Daddy took the kids to Urban Air trampoline park.

Carter loved the jousting. Here is a video of Raine vs Carter as well as Raine on the obstacle course.

On December 28 we spent the day at Mountasia, enjoying the warm, windy weather. I took the wide-angle and fish-eye lenses for my cellphone that DJ gave me for Christmas so I got some photos with all of us in it, like this one on the go-carts.

Raine loves the climbing wall.

She made me climb with her; I’m on the easiest wall and she’s on the hardest.

Kids vs parents flag football game on January 1. The kids were winning (we were at a disadvantage because their flags are a whole lot lower than our hands) when the game came to an abrupt end due to Raine skinning her knee on the sidewalk.

The kids did a lot of rollerblading over the holiday break. On January 2 they convinced me to go with them to the parking lot at the school. Carter let me ride his scooter since I don’t have rollerblades.

We had some gorgeous weather over the break. The kids made me dig out their shorts so they didn’t sweat too much while playing outside!

Our Christmas-Eve-party turned News-Year-Eve-party was a blast. We started with dinner that included make-your-own quesadillas, tacos, nachos, and tamales.

Here are most of the younger kids: back row: Carter, Raine, Cade, Boston, middle row: Harvey, Hudson, Avery, front row: Penelope and Nora, missing: Alice and Frost

I took a couple terrible photos during various events but didn’t warn people that I was taking them!

Playing twister with Carter, Jordyn, Matt, Hudson, Boston, Cade, and Nathan

Getting ready for the white-elephant gift exchange. Kathleen and Matt Sweeney; DJ; Kara, Hillary and Bryan Boyer; Rauchelle Richey (Troy was on stair duty)

James and Ashley Walker; Jessica and Evan Eastman

I stole this white-elephant gift during the game, it needs to be framed on my wall!

The kids had fun wacking the pinata.

After the pinata, the kids played the left-right game.

Melt-downs started shortly after 8:00 and everyone was gone by 8:30, that’s how it goes with the under-5 crowd!

Early Christmas morning . . . the kids were fast asleep while Daddy and I sat impatiently on the couch, waiting for them to awake.

Round about 8:00 Carter finally rolled out of bed and, seeing the wrapping paper covering the archway at the end of the hall, realized that it was Christmas morning. He quickly woke up Raine so they could open their presents.

Raine joined the ranks of non-believers this Christmas. At least to a degree she did, I think deep-down she still wants to believe. For example, she really wanted an elf-on-the-shelf and bugged me for one incessantly. I think they are creepy and have no desire to “keep up” with one. During one of her badgerings I said, “I wouldn’t even know where to buy one.” She quickly piped up, “you don’t buy them, you just put a bowl full of saltwater in front of your chimney and one comes.” I just looked at her with one eyebrow raised, waiting for her to realize the absurdity of that statement if, in fact, there really was no Santa. But she didn’t see the irony so I didn’t push it.

In an effort to “test” Santa, to see if he was real, Raine left him a letter with questions about the North Pole. Daddy and I had no idea she had done it; good thing we noticed it sitting there late Christmas Eve. One of the questions she asked was “how big is the North Pole?” The answer she received was pure genius — “about 10 inches in diameter.”

Carter and Raine both asked for Rollerblades for Christmas.

I convinced them to give Daddy a pair of Rollerblades so that they would have someone to go out with them.

Raine asked for rope this year. She didn’t explain what she would use it for, she just wanted rope, so Santa brought her a climbing rope and harness since she LOVES to rock climb. She was thrilled with that. Carter gave her a nice notebook and mechanical pencils for all her writings. She obviously liked the gift.

Our Ward doesn’t meet until 2:30 so we had plenty of time to open presents, eat monkey bread, and play with the new toys before getting ready for church.