Today is the day! Last Friday the Utah school year officially ended, and so yesterday Joseph and Ethan boarded a plane for their long "unaccompanied minors" flight down here and they arrived today!
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| ~ My little minors on the plane |
Hooray, we're all together again! Corey left early to go to Sao Paulo to pick them up. It's less than 60 miles away, but takes 2 hours to drive cause of traffic. Their plane arrived at 10:15. Around 11:15 they were finally through customs where Corey was waiting for them. It was a 2 hour trip back. I told Corey to text me when he was 15 minutes away, then the countdown began. The kids were waiting patiently on the porch.
The kids edited the "Wride Family" welcome banner that greeted us when
we came in March (pic 16) to say "Wride Brothers Welcome to Brazil!" We all cheered when they pulled in around 1:15 - there are your long lost brothers! Go get 'em!
Lots of hugs and more cheering, yay! They made it!
Another milestone checked off and no one's died or gotten lost yet, that's good!
We helped them bring in their bags and then went out back for lunch.
We enjoyed lunch together, and I must say I really like these outdoor living spaces that are common here. We had ham sandwiches, grilled cheese, and a few pb&j's, plus the Great Value version of pringles. Glad they have a Walmart here. Not like Walmart in the US, but we'll take what we can get. Ham sandwiches and grilled cheese have become staples for us.
After lunch they started to unpack and hand out the spoils that they brought us from the promised land. Sophi, look! Your Elsa dress!!
Abi got her monkey doll and Bunny toy.
Hyrum got Sunday shoes that fit, the girls got a few more shirts and pants, and we have lots of candy for the prizes to give out at another missionary activity tonight (last one was
American Pancake Night) We figured that one was a success cause of the American part of it, so we tried to emphasize that tonight there will be candy prized from the US, which we had the boys load up on. They also brought lots of cake mixes and frosting for the "American Cake Night" activity which has been planned for the 24th, which will be our last hurrah before we leave on July 1st. Tonight it's a game night with some Minute to Win it activities, should be fun! Glad Corey's taken the controls on this one. I think I could do it if I knew where to go for resources, but it's a little harder here, thus increases my stress levels to an uncomfortable level. Glad we've got the supplies covered now for the rest of the time.
After lunch and a little unpacking, they all went swimming. It was freezing so I hear (...I ain't gettin' in...) Corey threw in Ethan. Natalie didn't like that, to see Ethan screaming and kicking in distress. She went to save him.
No one was able to push Joseph in, so they turned to splashing and squirting him.
As he ran away from them as they chased him with water bottles, he slipped on the pool net on the ground there next to him....
...which then enabled Mel and Wes to then drench him with cold cold water. So then he just jumped in the pool, to get the "okay, I swam with you" ceremony officially over with. They enjoyed getting their older brothers.
The pool party ended when they pulled in Joseph who was sitting on the side right there in front of him. That board on the edge that runs the small length of the pool has been loose this whole time, and as they pulled him in, it came off and into the pool with him. A nail ripped a hole in his swim shorts and scratched his skin. He is okay, but the kids were totally grossed out by the ants and ant larvae they saw under the board which then contaminated the pool beyond repair in their opinion. They've been swimming close to all those bugs this whole time?!?! There might be larvae in the water now! Gross! That was enough to make all the kids resolve to be done swimming for-e-ver (well, for the rest of our time here). Even Abi and Hyrum said they're done! Hooray says I, the party pooper mom! So this really was our last swim day! Another thing checked off.
Anyway, great to have Joseph and Ethan here, will be fun to catch up with them this next week before Joseph leaves. He's going to Santiago Chile on the 15th. That was something Joseph and Corey thought would be a good experience for him and help him learn Spanish so he can be in the IB program in high school. He was too busy with extracurricular classes this past year to take Spanish, so he was behind, and instead of paying a lot of money for a summer course, Corey thought he'd learn more Spanish
and have a better experience
and it would be cheaper to just send him to Chile for a few weeks. We have good friends that we know from when we lived down there, it's a great area, he is going to be able to hang out at
Maria Luisa Bombal again - which is where he went to school 4 years ago, should be fun for him. Their only rule was that he not wear a uniform, just so everyone knows he's not really an official student, since it's a hard school to get into and people might be ticked. He was okay with no uniform :) I'm a little bummed that we only have 5 days together before he leaves, but we'll take what we can get. :)
