Zaylee turns 5

 Zaylee turned 5 a couple of weeks ago!! 5... I still can't believe my tiny girl is going to Kindergarten in August.  She is super shy, and since this is her post, I will brag about her a little bit.  (You can skip to the pictures, if you don't want to read how proud I am of her- I really try hard not to brag about my kids, but on their birthday posts- I think it is okay, so I can read this  and remember years from now!) :)  

Zaylee loves playing the piano, and can play songs with all 10 fingers.  She gets annoyed  when I try to help her with her new songs.

Zaylee also loves to sing, and has had great pitch since she was a baby.

Zaylee is a the best big sister to Trexton.  She always wants to play where she is his mom, and I am the grandma.

Zaylee knows almost all her letters, and can read simple cvc words.  Here favorite books to read are the Bob Books, but she loves when I read her any "girlie" story.

We love our Zaylee Zoo, and she has been so sweet lately.  I love the stage she is in.  I hope she will be able to crack out of her shell, and not be so shy when it's time to go to Kindergarten.

For her birthday, we did everything she wanted to do. First, we went to the grocery store, and bought a chocolate egg and popsicles, which we ate in the parking lot.

Then we went out to lunch with daddy and had acai after.

I missed the picture I took of Zay and Trex at the park, but that was on her wish list, too.  The park was kind of hot, so she really wanted to swim afterword.

We had a little family party with presents, cake (boxed brigaidero), and noodles with parmesan for dinner (her choice).  It was a great day!

My little Zoo still sucks her thumb, but her hair is finally growing, and it is actually getting quite long when you pull it straight.  It is so curly here in Brazil.  She still seems so small to me, but I know that won't last long, so I have to enjoy it while I can.  Happy Birthday,  pretty girl!  

Welcome to BRASILIA!!!

 I am finally getting around to writing about our new home... Brasilia, Brazil!  

We arrive February 26 after a LONG journey getting here.  We took a trip to Utah to "move" into our unfinished cabin.  That was a nice trip.  We saw friends in Vegas before heading to St. George where my parents did a lot of babysitting for me, while I shopped for furniture and did cabin prep.  We threw in a little bit of fun, too, and Uncle Spencer even took the kids to the park while my mom and I went to buy more cabin stuff at Walmart. Payson also turned 10 while we were there.

 We spent some days at the cabin building furniture and doing what we could to get it ready before we left for Brazil.  Grandma and Grandpa Mayo and Grandma Molly came to visit us at the cabin, and then we met them in Kanab for dinner one evening.  It was the Hot Air Balloon festival, so that was cool.  Monday Josh and the bigs went skiing with Spencer, and Tuesday we headed to Northern Utah to get ready to start our longer journey on Wednesday.  That night we had a little family party at Jarom and Laura's house, and it was nice to see most of Josh's family before we left. 

Our journey began Wednesday with our flight from Salt Lake to Baltimore.  We got a hotel that night, and spent the next day getting our luggage, covid tests, and making a few returns, not to mention lunch at Olive Garden.  We had A LOT of luggage, so it took some time to organize a little bit, but the kids were able to play at friend's houses while we worked, so that was fun for them.  I rode with the guy bringing all our luggage to the airport while Josh and the kids returned the rental car.  When I went to check in, they wouldn't let me because we were not able to fill out the Covid questionnaire, which has to be filled out within 24 hours of departure.  The website to fill it out was down the entire day, so they almost didn't let us board even to Miami.  After many phone calls, and what not, we were able to get to Miami, but in Miami, we were still not able to board to Sao Paolo because of the website.  We had to stay the night in Miami.  Thankfully, the night manager of American Airlines, let us recheck our billions of bags early, and they rebooked us on the flight for the next night.  The website was back up the next day, so that was good.  Needless, to say we spent the day in Miami.

The flight to Sao Paolo was delayed, so we missed our connecting flight to Brasilia, but we finally made it Saturday night!  4 days and 4 flights!

Now- what you have all been waiting for... our first month in Brasilia:

It is beautiful- like seriously, look at my backyard! 

And other areas in Brasilia:

The bugs, spiders, and avocados (and humming-birds) are BIGGER here:

We love the weather, and I haven't had a single day go by where the kids don't ask to go swimming.  We love our pool! 

Brasilia is much safer than the other big cities in Brazil. We have seen lots of different birds, including macaws, parakeets, and several burrow owls.  We have also seen a couple of small monkeys running on the power lines.

The lake is beautiful, and I haven't taken nearly enough pictures of it, yet. 

We have a great ward, and the expat community here is awesome.  The embassy is big with a huge pool, playground, and sports courts. There are about 11 American families in our ward, so the kids already have a great group of friends.  We also have some great friends that came to Brasilia the same time as us.  John was in the same hiring group as Josh.  They have a little girl, who is not like our kids cousin.  

The language is a bit of a challenge, but I am getting by.  Josh is doing great, and the kids have an hour of Portuguese a day at school.  I am still learning with my mentor, but it is hard to speak on the spot, and do it properly.  A lot of times, I just throw out words instead of complete sentences, and generally the native Portuguese speakers can understand me, at least those that work for the embassy or our in our ward because they are around a lot of Americans.  My diarista (maid) and gardeners do not speak a lick of English, and have a harder time understanding me. They are super hard to understand because they speak so fast.  I am getting better each week, though, so maybe by the end of our two years here, I will be able to speak a full paragraph.  ha ha

We feel blessed that this was our first post, and plan to have many fun adventures here.

Stay tuned for posts on Zaylee's 5th birthday, and our first waterfall hike adventure.