Some things I missed posting in 2023

Sometimes life just gets crazy, and I don't have time to blog. My temporary teaching job ended on Friday, so I actually have a chance to play catch up. There are a few things I wanted to blog about, but never got around to it. Hike with Friends We have some friends who we met in DC before coming to Brasilia. John was in the same A100 training group as Josh and both of them were assigned to Brasilia. We got to know them a little bit before heading here, and now we have become good friends. Our family sizes are different, but we still have fun. We went on a hike to get a good view of the JK Bridge with the arches. In the middle of our hike, we had a quick storm that drenched us, but it cooled us off.

Carnival Carnival in Brazil is a HUGE thing- especially in Rio, but the Brazillians throw parties everywhere for it. Brazillians love their parties!! Anyway, the school even had a little party the day before Carnival started. It was a bit wild in the lower gym where the party took place, but the kids sure had a great time.

Paranoá Lake The kids had the entire week off of school for Carnival. Josh had three days off. For one of our days we decided to take our kayak to the lake. In the almost two years that we have lived here, this is the only time we have done this. We had a fun time.

5th Grade Trip (in Brasilia) The 5th grade went on a 3 night trip that costed $1000. We opted out of that trip along with two other families in our ward. Instead, we took our 5th graders on little adventures around Brasilia. We went to the Jardim Botanical and to the lake to do kayaks and bike boats. I think they did one other thing, but I can't remember, and I don't have pictures, so... that's why I always take pictures. lol

Little Blue Farm Trexton did a little preschool with his friend, Quinnten. Basically, I took Quinnten once a week and his mom took Trexton. We would do preschool things. (Check out the next post about Trexton's preschool experiences). One of our themes was farm, so we decided to plan a time to meet Quinnten's family at the farm. It was the cutest little farm. We got to hold the baby bunnies and goats, feed the animals milk, ride the horse, fish in the pond, and play at the playground.

Payson and Zaylee Graduate...

Payson officially graduated from Elementary School. At their current school, they call it a "Moving Up" ceremony. He moved up from lower school to upper school. He started middle school this school year and loves it. He graduated with 4 other kids from our ward, who all moved away or transferred schools. After the ceremony, we had refreshments and had a chance to take pictures with his friends.

Zaylee also had a moving up ceremony. She graduated the ECP (Early Childhood Program), which includes Kindergarten. Her ceremony was extra special because Payson got to be the MC for it. Zaylee also got to sing a little quartet for the main song, "A Million Dreams."

For both ceremonies they played, "A Million Dreams," but it was pretty cool because, before the ceremonies, a special video was made with the students and parents singing. The music teacher even had me play a blurb on the piano for the recording. Here is the video:

Kid's Birthdays The only birthday I blogged about this year was Zaylee's, and it's because she had a the big party this year. I still did birthday pictures for my other kids. It's amazing how fast they grow. Payson's was an extra fun photo shoot because we did it under water in the pool.

Brasilia Temple It was an exciting day when the Brasilia Temple was dedicated. We were able to take people to the VIP tours where, I had the opprotunity to give one of the the tours to a couple of Avenly's friends and their moms and one of Payson's teachers. Later I accompanied some people from the embassy during the public tours. I am glad we were able to go on the VIP tour because the public tours were in Portuguese. It is a small temple, but so beautiful.

Itiquira Falls One Saturday in September we ventured to Itiquira Falls. It is the tallest waterfall in Brazil... I think! Most waterfalls in Brazil, you can go right under, but not this one. It was pretty wild and windy the closer we got to the base of the waterfall. Payson loved it!

Halloween This year the girls decided to dress up as a ferry and a mermaid. Trexton was spider man for part of the time and a pumpkin for part of the time and both for the other part of the time. I am not sure what Payson was, but he did like the $2 cloak I bought him. We went to both the embassy and school party.

Aguas Correntes This was a fun waterpark close to home. I love how it has such a natural element to it, like they all do here in Brazil. The water was warm and everyone could go on the big fast slide. We hope to go back before we leave Brasilia.

Primary 2023 - Primary this year was a bit of an adventure - mostly because the kids learned songs in Portuguese and English, and when it was my turn to teach the English songs, I had a hard time managing some of the little Brazillian boys who didn't understand my bad Portuguese. There were times I was ready to be done, but in the end the Primary Program was really nice. I wanted to share a little about it becuase it was Payson's LAST Primary Program and Trexton's first. Avenly played the violin, and they all did a great job on their speaking parts. Here is a couple pictures of Trexton's first day of Primary:

Here are their cute faces after the Primary Program: