On Friday we started off the morning with a trip to the zoo. I'm obsessed with zoos. Seriously, I love them. My mom and I used to make an annual trip to Hogle Zoo every year until I went to college . . . maybe even a few after that, but at least then it looked like we were going for the grandchildren. This zoo was incredible! Despite my love affair with zoos, I always leave feeling a little twinge of guilt because the animals are so cooped up. Not at the Sao Paulo zoo. If I were an animal choosing where to live out my captivity, it would certainly be there. And almost every animal put on some kind of show for us. I about died when I saw the zookeeper in the hippo exhibit. The hippo kept opening its mouth super wide. Aren't hippos super dangerous? The zookeeper was not fazed. When we moved over to where the other hippo was, we got a show of a different sort. The hippo was literally swimming in it's own (fresh) filth.
(Flattest face ever)
(Right before Mom took this, she told us she could either get us or the giraffe - glad she managed both.)
After the zoo we went to the botanical gardens. It is a fantastic (and peaceful) green space in the bustling city of Sao Paulo. We'd planned to eat lunch there, but we kept passing up nice picnic tables, so I finally suggested one of them and Mom informed me that while those tables did look nice they were not the "right" spot. Turned out, she was right - we loved our picnic pavilion.
After the gardens we went to deliver some packages to Elder Blair and Elder Rodriguez. I loved meeting these missionaries. They seemed like great, unpretentious, diligent elders. Meeting the missionaries my parents are working with was one of the highlights of the trip for me.
We came home to this:
I'm quite certain I've never had my running t-shirts and my jeans ironed before. :) My parents have a great maid named Dalva - she is a wonderful woman. I've heard lots about her, so it was fun to meet her. She was so kind to us; she even made me my favorite Brazilian dessert - pudim de leite.
On Saturday in the morning we went to a market called Embu. It was full of local artisans' wares. They were very fun to browse. We bought the kids some handmade puppets there.
Then we ate lunch. Oh did we eat. Mom and Dad took us to an Italian restaurant in a fancy mall (Jardim Sul Shopping) called Giorno's. It was to die for. It was an all you can eat buffet, which usually means lots of quantity, but skimping on the quality, but not here. Each dish had a unique flavor, and we had so many choices. My personal favorites were the filet mignon, Brad's make your own pasta sauce dish, the bruschetta, and the mango. I think I ate the equivalent of at least two whole mangoes by myself that meal. I could not get enough of that fruit on this trip. It was so flavorful and so good! I ate so much that I really didn't even feel hungry until sometime the next day (and that's saying something coming from me.)
We finished out the day at a baptism with some more wonderful missionaries and saints. The people that got baptized completed a families (the one couple has a son on a mission right now), which has been a focus for the mission since my parents got there.
Sunday was a lot more low-key (for us) because Dad had to work on getting a transfer ready. We went to church (and saw a nice confirmation) and then mostly stayed close to home. We went on a nice walk and read a lot. It was a very relaxing day.
Monday (New Year's Eve) was great. Dad had "passed" the transfer, so he was able to relax a little. And it was the missionaries' preparation day, so Mom and Dad didn't get nearly so many calls. (They always laugh because they never hear anything about any sickness until Monday evening when prep day is over.)
We made a quick journey to 25 Marco Market to get Brad a futebol jersey with no success. Everything seemed to be closed for NYE. Then Dad had a few office meetings so we hung out there for a little while and met the great office elders they have. Then we went to Ibipueira Park, which is sort of akin to Central Park for Sao Paulo. It was beautiful! We sampled coconut water (Brad liked it; I didn't) and ice cream (which we all liked). Fortuitously we ran into (just about literally) one of my parents' former missionaries. She'd gone home about 5 months before, but had brought her whole family back on a vacation. She was delightful.
(I guess it was either Brad or the coconuts in this one and the coconuts won out. Haha!)
At my insistence we went to the mall where they have passion fruit gelato before going home. Everyone else wanted to go that night. I felt very justified when we found out the mall was closing about 10 minutes after we arrived. The gelato did not disappoint.
We had such a fun, relaxing New Year's Eve. Usually I don't love this holiday, but we really had fun. Dalva had made us a delicious dinner. Then we went down and shot basketballs on their court and went for a little dip in the swimming pool. We came back and played games, and watched a BYU basketball game. Everyone but Brad wanted to go to bed, but I think Mom was keyed up because at about 11:45 she knocked on our door and asked if we wanted her to take a picture of us on the balcony. How could we refuse? We both looked great. :) Then we watched the view of fireworks in every direction. It was beautiful.
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