Vale dos Vinheidos (Winemaker's Valley)

We have became friends with Andreia and Ishmar. They are so fun, sweet and adventurous. We took a fun trip with them to the famous wine producing area in Brazil over Mother's Day weekend. It is only a 5 hour drive from Horizontina.  We had a fabulous weekend together!

The monument behind us says that you are entering the world of wine. Andreia and I approve.

 The area has a strong Italian influence, so we ate pasta the whole weekend.  Our first stop was a neat restaurant where we ate different types of noodles with different sauces.  This is Ishmar, Andreia and their daughter, Luisa.

 Scott left the table for a little bit as the desserts were arriving.  When he got back he had three to eat.  My favorite was the one on his left, Sagu.  I always like it in Horizotina, but it was fabulous at this place.  It is made with wine.

 When we planned this trip, I thought the kids would just have to suffer through it.  A wine trip is not exactly typically kid friendly.  However, this kids have deemed it one of their favorite.  The hotel we stayed at was like a park, and was totally kid friendly.  Plus, they had so much fun playing with the girls.  Here we are in the orchard.

 Here I am with a kiwi plant.  I never knew they grew like this on vines.  I thought they grew on trees.  Huh!

 We went for a walk on a trail.  One sign says "Long Trail" and one sign says "Short Trail".  We laughed because we were confused by the signs, and wanted the short trail, but are all fairly sure we ended up taking the long trail.

 Here we are on the "long trail".  The boys ALWAYS have to have a stick.  It does not matter where we are, if there is a stick around, they will find it.

 The valley had beautiful views everywhere.

 After hiking the kids wanted to go swimming.

 The hotel had a huge playroom.  The trampoline was absolutely the favorite.  The kids were on it any spare second.

 While the kids swam and jumped on the trampoline, Andreia and I enjoyed some champagne.  The valley is world famous for the champagne produced at the wineries.

 Scott and Ishmar enjoyed some champagne, too.  Needless to say, we laughed a lot on the trip.

 Everything is a toy. 

 Brazil has a 0 tolerance law, so you should not drive even with a little sip of wine.  We hired a private bus and driver for the day for R$200.  What a deal!  The kids were in heaven. 

 Isaac and Luisa were in charge of the cameras most of the time.  They had fun with it.  Isaac took some cool shots...very artistic.  This was at Casa Valduga.  It is one of the larger wineries.

 Gotta love the hair net.

 Isaac is fighting the knight.

 The tour guide opened the bottle of champagne with a saber.  Ishmar made sure he was the guy to open the second bottle.  It is a really cool trick.  You could buy a saber in the wine shop, but it cost more than our day on the bus.

 What a group of cuties!

 Ethan and Eduarda sampling the grape juice at Tortello winery.  The juice is amazing.

 Scott and I are standing in front of these special trees that they use to anchor the grape vines.  When the wineries were started, they did not have concrete to pour a strong foundation for poles, so they planted these trees.  They can survive and grow with severe pruning, so they do not shade the grape vines.

 The owner of Tortello.  We got a private tour from him, and a little wine tasting class.

 The kids had fun playing in the rocks with their empty juice cups.

 This was my favorite winery.  We arrive early in the morning, and it was not open yet.  The owner popped his head out of one of the upstairs windows and said he would be right down.  We met two of the brother owners of the winery.  Their Great Grandfather started the vineyard.  They are also a small winery, and had my favorite wine.

 Another one of Isaac's pics.

 Eduarda and Ethan are so silly together.  We stopped at a gas station to use the restrooms on the way to the valley.  Ethan and Eduarda were playing and broke a clay pot somehow.  Eduarda imediately pointed at Ethan and he took the rap.  Then at the first restaurant Ethan dropped his glass bottle of Coke and it shattered.  Eduarda just could not believe how Ethan could break so much stuff.  Then at lunch the second day our waiter dropped our try of glass bottles and glasses.  Ethan immediately said, "It was NOT me!"  He had to make sure that Eduarda knew that he did not break those glasses.

 Buddies!

 Scott with his little buddies.

 Me with my boys.  I love 'em.
 This was our last winery.  It was started by the same Great Grandfather, but a brother and two sisters broke off.  This was much more chic, and had very good wine, too.  We did not get a tour from the owner here, just his assistant, but that was fine with me.  He was very cute.  Everybody made fun of me because I gave him a hug when we left.  What...it's culture!

 One last picture before we head home.  I am so thankful for our friendship.  It has made our time in Horizontina so much more fun.

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Winter Uniforms

Here are the boys in their winter uniforms. They are so cute in them, but they do not wear them very often. Even on colder days here, if it is sunny, the afternoons are mild and beautiful, and the boys want to wear shorts. There have been days I have sent them in shorts and t-shirts, and I will see a kid with a stocking cap on walking into school. It is all in what you are accustomed to.

 

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Frank's

Last year we started going to Frank's (pronounced frunkees) Poderia with another expat, Sandi, and her daughters after school. Sandi moved back to the US last June, but we have kept going every Monday. Frank's has huge and delicious pao de queijos, so we each get one of those and we share a juice. It is good to always have that to look forward to on Mondays. I love that we walk there together, and the boys tell me lots of things while we are walking.

Frank's sign

The boys chowing on their pao de queijos.

Here are the owners of the bakery. They love the boys, and have started giving them each a sucker every time we go to the bakery. They are so sweet.

 

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Vedi's Fruteira

This is the store where I have bought almost all of our fruit and vegetables while we have lived in Horizontina. The produce is really good here, and the owners are so friendly.

The produce in Brazil is incredible. While it normally does not look as pretty as the fruit in Hy-Vee, it tastes so much better. The other thing that is cool is the large number of of varieties they have. Throughout the year I have seen 4 different types of avocados and all sizes and types of pineapples. The tiny bananas they have here are amazing, and so sweet. We are going to miss the bananas.

Owen is always my helper at Vedi's. He loves to push the mini shopping cart. I come here about once a week, maybe a little more often. We get a huge full cart and we eat it all. Before living here, most of the vegetables that I prepared were made in Steamer bags from the freezer section. I missed those a lot at first, but now I know how to prepare beets, radishes, eggplant, pumpkin and zucchini from the fresh real deal.

This is the mom and daughter of the family that owns the store. There is also a father and son. The mom is always so sweet to me. At first when I did not know much Portuguese, we communicated with smiles. It has been cool to learn the language, and start having conversations with people. She tells me what things are that I do not recognize, and how to prepare things. She always asks about the boys, and gives whoever is with me a sucker (of course).

One quick Ethan story...when I grabbed my camera for our trip to Vedi's, Ethan said, "We'll, okay, but don't start crying or anything." I have not even cried at all yet about leaving, so I am not sure where that came from, but it cracked me up. For the record, I did not cry.

 

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Guitar Lessons with Abel

Isaac and Ethan started taking guitar lessons in January.  We are so lucky to have Profi Abel as their teacher.  He is so kind and patient.  They are really doing great because he is such a good teacher.  He wants them to practice 15 minutes every day (except Sunday), and they are pretty good about it.

Ethan now knows 3 different strums, 5 cords and 3 songs.  He plays so good.  There are lots of great musicians around here, so it is cool for the boys to experience some of that.  Not to mention the cost of lessons here is about 1/4 of what it will cost back home in the states.  Abel does not know any English, so they take their lessons in Portuguese.  I am so proud of them for how far they have come with the language and trying new things.

 Isaac knows 5 different strums, 8 cords and 7 songs or something like that.  He is really doing awesome!  I love guitar practice time, because it sounds so pretty and relaxing.  Isaac's latest new song is "Happy Birthday".  I am glad to have a song I know the words and tune to.  All of his songs are famous Brazilian songs, which we do not know.  You can barely see Isaac's shoes, but he is wearing some All Stars, which look very similar to Abel's shoes.  Isaac wanted a pair of those shortly after he started lessons.  He really likes his teacher.

2 Gustavos

A couple weeks ago, I ran into one of Ethan's classmate's mom and invited her son, Gustavo, over to play. Ethan was totally excited, and I told Isaac that he could invite a friend, too. Isaac quickly said, "I want to invite Gustavo from my class." We talked all week how we were going to have the 2 Gustavos over. Owen said, "I need a Gustavo for me, too." They played so nice. They played Beyblades, colored and ran around outside. It was so fun listening to them talk in Portuguese the whole time. I rarely get to hear it because they do not like to speak Portuguese in front of me. It is so cute!

Ethan in the hammock with his Gustavo.

Isaac with his Gustavo.

 

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Praia do Forte

On our last day in Bahia, we did a little day trip up to Praia do Forte. They have a sea turtle preserve there and...beautiful beaches!

Here we are at the entrance to Project Tamar, the sea turtle preserve. It is located right on the beach, so cool!

The boys are measuring up to some sea turtles. I think the guy they are standing by gets 7 feet tall. The boys were totally into everything at the preserve.

Here is one of the turtles. They were so huge and pretty.

We are standing by a pool of baby turtles. They were so tiny! Owen loved the baby turtles and kept wanting to go back and see them.

Here is my cute little baby turtle peeking out of his shell.

After the preserve we went to a nearby beach. It was really pretty with very few visitors. Isaac and Scott boogie boarded, of course.

Ethan and Owen had fun playing in the sand. I tried to catch a few rays.

 

Well, all good things must come to an end. Isaac is such a good helper for traveling. He was awesome at helping me pack, and he is great help at the airport.

 

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