Neusa goes to St George...and we do too

Ryan had a business trip to Arizona planned precisely the same week that my dear Tia Neusa and her grandson Ricardinho were coming to visit. This timing allowed me the opportunity to take the car and the kids for a fun vacation to St George and Pine Valley. While Ryan worked and played with old friends, we hung out with family.

Due to the 'unplugged' nature of Pine Valley, we spent a lot of time playing rummicub and talking. I had wanted to work on family history stuff by calling Brasil, but without a phone or internet, we just ended up talking about some of the 20 + houses Mom and her siblings lived in as kids. We also looked at a lot of pictures and caught each other up on dreams for the future. I've been daydreaming about owning a hip hostel catered to Europeans in Brazil, Neusa is dreaming of going to India to learn more about yoga therapy and chakras, and Mom is dreaming about bringing rich Brazilians to learn English while touring the western U.S. It's fun to dream...

The boys enjoyed being outdoors (especially digging in the snow), reading, and playing Scooby-Doo video games. One of Dezi's memorable moments came after church when he got to tour the Pine Valley chapel, the oldest continuously used LDS church. His favorite part was learning that is was designed by a shipmaker and has the roof of an inverted ship.

After 3 days of eating way too much pão de queijo, it was time to go to St George. The boys and I stayed with the Lubbers where the boys loved spending their nights and mornings watching Disney Channel and snuggling with Grandpa and Grandma. The rest of our time was spent between Laura's and Daniela's. Dezi and Cai were happy to see the rest of the cousins and Gus, Laura's lab. They jumped on the tramp and had an outdoor movie and pizza party at Laura's. At Daniela's, they ate yummy food and played like maniacs. One night, we ate dinner at Maria and Bo's where everyone watched Annie and fell in love with their miniature Yorkie.

I love the labs that the Lubbers have owned, and Gus has become quite the fantastic dog, but the little Yorkie is the perfect size for a house dog. I know our boys would love to have a dog. Cai loves animals so much that he 'picks up' animals off the pages of books and holds them gently, kissing and caressing them. He was in heaven with all the pets around here. Maybe someday...

All in all, the time went by far too quickly. Growing up with 3 month vacations makes anything else seem like the blink of an eye. Before we knew it, it was time for Mom and Dad to take Neusa and Ricardinho to Vegas and for us to head back up to the cold to pick Ryan up from the airport.

The ride back north was a long one filled with many adventures to make us stop...the DVD player falling on the ground, Dezi needing an emergency pee break, Cai spilling a drink all over his pants, and, oh yeah, Dezi choking on an orange and needing the heimlich. That last one was the crazy one. We stopped for a little leg stretch at a Carl's Jr and Dezi swallowed a big chunk of orange. As with most gagging, I though it would pass in a couple seconds, but when it didn't and the look in Dezi's eyes got scary, a wide-eyed me jumped across the table and started doing the heimlich. After a few tries, it came out. It was only when I sat down in disbelief that I saw some men watching from across the restaurant. They nodded their heads and wiped the 'sweat' off their forheads. Not five minutes later, Cai started choking too. I thought it was a cruel joke, but thank goodness, he quickly worked it out on his own. We were happy to finally pick up Ryan and get everyone home safely to sleep. And thus concluded our week-long adventure.