Hope you enjoy the little album!
The first event when we arrived at the Braun household was wedding preparation:
The wedding was at their farm so there was lots of work to do. Here Jeyson and Johnny are digging a hole for some decorations.
And Jeyson's aunt is busy making a HUGE amount of boccoli salad (about 200 people came!)
And the day of the wedding we were sent on a quick errand to the neighborhood "supermarket" (as we jokingly called it) to pick up some more lettuce. 
It's so funny to me that lettuce usually comes in sets of three heads and are stuck together on these little shish kebab sticks. Jeyson and I call them lettuce-kebabs :)
However, 3 hours before the wedding there was a major problem. ALL of the rental stuff had not arrived yet. And that included tables, chairs, wedding gazebo, plates, cups, silverware, pretty much everything! It was supposed to arrive the day before the wedding, but there was no arrival. Then, it was promised to arrive first thing in the morning the day of the wedding. The wedding was supposed to start at 4:30. By noon there was still no word about where the stuff was. At about 1:30 there is finally a call from the company saying that the car/trailer with all of the stuff was on its way but got stuck a distance away on a dirt road. (Wow, I am SO glad this didn't happen in our wedding...I would not have been anywhere near as calm as these Brazilian relatives of mine!)
All of the Braun relatives start brainstorming about what to do. Eventually a truck was driven to the car and it was pulled up the road with all of the wedding equipment in tow. 
Everything finally arrived! Everyone quickly went to work.
There was so much to do and everyone was running around. This picture is so cute. With all of the commotion it seems our baby cousin was forgotten here in the stroller on the left :) You may have to click on the picture to see better.
And in about 2 hours the farm was somehow transformed to this beautiful scene.
The wedding itself was amazing! Mario Jr and Lika were a beautiful couple!
A beautiful reception.
Us with Johnny & Krista.
The cake/toast.
After the wedding the stacks of dishes were a little scary!
But somehow we washed them all and within a day things returned to normal.
Brazil has some of the most beautiful sunsets!
The Brauns all relaxing together the day after the wedding.
The extended family stayed until the day after the wedding, then most people headed out of town. Above is a picture of Jeyson and his uncle sharing a typical tea drink in Brazil. Only Johnny & Krista stayed for another week or so, and they were anxious to experience Brazil. We got to spend several really fun days with them taking little day trips. Here are some of the pictures.
A hike to a nearby lake.
On this hike we passed this big empty field and this cow was just standing in the middle like a scarecrow.
We made it down to the little lake.
Back from the hike, Johnny and Jeyson decided to take up the big challenge of giving the Braun's farm dog a bath. 
After a lot of resistance, they finally were successful
One evening on the way back to the farm we saw this funny scene and I couldn't resist a picture. On the left you can see a lady who is the passenger on a motorcycle. She was home with a huge piece of wall art! That must have been terrifying (not to mention unsafe) to ride in crazy traffic without being able to hold on or even see!!!
Another day we took our siblings for a panoramic flight using an Asas plane. This was especially neat because Johnny and Krista are some of our supporters. It was so great to be able to show them first hand what it is like to fly in one of the mission's planes.
Another day we took a trip to a nearby historic city. It is a quaint little town to go shopping and outside the town you can go hiking and see waterfalls. We had never been there before, and we definitely want to go back another weekend since it's only 45 minutes away from our house.
Some of Jeyson's relatives who live on the Braun's farm also came. Here is our uncle and little cousin.
Here is a huge Catholic church in the town
Jeyson crossing a bridge in the town
We went to this waterfall, which actually was quite bigger than you can see in the picture. Jeyson convinced me to go swimming in the freezing cold water too...though there are no pictures as evidence to show what a good sport I was to go along with it!
And a trip to the zoo, which was especially interesting because of all of the different animals I'd never seen before in the States.
A Tamandua da Bandeira - a kind of anteater
Antas - in the elephant family
And a Brahmin Cebu - After the famous VeggieTale song I can now show that I've seen a real one. These are actually the common cow here, of course this one is a bull.
And Jeyson & Johnny checking out another exhibit at the zoo - an old truck. I thought watching them inspect the truck very entertaining!
And a refreshing stop at a stand to drink "coconut water" straight from the coconut using a straw. If you look closely, you can see this coconut stand itself is part of a motorcycle. He just parks and opens up the stand. 
I wanted to bring this cute dog home, but we are trying hard to remember all of the advice given to us about not getting a dog so early in married life.
An interesting place we brought Johnny and Krista is the McCafe, which is owned by McDonalds. Believe it or not, it's an upscale Starbucks kind of place. You even drink out of real glass cups and saucers and get a cinnamon stick to stir your drink. It must be shocking when Brazilians visit the States and go to McDonalds there for the first time!
An another fun favorite of ours is Acai. This is a very delicious berry that is mixed up into sort of an icy pudding/smoothie and you put granola on top. It's starting to become popular in the States and it's definitely worth trying!
And more fun back around the Braun's farm - horseback riding...
And a bonfire out by the pool...
A quick Braun family picture after the wedding day. Left to right - Lika (Jeyson's sister), Mario (Lika's new husband), Iria & Jonas (Jeyson's parents) me and Jeyson and the last couple on the right at Johnny (Jeyson's brother) and his wife Krista.
To finish our time together, Johnny, Krista, Jeyson, and I decided to take a one night trip to a famous town nearby. The city is famous because it is built on top of natural hot springs so there are tons of pools and water park kind of place all built on top that are heated by the water. It was so much fun to get away and spend some time together. Here we are at a little ice cream shop that features all kinds of different kinds of ice cream - from kiwi to condensed milk flavor. You get as much as you want and weigh it so you can try tons of kinds.
After ice cream we drove past this lake. It was so hot we decided to jump in. If you click on the picture you can see us in the water.
After getting out of the lake we were enjoying the view, not realizing Johnny was taking our picture.
A water park that is heated by natural hot springs. It was so refreshing. There was lots more to the park that can't be seeing from the picture - waterslides, hot tubs, saunas - all naturally heated. So refreshing!
And the last shot is of our Braun-side siblings when then dropped us back off at our house in Anapolis. We had a great, refreshing, relaxing time with them that we were definitely in need of!
1 comment:
Hey! We're in NJ for a few days....and on our way, guess what we saw?? At least 10 McCafe's!!! I had just read your post yesterday and then saw them the entire way from VA to NJ yesterday!! Weird!! Also, that dog is way too cute to resist. Is that Jeyson's parents? Get it!! It looks like a mini hot dog dog like Gus! Missing you guys...
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