So… it’s been a while since I was in the habit of blogging regularly. Last October to be exact. That’s when we started shifting our focus towards surviving a transcontinental move with 2 kids, 2 & under. Now that things are finally settling down, I’m HOPING that I can get back in the swing of it. There are a lot of current happenings that I want to write about but I also feel the need to catch up on some of the events that I missed, so I’ll probably do a mix of both as I’m able. Hopefully more pictures, more posts, less detail.

But picking up where I left off, at the end of October (October 29 – November 2) we did a beach week with two other families – the Hudsons and the Parkers. We rented an amazing, full-service house, brought along Paige Hudson’s sister Hannah, 2 babas (nannies), and had one of the best trips EVER.

The house was right on the beach and was conveniently next door to a casual beachfront bar/restaurant. They would deliver food & drinks to our house and let us have a running tab throughout the week. The house rental included a full staff who kept the place in tip-top shape despite lots of little feet tracking sand all over the place. We decided to have the staff at the house prepare dinner for us 3 of the nights and the other night we went out into town for dinner while the babas watched the kiddos.

The weather was mostly beautiful. We got rain one day but it was still warm and the water felt great so we all just played in the rain!

Looking back through the photos is bittersweet. It’s a wonderful memory but a clear reminder to me just why my transition to life back in the states is taking some time. We were surrounded by incredible friends who have become our family. We partied together, had our kids together, had our 2nd kids together… We lived in such a gorgeous country and loved having adventures together. We had HELP! Amazing nannies & maids who we adored, who loved our kids and helped to fill the void that assistance from close family often provides. Anyway, I absolutely love these memories but when I look through the pictures of our kids playing in the sand together for hours, it tugs at my heart. But enough talk, more pictures!

(Bonus if you remember seeing a VERY similar picture of Colt taking his first dip in 2013.)

The one minor hiccup of the trip was the drive home…
For reference, our drive TO the beach took us about 4 hours. However, we were driving home at the end of a holiday weekend so we knew that we would hit traffic there. We trusted Waze and unfortunately it steered us wrong this time and we ended up with an 11 HOUR DRIVE! 9:30 am – 8:30 pm. With a 2 year old and a 2 month old. It was like an overnight flight back to the states only far worse because a) it was during the day so we were all awake, b) we all needed to eat & go to the bathroom, c) you can’t go for walks or generally move much at all, d) we were crammed into our tiny little car, etc. etc. etc.  At this point I was nursing Finn 5x/day which is also difficult to do while on the road. Basically it was a total disaster. We hated having to stop for bathroom breaks so I hardly ate or drank anything all day and from this, 2 things resulted: 1) I only took 1 bathroom break the whole ride home and it was in a gross, wet bathroom with a toilet that had no seat and 2) It took me a full week for my milk supply to pick up again. After starving myself and feeding Finn all day I was so depleted. Also fun – Colt puked twice on the drive home – the second time when we were just about 10 minutes from home. The blessing is that we had a beach bucket easily accessible in the back and were able to catch/contain them both times. Anyway, it was truly a harrowing event but the boys were AMAZING. Colt literally never cried – even with the sickness – and we timed a grand total of 4 minutes of crying for Finn. Truly a miracle. Ultimately though, São Paulo & Brazil is known for horrendous traffic so we just count it all part of the experience. 😉