Piniata at the party

Lucas and his friend waiting for the piniata.

Lucas whacking at the candy filled heavily decorated box.  Max will be next.  Wem was controlling the rope which was thrown over a beam so the box could be raised and lowered to make it more difficult to strike.  Some of the fringe is on the floor from earlier hits by the birthday girl and her sister.  Sara is just above Lucas and Carol is upper right with white cup in her hand.

One of the Korean boys really getting into the spirit!!  My best action shot.  Wem on rope and Sara to upper right.

Birthday Party with cowboy theme

Our first night in Montes Claros at the MTC we were invited to an 8th birthday party for Lara, the daughter of a professor of theology.  Max is in the plaid shirt with arm out stretched and Lucas is the blonde guy next to him.  Aren't their backs cute??

Most of the kids liked to hang out on the steps on the south side (downhill) of the site.  Max has his hand raised and Lucas is between the two boys in upper right.  I'll try to fill in more names later, but there are Koreans, Brasilians, Swiss families in this photo.  The birthday girl is in the red dress in upper left.

Yes, Kelly, they like to decorate as much as or even more than you would!!  Banners in the back, flags flying from the rafters, tables decorated and all kinds of food, trinkets, goodies, etc on the main table.  Carol is in the  middle getting some wonderful chicken soup. I think Wem is preparing a hot dog.

Sara is preparing a hot dog for Lucas. They slice the hot dogs into little "wheels" and leave them in a tomato sauce and serve them on "half sized" hot dog buns. Shoestring potatoes are being added!!

What kind of party doesn't have some sort of fireworks???  Dad and Mom of the birthday girl are lighting some type of sparkler as many watch.  Max's blonde head is to the right edge and Lucas is behind the girl with the white blouse.

As the evening progress they broke out into dances.  Sara and Wem are jiving it up in the front.  Sara had dressed with the theme and had pigtails and large freckles.  Carol and Ron came at 5pm and left about 8pm but the party played on!!

Adriano's view

Carol took these photos from the 7th floor condo that Adriano (Dree), Wem's brother, is buying and already remodeling. The city of Belo Horizonte seems to go on FOREVER and this is just a small slice of the view from the air when you first arrive to land at the international airport.

The city sprawls around some "foothills" that can be seen in the distance and the total population of the metro area is around 7 million.  Dree and his fiance are planning a November wedding.  The condo overlooks the school where Sara taught English. We had been there in one of our earlier trips at Thanksgiving time.  No, the Brasilians don't celebrate, but English schools use it as a teaching event, so we did have traditional foods during those visits.  The kids usually left the cranberries and turkey and concentrated on the potatoes and vegetables which are more common in their daily diets.

High Tea with Alecia and Jose-Franz

Our first "outing" after touching down at Confins Airport in Belo Horizonte.  We had stopped at Lena's, Wem's mom's house, to unload our 4 large and 2 small luggage to rest a bit after the 8 hour flight from Miami to Belo.  From left to right - ron, jose franz, allison (niece), Alecia, Mary (owner of English school where Sara taught while in Belo), and Carol.  Wem took picture. Alecia had prepared scones and cake along with the coffee and tea.  Jose Franz and Alecia are the administrators in Brasil for WEC (Plymouth Meeting, PA) which is the "parent" for educating missionaries throughout the world.

June 11,2011 to KC

This was the fun part of the trip!! 

We left the lake at 6 am to start our day by attending a memorial service for Marge at OPCC (Marge was contemporary of Bob and Fran).  We wanted to support Jody who was a class mate of Larry's.

Then we headed to OK Joe's BBQ for a 11:30 early lunch but lo and behold the line was ALREADY out the door so we went to Rosedale BBQ instead.  Then a 1 1/2 hour stop at rental to de-weed the gardens and cut the grass.  Don't know why the computer nerds can't see the tall weeds???

On our way to see Rae and parents, we stopped at ReStore on Deramus to visit quickly with Hayley, Craig, Brian, and Becky who are still there!!  The store was celebrating its 11th anniversary.  They have amassed over 2.5 million dollars for Habitat for Humanity!!

Finally we made it about 3pm to NKC to visit Renae and her parents, Erin and Aaron!!  Yep, twas the BESTEST part of the trip!!

Of course when they handed her to me she became fussy -- but t'was NOT my fault!!  She was just hungry, so mommy Erin took care of that and then I got to hold a contented Rae.  She had had her hair washed just before we got there and it was soft and silky with a "mind of it's own".  Loved the way it strutted its stuff!!

On way home we stopped in Warrensburg for fish dinner --but NO the Captain D's was now a Verizon store.  Had to do BK which was a distant second on the fish sandwich!!  Left phone message for Chad and Karla but they must have been gone.

Finally got home about 8:30 as it was getting dark.  A/C had frozen up again, so will have to call repair guy.  Hope it is just low on freon!!  Saving grace is that temps were in mid 70's when we got home and had dropped to 60 this morn!!

Gary & Pat's 50th

Friends who drove down from St Cloud, MN.  Gary borrowed the John's suit for his wedding outfit.  Marilyn  was friend of Pat's in Annandale High School.

Blurry Pat and some of the excercise group.

Nebraska buddies:  Don, Bill, Sue and Rhonda

Rocky Mount buddies:  Dave, Judy, Dianne, & Kenny

Didn't have any good shots of the family members who did all the work.  Sorry.  Hopefully Kim's blog will have a few!!  Event started at 2 and was supposed to be over by 5 but Carol and I left at 5:45!!  Yes, we can still talk this morning, but barely!!