Here I Go Again!

This evening my mother and I are "leaving on a jet plane" for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  This is a really special trip. We'll be attending Cris'* wedding; Cris lived with us when she was here in the US on exchange during our senior year of high school.  She is one special gal!  When my mom floated the idea of going to me I was definitely enthusiastic.  Cris was back here for our wedding, but I've never had the privilege of visiting her in her país natal.  (I did spend one night of my life in Porto Alegre, when I was coming home from my year in Argentina as an exchange student and due to flight complications they had to land and put us all up in a hotel for the night.  That was all very interesting, to say the least!)

Before leaving, I'd like to issue a special thanks to the trip's sponsors:

• Mom and Papa for funding the trip and for letting us host Cris in the first place.  The back story: One day in the school cafeteria she was sharing with me the horrible situation she was in with her original host family.  I had space and a bed in my room, opened up my big mouth and said, "Hey, maybe you can come live with us!"  The rest is history.
• Mom-in-law and Dad-in-law for babysitting the end of this week so I can gallivant around the globe and Colin can go to work.
• Papa and my sister for taking the kids early next week for the same reasons given above.
• The Husband for freeing me to fly off for a week, leaving him to fend for himself and spend his evenings alone.  Poor soul.  What a good man!  (Actually, he told me he's looking forward to the peace and quiet, which I'm sure means from the kids' noise ... right? ... I don't talk that much, do I?!)
• The kids who really are troopers and very adaptable to being passed around for a week.

Have a wonderful and safe Labor Day weekend!

*I wish I had a photo of us to post, but they're all prints and at my parent's house anyway.  If you're on facebook, you can see a couple of photos of us from 9 years ago here and here.