Happy New Year!!! // Feliz Ano Novo!!!

Aqui vai o nosso voto de felicidades para todos que nos acompanham através do blog. O álbum de fotos do smilebox é uma retrospectiva do nosso último ano que iniciou nos Estados Unidos e está se encerrando aqui no Brasil.
Here goes our best wishes to all those who follow our blog. The smilebox photo album is a review of our last year, started in thje U.S. closing here in Brazil.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Um abração a todos os nossos amigos e familiares daqui do Brasil, que nos acompanharam pelo blog no primeiro semestre deste ano.

A big hug to every friend we made in the US and that are following us thorugh the blog since we moved back to Brazil.

A big hug to all the other friends that are living in some other parts of the world and that are also following us through the blog!

Have you all a GREAT New Year. Plenty of happiness, health, peace and love!

2010 kisses,

Marina, Quico and Alice

Rainfall

In November and December, gauchos suffered a lot because of the bad weather. It rained a lot! And it means REALLY A LOT!!!!
Nos meses de novembro e dezembro nós, os gaúchos, sofremos muito por causa do tempo. Choveu MUITO mesmo!

Rio Grande do Sul was ranked by NASA as the place in the world where rained the most last month! The precipitation that usually is around 100 mm, at this time of the year, was more than 500 mm.
Segundo a NASA, o estado do Rio Grande do Sul foi o lugar do mundo que mais choveu no mês de novembro! O volume de precipitação que, nessa época do ano, é de aproximadamente 100mm, foi neste ano de mais de 500mm. Incrível, né?

Lots of farmers lost theirs harvest and some other people lost their houses and everything they had. More than 40 towns were in emergency situation because of the rain, the storms and hard winds. Very sad...
Muitos fazendeiros perderam suas colheitas e ainda muitas outras pessoas perderam suas casas e tudo o que tinham. Em mais de 40 cidades do estado foi decretado o estado de calamidade pública por causa da forte chuva e vendavais. Muito triste!

Here you can see the river at our back yard. You can compare with the picture and movie from another day when Alice was swimming with the dogs.
Aqui dá para ter uma idéia de como o rio ficou nos fundos da nossa casa. Compara com outra foto da Alice brincando com os cachorros no rio. Nem parece o mesmo lugar!

The last storm we had (and it was already in December) the water destroyed our stone wall! Here you can see the damage….
E, depois do último temporal, vejam o que sobrou do nosso muro!

Wet kisses,
Marina

A wonderful time in a farm...

In a weekend in later October we went to Sérgio’s (Quico's brother) home to celebrate his birthday. He and his family live in a farm near a small town (Encruzilhada do Sul) in the country side of Rio Grande do Sul.

On the way to the farm we stopped by a wheat field to take a picture. It was an old dream of mine…to be in a gold wheat field!

The farm is a wonderful place, very beautiful and full of peace as you can see in these pictures.

The children (Alice, Luciana, Maria Luisa and another Alice (MLuisa’s friend)) played a lot and had lots of fun.

They rode horses…

They played and swam in the dam…

They fished some fish… lots of them!!! Unfortunately we didn’t eat them…just put back into the dam.

Here is a hot air balloon that Quico had bought in the US. It is lifted by solar heat. This is an adult toy!!!

The weekend was marvelous and we all had a good, relaxing and fun time together!

Golden wheat kisses,
Marina

Some (new ???) pictures - October 2009

Here there are some more pictures of us and our family! Alice and I are with some orchids from our yard and some other beautiful flowers from here...

Look at this one!!! Pretty and a little bit different, isn't it?

Some pictures from Marisa’s (my sister in law) birthday barbecue.

A picture from Roberto’s (my sister husband - in red) 50th birthday party.

Some pictures in Guaíba sidewalk in a sunny Sunday.

And..at the same day, having lunch with Felipe (Quico's nephew).

kss,

Marina

Our house and customs

Here there are some photos from our house. This is the view we have from our porch and dinning room. You can see the river behind the trees.

This big tree you can see is called Figueira (Ficus tree) and it is approximately 200 years old!

Here you can see a small one. This kind of tree grows up around another tree and embraces, suffocating it until the old tree dies and the Ficus grows in its place! Isn’t it interesting?
The Ficus trees are very common in this area: South of South America.

Alice is having a chimarrão (or mate).
This picture we took to Alma (Alice’s Spanish friend) who learned and enjoyed to drink mate while she was living here in Brazil.

And this is the view from the river. You can see the house in the back.

Here is the house!

Quico and Alice are ridding a kayak.

Here is Alice swinging in a liana (woody vines). PLAY the video to watch her!

Here are Alice and her friends Bruna and Laura. They are wearing Prenda's (Gaucho’s girl) dresses. These are traditional dresses that the girls usually wear them during the week we celebrate the Farroupilha Revolution.

So… those are some pictures of our home. As you can see we live in a gorgeous place!

Gauchos kisses!
Marina