Our Trip to Brazil and Uruguay!! Days 1, 2, and 3

Our trip to Brazil started very early Wednesday morning. We left our house at 3:50 am to meet Jarom at the temple where we left our truck. We also met Dad there and he drove us to the airport bus stop just down the street. There were tons of people at LAX which made check-in a little crazy. We finally got on the plane and flew to Newark Airport in New Jersey. I was expecting lunch on this 5 hour flight but guess what, no lunch was served. I was hungry. We landed in Newark and had to get our bags and go to JFK Airport in New York. Crazy, I know, but they were the cheapest tickets I could find. I figured out how to use the trains and subways on the internet months ago in preparation. They normally have a van that goes between the two airports, but I saw somewhere that the van would not be available when we would need it so that is why I planned to use the train and subway. Cody asked someone how to get to the train and explained that we were going to JFK and she told us to go down to the ground transport counter and just use the van. We went down there and there were only two seats available. So the van ended up working out after all and we didn't have to brave the train and subway. It worked out well. We made it to JFK (the picture above is of us at the JFK airport) and flew all the way to Brazil.
It was a long flight and very cramped, I did not sleep very well. We got to Sao Paulo Thursday morning to meet Miguel and Patrick and Dad. We drove out to Botucatu and met Marlene and Patricia. I just loved Marlene, she is very sweet and so fun. She made some great meals. Thurs was a blur to me because I was soooo tired. We only got 3 hours of sleep Tues night before we left and then spent Wed night on the blasted plane. I went to bed at about 7 pm and could hardly sleep I was so tired. Anyway. We all recovered eventually.
On Friday Miguel took us around Botucatu and showed us around while Marlene prepared Feijoada for lunch (mmmmmm....a very tasty traditional Brazilian dish).
Feijoada inlcudes black beans with all kinds of pork parts (bacon, sausage, skins, pork meat and beef), rice, couve (kind of like cale or collard greens) steamed, farofa (a floury mix but the flour is of mandioca which kind of looks like yucca root), and fresh orange slices. It is delicious!! Jarom I think you would really like Brazilian food and you could eat it because there is no wheat!

The picture below is from the top of a hill overlooking the city of Botucatu.
And this is Thor; the Vendramini's huge English Mastiff. He is the protector and giant baby of the family. Also in the picture is Marlene, she is lovingly petting and baby-talking Thor.
Up next: The Wedding!
I will include a link to picassa but I need to write little descriptions first.