Goiania!

We went to the capital of our state, Goiania, at the end of November (on Thanksgiving to be exact).  If you remember, my volleyball team won our 'regional tournament' and this tournament was the 'state games!' haha.  Since our games were over the course of the weekend, Nick and Carter decided to go with me.  We rented a hotel room (I found one online for SUCH a great price because they were undergoing renovations.  We stayed in the 'executive suite' for the same price of a normal room anywhere else and felt super fancy with our separate living, air conditioner, and enormous bathroom!) and though my last game ended up being on Friday, we stayed through Sunday, making a family vacation out of it :)

First for the volleyball side of things...It was a slightly frustrating weekend.  Our first match was on Thursday at 5.  Well, at 5 I was still the only person from my team at the gym!  The rest of the team walked in around 5:10 but they weren't even in their uniforms yet.  Once they dressed out, the referee tried to start the game, but we were still one player short!  We called her and she assured us she was arriving...Well we made it through warm-ups and she still wasn't there so the referees called the game and we lost by forfeit :(  She eventually showed up forty minutes late...Then the next morning we played a team who was VERY good (they ended up winning the entire tournament) and we were put to shame...But Friday afternoon we played against our 'rival' team (we play against them in our league as well) and even though our setter left early and missed the game (and I had to set), we won! So at least we ended the tournament on a good note :)

Nick, Carter, and I did a LOT of driving!  It is a big city, with some bad traffic, and even worse parking.  But we were able to do a little shopping (hello Wal-Mart and bigger stores), eat some American food (we went to an American style steakhouse for Thanksgiving dinner and throughout the weekend had our share of Subway and McDonald's, and even tried some Chinese food which I have been craving - although it was more of a Brazilian interpretation of Chinese food...), visit our friends who just had a baby, go to the mall, shop at the market, and enjoy our time together, just the three of us :)

Carter visited Papai Noel (Santa Claus) at the mall, and from a distance, he loved him!  He kept pointing and saying, "Papai, hoho!" but when it was his turn he cried and cried when we put him in Santa's lap.  Santa tried to hand him back and say we didn't have to do it (Brazilians do NOT like for children to cry and aren't very accustomed to this), but we assured him it was okay, and we really just wanted a picture.  Since Carter cried in his picture last year as well, it wasn't a big deal not to have a happy, smiling picture with Santa.

All in all, it was a busy but great weekend.  It's very unlike us to just get away for a bit, but we had a great time and I look forward to doing it again one day :)

 15 weeks pregnant

 our fancy hotel room

 getting embarrassed...

 nativity at the mall

best friends