The Gengler Family

Saying Goodbye to Brazil

2009-03-16T00:19:00.005-03:00

Marcus got to go Iguassu Falls as one of his last tips in Brazil. It was beautiful, at least it looks like it was, we didn't get to go...grrr...he took some great pictures.

Halloween in Brazil

2008-11-19T08:13:00.004-02:00

I know Halloween was a few weeks ago....I am way behind here!! Madison and Lucas had a great time dressing up this year...since Halloween is not celebrated here their school did a dress up like a book character....we found a cute book about a bee for Madison called Ruby Lee the Bumble Bee, and Lucas had a Jedi book. I felt bad though they thought they were going to go Trick or Treating at night, poor little things!!

Friday Night Date with my Honey

2008-11-12T20:35:00.016-02:00

Marcus was feeling bad about the whole Dave Matthews Band concert thing and so he decided to make it up to me. He saw that Maroon 5 was coming to Barra (our city) so he bought tickets, not only did he buy tickets, he bought front section tickets, we could feel the sweat, it was awesome.....I know some people might think Maroon 5 is just another "Boy Band" , that is what someone from here called them, but I love them!! It was one of the best concerts I have been to. I was so surprised that everyone there could sing to the songs, no one seems to know how to speak English but they can sing English, GO FIGURE!! I thought that we would be the oldest ones there but we weren't, there was quite a few "older" people there so we didn't feel to out of place. We had a great time enjoy the pictures and Marcus you are now square!! Until the next trip!

Someone threw this flag on stage, it was signed, the band loved it!!

I thought this picture was really funny!!

Marcus in the Amazon

2008-10-17T22:40:00.009-03:00

Marcus took a lot of pictures...don't worry I will not add them all, but I thought some were worth posting...even though he went to DMB concert, whatever....Ok, I had to get in one more jab, I am glad he had a great time, really.

this is the mascot of this Brazilian Army Company, kinda cool!!

One big monkey, I think they went to some zoo by the hotel.

YIKES!!!!

More monkeys....no just kidding...these are all the Foreign Officers taking the Command Coarse here in Brazil

Marcus on the Amazon River.

I Love how this Army Post put up all the flags of the visiting Officers.

Visiting a local village.

Can Anyone Explain This??

2008-10-17T22:28:00.005-03:00

When Marcus was in the Amazon he took this picture of a bird. First without the flash, then with the flash......strange........why does the bird look brown with the flash???

without the flash

with the flah

Feeling a Little Jealous!!

2008-09-27T16:56:00.006-03:00

So Marcus has been away for a week on a class trip to the Amazon. I know poor thing!! I do feel a little bad for him, he got sick, it was bad I guess...but what I am jealous about is that he is having soo much fun!! Everyday he has been doing something new and exciting...drat! Then the final straw!! He went to a Dave Matthews Band concert in the Amazons!! But it does not stop there, O-No, he called me today and said, "Guess what I just spent the last 5 minutes doing?" I was afraid to answer, who could know with all the fun things he had been doing, so I just said, "have no idea" then he informed me that he had just been chatting away with all the members of the band!! Like they were long lost friends or something!! Man, some guys get all the luck!! I am glad he has had such a great time, but I can not help the "little green monster" that is creeping up inside of me!! Hurry home Marcus, I have a full week planned of exciting "house chores" for ya!!!

Madi's Hero is her Daddy!

2008-09-20T20:42:00.009-03:00

Marcus took his girls to Disney's Princess on Ice!! What a great guy!! Madison was so excited....she got to bring a friend, Zenala...we also brought Liza...she is the daughter of our American friends from church. We had a great time!! Everything was in Portuguese, but who cares it was Princess on Ice!!! The pictures are not very good, the seats were up kinda high, plus they wouldn't stay still, they were always moving, go figure!! I just wanted to share a few of the better ones. I hope that maybe we can see it again in America so we can enjoy the show in English, either way I am sure that this is going to be something that Madison will always remember!!!

Fun at the Beach with Travis

2008-09-03T21:47:00.009-03:00

It is hard to get Travis to the beach, I don't know why, there is plenty to look at!! Anyway, we got him to come with us and the kids decided to dig a hole, why is the fun!?! So they dug and dug until there was a huge hole and Travis said, "I think I'm gonna stand in it!" So he did, if everyone knows how tall Travis is then you can only imagine how big the hole was, Brain and Madi and Lucas had so much fun covering Travis up. I think they are really going to miss it here!

First Day of School

2008-09-03T20:28:00.005-03:00

The kids have been back to school for 2 weeks now, I know I am late getting these pictures up, but I have a good excuse. I heard about Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series books and they sounded good, so I bought all 4 and they arrived the day before school. Well needless to say, they were a good read and I finished all 4 in about 8 days! So now I am making up for that with the laundry and everything else that piles up when all you do is read for 8 days! I am going to re-read them, I liked them, looking forward to the movie. Anyway the kids had a great first day of school and are now in the swing of things....I had to post the bus picture mostly for Sandy and Jimmy...see Travis does ride the short bus after all!! Be careful of the things you make fun of they always come back to haunt you!!

Do I really have a High Schooler?!?

2008-08-16T23:27:00.003-03:00

Oh my goodness...Travis is in High School, WOW!! I never thought the day would come! But that is not what I want to share, with being in High Shool he is starting to go to seminary. Well I think it is offical, he is a teenager, what happend to that little boy that would say, "okay mommy." Now I don't want to give the wrong impression that he is totally rebelling, he's not..he is just not liking seminary. I do have to say that he has a point, it is in Portuguesse, so needless to say he is not a happy camper. It takes us 40 minutes to get there..so he tried to use the "gas cost a lot of money" excuse...it's 3 nights a week for 1 hour and 20 minutes...so he tried to use the "I have a lot of home work" excuse...and finally the "there are not a lot of girls" excuse, my favorite, I think he was joking, he knows that he has no choice so he was really throwing them out there. Nice try Travis, have fun in seminary, I will be all gased up, get you an english seminary manual, and send you with a lot of pictures of girls on Tuesday night :)

Something You Don't See Everyday

2008-08-03T21:35:00.002-03:00

Now this is something you don't see everyday. These signs are all over the place when you travel through the mountain areas here. Basically it says...Attention, watch out for wild animals...that's not an exact translation, but that's what they are saying. I have never seen a monkey or anything else for that matter in the middle of the road, people sure, but never wild animals.

Petropolis

2008-08-03T15:39:00.008-03:00

Marcus and I took my mom to the Summer Home of King Don Pedro. It is a great place to visit and I could see why the King and Queen liked it, it is much cooler in the mountains. We were not allowed to take pictures of the inside but they had a lot of neat things, from what we were told this palace was used as a school when the King and Queen were asked to leave Brazil, so not everything inside was original, but rather they were collections of things the family still had and donated, in any case, it all still was very interesting. I think the best part was the Crown, it was on display along with Don Pedro Cape and Staff, the Crown is 4 pounds of diamonds and pearls! Every girls should have 4 pounds of diamonds and pearls in her jewelry box!!

this is the side view and front garden of the Palace

Marcus found a picture of the Crown of Don Pedro on line. He used the jewels from the crown in the upper left corner, which I believe belonged to his father. Don Pedro was 15 when he became King.

Fun in Rio

2008-08-03T15:12:00.008-03:00

We went to the Christ Statue, thought I would share a few picture with you, we were lucky, the sky was crystal clear. We had so much fun! I think they told us there was something like 360 steps up to the statue and we all (even Grandma) climbed them it was great!

The kids with Grandma

Travis and Brian being silly!

Now we were going to use this in our Christmas letter, I think that some photo shop is in need before we can, my poor mom did the best she could, photography is not her thing, Holly we could have really used you!! :)

Grandma's are Great

2008-08-03T14:43:00.003-03:00

My mom came to visit us and just left today, after spending about 4 weeks here. I meant to add this while she was here, but we had so much fun going to the beach and visiting all the great places that Brazil has to offer that I just simply ran out of time. Part of living here means we do not get a few of the things we are used to getting at the store in America, so I took advantage of my mom just a little bit and begged her to bring a few thing along. I was mostly interested in the hair spray. One can here is about $54.00 American dollars. Marcus was not happy spending that much money, and would say, "I must really love you, to be spending that much on that stuff!" and of course I would not want to be out done and I would say, "I must really love you,to follow you half way around the world where you have to spend that much money on that stuff!" Anyway my mom was a real life saver and we both were very happy she brought me 5 cans. Thank goodness she was allowed 70 pounds in her suitcases. As you can see she was able to bring us a lot of things that we so desperately needed. THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM, YOU ARE AWESOME!!! I hope you had as much fun with us as we had with you!!!

The Best Water Slide Ever!!

2008-07-29T14:01:00.003-03:00

We went to a place called Parati. We had soo much fun. We took a jeep tour that took us to a water fall and this AWESOME rock slide. There was a guy sliding down the rock and the kids proceeded to ask when it was going to be their turn, I told them I was sure they wouldn't be able to do it, it was cold, and a little dangerous, as I was proceeding to tell the kids this, Marcus was helping them take their shoes off. Well needless to says I lost!! But I have to say I am glad I did, they had a great time despite the cold water. Lucas was the only one who got over to the slide a decided it was not a good idea (he is more like me then he knows!!) The picture really doesn't do the slide justice. I took more video than pictures but I did manage to get this one of Madison playing the Damsel in Distress, she is not stupid!! She had that boy jumping through hoops for her!! We had a great time.

What A Sand Castle

2008-07-23T18:04:00.004-03:00

So we went out one night and on our way back we spotted this sand castle, we had to stop to take pictures of it....N0t sure how long it took the guy to make but WOW!! There are a few along the beaches here, I will try to get different ones so you all can enjoy.

Reasons To Love Brazil

2008-07-23T11:28:00.010-03:00

We went to visit the Pao de Acucar/Sugar Loaf and took a cable car to the top it was so AWESOME!! The view was breath taking!! It was just about sunset and a little cloudy but the pictures we took turned out great. I will miss this, and I am so glad we did it. When I think back on Brazil, I know that I will think of these things and not the traffic which I complain about every time I am in the car!!

We also have been to the beach a lot but I thought I would share the latest pictures I took. It is hard to believe that we live so close to all this, only a block away, I have to remember how lucky we are to be living in such a beautiful place.

Gentle Beagle, or Junk Yard dog??

2008-06-30T14:00:00.004-03:00

Okay, so it depends on who you ask for the answer to that question. Jack really is a great dog , and we love him, and he loves everyone.......everyone except our gardener Jose'. For some reason he can not seem to get along with him, one day I looked outside because Jack had barked and I've never heard him bark like that, well he had Jose' up on the table scared for his life, it was really quite funny, but not for Jose'. We told him it was because Jack doesn't speak Portuguese HA HA so we have given Jose' a few American sayings like, "Jack that is enough", and "be quite Jack!", and "I have a cookie for you Jack." So far it really hasn't worked, so now I really have to get a bag of dog treats so that Jose' can give him one when he comes in the yard. We will see how that goes. Jack loves our maid, Kellie, I think that it is because she gives him scraps while she is cooking, so I think the treat thing will work. We think that Jack likes it here in Brazil, he is always chasing the local possum that gets in our yard, one day he had it, thank goodness he let it go, but when we got him to come in the house, he smelled just horrible!! The birds that use our pool for a bath only have managed to make him fall in once, we think he has learned his lesson. Finally, the other night he went after a bat, a huge bat that could have carried him away, I am sure of it!! So the local wildlife have been a new and exciting thing for him, we are glad he has these things to keep him busy, since we left his other dog friends in California, Jen I think he really misses walking with Rudy!!

Carnival Rio de Janeiro

2008-06-25T21:26:00.019-03:00

This is our house here in Rio, we love it!

See what I mean over-the-top and we have 500 more just like it. What a good time though.

Brian decided that he wanted to take some friends to a soccer game for his birthday. So Marcus being the great dad he is, took him, along with Travis and 3 friends. They had a great time, and I am about 95% sure Marcus told me they all got searched for fireworks...hmm how did those get in!? Brazilians are wild about their football!! Way to go Marcus, I think it was a hit, smiles all around!!

Madison and Brian at the beach in January!!

I hope everyone enjoys this picture of Lucas. It is my favorite...hmm I wonder why, maybe because of the great view of the water! (tee-hee)

People who speak English are so few here that when you find them, they become instant friends. We bought our van from this Australian family, and had them over for a cook out, the kids had a great time. I love our pool!

Our First Weeks in Paridise?

2008-06-25T16:06:00.007-03:00

Okay, so this is my first post, so please hang in there. Thanks to my many talented friends who gave me the push I needed, and to Mary for showing me how to get started you rock!!! First I must say Brazil is beautiful if you can get past all the traffic and horn honking....you have got to see it to believe it...I think no rules apply, if you can remember that you'll be set! Anyway, the kids finished out school here, it was different, but at least they spoke English, we found a Christian school that was not to far away, they are glad they will not be there for a full year next year. Travis is really the only one that has picked up Portuguese and is quite good, Lucas speaks Portuguese, German, Russian, and finally English you should hear him at the dinner table what a crack-up, he's always good for a laugh. (he really can't speak all those languages, but he thinks he can, SHH.) Things we have done since we got here...let's see...we went to Carnival, glad we didn't take the kids, but it was great to see, way over the top!! The boys went to their first Brazilian soccer game, we visited the King and Queen's "summer house" we should all be so lucky, and have gone to many, many, way too many Brazilian restaurants!! I will be honest, I am having a hard time adjusting, we call it a love/hate relationship that I have with Brazil...love the people, hate the place. Well okay I don't quite hate it here it is getting better, but I can not wait to leave!! We have it so good in America, the things we take for grated, like toilet paper, let me tell you about that, they don't flush it here, talk about gross....I am going to flush a whole roll when I get back just cause I can!!

We did find out when/where we are going and we are headed to the great state of Texas, Go Long Horns! Marcus will report on the 8th of December so we are now on the down slope, yee-haw, sorry I'm just getting into the spirit of Texas.

Hope you enjoy our pictures of the sites here in Brazil.