We’re back!!  I took last week off from the blog so that while we were in Paraguay (South America) visiting Ben’s parents, I could just be fully present with them and not wonder/worry about work or social media :-)  It was a much needed break, for sure!  And now I’m ready to get back at it and get the blog ready for the marathon of things that come with spring.  I’m so excited!

So if we just got home from being out of the country, why is Downton Abbey part of this blog post?  Well, the truth is, when Season 3 was being aired, I’d accidentally seen a spoiler about what happened in the final episode and after the other tragedy of that season, I just couldn’t take it.  So I’ve basically been avoiding it for about 3 years (holy moly, that’s a long time!).

But I figured that since the series has now ended, I might as well suck it up and watch that episode so that we could finally continue watching the show!  So we watched it Saturday evening after getting home and unpacking and I’m here to say that I made it through even though tears were shed. But we were able to start the next season immediately so that definitely helped!  And now we’re back in the usual blissful and crazy world of 1922 England :-)

While we were in Paraguay, we took a couple of days to drive up to the boarder of Brazil and cross over so that we could visit the Iguazu Falls.  I’d heard they were big, but wow!  These falls put Niagra to shame.  And the photo below is only a small portion of the entire park.

But what made me angry that day was when mine and Catherine’s lunch was stolen… by these pesky little racoon-type animals called coati.  There are signs everywhere warning you not to feed them, which I never planned to do at all.  But I made the mistake of setting my bag down for a photo and the next thing I know, three of them are digging into the small opening with their 6 inch noses and pulling out the bag with my sandwich and fruit!

I’ve never wanted to kick an animal before in my life (and I didn’t this time either), but when they take your baby’s food?!?  Oh my gosh, I was so angry.  And once Catherine got hungry an hour or so later, she was pretty angry too!  I’ve never wished I was still nursing her more than in that moment.  But, praise the Lord, I remembered I had a KIND granola bar in my bag, so that tided her over until we were able to get back to the car.

Let’s just say that the coati are very much on my bad list at the moment…

Thankfully though, we all survived and the falls were gorgeous!!  I have plenty more photos to share, so be on the look out later this week!