Well I just uploaded over a hundred pictures off my dads digital camera I bought him for his retirement present....he got to use it when his son in England surprised him with a trip to Brazil and I just thought I'd share some of them.









More to come......

BTW, dad's in pretty good shape for being 76 this year huh?

OHHH WOW! What a wonderful Surprise trip,, Brazil ...!!!!

I know your Dad was Happpppppy!

Yes Indeed!!

Your dad looks great,Loz. The background is so nice! I cannot wait to see more,What a great time he must have had:-)

I'm so sorry to all the dial up people, I used to have dial up too...

It was a HUGE surprise Diane.....They went from England to Paris and my brother Pete said to dad this isn't your surprise, we're only here to catch a flight to Brazil to the Copocabana Beach in Rio.... Nice present for someone who's worked 60 years of his life!



See the little thing on top of the one hill, that's the Jesus statue.


My brother Pete, he lives in Wales.

Loz, those pics are awesome. You dad looks great! The scenery, WOW!

You took the words right out of my mouth, Triss!

Your dad is pretty darn good with that camera, Loz!

He'd tell you he isn't too bad for an old fart..... I'm not kidding, that is what he'd say.

This is Dad at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in England....it's an amusement park.





Mom.

Simply Breathtaking Picture! Overlooking the city into the mountains Peaked with The Cross!

Awesome!! I imagine He was in AWE most of the time I know I would have been!

Oh he was in awe Diane, he was totally shocked to even be there. He didn't even have anything to swim in....







In my Nanas garden, grandad has 2 greenhouses!

OMG, Loz!!!!! These pictures are FANTASTIC! It looks so beautiful there. I was just gonna ask, "Where's Mom", then I saw her!

Your Nana's roses are BEAUTIFUL! (How old is grandad????)

Grandad and Nana are in their mid 80's....Dad's closer to Nanas age than moms! Mom and Dad are 13 years apart and Nana highly disapproved of Dad at first.

I feel so bad for my Grandad....he's in bad health and can't garden anymore. Nana said he'll sit out there in the greenhouse for hours but he just can't physically do the gardening anymore.

More mom

loz - I'm really enjoying your pictures!
Thanks so much for sharing them with us!

Your parents both look great, and it's nice to cyber meet your brother!
What a terrific thing for your brother to do for your dad - I'm sure they made many wonderful memories together.

Beautiful pictures, Laura!

It's too bad that he can't do much of the gardening anymore. Is there someone that could help him?

Dianna

He's on oxygen now(he never smoked), and he can't walk much. My uncle hired a gardener to come once a week though. I can't imagine being a gardener and then not being able to garden one day.

And thank you....it's been fun sharing the pics with you all.

Oh I hope you have more Loz. Especially the scenery. Love those ones.

I do have a few more scenic pictures that I'll post tomorrow!

Oh good! Nite Loz, sleep well.

Those two pictures, one with you dad infront of the statue and the one where it's just a speck on the photo are simply AWEEEESOME..
I love them both...
Great photo's Laura...
(*One of our members has lived in Brazil for a bit, Newt... her son lives there and she stays winters with him*)
That's a beautiful place to visit...
Thanks for sharing those...

Beautiful views Laura.(Brazil that is). I see Blackpool has not changed much. although I
would not recognise the amusement park they keep changing the rides.

Thanks for sharing!!!

It's always great to see another country that you know you'll never get to visit.

Lisa, Blackpool was my fav. place as a kid. Dad would take us there on mystery trips. Do you remember the Funhouse that burnt down? I used to love it in there.





Going up to the Jesus statue looks pretty scary!

This is the house we grew up in...the one with the white door. The back yard is only 3 times as big as the front yard. Dad said they are selling for 200,000 pounds now!!!! That's ridiculous!

Awesome pics, Loz!

Beautiful. I love that picture above the house one.

From the looks of it, you would never guess there was a yard in back of that house.

Wooooooohhhh It looks Like a Drop off

So when did you start up your interest in gardening was is because your Grandfather has gardens??? I bet seeing that house brings back a lot of sweet memories huh Loz?
I was watching househunters international and they sell small spaces for megabucks$$$$$$$$$$$$$'s all over the world

WOW!!!!!!

GREAT pics, Loz!!!!!

Amazing! Thank you!Loz,I see where you get your shoe thing, Your mom had some darn nice shoes on....great pics!!

Angie, mom is nowhere near as bad as me with shoes! Yesterday I wanted to buy some more boots and she was just smiling and shaking her head at me.

You know, saying that the house had a yard that big is a bit generous probably. Mom only had a couple of plants there, and when it was nice Dad would put our little kiddy pool in the backyard so I could play. This might give you a better idea of the size of the yard. TINY! And not worth 200,000 pounds.



I did get my love of gardening from my nana and grandad! They had a little sign made with Lauras garden where I could dig around and plant seeds. Grandad grew lots of things but I specifically remember all of the Sweetpeas he had---it's sad now that he's in too poor of health to garden....

Loz...Reminds me of my youth in Chicago,Just Love The pics...:-)

Yeah 200,000 sounds about right these days Laura. Prices have gone really high. It's ridiculous, how can first time buyers afford that! The prices are higher still in the city centre.

Thanks for sharing Loz!!!

Beautiful pictures Loz! What a wonderful gift your brother gave to your dad.

loz

Sounds like one wonderful family .

Perhaps you will go there some day.

dodge ......Thanks for sharing.....

Barb, it is a great family....I doubt I'll ever get to Brazil, but I have been back to England one time.

Lisa---I can't believe the prices of things over there , especially housing. That house we grew up in wasn't that great. When we lived there it had no central heating. Just a fireplace and we used a kerosene heater upstairs......We'd wake up to frost inside the windows!

loz

I didnt know your from England......Your doing great here.. What age did you come here/

My husbands grandmom was from there, and gdad was Wales......My dad was Poland.

Tell me more.

dodge

Well the story is this: My nana in England married a US soldier that was stationed in the UK. They had my mom and a few years later divorced because Nana wouldn't leave England. Mom never knew her "real" dad. She was raised by my Nanas next husband and to mom that is her dad.

When I was 6 mom found her US dad over here and came over here for a few weeks by herself to see him. Not long after that my dad got laid off from his welding job that he'd been at for years and years and was having problems finding a new job. They decided that the following year, when I was 7, that we'd move over here so mom could get to know her dad. So with a lot of tears we left England and all of our family behind for a new start over here.

We lived with moms real dad and stepmother for a few months until we found a house. Luckily they could buy it outright from selling the house in England. It was a real struggle at first--Dad did anything he could for money including, grave digging, painting houses, any odd job he could get.

Things weren't great with my "real" grandad. His new family didn't know about mom, and his wife was jealous of her. He passed away 5 years after we moved here.

We've been here now since 1983 and even though I'm still a UK citizen I consider the US my home and plan on becoming a citizen when my green card expires.

Loz

wow ........
What a story......Glad your with us.. You had it rough.......
When does the green card expire? I know nothing of that .

dodge

I believe I have 3-4 more years left as a registered legal alien. They are good for 10 years--going to Baltimore to get it was TERRIBLE!!!! A real pain in the rear. :p

I can't complain too much, it was hard leaving our family in England....and I rarely ever get to see them and that's sad. We've had a pretty good life over here.

loz - we always KNEW you were an ALIEN!!!

Lynne!!

I am! I'm an alien!

loz,

You sounded so american, I would of never guessed..

I imagine it is worse when your a child and drawn between relatives..
Glad you survived........
My man was in England in the air force.. Told me lots of stories..

They are supposed to be great experts on flowers.
You in the right spot Loz......
And i read every one of the James Herriot stories.. He was the ole Vet there and loved animals........
Did you read them? They are all thru our librarys.....

Dodge

great pics loz, now if I can figure out how to afford to go to England! Your pics really made the scenery look as I thought it to be all these years.

Dodge, English gardens are some of the most beautiful ones out there! I don't think I've ever read any of his books, I'll have to look them up.

KS, just glad to share some pics!

Here's me in front of our old house the only time I've ever been back....I was 15.

...and of course you have a shopping bag in your hand!

Why of course.....my brother in England gave me 50 pounds to go shopping with. Well that isn't really THAT much but I dragged dad in every womens store I could find that day!

BTW, that's my natural hair color--no wonder I color it!

It looks fine Laura but i do like the red too!!!

It looks like MY hair color!

Sorry Cindy! If I ever get to visit I could color your hair for you!

Penny I just get tired of the same color--I love to experiment!

I did that when i was younger...now i am afraid to have green hair!!!

Green hair can always be fixed!

But my luck it would take days

Loz...if you will come visit me I'll let you color my hair...or shave my head if you want to!

Penny, if I make it to Canada I'll color your hair too!

Did I tell you I'm coming next week?

I'm not gonna forget that one....nope! I stored it away in my brain!

What about meeeeeee

Uhhh...you better back that up on a disk!

Pictures are a must you guys

I would love for Mark and you to come on up here for a visit Laura...you'd love it here!

I'm not really going next week, but I WILL one day....Mark knows I want to, and he's briefly talked to Cindy....I think he answered the phone one day and said Moran Manor Nursing Home....

Weezie, I can color your hair too if you want!

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="COMIC SANS MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="3" face="COMIC SANS MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by weezie13:
<strong> What about meeeeeee
(I don't think I have anything to worry about!)

Wouldnt you just die Cindy if "they" all showed up at your door

heheheehe..
When I win that lottery, *if it's a big one*
I'm buying one of those mini~winnie~wago~bay~goes... and it's a road trip for me....

I'll give your hair a good colorin'!!!

I used to color my hair since I was in highschool..
and now, I don't..
Kinda want to remember what my hair color was for a while, cause once it's gone, it's gone...
Then I'll go back to colorin' it...

**actually, I don't need to color mine,
YET!!!**

Hey, let's get back to Brazil...

Got more pictures??

I love that Jesus one..
That would be sooooooo awesome, and I mean AWESOME to see that...

I am ready for more pics as well. Just cannot get enough of the country, it is so beautiful. You know what was really cool? This week on CSI Miami, they went to Brazil on location and showed the Jesus Statue and panned over the city. I recognized several places from your pics. It was cool.

loz

You look happy no matter where you are.
And no matter what color..........

Looked like a neat place there.
dodge

keep smiling!!!!!1