Petropolis

Saturday Cara, Matt and I went to Petropolis, a cute little town in the mountains near Rio. We toured the Imperial Palace. It was fun. Lunch was too, but my favorite part of the day was shopping at the Luiz Salvador Ceramic Store where we bought a set of handmade dishes. I love them. No picture yet since they're all boxed up safely for the shipment.

favorite family pictures

So, it's turning out to be a little more than one photo-a-day...but it's crunch time for the photo posting. We're down to one week left...

Cidade Maravilhosa

Cara (a lifelong family friend who is staying with us for a few weeks) and I at the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain at sunset. This was my third time to the top, and by far my favorite view!

the Amazon at sunrise

While flying back from Utah for Grandma's funeral last week, I woke up just in time to see this out my window:

More from the trip

In addition to visiting Matt's old stomping ground, we also attended the temple in Sao Paulo. Among other things I am learning not to take for granted, is proximity to the temple. Like many members of the church outside America, we traveled the equivalent of a 6 hour drive to the closest temple.

A really fun part of this trip was taking Ethan along with us. My mom volunteered to stay home in Rio with Garrett and Lydia so Ethan could have this special weekend with Mom and Dad. I love spending one-on-one time with our kids this way. It was so good for Ethan, and so enjoyable for all of us. Garrett and Lydia had a party weekend with Grandma and had a great time too.

Our friends from California, the Hutchings, moved to Sao Paulo shortly after we moved to Rio. Their son, Elden, was in Ethan's preschool and one of his best friends. Ethan was happier than I've seen him in a long time as he spent an entire day playing with Elden!

We went to a nearby mall for dinner, and the boys insisted on wearing their superhero costumes. They certainly drew in the crowds as they marched around the mall holding hands and singing Jingle Bells. It was so cute.

Ethan can't wait to go back to "Elden's Brazil"

Called to Serve

10 years ago, Matt was serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sao Paulo.

When we were engaged, he talked about taking me back there one day. I think it's so cool that he actually did.

We met two of the families Matt shared the gospel with and baptized while on his mission. They are incredible, humble, faithful members of the church and it was an honor to meet them. I was so touched by their outpouring of love.

Matt baptized Luana (on the far right) when she was 14 years old. In July we will join them in the Sao Paulo Temple where she will be married.

Not having served a mission myself, it was really neat for me to visit the areas, the mission office, and the people that were a part of Matt's life for two years. I felt just a glimpse of the spirit of love and service that surrounds the work of the Lord.

And finally...Foz do Iguacu #4- in transit

I'm sure most of you have tuned out by now, so this is the last one, I promise.

Some of these are out of order as they are of the flights to and from the falls, but I loved the step back in time at the airport in Foz d0 Iguacu and wanted to document it.

The beautiful sky as the sun began to set was a perfect welcome to the natural beauty we were about to witness.

We were a bit nervous because our airline, Ocean Air, sounds a bit too much like Oceanic, but we had quite an enjoyable flight.

Foz do Iguacu #3- Argentina Falls

On Day 2 we crossed the border into Argentina. At this point on the bridge across the river, you can see the corners of 3 countries.

1 month into retirment and Mom's already got two stamps in her passport!

We certainly became "one with nature" as our tour guide predicted. We covered an estimated 7 km over the course of the day. We walked various paths through the rainforest to see these stunning views:

We geared up for a ride around the falls in a boat similar to this one. We were told young kids go all the time.

We became suspicious when we didn't see any kids as we boarded the raft with our three little ones.

The kids were quite excited about the whole thing until the boat actually took off and it was pretty much screams from then on out, culminating at the point we went under the falls and got completely drenched (except for Garrett, Lydia's head and the left side of my body that was under the poncho the boat driver threw us at the last minute). I'm sure the rest of the passengers enjoyed their trip and the crazy Americans who traumatized their children.

(We had a few words for the woman who sold us that part of the tour.)

After the boat was a nice, safe jeep ride through the jungle before we made one last hike to the overlook into Devil's Throat.

At the end of the day, we were all exhausted!

Foz do Iguacu #2- Brazil Falls

I'm backposting a little bit on this. We got sick, then we took another trip and time just slipped away. Here's the rest of my travel log:

After the bird park, we experienced the falls from the Brazil side.

Now, we thought this was a lot of water, and it was pretty incredible.

But this is absolutely breathtaking:

We enjoyed a 1 km walk with views of the Brazil and Argentina Falls along the way, ending at Devil's throat.

At the end of the day..

these guys were wiped out.

Foz do Iguacu #1- Bird Park

Here we go...

(this one's a repeate, but I really like it)

Anyone craving Fruit Loops?

Enough of the Toucans.

How about some Macaws?

Our first stop of the trip was to the Bird Park located outside the National Park. We thought we'd be looking at some pretty cool birds and such, but we had no idea we'd be right in the aviaries with them!

It was great, except for Ethan, who is slightly afraid of birds. We thought he'd be fine as we looked in on them from the outside like you do at the zoo. We were wrong. The bird park was also unlike the zoo in that you can't just walk around and see what you want and then leave. It's a path and once you're in, there's only one way out. That way out required walking through several aviaries.

Ethan is now admittedly terrified of all birds. Lydia's not too far behind him either. While this picture may not look like much, it's actually a Toucan hopping toward Lydia's stroller. It didn't get her.

Happily, the path ended at a little courtyard with a gift shop and a restaurant with an Argentine Band playing some really cool music with really cool instruments. It almost made up for the bird scare. We bought Ethan one of their CDs.