Our Last Brazilian Post

We have exhausted our time on the beaches of Brazil! We are getting ready to fly back to Campinas tomorrow, will spend 2 more days at Junior and Roberta´s, then off to Sao Paulo, Mexico, and then VEGAS! Please pray for good weather and safe flights all the way home! We love and miss you all!

The Escape!

If you´ve been following our random posts on Facebook, we spent the last 5 days in Recife...it´s known for its coral reefs which are only visible by plane or helicopter. It rained for the first 3 days, and we spent most of our time at the largest mall in town, Shopping Recife. It´s huge! Over 400 stores a movie theater with I think 15 screens. We watched "legendado" movies, which are the American movies with Portuguese subtitles. We watched almost all of the movies that were in English because of the rain. On our last full day in Recife, Aaron and I played around in the incredibly warm waters of the Atlantic. We visited a place called Porto de Galinhas, which is a place that most Brazilians identify as paradise. Roughly translated it means port of little chickens, but we didn´t have the pleasure of seeing any. So back to my narrow escape and Recife...Aaron and I were playing in the ocean having a grand old time when all of a sudden I feel a heavy jagged force plunge into the front of my right ankle. Keep in mind, Recife is not only know for its reef, it is also know for it´s shark-infested waters. I lift my right foot up and see that the salt water didn´t mix well with whatever happened to my foot. I looked down to see my foot dripping with blood. I checked to see if there were teeth marks, but as Aaron and I swam back to the beach I looked back only to find a random piece of ocean debris; I think it was a piece of wood from a pirate ship...or not :) We finished off the night by eating our most satisfying meal throughout this whole month at a place called Gios and caught the last showing of GI Joe. The local cab driver said it was an Italian place, but it was actually a really nice restaurant/pizzeria with a variety of food. Aaron and I have been eating a bunch of Brazilian flavors, and just wanted a taste of something remotely close to the food served in the states. We splurged and got chips and salsa, chicken tacos, potato skins, a Caesar salad and I opted for a steak. Holy cow! Everything tasted like it was supposed to. As for GI Joe, Aaron says it had good graphics and we both thought the story line was kinda cheesy. I say it was pretty good, but maybe wait for it to come out on Redbox.

Now we´re in Fortaleza. We splurged again and are staying in a super nice hotel. We got so lucky and planted ourselves in the most perfect place for both of us! Our hotel is right between a McDonald's and a Pizza Hut. We´re stoked! We opted for pizza tonight, and to our surprise our food tasted the way it was supposed to again. Not only that, but the Pizza Hut has free Internet! Woohoo! (As long as we eat here.) Not only that but we have a room with an ocean view and we´re right across the street from the beach which turns into a swap meet of sorts in the evening. We´re having fun, but we are also anxious to get back to reality back home. Pictures to come probably when we get back! All is well! We appreciate your prayers for good weather and a safe return to Vegas!

At the Copa...Copacabana!

So we´re in our final hours here in Rio de Janeiro. The day is absolutely gorgeous! This is a wonderful change from the endless rain, dirty clothes and freezing weather...well not freezing I suppose. We found a lavanderia right next door to our hotel and got a chance to wash all of our clothes for a pretty good price. We ventured up to see ¨Christ the Redeemer¨ yesterday and we got nothing but clouds, rain and a cold breeze. It was 0% visability, but we got some pictures of the feet and a shadow of the arms; most of it looked like clouds. Nonetheless, we may try a second attempt to see it today if time permits. In the mean time, we´ve spent most of the day on Copacabana drinking fresh orange juice and coconut water straight from the coconut! It´s been so much fun doing almost absolutely nothing! :) Aaron has been great keeping me safe and well fed. He says his throat is still scratchy, but he feels ok. He hasn´t gotten sick, except for the one flight from Campinas to Curitiba (His stomach flip-flopped around too much in the turbulance and up-chucked in his white hat--this was a few days ago. No worries--we got through the last 2 flights in peace and saftey.)

To keep my family´s mind at ease, I´ve gotten a hold of my resume and have been trying to apply for jobs through the internet. So hopefully by the time we get back I will get a call for an interview. Keep praying! We love you all and miss Las Vegas very much! We will continue to keep you updated!

Our Amazing Day at the Falls!

Yesterday afternoon were able to see one of the most amazing wonders of the world. I´ll post some pictures.The footage we got from the helicopter was amazing too. I think the pictures speak for themselves. Our first stop was at the Parque de Aves. It was filled with exotic birds from the Amazon as well as some endangered species. One of the toucans caught a whiff of Aaron´s crackers (which he was carrying in his pocket) and tried to get to them. Instead, Aaron got a little nibble on his jacket by the toucan. He says he´ll never look at Fruit Loops the same way. We entered the national park and did a safari boat trip and caught a glimps of some of the native wild life. More to come soon. We´ll be catching our flight to Rio de Janeiro in a few hours!

Greetings from Brazil!

So video is also a bust so I´ll just be posting some pictures on the web.

So pictures ar kind of a bust...

In an attempt to post pictures and our video logs...I´ve fugured that it takes much more time than I anticipated. It´s about 12am and I´ve been trying for the last 2 hours. So...if we find ourselves stuck in an airport with some extra cash...I´ll try and do a mass post of our video logs. I´ve posted only some of the pictures from our very first day traveling. In any case, I´ve also skipped out on a few days worth of our travels which we will update soon. We are havingn tons of fun and will be leaving Cosmopolis tomorrow evening and heading down to Foz de Iguazu, Brazil! We will then head back up to Rio on the 29th and make our way up the Brazilian coast to visit the various beaches! Aaron´s got a bit of the sniffles. It´s quite a change in climate and his body is still adjusting, we think. We are otherwise, well and venturing off on our own as of tomorrow evening. Ate lago!

Estamos muito frio, pero muito bem!

We are really cold, but very well! Aaron and I drove with our host family, Junior, Roberta and their family 2 filhos *children*, to Campinas for the day. Our drive was beautiful, there are endless fields of sugar cane and greenery. Also, a few miles just out of Cosmopolis where we are staying are large oil refineries. It is an interesting and a bit random sight to see in the middle of green fields. While in Campinas, we went shopping at the largest mall in South America, Dom Pedros. Aaron bought me some pretty sweet aviator sun glasses and we both purchased a pair of Brazil's signature flip flops. The mall was huge and we did a lot of walking. To reward ourselves, we went to the food court to buy $50 worth--US dollars--of Pizza Hut pizza. It was pretty expensive, but Aaron says it was totally worth it. By the way, that got us 2 large pizzas, 1 order of bread sticks and 4 drinks. As they say in Brazil, es muito caro! Its very expensive.

We returned to Cosmopolis mid afternoon so Roberta could go to work. We visited briefly with Juniors parents at their home. They have a large house with 4-5 rooms, 2 kitchens, and a backyard complete with an outdoor shower, swimming pool and wet bar. It was very neat. Junior took us on a tour of the town. We stopped at the house where Aaron lived during his mission. It was a quaint little house with a yard of healthy green grass. He wants to add that he once mowed the lawn buck naked...

Junior was very accommodating, he pointed out that there is either a church or a bar on every corner. Its difficult to tell the difference between the two sometimes...people drinking, falling all over the place, or just going crazy...

Before we left Las Vegas, we purchased a stunt kite for the kids. We tried to fly it next to a highway because it was the one open space that had only a few power lines. Luckily, for our safety there wasn't any wind, so as an alternate we went to the neighborhood park. The trees there were unbelievably tall and beautiful, with so much shade. We were fortunate enough to spot a wild macaw flying in to rest. It was quite the sight to see.

We ended our day at the pastelaria, a little cart where we purchased pastels--something similar to fried pita bread stuffed with ground beef and cheese. It was super delicious. It was a very busy day and we had to end it with full stomachs. We are now finalizing our plans to head out of Cosmopolis and to the big cities that await us in Brazil.

Aaron is kinda sick. Its so cold, especially coming from 117 degree weather to 50 degree weather, so hes got a head cold. No fever, just a leaky nose. No worries though, we got some NyQuil and hes good to go so far. His English is fading, but is Portuguese gets better and better every day. He says that I'm learning the language quickly and its been a lot of fun talking with our Brazilian family. They teach us Portuguese and we try to teach them a little English. Tomorrow we are heading back to Campinas to visit the center--el centro--and try to do a session at the LDS temple. Its 0018 and we are totally beat. Its going to be an early morning and long, but fun day tomorrow! We ll keep you all updated. Until next time!

Estamos em Brazil!

Just yesterday we left our home in Las Vegas...and after a 5 hour flight, 7 hour layover in Mexico City, Mexico and 9 hour semi-turbulent flight we arrived safely in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

We spent most of our time in Mexico City trying to find places to sleep and eat in the airport. Stepped out onto the streets of Mexico for about 3 minutes max. Then slipped back into the confines of immigration to make other numerous attempts to find places to sleep. It was kinda cool to see just the airport in Mexico. There were a lot of familiar places like 7-11, Circle K, Subway and McDonalds. While we were making our rounds through the Mexican airport, we ran into some LDS missionaries. One of them was from Utah--the airport was part of his mission. We were thankful that there wasn't anything too exciting that happened down there except a little bit of rain. Our flight was on time and our plane had only a handful of people in it. For some strange reason no one wants to fly into or out of Mexico City...

After a restless flight to Brazil, we jogged the airport sidewalk a few times in search of our shuttle to our hotel. Each person that we spoke with i.e. immigration, customs, had made all initial attempts at conversing with us through me. However, after a blank stare and possibly a slight look of fear, I would hurriedly give a brisk and forceful tug on Aaron's shirt to help me understand what everyone was trying to say. When we arrived at our hotel, I found that Mexico left me some kind of bug in my stomach. I spent the first day and night in Brazil, half in bed and the other half in the bathroom. Aaron's stomach is good. I took some Imodium and have been fine ever since. A family whom Aaron taught while on the mission was kind enough to drive 2 hours out to pick us up and drive us around Sao Paulo. The city and sights are gorgeous. More to come later. We are now in the Brazilian family's home--their names are Junior and Roberta--pronounced Ho-ber-tah. They have been super kind to us and have been kind enough to feed us and drive us all around. Nonetheless its about 2300 now and we are beat, and according to Junior, church starts bright and early at 0900. While we have Internet, we will try and keep the blog updated. Hope all is well in the states! Ate logo!

Testing...Testing...

This last week I have encountered quite a whirl wind of events. I could write about it in detail, but perhaps at a later time. The series of events that has transpired are a bit too new. God never gives us tests and challenges that we cannot overcome; I always remember this and make an honest effort to rise up to these small tests. Despite adversity, I feel truly blessed. I passed my boards. I'm an RN~Aaron and I are ecstatic!

What's New?...

Aaron and I have been married for 2 years, 5 months, and 6 days...but who's counting? Marriage so far has been great! We're continually learning so much about each other and what marriage is about. It's been a little over a month since I graduated with my Bachelor's in Nursing from Nevada State College. Much has changed for both Aaron and me and it has been quite exciting. For starters, I have time. (Although a simple concept, it is something so valuable.) This is something pretty monumental for us. Being at home is both refreshing, but a bit odd considering Aaron and I spent most of our marriage on opposite schedules: when he was at work or school I'd be at home and when he was home I'd either be at school, studying, doing some extracurricular thing or at work. Lately, Aaron and I have been able to spend more time with each other. He's actually been able to eat a home-cooked meal on occasion, I've done a few loads of laundry (I hate doing laundry), and the mailbox is emptied each day. I wish I could say that I'm pretty domestic, but I'd rather study or edit a paper than wash dishes. Since I am no longer obligated to do school-related stuff I've opted for a balance between studying for my licensing exam and pacing myself with the house work. As for Aaron, he has tons on his plate! He's still keeping busy with his bookkeeping and payroll company, Preferred CFO and is always looking for new avenues to pursue in his business. In addition to that, he's started taking some real estate classes just for kicks. He's been very ambitious this summer--I love it.

Another random event that has him really excited is the arrival of our new juicer. Whenever we get our fruits and veggies, we try not to get too much because it always spoils, molds, smells funny, or sits and wrinkles in our fridge. So one late night, (while I was asleep obviously), Aaron caught an infomercial with Jack LaLanne, was convinced that we needed one, felt moved enough to make a call, and UPS finally dropped off our power juicer. We opened the box 2 days ago and took out everything in our fridge that could possibly be juiced: 1 wrinkled apple, 2 non-wrinkled apples, 1/2 bag of dried baby carrots (still edible by the way), and a lemon that has been in our veggie bin for about 2 months (it was still very yellow and pretty). We juiced the apples and it looked like mud-tinged water. To both mine and Aaron's surprise it was agreeably the best apple juice we've ever tasted! We were so excited, we took another glass out to juice the carrots. I'm not a big fan of carrot juice, but it was decent, Aaron says it was pretty good. Lastly, we juiced the lemon. Duh--we kind of predicted what that would taste like, so we added it to the carrot juice. The juice wreaked of lemon tartness so we did not know what to expect....Again, to our surprise it was pretty tasty. In about 5 minutes we emptied out our veggie bin and had pretty nutritious dinner. We anticipate buying more fresh produce in the near future. We'll keep you posted on more juicing stories if they're interesting. :)