Christmas 2011

This picture was actually taken as the kids were coming down the stairs to see what Santa brought.  Jason insisted they stop and pose for a picture.  Can you tell by the look on Kaitlyn's face that she is really just dying to rip around the corner and see what's in the other room?  I guess I should have followed Jason's example and made them pose a few more times because at the end of the day I realized the camera sat on top of the piano unused most of the day.  Oh well... It was a fabulous Christmas and everyone was very spoiled.

Holiday Fun

It's been a busy month with lots of fun Christmas activities.  Here are some recent pictures.

Kaitlyn was my best helper in the kitchen.

Having fun making sugar cookies.

The Salt Lake Temple

Enjoying the lights at Temple Square.

Andrew and Jared had their first piano recital the week before Christmas.  They were really nervous but did a great job!  It was amazing to see how far they have both come in only six months!  Their recital was at the Eccles Community Art Center.  It is a beautiful house that has been restored in downtown Ogden and it was all decorated for Christmas.  They even got to perform on a concert size Steinway piano!

At the family Christmas party Kaitlyn was thrilled to see Santa.  The boys weren't quite so excited until they realized he was giving Lego's to all the boys.

Thanksgiving

When I was starting to recover from the jet lag a few days after we arrived home I was a little panicked to realize that Thanksgiving was only a week away and I had offered to host Jason's family a few months before.  Thanks to everyone's help bringing food I was able to pull it off.  As always it was a day of too much wonderful food and lots of good company.

Construction Finally Done!

We arrived home from the airport just in time to see our finished construction project in the backyard and shoot the first hoops with the kids.

Brazil: Day 9

Sunday, Nov. 13th was our last day in Brazil and although I loved being there it was time to go home.  I missed the kids so much!  Before we got on the plane though we had a full day.  Moises picked us up and we went with his family in Ipiranga where Moises was living when he was baptized.  Things had changed a lot but Jason enjoyed seeing some of the people he knew.

Some of the members in Iparanga

Joao Cicero, his wife Marta and their daughter Carolina.

The church in Ipiranga

Moises, Eliane, Natalia and Pamela.  A wonderful family we were privileged to spend the week with!

Dinner at Moises and Eliane's.  She made us Brazilian pancakes (more like an enchilada than our pancakes.)

One more stop before the airport.  Alvaro Alves, Josilma, Vivian, Renan, Rogerio, Lehi, and Gustavo.

Jason baptized Omar and after all week trying to meet up with him we were finally able to see him at the airport before we left.

Brazil: Day 8

The day before we flew home we spent the day with Bira and his family.  First we went to their home and ate lunch.  Here's a picture of Bira, his wife, Marlene, and their daughter.

Bira and his wife took us to Campas do Jordao.  It is a mountain town settled by the Swiss.  It was high up in the mountains and we were surprised by how cool it was.  After spending all week in shorts and t-shirts we had to bundle up in jackets there.  The town was beautiful and very different from the rest of Brazil.  It seemed like we had left Brazil and walked into a European city.  First we went to a palace at the top of the town that had been built as a resort home for the governor of Sao Paulo.

With a guard in front of the palace.

A view of the palace from the outside.

On the grounds of the palace.

Here are some other pictures of the town.  It was a beautiful town all decorated for Christmas!

Brazil: Day 7

On our way back from Rio we stopped at Parque Nacional de Itatiaia.  We could have easily spent a whole day there but we only had a couple hours.  The forest was beautiful and alive with the sounds of all the animals, although during the heat of the day we didn't see most of them.  We did a couple short hikes to some beautiful waterfalls.

There were hundreds of colorful butterflies at the National Park!

After leaving the National Park we stopped in Lorena.  This was the first area where Jason served on his mission.  Before coming he kept saying that he really wanted to find Ivone, his first baptism.  Searches on the internet weren't able to find anything but he said we couldn't pass Lorena without trying.  We stopped in Lorena on our way to Rio on Wednesday and went to the house she lived in 17 years ago.  She had moved but the owner of the house knew was able to tell us how to get to where she was now living.  Ivone wasn't there when we got there but some of her family was.  They were able to leave a message for her so we could stop by and see her on our way back on Friday.  Jason was thrilled to find out she is still active in the church and to meet her grandson who is a deacon.

Brazil: Day 5&6

Wednesday Moises and Eliane drove us to Rio de Janiero.  It is really difficult to pick a favorite part of the trip but this might be it.  We loved spending more time with Moises and Eliane.  Moises was constantly entertaining us!  Rio is a beautiful city!  We arrived Wednesday evening just in time to take a walk on Copacabana before it was dark.  We watched a beautiful moon rise over the ocean!

Friday we enjoyed a run on Copacabana and then were off to the tourist sights.  We decided it was safer to navigate the city with taxis.  Moises was hilarious with the taxi drivers.  It was the one time I really felt like I was missing out on something by not understanding the language.  They were talking way too fast for Jason to translate but Moises had everyone laughing and having a great time.  We got to Corcovado mountain and found out there was an hour and a half wait until we could catch a train to the top.  Before long Moises was talking to some of the people who worked there and got us moved up to the next train that was coming!

The ride on the train was entertaining with a very fun group of Brazilians singing the whole way up!  On the top of the mountain sits the statue of Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer.)  The view of Rio was breathtaking!

After a quick lunch we headed over to Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf.)  There is a tram we rode to the top of this mountain.  Here's a view from the parking lot at the bottom and the tram we rode on.

I wasn't sure it was going to be worth going to the top of Sugar Loaf after we had already been to the top Corcovado but I think the view was even better on top of Sugar Loaf!  There were also some beautiful trails we could walk on through the forest at the top of Sugar Loaf.

Finally we made it back to enjoy the hot afternoon at Copacabana.