Hiking the Y

We're probably driving to California, or getting settled in right now, but I wanted to set up this post before we left so you guys would have something to distract you while we were busy. A few days before we left Provo we hiked the Y. Ryan had never hiked the Y before, so we decided he needed to do it at least once before we left. It was a little bit more difficult than I remember it being when I hiked it like 8 years ago, but then again I did have to carry a baby half the way. Okay, maybe I only did 1/4 and Ryan did the other 3/4, but still he's heavy.

Here we are getting ready to start the hike.

Here's Lucas hiking up on his own. He actually did quite a bit of the hike on his own. He thought it was so much fun running around in the dirt.

Here's where daddy took over carrying the baby.

Climbing around at the top.

View of Provo.

Getting sleepy on the walk down.

We timed our hike just right so we could watch the sunset from the top.  It's not the most amazing sunset I've seen here in Provo, but it was fun to see nonetheless.

Nelson Apartments

We've been busy packing up our stuff and getting ready to go, but we made some time to run out front of our apartment complex and take a picture.  We've lived here for almost 5 years.  I'm not going to say I'll miss the apartment, but I'll miss the fun times we had.

These are some of our best friends, and our next door neighbors.  We will really miss them!

Picking Raspberries

Ryan's mom has some raspberry bushes in her backyard.  The other day while we were over there visiting, Lucas and I decided to go out and pick some raspberries to eat.  They were so good, Lucas ate way more than his fair share.

We took the puppies out with us.  Lucas loves to play with the puppies.  They aren't as fond of him as he is of  them.  He spent most of his time chasing them, but I pinned them down for a few pictures with Lucas.  It was tricky.

Family Barbecue

We had a barbecue with my siblings this week.  We wanted to have one last hurrah before Ryan and I move next Monday.  We had a blast!  Lucas loved playing in the pool with Julie and Bret.

Doing acrobatics on the bar.

Lucas thought it was hilarious.

And here is the one and only shot of me.  I was trying to force Lucas to sit still for a picture and it didn't work so well.  But you can see my cute new swimsuit.

After playing at the pool, we went back to make the food for dinner.  Ryan barbecued the burgers and shrimp.

Bret and Lucas played in the fort.

Here's all the yummy food.

And here we are eating.

We're really going to miss swimming in Julie's pool and hanging out with my siblings here in Utah.

The Mazda

Our Mazda 3 is the first car I ever purchased. It was the biggest purchase I had ever made up to that point, by a landslide. Here we are almost five years ago admiring our brand new car.

It's the first car Lucas ever rode in.

And the first car he pretended to drive.  He loves to "drive", and it all started right here.

Well, we've been debating lately about getting a new car with more room for extra carseats.  No this is not an announcement, but it's going to happen sooner or later so we figured we'd plan ahead.  The back seat of the mazda is so small it didn't really safely fit our one rear facing carseat, and what happens when we have 3 carseats we have to fit in the back?

We're also moving next week and we thought it would make things much simpler for us to sell our car now and not have to take it with us.  And save some money by being a one car family for a few months, or until we can't stand it anymore.  Anyway, so we sold the Mazda.  I'm not super attached to things like cars, but I was a little sad to drive away without it.  These pictures were taken with Ryan's phone because we forgot the camera.  They are pretty crappy but you get the idea.

So now we're looking at what car to get next.  Ryan has been looking at the crash test ratings on cars, and pretty much all of the videos are horrifying.  Seriously, watch some of those pole impact videos.  They are ridiculous.  Safety and the cool gadgets the car comes with are Ryan's criteria when looking for a new car.  My criteria?  The coolest commercials.  I may buy this car based solely on this video.

The Happy Couple

Here are some of the pictures we took in front of the temple after the sealing.  Jason and Lauanne were married civilly two days before, and then came down to the Sao Paulo temple for the sealing. This first one is actually from the reception two days before, but I just think Lauanne looks so cute in it.

And here's the happy couple after the sealing.

We had such a fun trip, and we're really grateful that we were able to be there with Jason and Lauanne on their special day.  Lauanne is very friendly and sweet, we are so excited to have her as a part of our family.

First Instincts

My first instinct when I saw this was to throw Lucas in his room and clean it all up ASAP!  When Lucas first saw me his instinct was to run and hide (smart boy)!  But I decided to keep my cool and I told him to stay there and smile so I could take a picture.  Seriously, though, where do they get these ideas?

And yes, Lucas is naked, and has been pretty much all week long.  He likes to undress on a regular basis.  And whenever I try to put clothes back on him he thinks it's time to go outside, and then he has a melt down when I tell him we're not going anywhere.  Usually I suck it up and deal with his tantrums, but this week I gave myself a break to reserve all my energy for packing and cleaning.

Road Trip

I'm trying to plan out our road trip to California for when we move.  I want to find places that we can stop and let Lucas run around, maybe even with a playground.  I found the Mcdonalds that have playplaces that are along the way, but I was wondering if anyone has any other suggestions.  I was hoping to find rest areas with playgrounds, but I couldn't seem to find a website with that kind of information.  I'm sure I'm not the first person to ever travel with a toddler so I'm betting there is some good information out there, I just have to find it.  Any ideas for other fun things to do, or places to stop other than rest areas?  We're going on 80 through Nevada, which is to me pretty much the ugliest drive ever until you get to California, but maybe someone else has some ideas for cool things to see or do on the way.

We've been on road trips with Lucas before, but I can always use more ideas for keeping kids entertained in the car as well.

Brazil Trip

Well, we made it back safely.  It was quite an adventure.  I'll start with the flight to Brazil.  Since we flew standby, we were seated in the only open seats available on the way there.  These just happened to be in first class.  I've flown first class before, but never international.  It was kind of incredible.

The seats each had their own tv screen, reading light, electrical outlet, and they reclined until they were completely flat.

We were served a 4 course dinner and the food was really pretty good.

These are the perks of flying standby.  But I should tell you before you get too jealous, that Ryan and his parents got stranded in the airport for two days trying to make it back.  Luckily we got me a ticket home so I went back on time, although, I did have to ride in coach.  Now that I've seen first class, I've been ruined.

When we first got to Sao Paulo, we picked up our rental car and drove to the center of the city.  Driving in Sao Paulo was really very exciting.  We almost got killed like 5 times in the first 10 minutes, but after that Ryan got a little more used to the "culture" and we were driving as crazy as the rest of them.  We turned right from the middle lane a couple times, and drove on the shoulder in a particularly nasty back up.  But hey, everyone else was doing it.  

We drove by one of Ryan's areas and stopped by the church to use the bathroom.  The missionaries were there playing basketball for P day so we stopped to talk to them for a while.  I think they were excited to get to speak English and see some Americans.  After that we went back to the hotel and rested up after our exhausting 15 hours of flying, and 1 hour of driving the streets of Sao Paulo.

The next day we toured the center of the city.  We saw the Luz train station.

Next we walked through Jardim da Luz, which was this really cool garden that had some art pieces throughout it.  

It also had really cool trees.

The police were patrolling the park on horses.  Pretty much everywhere we went there were police out patrolling the streets.  It was kind of comforting.

Here's Ryan checking the map.

Next we walked to the municipal market.  This was the view from a bridge on the way there.

The municipal market had a ton of vendors selling meats, and fruit, and spices.  Some of the meat displays were kind of nasty, but overall is was really cool.

 The fruit displays were my favorite.  I ate so much fruit in Brazil and it was all so delicious and ripe.  I will definitely miss that.

After the market, we went to this street called the 25th of March.  There were just a bunch of little shops and street vendors.  There were so many people everywhere.  And some of the streets that we walked on were really steep as you can see in this one.

Next we went to this bank that's the tallest building in the city.  They do tours to the top where you can look out across the city on all sides.  Even on a clear day they say you can't see the end of the skyscrapers on either side.  Here's a panoramic view.

And here's this picture of us at the top.  I know you've already seen it, but I think we look so cute!

Also, my camera has this cool effect that it does called miniature effect.  Check out what Sao Paulo looks like in miniature mode.

It looks like it's made out of Lego's or something.  Sorry, that doesn't really have anything to do with the trip but I thought it was funny.

Next we went to the Se Cathedral.  Here is the view from the top of the bank.

And here is the view from the front.  That short pillar thing in front of the cathedral is also the center of the city.

The inside was really pretty too.

Then we headed back to the hotel and had a late lunch.  We ate pretty much every meal in the concierge lounge.  It was free and it had this awesome view of the city.

We checked out the temple that night (you already saw that picture) and found a restaurant close by for the wedding luncheon the next day.  I'll wait to do the wedding pictures in another post.  Overall, I really liked Sao Paulo.  I mean it was crowded and dirty and had a lot of graffiti, but there were a lot of interesting places and old beautiful buildings to see.  Next time I go somewhere foreign, I'm going to try to learn a few more words first.  I only knew how to say "thank you", "excuse me", and "please".  At least I was polite.