January

January came and went - almost in a blink. We have had an unusual winter without a lot of snow and warmer than normal weather. I miss my photo of the day challenge.  Hardly a day goes by when I don't find myself thinking what a great shot that would be. This morning the early morning light on the Wellsvilles was beautiful.  I didn't have the time to drive out closer to them for photos but I went up on the hill by the temple to enjoy a few quiet moments.

 The one "storm" this month that delivered snow...and not just rain.

 See you next year, January.

A Visit to Delta

Every once in awhile Mark will cover a shift in the ER at the hospital in Delta.  I decided to come along for the ride this time - I had never been to Delta before and I thought it sounded like an adventure and a quiet weekend to get some handwork done and to study for a final I have next week.

He wasn't kidding when he told me there was not much to do there and it was kind of out in the middle of nowhere.  But I have to say...I sure do LOVE small towns!  LOVE them!!

  The sun certainly knows how to put on a show here...my cell phone barely captured the 

magnificent sunset tonight.  The colors were beautiful and it seemed to last forever!

Last night we enjoyed dinner at a nice little Mexican Restaurant - sorry no photos but the people's interaction

was just as great as our meal was.  Everyone knows everyone here and going out is such a social experience. It's so much fun to people watch!

 Tonight Mark said we had to go to Rancher's Motel/Cafe.  It is pretty much the only sit-down 

restaurant in town and it is where everyone in town suggests you go for dinner.

Look at that tiny little moon in the sky.

As we were walking in this van caught our eye.  Hey, isn't this the guy that was in the news not too long ago? The one who had like 500 reptiles in his house in West Valley?

Mark is very intrigued with this sign and decides he would like one for each of
our cars...maybe it would help keep the RIF-raf away :)

So we are seated, make our selections from the menu and enjoy looking around the cafe. Don't you just love them? Our waitress brought us some warm rolls from the oven - the kind of rolls that are so soft and fluffy but also quite weighty in your hand...oh the love of homemade bread - and two containers full of homemade jam.  "Snap" went the camera.  "Uh  - are you taking photos of your food?" She asks. I humbly answer yes and she throws her laugh out into the room!  "Oh, that's awesome!" she says and starts to tell us about a cruise she just recently took with her mother and how she loves taking pictures of her food, too. Then she goes on to tell us about how she has these little toy animals that look just like her cat and dog.  She takes them everywhere with her and  loves to include them in her photos when she travels. We really got a kick out of her stories.  She got in trouble for posing them in a photo when she was in Greece.  The officials told absolutely  no toys in any photo.  Well I almost got thrown in jail one day myself when I snapped a photo in a fancy deli owned by the mafia in Providence RI - (well not exactly but I did run for my life when I got the look and the guy signaled someone in the back!)

Here comes dinner.  Special of the night - Ribs.  We got the last two portions and boy did they ever pile on the meat.  Best $9.99 dinner we have ever seen....and it included a trip to the salad bar!

Well, before we knew it, this cute lady and our new friend, with her awesome tie-dye shirt, on delivered her two little toy animals to our table....and of course I posed them in a photo.

Meet Blitz and Blue

Yes, she just happened to have them in her purse!  We got chatting with her again and asked her about the van out front with the reptile rescue signs on it.  Sure enough, the owner was there (sitting at the bar when we walked in) and they had just recently moved to Delta.  You can read about it here. She told us several crazy stories that he had shared with her earlier and we looked at each other in disbelief.  These small towns are awesome!

 And if they have homemade pie on the premises...you can bet we usually save a little room for it!

Cococut Cream Pie - a slice divided for two! Thanks cute server lady!  You were a delight!

Are you smiling yet? Don't you just love small towns?

Earlier in the day this little place with the flowers painted on the building caught my eye.

Turns out it is a bakery called, "Eat Dessert First"

We had take out from their earlier in the day - two yummy sandwiches

A Rueben and a French Dip.

I love this window and the paint peeling off the bricks.  If you look closely at the chalkboard inside it says:

"Grandma always said, Eat Dessert First!" and there is a cute photo of the owners Grandma!

So right before dinner we snagged up a box of yummy treats and took them over to the hospital so all those cute nurses could eat dessert first.  (We also brought home a yummy piece of carrot cake for us ;)

Delta is a sweet little place....out in the middle of nowhere.

Brasil

 Rio De Janiero

In December, we were able to spend 11 beautiful days with Emily in Brasil.  We had such a wonderful trip with her and really enjoyed seeing a small part of this vast a beautiful country.  We loved being in her town of Matao and meeting her friends, visiting the school and spending time with her host family.  It was perfect! Goodbyes weren't easy but we are so proud of her and amazed at her ability to learn this beautiful language and do some really hard things for a 15 year old. She is remarkable!

The Girl from Ipanema!  There she was sitting on the beach of Ipanema and we were finally with her!! What a great reunion it was and fun meeting place!

 The brothers having a little fun ;)

 The humidity was not a friend of my hair...for the entire trip.  

I opted out of a lot of photos...

Wow - was it great to hug this girl!  

She has passed me up in a height...just by a bit ;)

 Each city has it's own design for sidewalk tile - this was in Rio.

Oh, the Favelas.  What an experience. To see such poverty and so much of it!  They have been trying to clean up this area in preparation of the World Cup and The Olympics.  They have built a big gondola over the many hills of the Favelas in Rio, in hopes that it will give the people an easy way down and out for work, etc.  We were amazed at vastness. Families will build a home and when they can afford it build on top of it - rent out the bottom and then repeat...   We are so very blessed.

• Population of Rio de Janeiro: 6,211,000
• About 1/3 of city’s population lives in favelas
• About 700 favela communities within Rio de Janeiro
• Growth rate of Rio is about 2.7% per year
• Growth rate of favelas in Rio is about 7.5% per year
• 75% of favela population is black or mulatto

 You can read more here.

 Water is a gift and a curse.  You can see the blue containers that sit on the top of the houses - that is their water supply.  With the high humidity it is so hard to get things dry and this causes all kinds of problems.

 

 Beautiful flowers and people...everywhere!

 

This is Patrick, is one of Camber's good friends from Logan High. He is doing a super senior year over there and is living and studying in Rio. We go to meet up with him and spend a night together.  He has fallen head over heels in love with Brasil and plans to come back and further his education there.

 
 As you can see from the weather - our time in Rio was very "black and white". We would have loved to have seen the sun on the beach and been able to ride up on top of Sugar Loaf...but it was sweet none the less.

 The beautiful rich and fertile soil of the farmlands near Ribeirao Preto. The color of the soil is beautiful and so are the endless veiws of the farmland!

 Ribeirão Preto: The 9th largest Municipaltiy in Brasil is about 2 hours or so from Emily's town. We flew there from Rio and the Spilla's picked us up and drove us to their home.





 The Spilla's took us the Mall - or The Shopping as they refer to it. McDonald's finds its way around, doesn't it? 








  They treated us to some really great ice cream - they know how to make amazing ice cream in Brasil!  We had our fair share, especially in Matao,  The fruity flavors are heavenly!

Oh the fresh juice!  Nothing like it!!!  Absolutely amazing.  Did you know the cashew nut has a fruit?  The nut is actually the stem of the fruit and Brasilians think we are silly that we eat the stem? Cazu juice - we thought it was one of the very few fruits we tasted that kinda had to grow on you.

 This is the trash pick up in front of nearly every home in Emily's town.

 Emily's mom (Mai as they say) was the sweetest host and an amazing cook! Her name is Mariza.

 I have already forgotten the name of this globe fruit - it is kind of like a gourd and it looks really neat to see them growing on trees!

 Meet the Calegher Family!  They have been a second family to Emily.  They are the sweetest people you will ever meet.

 We had lunch at Day By Day one afternoon.  It the establishment the Spilla's have lunch at nearly every single day ;)  It is a buffet type restaurant where you weigh your plate.  They have freshly BBQ meats similar to what you get at Rodizio's here.

 Downtown Matao. Note their tiled sidewalks. And people drive like crazy over there. Especially the motorcyles!  I will never forget the crazy guys that would speed down the middle of stalled traffic in Sao Paulo. Crazy!!

 The lake just a minutes walk from Emily's home.

 Meeting the girls that Emily goes to school with.  They are such beautiful girls. We so enjoyed our night with them!

 When they have the chance to dress up, they do!  They love it! And these girls also love their Brasilian shoes! Emily is becoming a collector.

 Sao Paulo Temple. Beautiful.  We attended Sacrament Meeting at the church right next door.  It was a sweet  meeting, you don't have understand the language to feel the spirit. And have I mentioned how sweet and beautiful the people of Brasil are?  :D

 

 Another lunch in the outside kitchen.

 Emily's Pai (dad) was diagnosed with cancer back in October. That kind of news is never fun to get. They had an impromptu Samba dance and it was really good to see him smiling and happy.

 This is Julio.  He is Emily's Samba instructor. Mark and I got take visit one of their classes and try it out. He is such a great instructor!  So great to meet him.

 Emily's church.  Everywhere you go so see fences and walls in front of homes and buildings.

Emily's Bishop.  He stopped by one day on his lunch break.  He apologized for not being shaved and in a tie.  Oh my.  He was a wonderful person! So laid-back, easy going and young!

SO many more photos and memories.  

It was a treat.  

Take care, sweet Emily.