Sunday, November 20, 2011

.Thankful.

I am a blessed person. There are so many blessings that I have recieved with out much consideration. When life gets so busy I forget how blessed I really am, and I don't want to do that. So since Thanksgiving is this week I thought it was a good idea to mention two people that I am so grateful for.

1. Brady. He is calm, patient, entertaining, spontaneous, and has an unbeatable work ethic. My favorite moments is when I come home from school to see that with his spare five minutes he has vacuumed the house, started the laundry or done the dishes. He is always doing things to make me happy. When I think how my life would have been if I hadn't married him I shudder. I don't think I could be this happy without him. I love his strong testimony and his little jokes he is always laughing at. One story that completely encompasses how patient he is happened a couple weekends ago. It was a late Saturday night and he wanted his hair cut. I've only cut one person's hair before, Taylor Wood, and that didn't turn out so good. He had to have his dad come and shave it all off when I was done. Well Brady's poor hair didn't even make it that far. With one swoop I had buzzed his head right down the middle. I cried and he laughed asking if he could keep it as a mullet. Oh I love this man! Always turning drama filled situations into ones we can laugh about!

2. Grandma. She is such a powerful example of consistency, endurance and charity. She wakes up before we do EVERY Tuesday and takes two busses to get to the temple, does two sessions and comes home. She goes by herself and never complains. She is always offering to babysit peoples kids or bring people meals. She is always looking out for Brady and me. It is always a race between us to see who can get our clothes out of the dryer and folded first, she usually always beats us to it. She is letting us stay here with out asking for much. She is always saving her money so that she can have some in the bank to help her kids. Oh how I love this woman. The other night she came and rang our doorbell a couple times so I could come look at a deer in the back yard. I would have never have taken the time to notice this beautiful creation if it hadn't been for her.

Life is all about learning and gaining experience, and I am forever grateful for the people that help me along the way.

The final product. His hair has never been this short!

The mullet


Thursday, November 17, 2011

.Days of Summer.

Now that the snow is coming, I am missing those days in California. Being away from Utah helped B and I come closer together. We had so many fun days... probably more then we should have because B was supposed to be working 24/7... but we had fun!

Like the night we watched the Harry Potter movie premier. I love Harry Potter. I developed this love while staying up all night reading each of the books. Jami would get the book first, read it within a day, and would hand it down to me. I would keep all the lights on down stairs because the books were a bit scary, and then I would fall asleep in school dreaming of spells and far away magical schools. So when the FINAL movie came out, I was SOO excited. Brady was so sweet and watched all the past movies with me the week before. The night of the premier we all played fun HP games like... who can remember the most spells... HP trivia.. and pass the magic. I still am pretty sad that there are no more movies or books to come out... so its a good thing we can watch them all over again anytime we want!


We went to the beach all the time. I LOVE THE BEACH! We had the sweetest wardies who let us borrow their surf boards and wet suits. We had a great time teaching ourselves to surf! We also laid out a lot, built sand castles and spent time wishing we lived in Cali all the time.
The swimming pool in our back yard was our favorite past time. We would swim almost every day. We bought some goggles and loved timing each other swim across the pool over and over again. We also worked hard on our dives and flips... we were pretty creative by the end of the summer.

We spent a night in Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Hollywood was pretty ghetto but fun to see all the sights. Beverly Hills was gorgeous and is now where our future home will reside. This made b think of the Might Ducks. I had never seen it so we spent another night watching it... I mean watching the FULL TRILOGY!
One night we stayed up way too late. This brought on some weird activities.. like seeing who could fit in the smallest place... we try and go to bed early now days.
From bowling to crafting to ice cream... our summer in Camarillo will forever stay in my heart! I loved shopping at the outlets, walking to the local fabric store and soaking up the sun... hopefully one day we can go back!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

.Santa Monica Pier Date Night.

Although the boys spent most of their time working, Elyse and I convinced them to take some time off to treat us to a fun night at the Santa Monica Pier.
.
We ate at Bubba Gumps for my first time!!
Brady gets a little competitive and we spent WAY too much money trying to climb this ladder
Two peas in a pod
Brady bought me a churro! I love when he spoils me!
Gorgeous View!
I love going on date nights with my hubs!! He is the cutest, sweetest thing in the world! I don't know what I would do with out him

.Fourth of July.

The 4th of July has always been one of my most favorite holidays. I love the parade, the fireworks and the patriotism. I got home from South America on July 2 so Brady only had a few days to plan a fun day! Thankfully he had help from his incredible mom and the Ellis'. His mom sent us a cute package filled with red and blue candy with matching 4th of July shirts and some fireworks!
We started the day by going over to the Ellis' for funnel cakes and fruit.

.Our matching shirts.

Then we spent hours trying to find a parade. Elyse loves parades just as much as I do so when we couldn't find one, there were two sad girls in California. We rewarded ourselves by going to the beach.
Our favorite thing about the beach, besides the sun, was skim boarding. I never could do it, but Brady was awesome at it.
He's gonna be a cute daddy some day!!

We ended the night with a BBQ and watching the fireworks with the ward.

I am so grateful for all the freedom I have. For all those that have given their lives for our country, thank you! Happy 4th of July!

.Peru.

Peru was my favorite country we visited. It was in Peru where I was able to see the most genuine South American culture. We started in Cusco where we had three free days all to ourselves!! My cute roommate Mckell was so fun to room with. The only problem is we both have a hard time waking up. Good thing these were free days.
Drinking a "maracujeya" shake... same as a passion fruit. SO GOOD!
At the institute of Liberty
and Democracy. They are working to make it so people in Peru can start there own businesses and gain ownership rights.

The hotel we stayed in was BEAUTIFUL!! I want to take Brady back there someday. The streets are lined with shops with everyone trying to sell to tourists. In Cusco the entire economy is funded by tourism.
These cute guys kept saying.. "Picture for pretty lady!"
After you took a picture with them they would beg for money.
The awesome hats I should have bought.
The view from my balcony.
Our Toga party we threw
because we were so sick of working!!

We loved eating at different "cinco soles" places. At these places we would get a drink, soup and a hearty main course. All for about 1.25 in U.S. dollars. I'm sure we increased their sales for the year because our entire group ate their every night.
Llamas just walking the street.

One of the soups
we at at the 5 Soles place... maybe that's why it was only 5 Soles.

We also went to Machu Pichu. BEAUTIFUL!

We then spent a week and a half in Trujillo. Here we participated in the small enterprise education and development program (SEED). There were 16 different small businesses that were seeking funds and my group was in charge of analyzing four of them. We spent our time interviewing our people, asking other business owners how they were doing and doing sensitivity analysis on the projected numbers for the future businesses. We spent hours upon hours doing this research. We had NO time for anything else! It was the hardest part of the trip but the most rewarding. I spear headed Alfonso's business. He wanted to transport goods from the farm to the packing plant, Dan Per. We got to know him and his family. The night before we left we presented on our projects. We gave everything we had with the little energy we had left after our completely exhausting week. We were excited to find out that Alfonso's business was going to be funded!
.On the beaches in Peru on a bamboo boat.
The Corpus Cristi parade.. random but cool!
llama face!

Over all I am so glad I went. But if I had to leave Brady again for a month, I physically could not do it. Thankfully I did not know that when I was leaving. This trip helped me realize how much I needed Brady's support and love in my life. It also helped me realize how much I need the Lord in my life. I had to lean on him a lot during this trip. I am so thankful for all the love the Lord has given me in my life and especially for His special care while I was gone.
We also did a service project. We gave eye glasses to people who needed them. I fell in love with the kids!

The cutest baby one of the women was going to set on the floor while doing her eye exam.. I'll hold him!!

Going home took more time then anyone expected. On top of the sixteen hour plane rides we got delayed everywhere!! I got off the plane in LA and I'm glad I did because the group missed their connecting flight to SLC. Poor friends!

on the last flight home!!! I was SOO excited!

I still remember the feeling I got when I saw Brady. It was like I was seeing him for the first time!! I dropped my bags and ran to him smooshing the roses he had bought for me. As much as I love traveling I love my husband SOOO much more!!
back together again :)

Friday, October 14, 2011

.Brazil.

While riding the plane to Brazil, I kept bugging our ONE Portuguese speaker to teach me some words. I was convinced that I would learn five words a day. I ended learning probably ten. I still remember some:

Obrigado/a: Thank you
Desculpe: Excuse me
Frango: Chicken
Bom Dia: Good day
eu falto: I miss you.. for brady of course!

Brazil was gorgeous! The first city we stayed in was RIO de JANEIRO! One day I will take b back there! Our hotel was right on the beach. My favorite day was spent body surfing, laying out and playing beach soccer and volley ball. We also visited sugar loaf, PUC-Rio (a brazilian university that was surrounded by jungle), O Globo, Natura and the enormous Christ the Redeemer statue.

Some of my favorite things about Brazil were :

The Halls they sold on the street. They sell them individually for $.50 as mints.. tried it. Gross.
Inca Cola! Soo Good! The waiters would just assume everyone wanted one. I loved the glass bottles they served them in.. I felt really cool.



Arcor! A chocolate manufacturing plant was the perfect place for me! It was fun to see how everything was made and packaged. As we were leaving they gave us a HUGE bag of assorted chocolates. It took all I had to save some of this pure bliss for B.

We were able to go to a neat pottery museum. It was fun to spend time with my girls and needless to say we got a little crazy!
Speaking of crazy...
We toured Natura, the manufacturing natural make up plant. At the end of the tour they let us sample all the make up we wanted! We went subtle.
. kind of... .... :) I do like make up!
The beaches of RIO! Look how blue the water is and white the sand is!
This statue is over 130 feet.. it's huge! So cool!
The food was SOO good! One night a couple of us stayed home from a club and went to a local restaurant that was so unbelievably tasty! We also found a cute bare footed band playing on the beach.
The all you can eat pizza in all different flavors. I ate (or at least tasted) slices! Everyone was amazed! There was everything from BBQ shrimp to chocolate strawberry. It was fun being rolled out of the restaurant.
The awesome Capoiera group we saw performing on campus at PUC-Rio. It's a dance group that looks like they are fighting.. it was soo fun to watch! Especially since Turbo Jam uses it in their work outs!
The funniest story in Brazil happened while we were laying out on the beach. A cute little old man wearing a speedo came around selling henna tattoo's. No one wanted one so he gave a few of us free tattoo's to use as marketing. I was the third one to get a "free" tattoo. He just grabbed my arm and started drawing. As I was walking away he yelled at me and said.. "Where you going? You owe me money!" So the above Rio tattoo is my free/non free tattoo. Oh Brazil! I do miss you
.. made from the chocolate of the all-you-can-eat pizza!