.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 :)

.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!

.Chile.

From the time we left SLC to the time we arrived in Santiago, we had been traveling for over 24 HOURS! This trip took all the novelty out of planes for me!

Chile was the first country we went to. We stayed in a Best Western which helped me feel at home a little. The first city we went was Vina del Mar, then Valparaiso and ended in Santiago. In Chile we visited a University, Banco Santander, the shipping company CSAV, Weir Minerals and the U.S. Embassy. We also spent a day in the beautiful Valparaiso.

What I remember most about Chile was the european fashion and architecture,

the stray dogs that followed us EVERYWHERE,

the irresistible gellato we got every night,

the down time we were given to explore the town and gorgeous beaches,

staying in the Best Western, seeing all the different fruits getting sent all over the world,

and the tour of Valparaiso.

The most uncomfortable thing that happened to me was in Chile. On my neck there was a sebaceous cyst that became infected. It grew to the size of a quarter and I was running a fever. At first my teacher thought it was a hickey (which became the running joke for the trip) but when it kept growing, he insisted that I go to the E.R. So we grabbed an interpreter, a taxi and headed to the hospital. The doctor finally stuck needles in it while saying in broken english, "relax..relax.. I'm good doctor!". After we finally left the doctor with my neck all bandaged up we spent TWO HOURS walking the streets finding a cab. This was at 1:00 AM! I have never been so scared! Someone was looking out for us because we finally found a cab, a 24 hour pharmacy for my meds, and made it home!

This took up most of my time in Santiago so I barely had time to sight see.

When I was packing, I debated over putting a warm jacket or a light one in my suit case. I decided to throw in a light one. When we arrived in Chile the first night it was 20 DEGREES!

As you can guess I was very chilly in Chile but I loved it! I loved the food and the people! Very classy and european. Hopefully I will go back... someday, someday.

.South America.

When I was a freshmen I heard about the Huntsman Scholars Program. This program is a scholarship made possible by the generous donations of Jon M. Huntsman to the business school. The people on scholarship were given the opportunity to go on a summer experience to South America, Asia or Eastern Europe and then another trip in the fall to Europe. When I heard about this experience I became obsessed! I worked on my application for months. It turns out it was in the Lord's plan for me to get the scholarship.

This all happened before B and I were even engaged. After we got married, I realized how hard it was going to be to leave him for two full months. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to any of these! After much prayer we decided that I should go on the South America summer trip and not the fall Europe trip.

Thirty days. Thirty days doing the most adventuresome, tiring, mind blowing things I have done in my life. Yet they were the most lonely days I have ever, and hopefully ever have to spend with out my other half. It was the hardest thing I ever did, yet it brought me so much closer to my sweet hubs.

I have never cried so much! I remember hiding in the airport bathroom before our group left the states. B was on the phone telling me everything was going to be ok but I just couldn't stop crying! Feeling like such a wimp I stayed in the bathroom for over an hour with my feet on the toilet doing my best to silence my sobs. Thank goodness for skype other wise I would not have made it through the month! The next three posts will each be about the different countries we went to and everything I did and saw!

.since we've been married.

b and i were married on a friday and we started school the next day... not exactly the long relaxing blissful retreat we needed. But we were married and thats all that mattered. So we studied..

.and studied.

.and kind of studied.

.and tried to study.

Oh ya we also went on our real honeymoon(s) to Mexico which were totally AWESOME!

.the great view in Puerto Vallarta.

.hurdles in cancun.

.snorkeling at Xel-Pa.

Of course b was always doing cute fun things for me. Below he is holding up a paper from the Deal or No Deal game he set up for me on V-day! oh heee's a keeper!

We have loved basking in the newly wed glow, making new friends and leaving love notes for g-ma! All in all it was a great semester.

How it began...

About two and a half years ago I met the man i'm ecstatic to call my husband. We were in the same singles ward and had run into each other a couple times before but had never officially met. I was the one who finally had to put my hand out and say, "Hey I'm emily.. you're brady right?". When we finally went on our first date, i realized what a charming and hilarious boy this was, but i was not ready for a boyfriend. So i skipped away to college while pretending not to keep my eye on the b man.

Overtime, b became the boy that I couldn't wait to talk to every night and hopefully see on the weekends. We were soon best friends. At this time I still had my fragile '94 geo that struggled every time I went through the canyon. So b would drive all the way up to logan just to turn around and take me home again, and at the end of the weekend he would do the same thing. He was the perfect guy and looking back I don't know why he was so patient and how he waited for me to grow up.

Once I recognized what an ideal man he was- we became a couple.

and boy did we have fun times!

The top characteristics about b that made me realize i wanted to spend the rest of my life with him were :

1. his smile

2.his testimony

3.how he could make me laugh till i cried

4.how he treated me

5. how goofy he was

about 13 months after our first date he asked me to be his forever. undoubtedly i said YESSIR!

on 1.7.11 we were sealed for eternity!

best.day.ever!