A Nose is a Nose . . . and Summer Knows!

Fourth of July, Summer's Birthday, and Tacoma

We headed down to Idaho for the Fourth of July weekend to celebrate Summer's first birthday with the family. Summer got a lot of fun things for her birthday--and this new hat was one of them. Thanks Grandpa Barney!

Here's Summer with her birthday cake and cupcakes. The pink and yellow cupcakes were for the family--and they were delicious! Thanks Aunt Kate for making them. And the big chocolate one was for Summer to dig into. The party went a little longer than expected (too many great presents!), and people had other obligations, so she didn't get to enjoy it . . . that day. But we all chowed down on it for the eight hour drive back to Spokane the next day. It was a banana cake with chocolate frosting (tasted just like banana bread), and it was so yummy.
At one point in the drive home, we realized Summer had fallen asleep. I peeked into the back and saw this. Too funny! Had to get a picture. And the one tooth makes her look so goofy!
This is a cute picture of Dad and Summer, just after her bath. Boy does she love him.
Summer sporting her shades with another new birthday hat. Despite the tears the first time we tried it on her, she does like it, and she actually tries to put it on herself now. Thanks Aunt Ang!
Just this last weekend, we headed over to Tacoma to enjoy a fun picnic with Andrew and Maria. This was their gift to Summer for her birthday--a teepee that they had made! It was awesome, and Summer loved it. She would crawl in it, crawl out of it, walk around it, then poke her head in it and just smile the whole time. It was a lot of fun.
It was fun watching Summer interact with the kids at the picnic we had on Saturday. This is Jackie and Dallin's youngest boy. They had a fun time chasing each other, poking each other with sticks, and sharing rocks.
And, to all of our surprise, Summer's favorite person now is Uncle Andrew. Multiple times over the weekend, she would just walk up to him and give him a hug. (I think Rhett actually got a little jealous.) But it was so cute. She'd hug his neck if he was sitting on the floor, or she'd hug his leg if he was standing. And then she'd reach her arms up for him to hold her.
We had such a fun time in Tacoma--some beautiful weather, delicious food, good talks, and fun laughs. We're sad that it ended so soon, but can't wait to get together again!

Buzios, Swimming, and Coming Home

With Rhett finishing up his classes, and only having one week left of Brazil, we decided to spend some time at a vacation town called Buzios. It was a little more relaxed than Rio, and safer too--we could stay out after dark without having to worry. Here is a picture of one of the beaches we strolled.
Buzios is a peninsula on the edge of Brazil. Rhett, Summer, and I took a tour around the peninsula and this is one of the spots we stopped at. The island to the right (just above my head) is the island that Mark, Holly, and Rhett scuba dived at. Along with lots of interesting fish, Rhett spotted a gigantic hermit crab--almost the size of Summer! He said he wanted to pick it up but was afraid of getting his arm chopped off!Well, along with my missing black skirt, favorite shoes, and black nylons, was Summer's swimming suit. We have no idea where they ended up. And how could she go swimming without one? So we got another--and it was even cuter.
Here's Summer and Dad testing the water out at the swimming pool of where we stayed. It was a little cold, and it took her a while to warm up to the idea of swimming, but she did enjoy splashing around.
A wild ride:
We had a great time in Buzios, ate some amazing Portuguese Pizza, treated ourselves to the best Acai in the world (every time we walked by the shop), cruised around on the buggy Mark rented, went rock and shell hunting, and enjoyed the sunshine. After Buzios, we headed back to Rio for our last few days. We wanted to be back to Rio on Saturday so we could make it to church on Sunday, then we spent Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in Rio again.
This was our hotel after Buzios. And the only good shot of all of Summer's teeth. I was teasing her by putting the hair net on her head while Rhett fed her. She thought it was pretty funny.
Tuesday was a day of errands and getting things ready for a travel home. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time--so no stress this time. Summer slept the WHOLE way from Rio to Atlanta, then a bit of the flight from Atlanta to SLC, and all the way from SLC to Spokane.

And here we are again. It seems like we've never left, other than the fact that last night both of us woke up delirious and lost--I wandered around in circles in the living room of our apartment and couldn't remember where our bedroom was while Rhett couldn't figure out where he was. And I'm still trying to remember where I keep all our dishes, while this morning, the wind rustled the branches on the tree outside our window, and I expected to see a monkey there. Summer LOVES the carpet. She's realized it is softer than the hard floors in Brazil, and is now cruising all over the place--on only her two feet.

It's nice to actually flush toilet paper down the toilet and drink water from the faucet. It's nice to drive a car again, and not have to fear for our lives in the Brazil traffic. But we do miss hearing the Portuguese everywhere and eating the fresh pineapple. And we do, especially, miss the great friends we made.

Guess we'll just have to go back!

Living Quarters and More

So here´s the layout of our pad. I´m standing in the hallway taking this picture of the kitchen. The fridge is to the left and opens up into the kitchen. There is cupboard space under the sink for pots and pans, and cupboards to the right for dishes. That´s a mini-stove in the bottom right corner. Oh, and that´s a window, not a microwave.

Here´s the awesome bathroom. Again, I´m standing in the hallway, so this is right next to the kitchen. Shower . . . toilet . . . sink . . . pretty self-explanatory. And the pia (sink) to wash our clothes in is hidden behind the towel in the bottom right.

And our bedroom/family room/Summer´s room/dining room. To answer a question from a friend, Summer sleeps in the play pen next to our bed, and yes, our bed is big enough to fit both me and Rhett. Whew!

A new friend we met in the ward invited me to go with her to Parque Lage. We thought it was so cool that we went back there the next day with Rhett. This picture is of the Visual Arts school at the park. There was a swimming pool in the center of the building, and you can see the architecture of the building in the pool´s reflection.

This is the tip of a castle (sorry, I don´t know the technical term), and Rhett´s head is poking up in the middle of it. Summer and I hiked up there the day before, but it was a little scary, so we didn´t the second day.

And this is a picture of the water falls and mini-lake in the park. The color is not that great because it was getting dark, but it was beautiful. We saw lots of monkeys, a few bats, and even hiked through a few caves. We were hoping to see the sloth, but weren´t so lucky. Maybe next time!

Here is our great friend Jocileia with Summer. Jocileia´s mother made this dress for Summer. It is beautiful. Jocileia is such a good friend. She offered to babysit Summer for us so we could go on a date for Dia dos Namorados (like Valentines Day). It was a nice little break--romantic, and . . . you know.

Here´s the most recent picture of Summer with her teeth. One day, she had one poking through, the next, there were THREE more! If you look closely, you can see the bottom two, slow but sure.
Summer loves her dad!

All About Summer

The Tooth:

The Walking (with the help of the wall):

The Talking:

Daily Routine and a few other things . . .

So this is what our days are like . . .
We wake about 7:30ish, and Rhett gets ready for school. He leaves, walks to the metro, rides to a few blocks from his campus, then goes to class. He´s in class for about four hours, with a few breaks in between, and gets home about 1:30ish. Summer and I, well, our schedules a bit more exciting. As soon as we are fully awake and have had breakfast, we try to get in as many cartoons before her morning nap (Duck Tales, Sponge Bob, Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo, some old Mickey Mouse ones, and some new ones I´ve never seen before). Oh, and sometimes I get lucky and find a cooking spotlight on a station and get some ideas for when I get home. During her morning nap, I get ready for the day then do some reading and writing (Thanks Josh for the Blue Jay book. It´s a perfect read for here. I´m loving it!). When she wakes up, we play a bit with her toys, and she runs around in her playpen. She actually doesn´t feel confined in it, which is what I was worried about. We don´t let her crawl much due to unknown dirtiness on the floor. At first, she´d hold on to the edge of the playpen and walk around and around, and now, she´ll let go and try to leap across the middle to the other side. Most of the time, she biffs it, and we laugh together. She´s a good sport. Then I feed her lunch, and about this time, dad gets home.
And then we´re off for our adventure for the day. Sometimes it´s to the beach, sometimes it´s to get groceries, and sometimes it´s to a new and exotic place, like the Botanical Garden we went to on Thursday. Here are some pictures.
Picture by Rhett:

Picture by me. I liked the green hut thing in the middle.Rhett and Summer in an Indiana Jones type thing. We walked through it, and I kept waiting for the hidden passageway to reveal itself.

Me and a waterfall.
And Summer smiling at dad. (No, you can´t see her tooth in this picture. We´ll get one and post it soon.)
And on Friday, after Rhett´s last day of his first class, we went over to Nitiroi to the Museum of Art and Culture. It was a fun treck--the metro, then the ferry, then a bus, and the architecture of the building was almost more intriguing than the artwork!

ps--we still don´t have internet. We´re pretty much giving up on it now. So I´m in the internet cafe and have a limited amount of time, so that means--no proofreading my posts. Sorry for the typos!

BRAZIL

I can't believe I'm finally updating the blog!!! By some fluke, we are actually picking up another signal, so I am quickly trying to load pictures and type like mad. 

Many questions about the flight . . . so a quick summary of our travels here:

Delta requires that you're there at least an hour early for international flights, and, well, we weren't. By the time we got to the luggage check-in, they were not receiving anymore passengers. And the next flight out was Saturday morning (which was unacceptable for us because Rhett had a mandatory orientation Saturday afternoon that if he didn't make, he couldn't participate in the program). So by putting up a small fight/fit, we were allowed to "try" to make the flight--leaving our luggage behind. Imagine, Rhett pushing the stroller with Summer in it, me carrying the diaper bag, sprinting to the security check, getting stopped by a kind security guard who "wanted to show us all the things we did right in packing Summer's diaper bag," then rushing across the Spokane airport to get to the gate--we made it. Probably two minutes more and they would not have let us on. Breathing heavy, we found our seats and were off to SLC. Summer ate, then slept--a sweet baby for our first flight.

We had about 20 minutes at SLC to get from point A to point B, which of course had to be clear across the entire airport, so once again, we were sprinting to get there. I think I pushed the stroller this time. And Summer did not sleep on this flight--she was quite squiggly and squirmy, wanting to get down and crawl.  The three hours couldn't end fast enough.

And once again, we had about 15 minutes at the Atlanta airport and were charging through to make it. We scrambled to find our seats and were finally off to Rio. This eight and a half hour flight through the night was so-so--better when Summer finally fell asleep. And we wondered what in the world we were going to do once we got to Brazil and didn't have any of our luggage.

But we survived (on little sleep and a Delta dinner and breakfast) and landed at 8:30AM Rio time, which is 4:30AM Spokane time. 

Other members of the program were landing at about this time, and we ended up waiting about two hours before we were all shipped off on a bus to get our housing. Summer got about a twenty-minute nap on the travel bus in my lap, and then was up again as the bus pulled over to the curb, and we all filed off and stood in the street until we were given our keys. There was about 60 of us, so it was quite a scene, and Rhett kept saying, "Stand away from the crowd so we don't get robbed." 

We got our key and were led to our apartment, which, as we entered, we were a little disappointed in. There were dead (and live) cockroaches all over the floor, the kitchen, the bathroom, the dressers, etc. Summer grabbed for one in his last moments of life and she actually caught him. I about passed out. I wondered what we would do without her playpen--we couldn't let her crawl around here! To brighten our spirits and fill our stomachs, we decided to walk around outside for a little bit. We got some pastel de frangos (chicken croissant type things) for us and some cheesy bread for Summer then went to find a baby shop (for a change of clothes for Summer) and a skirt and shirt for me (for church on Sunday). We had been told our luggage would arrive Sunday afternoon, but really, who know when luggage is going to arrive?

We bought a few other things (toothpaste, a toothbrush to share, diapers, baby food, etc.) and were off to orientation.

The luggage did actually come in Sunday, and in all of Rhett's efforts to retrieve it in time for church, he didn't. So we missed church, but it was a nice feeling to finally have our things. Monday came, and Rhett addressed the cockroach problem with the housing manager. Tuesday, we were out and into a new place--cockroach free, with actually matching sheets and dishes. Woohoo! We were living the life!

And now, a bit about the pictures. (I wish I could write more, but the internet is flaking out, and I want to make sure this gets posted before it crashes!)

This is me and Summer with Pao de Acucar in the background. We rode up this little tram to the first Brazilian "mountain" and then rode another one to the one you can see in the picture. The view was beautiful, and we got to see some monkeys playing in the wild.   

Here's "the wild" on Pao de Acucar. (The trash can goes well with the leaves, doesn't it?)

And a few pictures of the beach . . . this first one is for you, Bry. I thought you'd like the little addition on the right. haha. Just kidding. Just me and Summer looking at the waves (with that little addition, of course).

Rhett and Summer running from the waves. She loves it.

Dad and daughter strolling the beach.

And once again, hopefully we'll be getting the internet soon, and then we will post some serious pictures of our life here in Brazil.