Brazil

The view from our hotel
The view from our hotel room
Our hotel room
The other side of our hotel room. (Stu is in his swimming suit.)
Me standing by a sign that says be aware of sharks.
The beautiful Recife Temple
Me rinsing off after swimming at Calhetas
Stu enjoying his view of the mermaid!
Calhetas
Us on our way home from a perfect day at Calhetas
These next pictures are all of Porto de Galinhas
We were amused by the pay phones.


The Beach at Porto de Galinhas

Aren't we cute! I lost my favorite sun glasses in the ocean so we bought me a couple of pairs.
Porto de Galinhas had statues of chickens every where.
I got this nasty bug bite. I have no idea where I got it. I am guessing the beach. It was the worse bug bite I have ever had. It was so itchy I had to continually put ice on it to try to numb it a little, but I would just have to scratch it. We even went to a pharmacy and the pharmacist looked at it and gave a some cream that he said would help. Come to find our it was some kind of steroid. It seemed to help. I still bugged me for a while after we got home.
.Out cute taxi driver and his wife.
Me and all the ducks outside the Instituto Ricardo Brennand
Afro the duck!

Instituto Ricardo Brennand was an art and historical museum in a huge castle. I was really neat. We both enjoyed it.

Dogs have armor?


This was the huge LDS church that was down the street from our hotel.
Stu and I love the word sparky so when we saw this candy was named Sparkies we had to try them. They were really good.

Stu and I have both wanted to go to Brazil and we figured with a baby on the way now is the best time. We left the first week in January. It was so nice to get out of the cold. I was really worried about flying and being prego and sick but I did okay. The second leg of our flight I got a little sick, but it was from the man sitting by us with the nasty cologne. I kind of fell apart, tired, sick and prego not a good combination. Luckily the plane was empty and we were able to spread out and lay down. Once we arrived we made our way to the hotel. We stayed at the Blue Tree Tower. It was a nice little hotel. I was very disappointed when we got there (culture shock). The pool at the hotel was tiny, the beach was dirty and I am use to resorts and places like Hawaii. I was also overly tired and once again prego! Stu and I went up to our hotel room and took a little rest and when I woke up life was a lot better. We ended up having a wonderful time even with my rocky start. It was so nice just to go on a trip just the two of us. We spent a lot of time at the beach, once we got down closer to the water there wasn't as much trash. We did a lot of sight seeing. One of our first nights there we were at our hotel waiting for a taxi and when we got in the cab the cab driver was a member of the church. He only spoke Portuguese so I could not understand him but he and Stu had a great time chatting. He took us all over. He took us to the Recife Temple, recommended a couple of really nice beaches and drove us to one of them (we took a tour to the other one). He was always waiting outside our hotel just in case we needed to go any where. He even gave us his personal cell phone number when ever he would drop us off someplace, the mall or in the city, so that when we were ready to go home we could call and he could take us home. On Sunday he picked us up and took us to church with him and his family. I was bored stiff because I couldn't understand a thing, but Stu enjoyed it. Our favorite place was a little town called Porto de Galinhas translated Chicken port. It had fun little shops and a gorgeous beach. We decided if we go there again we are going to stay there. We went to another beach called Calhetas whose translation means little cove. It was beautiful and warm and the cove was shaped like a heart. I loved the warm clear water. I am a wuss when it comes to swimming in cold water. We ate at all kinds of fun little restaurants. I was not a fan of Brazilian food, but Stu loved it. I was all about Pizza Hut. One food I did love there was the guava. They had guava everything, even McDonald's had guava sundays. They really need those here. Our hotel included a free breakfast every morning they had a lot of strange things, but they always had these guava pastries that were delicious. It was so fun to hear Stu speaking Portuguese. NO ONE spoke English there so thank goodness Stu could speak Portuguese. He speaks beautifully! We had a wonderful time! We spent time at the mall (it was huge), wondering the streets, shopping in the supermarkets (we loved buying the Brazilian cookies), chilling in our hotel room and best of all spending time together.

Girl or Boy?

Because Stu's dad is our doctor we get to find out before 20 weeks if we are having a girl or a boy. So, I will post this week after we find out, that is if the little one is not too shy. We are so excited. We can't decide. At first we both thought it was a boy so we started calling it Mister, but now we think it might be a girl so we might have to change that to a Misses.

Baby on the way!

Just wanted to let you all know that baby Curtis is on the way! I am due July 7th. We are very excited! We went to our first Doctors visit today, (with Dr. Grandpa Curtis) and got to hear the little heart beat. Now it seems more real and I have not just had the flu for 4 weeks.

No more school!

I will be DONE with school this week, six and a 1/2 years under my belt and... I got a job! YAHOO! After many months of looking for a job opening I finally found one. I am going to officially be an MRI Tech at the University of Utah Hospital.

All I have to say is... GO UTES!

Lake Powell Triathlon

Aren't they Sexy in those wet suits!

Stu finishing the biking!

It's all over!

Last weekend Stu his sister Michele did the Lake Powell Triathlon. They both did really well. Stu had not trained at all for it. He usually swims a couple times a week at the Sports Mall, but that was the extent of his training. He did the Spud Man Triathlon a few years ago and that is the last time he ran. His goal was to finish in under three hour and he did it! He was 3rd in his age division in swimming and 13th in biking and running. Not to bad for not training. Michele did the sprint distance and got 3rd overall in her age division.

My New Calling!

Well, we have been in our ward since June and I finally got a calling! Not that I was complaining! Stuart and I almost started laughing when they ask me to be the Assistant den mother in cub scouts. I think its cubs. I don't know. I know nothing about scouts. I grew up in a family of girls. I'm almost as girly as they come. I had to ask what they did and how old the boys were. When they announced it in Sacrament Meeting my Mother-in-law had not heard the news yet and she busted out laughing. It should be fun though. I really like the den mother, Rebecca Tangren.

My niece Cate's Blessing

So I am a little behind. My sister Steph had baby # 5 in August. She finally got a girl. YAHOO! Over Labor day weekend my whole family went up to Seattle. Stu and I decided to make a road trip out of it. It was so much fun. We stopped in George, Washington on the way up and went to a Dave Matthews Band concert. The Gorge Amphitheater was beautiful and the concert was great! It was a short weekend trip but it was fun to all be together, that doesn't happen very often.

We MoVeD!

A lot has gone on this past little while. Along with the trips we also moved out of Student Housing at the U. We moved in with Stu's parents for the next little while to save some money for when we head off to Medical School. I have to say it is really nice not having to pay rent. I took some pics of our cute little apartment at the U so you could all see how beautiful the cinder block walls were. Our family room/kitchen areaThe Kitchen if you can call it that!Our TINY BathroomOur second bedroom/office that always looks like this.Our Bedroom

My Favorite Place...Washington D.C.

Stu and I in the Capital Rotunda

The National Archives

My Dad, me, Stu and Stu's Dad in front on Union Station.

The Library of Congress

The Supreme Court Building

Arlington National Cemetery

My Mom and Dad and us all wet after the down poor in Arlington Cemetery.

The Lincoln Memorial

The crew at Mount Vernon

Washington's Grave at Mount Vernon

My mom and I with Pocahontas in Jamestown.

Me and the Clydesdale

The Capital Building in historic Williamsburg

The week after Stu got home from China we left for Washington D.C. We had such a great time. We went with my parents and Stu's parents. That is the way to travel! The first day we were there we went on a tour of the U.S. Capital. It was beautiful. Even though I have been to D.C. a few times and lived there I had never been on a tour of the capital. That same day we went to the Library of Congress, another place I had never been. It is amazing! I won't bore you with our day by day itinerary, we went to all the monuments, the White House, we went to the International Spy Museum, the Smithsonian, National Archives, all the touristy things. We also took a day trip to Mount Vernon. That was my favorite part of the trip. I love learning more about George Washington. Then we drove down to Williamsburg, Virginia. On our way down we stopped in Annapolis, Maryland to see the Naval Academy and the cute little town. In Williamsburg we did a candle light ghost tour, saw Historic Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. We loved learning all the history, but we did need a break from it, so we went to Busch Gardens. Stu and his dad went on all the roller coasters while the rest of us went on the little rides, saw some of the shows and wondered through the shops. I did get to see the Budweiser Clydesdales. They were huge! To please my Navy dad we did drive to Norfolk, Virginia to see the Naval Base. The boys got to go on a tour of a real life aircraft carrier. That was Stu's Favorite. We had such a wonderful time. It was so fun to go back to my favorite place on earth!