Tennessee Fall

Well the Fall here in Tennessee is beautiful. The changing of the leaves has happened about two weeks earlier then normal this year. We have had a lot more rain this fall then what is normal or at least that is what people keep telling us. Man in September I was starting to think I had moved to the Seattle of the South. It rained way to much. So people also have said that the trees are not as beautiful as usual. Man I can't imagine them being any prettier. The weather is so nice for fall weather a lot different then Washington. It as been in the low 70's during the days. I don't miss the cold windy falls that Washington gets.

Joel has gone on several hikes and camp outs the past couple of weekends. So some of these pictures are from his adventures.

Driving across the Country

Well are move was cut shorter then we had planned for. So we where not able to spend as much time doing things along the way. Here are some pictures of the journey across the Country.

Leaving Washington State


These are pictures of somewhere in Wyoming.
Then There is a lack of pictures of Nebraska and Iowa just imagine corn field after corn field. We did stop for a couple of hours in Iowa to visit my friend Kacey Winterton Jones. I hadn't seen her in years so it was fun to visit her and see her cute kiddos. She lives in the middle of nowhere Iowa. Originally we would of loved to stay the night with them but because of or moving company we went with we had to get there in four and half days.

We then continued on down the road for about three hours to Nauvoo Illinios. I have been here before and was really excited for Joel to be able to experience this magnificent place. It is one of my favorite places I have ever been to. Joel was a little skeptical and not to excited, but we arrived into Nauvoo as the sun was starting to set across the Mississippi River. We pulled into town next to the temple and Joel immadetaly fell for Nauvoo the same way I have. Unfortunately for us we would not be there long enough to get to see all the little shops and buildings that you can tour through. We did catch the last show of the evening that the couple missionaries put on. I think Joel is better able to understand now why this is where I would love to serve a mission. We stayed the night at Hotel Nauvoo. It was a Monday evening we decided to walk around the temple grounds this was long after the sun had set. We ran into a nice older couple who we started talking to and it ended up being the Temple President and his wife. They of course invited us to come to the temple. Which we would of loved to do but we had planned on going and seeing Carthage and hitting the road the next morning. They insisted that we come to the early morning session. We both had are recommends so that wasn't a issue and they rent temple clothing. But Joel didn't have Church clothes on him. The temple President said that he didn't care. That shouldn't stop you from coming to the temple. There at the Nauvoo Temple they understand that people are always just stopping through. We couldn't believe what we where hearing. Joel still was like but I only have jeans and tennis shoes. He said come we will not turn you away. So of course we wanted to go but at the same time we felt completely stupid. We did get up early and we did go to the temple. Joel in is jeans and tennis shoes. It was amazing. We had such a wonderful experience there and where able to see the Temple President and his wife in the temple. We can hardly wait to go back to Nauvoo again and spend a few days there. Since we decided to go to the temple we did stop at Carthage but we only took pictures. I can't wait for Joel to experience it.




While driving through Indiana we stopped in Indianapolis. My sweet roommate from Ricks College, Sara Tyre drove a hour or so, so that we could see each other again. I was able to meet here kiddos she has 7. It was fun to have dinner with them and to catch up with her. She is such an amazing person, mom and friend. I was really so excited to see her after so many years. Now we are just hoping are husbands can get in a Masters program together.



From there we decided that we would continue the rest of the way to Tennessee. We pretty much drove almost all night to get here. It was I think about 4 in the morning when we arrived. I missed seeing beautiful Kentucky because it was night. The truck with all of are stuff arrived around noon. Sorry not pictures of the moving truck but we really did move. Thanks to everyone who helped us on both ends of this adventure.

Endless amounts of Deer

Just a short video to show mostly my brother Nathan that the deer really do exist and that we aren't making it up. I took this video through the bedroom window.



I really like all the deer we have around. They come in the yard all the time. The most I have seen in the yard at one time is 8. In the last picture the gate was left open in the garden and we caught the one deer in side the garden.

Other things I'm enjoying is the restaurants here. They have a better selection then Yakima by far. Some of my new favorites are Jason's Deli(sandwiches,salads & soups), Gondolier (Greek and Italian food), Cooty Browns (has a little of everything and has a cool atmosphere)Rita's (ice cream).

I have had a good time watching my niece Breanne play Volleyball. She is almost done with her season and then hopefully we can start up a city league team.

Senior Night

Winning there Tournament
A couple of weeks ago we drove to South Carolina Columbia Temple. It takes us about 4 hours to get to the closest one. It is the tiniest temple I have been to. But none the less wonderful and beautiful. Since going to the Temple we recieved callings to teach the Temple Prep Class.




I have also gone to my nephews Clayton's soccer game and my niece TaraLyn's Orchestra concert. She plays the cello.


One Saturday in September Johnson City has the Dragon Boat Races down at the park. My brother-in-law was on one of the teams so we went and watched for a little bit. They had over 40 teams. It was a cool thing. I think that there was about 20 people paddling and one playing the drums at the front. Then they had food booths set up and blow-up toys for the kiddos. Nice weather which was amazing, since it pretty much rained the whole month of September. I was starting to think that I had moved to Seattle and was not happy.






They grow Tobacco around here. The first time I have ever seen it. It's different then what I thought it would look like. So here are some pictures of the Tobacco fields and then it hanging after they cut it down and are harvesting it. It's kinda of pretty.





Joel has gone fishing a few times. It seems like everybody fishes here. They say they have some great fishing holes around. So hopefully for Joel's sake it is true. Everyone we talk to has said that by the end of Ocotober there should be some really good fishing.

Sao Paulo, Brazil

So this is about two months late… but Marta had to wait on me again…
Our AMAZING Brazil trip started with a long Airplane ride to Sao Paulo. First we left Seattle with our friends the Burgers… While we waited in Atlanta it poured down rain… well apparently our stuff got left outside in the rain because when we arrived in Sao Paulo all of our stuff was wet, and not just misty but really wet.






After landing we had the adventure of figuring out how to get to our hostel. A bus ride and an hour on the subway got us close enough to walk the twenty blocks or so. This is a pic of marta at our hostel with our wet clothes hung out to dry, it was raining so it took a couple of days.








One of the best things about the trip was that Joel got to visit some friends of his from his mission. Ilma and Nuna were very gracious and made us some yummy food. Marta loved the dessert.



We walked around a lot, took the bus a couple times, but the subway was awesome... it was the best way to get around.



Here we are in a favela, Chuck was taking pics and got a couple good ones. It was crazy how many people there were that lived so close together. The houses went on forever and ever it seemed.





We went to the Sao Paulo Temple and had a great time. It was Beautiful. One of the highlights of the trip for sure.



This was in a Brazilian BBQ Restruant, which was amazing.... and cheap.

While at the temple we made some American friends who wanted to take us around to some great spots to see things and for souveginers. We went to a place called Embue which we did find lots of treasures. It was a cool little shopping area where all the streets are blocked off from cars.

Paraty Brazil

You see dogs everywhere you go in Brazil but this one was too funny to not take a picture of. This is the doorway into a resturant. Pretty funny.

The town of Paraty was not in are original plans. Our friends from the Hostel and the temple warned us about the town we had orginally booked to stay. They said it was not a safe place and referred us to Paraty. We really liked Paraty and hope to go back someday. It has a totally different feel then all the other places we went to. It had great shops and tons of places to eat at. It had beautiful churches and colorful stores(doorways) and colorful boats.









We ventured out on an all day jeep tour visiting some water falls and water holes to swim in. It was pretty fun but the water was pretty cold. The first spot was a natural water slide which this year they have had a lot of rain so we lucked out and were able to go on it. The tour guy said it usually doesn't have enough water this time of the year. It had plenty for us. I was a bit of a chicken but I did eventually go and then I managed to lose a contact. But it was fun. The boys played in the big waterfall and swung from the trees. Our tour guide was fun, we named him Tarzan with is green speedo. The end of the trip we ended at an old coffee plantation and had a yummy meal.









At one of the stops we got to see them take the sugar cane and make fresh sugar cane juice and the distillery that makes it into Rum. Fresh sugar cane juice is so yummy. If you ever get a chance to have it you have to try it. We drank it with different juices added to it. Lemon drinks we my famorite.






The Church on a Rock



The Night life in Paraty was fun. It was definately a beautiful town day and night.

Buzios Brazil

The 2nd half of our trip was supposed to be luxurious. We had booked at a timeshare (RCI)in the coastal town of Buzios Brazil. Its about a one and a half hour drive from Rio de Janerio. Its well known for being where the rich and famous go in Brazil. Let me not dwell on the bitter disappointment we felt when we arrived and found it was out in the middle of no where. It was far from everything and we had to rent a car to get anywhere or rent a taxi. The Moral of the story, you don't always get what you thinking your getting when you do things online. We had expected to have laundry service the 2nd week. Oh there was laundry service it was just you pay per article of clothing with undies and bikini bottoms being the cheapest at $2.50. This is where I started to be real grumpy. We had no phones the Internet was a joke and the list did go on and on. So we decided that we would only complain for that first day we where there.



We went on two different boat trips. They where pretty fun the weather was great. I did get a little sick on the first boat. We were brave and swam out in the deep water with who knows what lurking down below. The boat stopped several times to let us swim in the water. Then for lunch we stopped off the shore of one of the beaches. You could swim in or get on the little paddle boat. The beach was beautiful but all the people trying to sell you things was annoying.




Diana and I wanted to kidnap so many of the adorable little children of Brazil. They where all so cute. This little boy was adorable he was walking his little truck around the streets of the shopping district it was so cute.

We had plenty of yummy fresh fruit while in Brazil. The pineapple and oranges and the little bananas were my favorite. There were people all over selling fruit along sides the roads. Banana trees grow wild everywhere.

This is a picture of are beach. We did end up liking it the best. Mainly because it hardly had anybody else on it. We had the best waves too. I managed to actually get out there and play around in the water a few times. That was my first time to swim in the ocean. The salt water is so weird and hurts when you swallow to much of it. The water was the perfect temperature. I was not as brave as the rest of the group they would go pretty far out from shore. Diana and I had some good laughs of the waves crashing into us and knocking us over and washing us up on to shore. I had so much sand in my swim suit it felt like I had pooped my pants.

Joel was seriously like a little kid. He went swimming everyday we where there. Buy the end of the week he got the whole body surfing thing down. He had also made friends with a kid from Rio. I have probably 50 some odd pictures of trying to capture Joel in the waves. I refrained from posting all of them.

This is a picture of me in the neighboring town of Cabo frio. We went there a few times. This is a picture at a fort and me up on the rocks waving the flag upside down, oops. This is where we would of gone to church. If we could of found it. This is the most confusing town I had every been in.

These are some of our Brazilian friends we made. We had two meals with them. It was really yummy food.

This is just another beach in Buzios. It was kind of a inlet and they had wind surfers out in the water. This is three days after are first boat trip and Chuck managed to get fried in the sun so he is covered up and not feeling to great.

Brazil

Rio de janerio in 1 Day
Well the whole trip we had heard how dangerous Rio was so we never did venture in until the last day we where to fly out of there at night so we had a whole day to do a tour. I call it the Rio tour on Speed. We literally saw a ton of places that would of taken us days to see on our own just trying to figure out how to get to them. So we opted to go on this tour that would take us to the do Corcovado (Christ Statue), Sugar Loaf Hill, the Maracana Soccer Stadium, the famous beaches of Copacabana and Impanema. It also included a awesome meal. They said the right price so we said we would do it. It had its plus and minus for sure. We didn't end up getting to go to Sugar Loaf Hill because other people on our tour bus had to be at the airport hours before we did. We soon learned at the first place we stopped to see that this was going to be a fast trip as we learned we had about 30 minutes at each of these places. Hench why I say it was Rio on Speed. It would of been nice to spend a little bit more time at some of the places. So I guess that just means we will have to go back to Rio someday. It wasn't as scary as people had made it out to be. No scary then any of the other city's and towns that we where at (even the favela).

Copacabana Beach







Views from do Corcovado












The one benefit of showing up to the airport 5 hours early was that we where able to get on a earlier flight and ride 1st class and business and be on all the same flights the whole way home. Originally we would of had seperate flights from Atlanta to Seattle. We also go $400 vouters a piece. We thought that was a sweet deal so we took it. Can I just say I wish I could offord 1st class all the time.

We had a great time with the Burgers and can't wait for our next trip with them. It was nice to get back to the states and see normal driving and eat some american food. We were craving hamburges and ice cream.