We Moved!

As you can see from this picture, we are now back in Utah. After a long and sometimes torturous drive, we arrived in Utah on September 6 and having been staying in the Burrola's home in Grantsville. Thank you very much Ed and Elaine, you are very gracious hosts.

Last weekend we went camping in Big Cottonwood Canyon with some of my family. I had been very anxious to get up into the mountains again. We had a really good time...

Except for this unfortunate "misstep" I took into a pile of horse dung. I knew the moment I took a step that something was not right. Otherwise we had a great time enjoying the scenery, hiking, wildlife, and mountain bocce ball.

When we arrived at the Burrola's house we were surprised to see Pam there. She came up to surprise Candice on her 25th birthday. While she was in Utah we were able to take her to her first rodeo at the Utah State Fair. We're glad she could come up for a week.

Happy 25th Birthday to Candice. My little ray of sunshine came into this world on September 7, 1984 and I'm grateful for her every day.

We sold our bed, couches, and various other furniture which made it possible to fit all of our belongings into this trailer. The car had a a hard time hauling this thing all the way to Utah, but we're grateful that we made it without any car problems.

On our way out we decided we were going crazy and needed to take a break. We stopped at Council Bluffs, Iowa and Winter Quarters, Nebraska which are accross the Missouri River from each other. We spent about three hours learning about the significance of these locations in Mormon History and we enjoyed the break from the road.

In Winter Quarters there is a nice visitor's center and a beautiful temple with a cemetery at its side with many unmarked graves of pioneers who died on the trek west.

Here we are at the Kanesville Tabernacle in present-day Council Bluffs. This was the first tabernacle built by the Church and the location where Brigham Young was sustained as the second President of the Church in December 1847. We recommend these spots to anyone travelling East.

We haven't posted to this blog since July, so in the meantime I have apparently forgotten the weird order in which pictures get posted on this site. So here we are at Navy Pier in Chicago. My mom and Melanie came out to visit us in Michigan and to take a short trip to Chicago before we moved. We had a great time with them and we're glad they were able to come out.

We had a great time in Chicago. It really is one of our favorite cities. The architecture is beautiful and there are hundreds of things to do. For example, you can ride on the Tall Ship Windy and here pirate stories about the fur trade on Lake Michigan. We went for an hour-long sail and got to help hoist the sails and steer the boat. Candice is a natural.

Here we are at the famous Buckingham Fountain with the cityscape in the background. Chicago has great museums, great food, and is very clean and easy to get around. We also enjoyed eating a Swedish breakfast, standing on the pods overhanging the 103rd story of the Sears Tower and watching the fireworks at Navy Pier.

We are really going to miss Ann Arbor. This place has the best sandwiches I have ever tasted. Our favorite sandwich is loaded with freshly cut turkey, tomatoes, guacamole, and bacon. It is heavenly. We will have to go back someday.

Here we are with the Abernethys. They were kind enough to let us stay at their apartment during the month of August after our lease ended and while they were finishing an internship in Louisiana. We got to hang out with them for a couple days before they went on vacatio to Taiwan. Thanks again Kevin and Katie.

As I said before, we are going to miss Ann Arbor a lot. We loved the beautiful parks, the river, and especially our friends. And since we left in September, we will be able to leave with fond memories of the beautiful summer and only distant memories of the harsh winters.

Who knows where we will end up next, but we are grateful for everything we experienced and the people who we met while we were in Michigan.

Random

So this picture made me laugh hysterically when it happened. Ryan was serving himself dinner and decided to put his last scoop of corn on top of his spaghetti(obviously on accident)....It was so funny I told him I HAD to have a picture of it!
Here we are at 2-year-old central. These are all of my friends and this is what I get to do all day, play.....and change diapers and clean up bodily fluids!! As you can see from the holes in my knees they get a little rough sometimes:) I love my job!!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Ryan!! So I made him take this picture with the goodies I got for him. On the left is the Iron Gym.....he has been wanting it for quite some time now. He'll probably look like Rocky next time you see him;) On the right is my medal of honor I made him with my kids at school, it says World's Greatest Husband in the middle (and it is very true!!).

So our ward has a tradition of making mini pies for all of the men on father's day. Here is Ryan licking the remains of his chocolate raspberry pie, it was that good!
This week we got the experience of a lifetime. Our neighbor went into labor 3 weeks early and we were her back up plan just in case. So we picked up little Andrew from the babysitter last Wednesday and got to keep him until the next day. Ryan got to be the daddy while I went to school and got to practice changing poopy diapers too! Ask him about it later;) Other than staying up with him all night, I would say we are ready for the challenge!

Mike and Jenny's Wedding

My brother Mike got married to Jenny Graham on May 30 in the Salt Lake temple. We were very happy that we were back from our trip and able to be there with them and the family. Unfortunately all of our other pictures with Jenny came out blurry, so this is the best I've got.
We had a great time and we wish Mike and Jenny the best.
The reception was in a real nice backyard at Jenny's neighbor's home in South Jordan. We loved our plumb-colored attire.
Candice's kids at the daycare were so excited for her to get back that they made her this beautiful poster. I love that they call her Miss Candice. We are glad to be back in Michigan. At least until we go to California in two weeks.

Just a quick note: I am doing an internship this summer at the Health Management Research Center at the University of Michigan. I worked at the Center last summer and thought it would be a great buffer while I search for a more permanent position. Candice is still at the daycare and we are loving the beautiful June weather. The job search is coming along OK and we are excited to move on to the next phase of our lives. We hope you're all doing well.

Day trip in the Big Apple

So luckily at the end of our trip to Brasil we had a nine hour layover in New York City, and since neither of us had ever been to the City That Never Sleeps, we decided to take a subway into Manhattan. It was a foggy, cold day and we didn't have time to get any closer than this to the Statue of Liberty. Even from this distance, the history and meaning of the statue was apparent. I have always wanted to see Lady Liberty.
This fire station is located across the street from the area that housed the World Trade Center buildings.
This is the site where the World Trade Center buildings were located. It is a massive block of land and hundreds of construction workers were clearing old debris and working on the construction of the Freedom Tower and memorials. This is a hallowed piece of land.
This is a wall decorated with notes and drawings by elementary school students to those who died on September 11. It makes the whole thing a little more real.
As I mentioned, it was a very foggy day. We couldn't even see the top of the Empire State Building. Because our time in the city was short, we decided to take a double decker bus around town. Candice took this gem of a shot while we were traveling along in the bus.
Here we are inside the very cool Toys 'R Us megastore at Times Square. The store is so big that it has a ferris wheel inside and millions of toys.
We had to have a dog in NYC. It was so cool to be in the city and see all of the people walking and the taxis passing - it looks like it does in the movies.
Here we are again at Times Square. This place is so big and so lively that I think it might be the best spot to experience New York. At the top of that tall building behind us is the New Year's Eve ball that drops on TV every year.
We will have to go back to New York to see a broadway show. We also need to ride in a taxi, visit Central Park, the Metropolitan, the Statue of Liberty and everything else. Who wants to come with?

More about Brasil

Since some of you may have had difficulty looking at the slideshow or may have wanted more information about the pictures, I decided to add this post with a little more explanation. The picture above is the Hentges family with whom we spent our last days in my (Ryan's) mission. They took exceptional care of us and even fed us brazilian barbecue (churrasco) with filet mignon and other choice meat. I love this family.
This is a family that we visited with in Candice's first area called Campo Grande. We had a great time visiting with people we love and being immersed in Brazilian culture again. I haven't included any more pictures of families since none of you (besides Dave) know any of them.
Because this blogspot thing is kind of lame about the order of adding pictures, we will start from the end of the trip and move backward. This is Iguacu Falls on the border of Brasil and Argentina. This picture was taken on the Argentine side at the Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo), which is the spot with most water flowing and some of the highest falls.
This picture was taken from the Brazilian side and gives you an idea of the size of Iguacu Falls. There are something like 274 waterfalls and an incredible amount of water that comes through here. We went during a supposed "drought" and it still looked like this.
Candice did a great job on this beautiful shot of the falls. It is difficult to describe how beautiful and powerful these falls are. I recommend this spot to everyone.
This is Praia dos Naufragados, or Shipwreck Beach, in my mission. We hiked for 45 minutes through the jungle to get to this beautiful beach. There were about ten surfers taking advantage of the huge waves. About 5 or 6 dolphins were also enjoying themselves in the waves.
This has to be about the most beautiful beach I have been to. If you can get past the incredibly pasty white figure in the middle, you can't deny how beautiful this place is.
We visited a city called Curitiba which is in between our missions. My mission president and one of my favorite mission companions live in this beautiful city. Above is my mission president, Presidente Peixoto, and his wife. He had just had surgery to remove gall stones a couple days before and was still recovering.
Curitiba is famous for these trees called Araucarias. This city is much like Portland in that it is filled with parks and trees. The temple design had to be changed to accomodate a few araucarias because it is illegal to cut them down. We visited the temple, several parks, and a museum while in this city.
This guy is really cool. His name is Mario and he is a member of the Church in Candice's mission. He is about 5 feet tall and was kind enough to give me a ride into town on his motorcycle to buy bus tickets. We also love this family.
Here I am drinking terere at a member's house in Campo Grande. This drink is basically grass and cold water with some flavoring. It tastes about what it sounds like. In my mission they drink a similar drink with hot water called chimarrao which incredibly tastes even worse.
Here we are in Rio de Janeiro where we started our trip. This is the statue called Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor). It is probably the most famous landmark in Rio and one that I'm assuming most of you have seen. The statue looks small in this picture, but is actually about 100 feet tall. It is located on top of the tallest mountain in the area and provides an incredible view of the city. Cool fact: Christ the Redeemer was recently voted as one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World.
Here's Candice on Copacabana Beach. Our hotel was about 100 meters from here. We loved the spot and were sad that our flight delays made us miss one of our two measly days in Rio. We loved Brasil and the people are as loving and open as we remembered. Que saudade!

Explanation of previous post

So if you click on the Picasa Web Albums link on the post below, you can look at 45 pictures of our trip to Brazil. You can click on the slideshow button to watch them in a slideshow. There were too many pictures to post in the usual way, so if you have questions about any of the pictures feel free to ask in a comment or email. Thanks.

Just to give a little help...

The first pictures were taken in Rio de Janeiro at Copacabana Beach and Corcovado Hill where the statue of Christ is located. The next set of pictures were taken in Candice's mission. After that, we visited Curitiba where my mission president and one of my favorite mission companions live. The next group of pictures are from my mission. The last set were taken at Iguacu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina. For more info on these beautiful waterfalls go to this link for the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguacu_Falls

Picasa Web Albums - Brasil Trip 2009 - Brasil Trip 2009

Picasa Web Albums - Brasil Trip 2009

Graduation and Northern Michigan

So this picture was accidentally erased in the mackinac section, so we decided to take tandem bikes around the island. It was about an hour ride and we even convinced Brent and Susan to come along!! This was the view we had just about the whole time, it was beautiful.


This is another part of the dunes, you can hike to a beautiful view of Lake Michigan and we luckily got there right at sunset.
This is a picture at Sleeping Bear dunes, we had just finished a pretty long hike up the dunes and as you can see I was still out of breath.
This is the beautiful Mackinac island(you actually pronounce it Mackinaw). Anyway, we were able to sleep in a really nice hotel right on main street and do many of the fun things the island had to offer.

Although we were not able to get a great shot of the hotel, here is the best one. I was so excited to go in!! Somewhere in time used to be one of my favorite movies.
Here is a close up picture of us in the front entrance of the Grand Hotel.
So here we are in the biggest Christmas store in the U.S., Bronner's Christmas Wonderland. You could literally spend a week in that store and still not see everything. Susan was in heaven!
Here Ryan wants you to see his sleeves on his gown. They are quite interesting, his hands come out of the middle of the sleeves and then the very ends hang down, it is a special type of gown for those who get masters degree. Doesn't he look adorable?
Hooray Ryan graduated!! It was a rainy day as you can see behind us, but despite the rain, it was a good graduation.