christmas prep

shortly after thanksgiving we picked up our christmas tree from a local lot and carried it home.

in addition to lots of work and friend holiday parties we wrote out christmas cards and made gingerbread houses with friends!

we are now looking forward to going to california to see family and a wedding.

the forrests

we got invited to a halloween party so for the first time in many years we dressed up. and what did we dress up as? ourselves, the forrests.

i think we pulled it off nicely. we even won an award - the most fitting costume!

bike ride in concord

we are running out of warm days here in boston, but luckily last weekend we got a 70 degree day on halloween! so ben and i decided to get in a bike ride in concord to see the last of the colors. as always when we ride in concord, it did not disappoint. we even survived an attack duck.

fall in boston

fall in new england is the best. last sunday was the perfect fall day so we rode our bikes to mt. auburn cemetery to take in the colors. it was glorious.

visit from the twin

cory came to visit! she flew into nyc and we walked and walked and walked all over manhattan. we walked through times square, central park, the met, and chinatown.

we did lots of window shopping and made lots of street purchases including food, art and accessories.

we then headed back to boston and stayed inside while we got our first snow of the season, although a little early. thanks for visiting twin!

providence

recently ben surprised me with a little weekend get away to providence, rhode island. it was perfect. we ate tasty mexican, watched a movie at a tiny theater, played some tabletop shuffleboard, slept in, wandered the streets of downtown providence, ate delicious brunch, visited the RISD art sale, stumbled upon a surf shop sample sale, walked the cliff walk in newport, ate at a clam shack, and went to a giant pumpkin festival!

ben picked out a pumpkin for halloween.

garden

we were fortunate this year to have a neighbor let us use some of their backyard for a garden. we started with tomato and pepper seeds in our window sill and broccoli and cabbage starters in the garden.

our broccoli grew great and we enjoyed it in many salads. we also got a few good cabbage heads.

we planted the tomatoes and peppers a little late, but we did get this little guy that we enjoyed!

not the best harvest, but still a successful first effort. thank donna marie for the land!

byu football

being alumni, we at the forrest house are big byu football fans. ben especially. for his birthday this year his mom surprised him with a ticket to the first game of the season vs the highly ranked oklahoma in the new dallas cowboys stadium!

it was an impressive stadium.

and amazingly byu won the game. a great way to start the season. the video is of the last play of the game, a missed oklahoma field goal attempt.

go cougars & happy birthday ben!

buggy tour

on our last day at casa de genipabu we rented two dune buggies for the day. since the beaches in northern brazil go on forever you can just drive on the sand for miles and miles.

our first stop via the buggy tour was snorkeling. we took a speed boat about 4 miles off the coast to a reef and watched the fishes.

then onto a zip line ride.

lastly to a sand dune park. mom came along for this part and it was by far the most intense. very fast and very steep. we had a lot of fun playing in the dunes as well.

overall the buggy tour was one of the best parts of the trip.

brazil was amazing. we were sad to leave.

cashews & mosquitos

in addition to spending lots of time at the house & beach in genipabu we did go see a few sites. one day john took us to the worlds largest cashew tree. it was large. we ate too many cashews.

that's just one tree.

then on sunday we visited one of john's wards where of course he was well loved. everyone wanted to talk to him and those who attempted to talk to the rest of us had to just watch us smile and nod. again, brazilians are super friendly. ben's favorite member was the old man below.

the night before i got about 30 mosquito bites on my legs so i got to attend church with bright pink legs that ben sprayed with calamine lotion. at least they stopped itching.

casa de genipabu

after a very looooong van ride late at night we finally arrived at 2am to the casa de genipabu - the fantastic beach house that was worth every minute of the travel time to get there. in true shafer fashion a lot of our stay revolved around food. josie made us a wonderful breakfast each morning. i especially loved the daily selection of fresh juices. one night we all made pizzas in the brick oven out back. and the evening when the mission president, the mission doctor and their wives visited haroldo went all out with a full churrasco including freshly caught lobster from the reef right in front of the house!

at the house we did a lot of relaxing, laying in hammocks, and reading. we also enjoyed lots of paddleball
and many walks on the beach collecting sand dollars.

our stay at the house would not have been the same without haroldo and josie. they spoiled us and then practically had to kick us out - we really did not want to leave.we miss you casa de genipabu.

joao pessoa

we sadly departed rio to make the journey north to john's mission field. we flew into recife and made our way to joao pessoa first stopping at the eastern most point in all of the americas.

john then introduced us to acai, a local berry that they serve very cold with nuts and granola on top. some loved, others didn't. that evening we had a delicious authentic dinner with john's mission president and family. we now know the cure to all is coconut milk, but for kidney stones try watermelon juice.

we left late at night after lots of laughs and meeting lots of missionaries and members as we still had hours to go until we reached the beach house.