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.

rio de janeiro

we are back from brazil. it was amazing. and made even better due to our portuguese translator. thank you john! the first part of our trip was to rio de janeiro. below is a view of sugar loaf and copacabana beach from corcovado.

ben and i had the first 2 days in the city by ourselves. we did a lot of exploring, mainly on foot. one of our first stops was to the thankfully shady botanical gardens.
then we went on a true adventure and took the bus to maracana the huge football (soccer) stadium to watch a match. we got there after half time after the ticket office had closed and ben used his skills to scalp us tickets for which we are sure we paid more than they asked.
the day the family arrived we immediately headed up to the top of corcovado via the very steep old train to see the Christ the Redeemer statue. the statue and views of rio did not disappoint.
we of course also enjoyed some beach time mainly on ipanema where we stayed.
we also managed to do a lot of surfing (or for me, falling off of surfboards)we also decided all brazilians are super nice. see - look at the friends i made on the beach while watching ben surf!
our favorite sign in rio. it appears to have been in many accidents.
on our last day in rio we took a favela tour to see and learn how the majority of brazilians really live. lots and lots of windy alleyways and stairs in very tight spaces.