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.

triathlon

friends of ours have the great tradition of celebrating their anniversary by throwing their own triathlon. ben and i decided to give it a try. below is the whole group at the starting line. 

it began with a 1/2 mile swim in walden pond, followed by a 16 mile bike around the streets of concord, and finishing with a 5k run around the pond.

ben was kind enough to wait for me so we could finish together (no, we did not win, but it sure was fun breaking the tape).

finishing in 2 hours and 9 mins i think it was a successful first triathlon. 

red sox

we made it to our first red sox game of the season last night. it was mormon night and we saw lots of friends at the game.

it doesn't get much better than fenway and a red sox win on a summer night. especially when 'sweet caroline' comes on.

berkshires

friends from the ward invited us to go camping in the berkshires last weekend. after riding out an intense storm in our tent we were treated to a great saturday full of badminton, swimming and music. 

the team of forrest/hammond were tough to beat. 

the yins had some natural chinese talent and made for good competitors.

that evening we went to 'film night' at tanglewood. we brought a picnic and listened to john williams conduct some of his classics such as e.t. and indiana jones.

tuna melts

unfortunately the long weekend had to come to end. sunday before the drive to the airport jon taught me how to make tuna melts. it was quite exciting. come back soon forrest family!

4th of July

the evening of july 3rd we ventured to the esplanade to hear the boston pops practice round before the big show on the 4th. the musical guest this year was neil diamond! it was so good so good so good singing 'sweet caroline'. aaron was still in a new york state of mind

for the 4th we rented a canoe and slowly made our way down the charles river. ben was our brave captain who had to steer and deal with some who wanted off the canoebut we finally made it to boston and we anchored near this experienced crew of the nelsons, jessica & janaethe hours in the boat was well worth the amazing front row fireworks show we saw

new york, new york

aaron, jon and mom forrest came to visit us for the 4th of july weekend. in the words of aaron 'it was a legit' weekend. i agree. we began our holiday weekend by hitting a deer with the car just outside of new york city which was the beginning of an exciting weekend. in addition to lots of walking, seeing the broadway musicial 'wicked' we visited the fao schwartz store,

central park (and the squirrels),
the m&m store,and of course times square.

ah the big city. never a dull moment.

meet walter

we are very excited to announce the newest member of the forrest family - walter. 

the proud parents holding the design of our new addition!

during the creation process - he has yet to grow his distinguishing orange hair.

and this is how we carry him around.

we are so excited to have walter - we think he is quite delightful.

palmyra, ny

with mr. forrest serving in the stake young men's we get to attend a lot of youth activites, such as youth conference. this year about 100 cambridge stake youth headed by bus to palmyra, ny.

we were group leaders for the amazing purple group. here we all are at the sacred grove in front of the palmyra temple.

other sites we saw were the book of mormon printing press and the hill cumorah.

it was a great uplifting weekend with lots of shenanigans and little sleep.

biking

mr. forrest got a road bike last year so i decided to join in the fun this year, especially because i needed a new way to stay in shape as running was not cooperating with my knees. pretty much every weekend this summer we've done some serious biking. one weekend we headed up to the adirondacks in new york for a 38 mile loop. the first few miles were crazy hills that made me very unhappy, but after that it was a great ride.  and very pretty.

we stayed in plattsburgh one night where there is not a putt-putt course to be found. the next day we visited the great town of burlington, vermont for some church, biking by the lake, and lunch on church street. i love long weekends.

ahoy

mr. forrest was in charge of the monthly stake youth activity - this month it was sailing on the charles. the day was perfect with good wind and lots of sunshine. being on the water is so peaceful and it's a pretty good view of downtown boston.

happy anniversary

mr. forrest and i celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary on sunday. i'd say it's been a pretty fantastic year.

sadly the longfellow park chapel where we both attended church for years burned down also on sunday. i have so many memories in that building, it was hard to see the damage. happily though talk of rebuiling has already begun.