Lisa Lisa Bo Bisa

I got to play a real photographer and shoot a wedding!  For realsies! My friend Mandy's cousin had long ago asked her if she'd do her wedding photos for her.  Mandy asked me to shoot with her, as she had never done a wedding before, or anything of that magnitude.  I hadn't either, but we both agreed that we could surely do it (or give it a good attempt) together.  You gotta start somewhere, even if it is intimidating. Saturday was the big day, and I think we were both fairly nervous but excited.  Her cousin is extremely easy going, and had really only a few requests for photos that day.  So Mandy and I came up with a list, some pose ideas, organized ourselves to cover different angles throughout the day, and I have to say we seriously rocked it. We showed up bright and early as the girls finished getting ready.  We herded the wedding party to the church to start photos, and we were thrilled to see that the iconic/beautiful front...

This winter was particularly horrid to us in the Midwest, and I'm wondering when Spring will really arrive.  Sure, sure, last year's was technically the longest (let's hope it doesn't snow again in May), but I've heard this one called the most brutal in recent memory.  Polar vortex, anyone? Despite the cold, snow, and misery that comes along with winter, time seemed to pass fairly quickly.  It's nearing on May already, which is incredible.  A couple trips to the sunny south always help pass the time.  Paired with a busy work schedule, a girls weekend, a few birthday celebrations, weekly Lenten church services, happy hours... the weeks are flying by.  Oh and it helps that I've finally subscribed to Netlix and have busied myself watching the first 2 seasons of Scandal.  I love TV. Did anyone else notice how awesome traffic was mid-March to early April?  Maybe you have to have the East to West commute ...

This has become the longest recap of a vacation in the history of blog posts.  But it was the longest vacation I've had, so I guess that's fitting. After Rio, we spent 2 final days in Brasilia with the whole clan.  My Uncle Gary road a bus down from where he lives in northeastern Brazil to visit...a whole 30-some hour trip.  He sure must love us (or he's crazy).  It was great to see him again, in his beloved country he has called home for so many years. The afternoon we returned to Brasilia, we stopped at an outdoor marketplace to look for some t-shirt souvenirs.  We enjoyed traditional Brazilian pastels and beer, a churro that was filled with dulce de leche (and seriously almost made me melt with happiness), and browsed around at the shops.  Then it was back home, where I recall snatching up N as soon as he was awake.  I couldn't believe how much he had grown in the 6 days we were away. This picture above makes me smile, because ...

At the Copa….Copacabana…   After our time in Iguazu, Jon and I headed to Rio de Janiero while my parents flew back to Brasilia.   They had been to Rio before, so has K&A, so we got some great tips from them and were off on our own for 4 days.   We arrived Thursday morning and started searching for the best way to get to our hotel.   The first taxi stand we saw quoted over 120 reais (US$50) which seemed outrageous.   A second (and last) stand that we came across had a flat rate of 70 reais, which was much better.   We bought a ticket and went to stand in a very long taxi line outside.   While there, we realized other people did not have this prepay receipt, so we wondered if we had just paid more than we needed to.   We saw buses down the road, so Jon ran over to check out the cost.   They were super cheap, but did not go directly to Copacabana Beach, so the ride would have been long and tedious.   Fortunately, we had made the...

Heat, swimming, birds... check . The next, and perhaps most exciting thing we did was visit the Iguazu Waterfalls. This has been on my "long list of places I want to visit (but realize I may never get to most of them)" for quite some time. So I was thrilled to be able to check this off on my list. We walked across the street from the Bird Park to the entrance of the Waterfalls park. I tried to get my parents the 50% off discount for seniors, only to learn that this is a discount for Brazilian seniors, and the nice ticket man wouldn't make an acception. Even if they "just moved" to Brasilia two weeks ago...nothing was getting past this ticket salesman. Oh well. We boarded a bus that was going to take us a few km to the start of the waterfalls. While waiting on that bus, I was fixing my hair and my hair binder snapped in half. I had no extras along, and as my thick, long, frizzy hair hung in my face...