Random winter photos

Here are just a few random pictures taken over this past winter. I've been WAY behind on blogging. In reverse chronological order... Ezra turned 2!

Cora turned 10! Ya, a whole decade! We are getting old! Ain't she great? Ezra found the marker again...

Cora did great in another spelling bee! She go to go on to the district spelling bee for all 4th through 6th Graders and she's only in 4th! Good job Cora! Cora and Jonah built a snowman with Uncle Chris.

My boys. Gotta love them! Granger, Ezra and Jonah.

Christmas morning waiting at the top of the stairs... They all love heir daddy. He's reading the Book of Mormon to them.

Johnson family Christmas 2010. Ezra and Jonah in the fall leaves in our front yard.

Lynn and Ezra on a family hike/walk one Sunday afternoon up by Springerville.

Brasil

Excited to leave for Brazil!

After missing our flight in Phoenix we spent a day that should have been spent in Rio in Charolette NC. We made the most of it by going to this cool restaurant that we saw on the TV show "Diners Drive-ins and Dives." The food was as good as advertised, especially the fried pickles.

This is the view from the terrace of our room at our bed and breakfast, overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro.

We stayed in the Santa Teresa district.... built on a hill, overlooking the city. It reminded us of Jerome or Bisbee, only with a Spanish (more correctly, Portugese) influence. Back in the day, it was the place for wealthy and the artists. Beautiful!

We ate at a Tapioca stand like this twice in our two days in Rio. It was that good (and cheap). Tapioca pearls fried to make a soft, chewy shell and then topped with dried meats, cheeses or chocolate and coconut. Super yummy!

A girl from Ipanema... I mean a girl standing on the beach of Ipanema.




The famous Copacabana Beach! More beautiful, I thought, than I had heard... especially at sunset. Talk about romantic!

Well, we were tourists so we had to do as all the other tourists... buy a coconut and drink right out of it!

Our bed and breakfast had fantastic breakfasts each morning. Here is Lynn enjoying the assortment of fresh fruits, freshly made bread, yogurt, granola, cheeses, etc.

Another view of Rio from the famous Christ the Redeemer monument.

Cameo enjoying the view of Rio from Christ the Redeemer.

Cameo drinking their famous soda Guarana (or something like that). It's only manufactured in Brazil and is made from a fruit there. It was good. On a local bus, headed to Centro.

We walked around Centro (The Central of downtown Rio de Janiero) for a while. Lynn stopped to eat a sandwich on the doorstep of a beautiful church. We didn't know it was a cathedral at the time... when I took this picture. We later went inside. It rivaled the cathedrals I've seen in Europe for sure.

Shopping in Centro. This part was like the local Wal-mart for Brazilians.

There's nothing like drinking Coca-Cola out of glass bottle in a foreign country. I look forward to it every chance I get.

Lynn at a local, less known beach with Sugarloaf in the background.

One of our first views of Rio from Sugarloaf. We were only halfway to the top. You can barely make out Christ the Redeemer (Corcovado) in the background.

We weren't sure who this is a statue of but everyone else seemed to know. They all held his hand and took pictures so we figured we had to too. Only, Lynn didn't hold his hand... :)

These tiny little monkeys were at the top of Sugarloaf. They were only about the size of a guinea pig.

Lynn, halfway up Sugarloaf with a monkey in the background.

We're finally at the top of Sugarloaf just as the sun sets. Beautiful!

From this view at the top of Sugarloaf, you can see Copacabana Beach to the left... where we were the night before.

This kiss was a bit off but you get the general idea. Maybe we need a bit more practice!

Rio at night. It's quite a captivating city.

We met some locals (one of the best parts of traveling) while trying to order our Tapioca dinner. We ended up talking to them in broken English-Portugese-Spanish for a couple of hours.

Cameo in Santa Teresa district. We walked around here a lot. It was near our bed and breakfast.

Santa Teresa is experiencing an artisan revival. There is a lot of funky artwork around. This is somebody's handiwork.

We rode the local trolley called the Bonde.

We flew to Iguassu Falls, Brazil. One of the wonders of the world! Waterfalls for miles around. A photo just couldn't capture how awe inspiring it was. Just amazing!

This was our view across the street from our hotel. We stayed in the only hotel in the National Park on the Brazil side. This view is of Argentina. By staying in the hotel inside the park, we were allowed priviledged access to stay in the park after it had closed. We had this entire place to ourselves all evening and night. All the other people that stayed in our hotel were old and didn't come out after five pm!

It seemed like we were the only two people in the world. Not another soul in sight. The only thing that came out after the park closed were the tucans, the iguanas and the monkeys. We got to see them all!

We got so close to the falls that the spray soaked us. We were completely wet! The power of these falls is indescribable. Niagara Falls on steroids.

A view of our hotel that night from the falls.

We took a boat out to the falls and actually went into the falls. No, not under, not behind, not near but INTO the falls. Crazy!

Here is the pool we swam in the night before at our hotel, Hotel das Cataratas. It was a splurge but the experience was worth it.

Another view of our amazing hotel. Location, location, location.

Can you see the falls behind me?

Lynn getting on the plane to fly back to Rio de Janeiro from Iguassu Falls.

Cameo eating a mango while waiting in the airport. The best mango I've ever had.

We missed our kids a lot. We brought them all back shirts from Brazil. (Spelled B-R-A-S-I-L) in Brazil. Thanks for taking care of them Grandma!