Well...

Life is sort of calming down for us here. We've settled into nice routines, and I honestly don't have many pictures to show you. So I think I'm going to post on from an old album....because I know you guys are only here to look at our beautiful faces. I don't know, maybe I could make a theme out of this. How about, go see the USA! We drove across the country (okay, Atlanta to Colorado...it was far, but I do realize we missed about 4 hours on the east and a lot more on the west) and it was a blast. We meant to camp the whole way out/back, but only ended up camping once. So...haha, we're trying to do some camping down here. I'm worried about jaguars. Toby's worried about sloths (not really). Okay, okay, back to the subject. While the majority of you live in the US, go see it! Go see the amazing things that country has to offer. We're trying to do the same here, because hot dang, Brazil's got a lot of stuff going on! And the rest of you reading this blog (awesome side note, we have readers from 14 or so countries. weird!) go see your countries! They're probably pretty great! Here's some pictures:

Camping in Illinois

Gateway Arch, St Louis MO  

What do we have here? Amber waves of grain. Sorghum, to be exact. In Kansas.

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

Dirt! From 7 states!

Heading back, Continental Divide, in Colorado.

And this here, what is this? Purple mountains majesties, I believe.

Royal Gorge Bridge, which held the title as the highest bridge in the world until 2001. In CO.

Welcome to NM! We hit up 7 states on the way out there, and 7 back. Counting Colorado twice.

Rio II: Around Town

The Sugarloaf. We couldn't figure out why it's called that. My guess is that it looks like a loaf of bread (there are a lot of mountains that look like these) and the sand around it looks like sugar? I thought it was a good guess.

Pretty boats near the Loaf. Lots of rock climbers on these rocks too.

Look at the size of those COCONUTS!

At the Sugarloaf again. with a coconut. 

Christ-ola in the haze. It was hazy the whole time we were there. This was taken from the spot where the coconut pictures were taken, to give you some perspective/city layout. 

Grreat dinner with our crazy gracious host, Suely, a college friend of Tim and Silvana's (Toby's parents)

Suely told us this was the largest 'favela' in the city. We also passed another one, that I think was the largest favela in South America. They really are beautiful when you look up close. Lots of color and sound and red clay roofs. 

Handstands! With Jesus!!!

And me, the opposite view, Sugarloaf! This was a helicopter pad to take people up to the Christ.

Look at us being smiley.

Jesus's backside. I'll give a little history, how about that? The Christ was a gift from.... a church? From THE church, I believe. But it's from France, we think.There were three mountains it was considered to be put on, and they chose the tallest. Methinks a good choice. Then there's a whole story about the carving and stuff like that... It's supposed to be a visible sign of the church from any distance, ie from far away, it just looks like a cross. 

Toby kind of laughed at me when I stopped to take a picture of this plant, but there were tons of other people doing the same thing.

What a crazy plant!

Now tell me that's not the best picture we've put on this blog. Me on left, Toby on right. Holding up Jesus!!! Come on, what a great picture!!!!

Handstands with the big guy. After that we attended mass, right behind us!

This is some crazy tree bark I saw on the side of the road. We were in traffic so I got out and took a picture.

Rio de Janeiro 1: Flying

Okay, I had a really hard time getting the order right on these pictures. So bear with it, they're way out of order.

Getting hooked up. Toby's holding the camera.

Toby staring off to the great beyond...and the only golf course I've seen in Brazil (so far).

Wheeeee! There goes Toby. He was the first person of the day to jump.

In the back left is Two Brothers (Dois Irmaos) and on the other side of that mountain are the beaches of Ipanema, Copacobana, the Sugarloaf, all that famous stuff.

Thereeeee he goooooes!

Me, getting ready to fly. 

After the flight/landing on the beach.

This is the ramp I jumped off of...it was really steep. But not like jumping...because you sort of just run and then you run out of land beneath your feet. 

Before we took off. Straight from the airport (from Brasilia) to the beach to a cliff!

 

The beach we landed on. It was a misty morning. This picture's actually from before we took off.

See that neat cliff behind? We didn't actually jump off that. But close! This is where we parked.

I forgot this one

The views at the sugarcane processing plant in Brasilia were just great. Super duper. Red clay and blue skies with lots of clouds, and lots of green vegetation. ALSO I saw a toucan, which also leads me to think that the views are better there.

Brasilia 2: Tomato and Corn Plants

Well, I always write in the captions under the pictures any way. So go ahead and read those. I won't even trouble you with words here.

Tomato processing plant. Like the kind that makes the same kind we buy at the grocery store. How neat is that!?!

Some jarred tomato sauce here is sold in these great glass cups that you can use afterwards. This is them getting washed. And Toby's wonderful hair-netted head.

The jars swirl on that corkscrew on the right, then get capped behind that silver box.

And then they get washed. Some caps popped off, and some had tomato on the side. The conveyor belt behind the rubber flaps was about 30 feet long. They really washed those suckers.

CORN!

The ear goes in (lady with green cloves is picking out some) through the shoot, where the kernels drop down, and the bare husk comes out. They use the husk to create energy for the plant (they burn it).

She was the only smiley worker I saw. It was really hot in there. But her job also looked like a lot more fun.

See that shine? It's sweat. I was hot.

Some boss guy ate some, so Toby did too. It's canned fresh off the husk. Toby said it tasted good. 

From the outside.