Vacation Baby!!!

Shortly before starting this blast of recent posts, we completed our Christmas vacation. We were able to take two full weeks and go to Washington state to visit Neil's family. We flew into Seattle and spent a night with John, Amy and Grace before heading out for a quick stop at Grandma's and then the drive down to Cathlamet to visit Rebecca, Ryan and the kids.

Before taking off on the drive, we took some time out to play with Grace. She's a lot of fun to play with, because she likes to make faces of all kinds.

Round the World Tour

For a week and a half in December, Raquel went on a round-the-world tour for work. She had the following itinerary: Houston - Amsterdam - Kazakhstan (4 days) - Bangkok (5 days) - Tokyo - Houston. The first work stop was in Kazakhstan.

For those of you wondering where Kazakhstan is, it sits right on top of all of the rest of the Stans in Central Asia. (I had to consult a map myself.)

This is a picture of some of them at a local restaurant. Raquel's boss (Taco - from the Netherlands) is sitting next to her. Notice all of the cool albums on the wall. The Monkey's made it on wall with Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, the Cars and the sound track to one of the James Bond films.

This is some of the local handi-crafts. It is a bride sitting on a camel.

After a few days in Kazakhstan, it was time to head to Bangkok, Thailand, which is one of the cities we visited on our 10th anniversary trip to Southeast Asia. Raquel was determined to have fun, seeing some the sites (whoops - I mean markets) that we had seen before.

Here she is in the airport, in front of a depiction of a Hindu story of the churning of the great sea of milk for the elixir of everlasting life.

Here is a shot of the city from her hotel room. Its certainly a modern city.While its a modern city, its still Thailand, where the elephant is revered. While they don't let them roam free anymore, they do have them in the city sometimes. This one is working on his parallel parking skills. Looks like he still has some learning to do.Here's a shot inside the Chatuchak market, which is said to be the largest market in the world. Raquel was in heaven.Raquel said she went for work, but now we know what she really went for . . .Of course she won silly - she's beautiful!!

Holiday Party

Raquel was supposed to be gone the first week of December for a business trip, but it got delayed, so we were able to go to the company Christmas party. It was in a nice hotel downtown, had a good meal and some music and dancing. A good time was had by all.

Here is Raquel with some of her co-workers and/or dates. They are from all over the world.

Merry Christmas!!!

Anniversary Weekend

As you can tell, its been a while since we posted, so we've got some catching up to do. The weekend before our anniversary we took the opportunity to get away from home for the weekend, and went out to Brenham to relax for a day and a half. We went to the rose garden, went for some walks and went for some nice drives through the countryside.

Here are a few pics of Raquel at the rose garden (most of the roses weren't blooming so there are a few other flowers pictured).

Hope and Change

Today was Raquel's first time voting, ever. When she left Brazil she was too young, and she didn't become a US citizen until this year, so this election was her first US election where she wasn't a spectator.

Raquel was appalled by the number of choices she had to make. I told her that she didn't have to vote for the local dog catcher if she didn't want to, but she felt like she needed to make a conscious decision and she spent a good bit of time with the voter's guide put out by the League of Women Voters. Boy did I have to hear about how terrible it was when I got back from school last night.

We went together this morning before work. They didn't have the "I Voted" stickers so we kept our access code printouts.

Do we look hopeful?

My Little Whirlwind...

My little whirlwind is at it again. She just returned from a second trip to Kuwait. As usual she had a lot of fun and got to meet some neat people. Grandma this one is for you: Raquel found a way to do her crochet in the airplane - she used the small blade from the dental floss box to cut the yarn (can anybody stop her?).

She even had an opportunity to speak of the Love of God through Jesus to a male muslin co-worker. God's love is just incredible .... Raquel came back saying "how much love is this that God will bring someone from Brazil via Houston to go to Kuwait to tell one person about his love!"

Chevron sent her to Kuwait to help the local business unit start a new business process.

Here is an evening shot of her hotel in the background.
They are actually at a restaurant having dinner.

Wonderful hospitality

And even an adventure. She was driving around looking for this place for over 1 hour. She found it but it turned out not to be what she thought it would be (it was not a cultural center).

Chevron's Trip to Brazil

Back before the hurricane, Raquel got to take a trip home thanks to Chevron (first time that's worked out). She went to Sao Paulo (down south) to complete a risk assessment and got to spend 3 days with her family (up in the northeast) thanks in part to a national holiday and our wonderful fridays off.

Here's some pics of the weekend with the family. Brother Eduardo and Sister-in-law Naira
Sister Renata and Brother-in-law Valberth
Job well done!
Second weekend with Uncle Daniel and Aunt Cinda. Great time and wonderful shoe shopping!
Here's a work pic - celebration after a hard and long week of risk assessment! I am seated next to the blurry waiter.