Time at the Beach

Of course a trip to Brazil isn't complete without spending some time at the beach. For the Easter weekend, Raquel and her family were able to get away and spend some time relaxing at the beach close to Fortaleza.

Here are Cassia, Raquel and Renata relaxing under a palm on the beach.

Valberth (Renata's husband) is hard to distract, even at the beach he is working on his studies. You have to admit that he does it in style though, check out those shades.

Renata found this cool hotel by the beach. It was very hot in Brazil but it was cool and breezy by the ocean.

Here's a shot looking from the hotel grounds out onto the beach. (Check out that beach babe in the pic.)

First Shower

Raquel just completed a week's worth of vacation in Brazil, where she visited her family and just generally hung out and had a good time. The day she got there her sister threw Raquel her first baby shower.

Here's a few of the partyers.Renata made up balloons to model the baby clothing on. Here Cassia is showing off baby's first swimsuit and flip flops.Here is a shot of the entire group.Even Pedro got in on the action.

Cabinets

We continue to slowly make progress on our bathroom. Last night, the carpenter delivered the cabinets.

We got cabinets baby!!

Denise's Birthday

It was great to see a good friend today and celebrate her birthday. When you think of us, think of Denise, she's a good friend Raquel made while working at Exxon. Denise organizes the game group that we participate in periodically, and she's been diagnosed with breast cancer. She's currently receiving chemotherapy. Please pray for Denise.

A Husky in the Bluebonnets

Last weekend we took some time to get out of the house and go out to Brenham. We went to the rose emporium, had a nice lunch at the local sandwich shop (Must Be Heaven), stopped for ice cream at the Blue Bell Creamery (the ice cream is really fresh there), and admired the wild flowers along the highways.

Here are a few shots of our fun day.

This is Raquel's new favorite rose (Cherokee Rose). The bramble here at the entrance to the rose emporium measured at least 20 feet wide by 40 feet long, and you can see behind her it was about 12 feet high and covered with flowers about 3 inches across.

Shower Progress

We've made a little more progress in the bathroom. The shower is further along now, Neil has put up the tar paper, most of the hardi-backer on the wall, and hired a guy who did the shower floor.

We got a shower floor baby!

Spring

We've been piling up some pics for a while, meaning to get them onto the blog but just haven't gotten the chance lately.

With all of the work going on inside the house, we haven't done anything with the garden yet this year, but some of the flowers are coming out really well anyway.

Here's a shot of the azaleas up front from a couple of weeks ago.

A few of Raquel's orchids are blooming for us this year.

The bougainvillea plants in the back are flowering also, and I tried to include a picture, but every time I load it blogger is twisting the picture sideways.