Learning to Walk

During the month of August, Julia slowly started to walk more and more. One day Raquel's friend Nikki came over and Julia used the dining room chairs to practice getting around all of us sitting on the floor.

Nikki had just had a couple of shots, so Julia was facinated with the band aids on her arm.

All this walking leaves a person tired out.

Another Party???

Yes, we still needed to have one more party for Julia, this time with Raquel's two American Fathers - Martin and Terry, and their wives. Terry and Donna flew down for a weekend not too long after we got home from Brazil and we met them out in Katy at Martin and Ellen's house for a good meal and some more presents for Julia.

Julia was still getting used to unwrapping presents, so she needed a little help from Mom.

She learned a bit about cats while Mom set up her new present.

Then she enjoyed her present, learning to sit at her new desk (she still wasn't very stable, so Mom got her a little help from the foot rest).

First Birthday - American Style

Before they left Brazil, Steve and Vicki promised that when we got home we would celebrate Julia's birthday in American style - where kids are allowed to eat their cake under their own power, regardless of the resulting mess, and true to their word, not too long after we got home, they had us over for dinner and a party for Julia.

Of course we started with presents. They got her a few presents and were nice enough to take a request from Pedro and get Julia a football, so she could learn to play the Brasilian national game. The ball shows up in some of Julia's one year old pictures we had taken.

Julia enjoyed the little things as well as the presents.

She was also pretty pleased by the thought of the cake that was to follow dinner.

She wasn't quite sure what to make of the cake that Steve presented her with though . . .

"You want me to eat this?"

Steve introduced her to the finer points of whipped cream . . .

And it wasn't too long before she got the hang of it.

Thanks Steve and Vicki for a wonderful birthday celebration!!!

Returning Home

After all of the fun in Brazil, it was time to head home.

Julia wasn't happy to stop travelling.

But she didn't let that stop her from enjoying the unpacking process.

Cold in Brazil???

Like I mentioned in a previous post, it was cold . . .

This is the morning we left to go back down to the airport. It was about 37 degrees at 10:30.

Can you see Neil's breath? (Not to mention the sweet beard he has going on.)

We had to drop into this store to get warm.

Tour through the Wine Country

One of the days, we took some time to drive up and down the valley of the wineries. It was very pretty, and we got to admire the scenery, have a nice lunch and some good conversations with the winery staffs, and taste some nice wines.

I got a model to stand next to our rental car so that I could take a picture of the car. This building is the cheese and sausage place. We got some nice cheese and sausage, unfortunately the customs guys took our sausage away when we got to Houston.

This is one of the more original and picturesque wineries.

They let you go up on top of the castle to look around the vineyards.

Architecture of Southern Brazil

So like I said in a previous post, the architecture in this part of Brazil is very European. Here are some of the examples of the towns we visited.

I thought the basket was pretty cool, and the church in the background is pretty impressive.

Not all of the buildings are serious. Some of them are really just cartoon style Q-Tips.