The rest of Rio

We were on vacation for ten days and the thought of recounting every little bit hurts my head.  Besides, at the rate I'm going it's going to be Christmas before I'm through so what say we wrap this up with a bunch of pictures?  That's all anyone really cares about, right?  Right.

See, I let her get in the water!  It just took me a few days to get 

comfortable with the idea.

We got a tour guide for our sightseeing and he took us to 

the Selaron steps where we met the artist himself!

He was enamored with the baby and signed some of his tiles for her!

The statue of the Christ was amazing!

It was crazy windy that day but definitely worth the trip!

We also went to one of the oldest churches in Rio that was an actual working monastery.

I took this picture while they were having Mass and totally got in trouble.

We spent time at the flying saucer museum and while we didn't go in,

the views were so beautiful!

At the Parque da Cidade with Sugar Loaf Mountain in the background.

Goofing off with Rafa, our amazing tour guide

Rafa was so sweet and knowledgeable and I was really bummed that we

only got to spend a couple of days with him - it was like hanging out

with a great friend who knows all the best restaurants!

Plus, he was a really good sport.  We were punchy from having eaten everything in sight

that day so this video may be dumb to you but it makes me laugh every single time.  Not safe for work due to a curse word at the end.

Shopping in Rio was a bust.  Not only was everything really expensive, they were

going into summer and I couldn't justify spending that much money on things I'd 

only be able to wear for a month or so.  Can you believe these shoes were about $100US?!

They weren't even that cute!  The bottom is the layaway price.

Rio loves babies!  Yes, I told Drew to take a picture of me in the family bathroom

because I was so impressed.  No matter where we were there were changing tables.

You have no idea how awesome that is until you have to change your baby

on a disgusting bathroom floor.

They even had teeny tiny toilets!  

Yes, I made him take this picture.

I'm a mom now, toilets for babies excite me.

Our hotel was full the last two days of our visit so we moved to 

La Maison which was so very very chic.

I'd never stayed in a boutique hotel before and it was nice!

The owner and his wife were so sweet and we met a couple from Kansas City there!

With only five rooms, we laughed at how small the world can be sometimes.

We also went to the botanic garden, with their giant Amazon trees.

By this time, my camera was full so we were taking pictures with 

Drew's phone and playing with Hipstamatic. 

They had a huge orchid display - I had no idea there were 

that many varieties of orchids.

It was a full vacation, yet we didn't feel rushed or that we missed anything.  The people in Rio were super friendly and almost everywhere we went they made kissy faces at the baby or told us how cute she was.  There were even special checkout lines at the mall for people with strollers!  Even though I was really upset that I didn't speak Portuguese, no one was rude about it and I finally gave up and just started speaking Spanish.  I was surprised at how frustrated I was - I so desperately didn't want to come across as the ugly American.  But everyone was so nice about it and as long as we tried and said please and thank you in Portuguese, it was all good.

And!  AND!  We didn't fight!  Not once!  Do you know how major that is?!  Of all the trips we've taken, this was the very first time we didn't tussle!  Not at all!  We may be getting the hang of this marriage thing after all.

Look at my baby.