Cricket & Willow

Ever since I closed on my house last month, I've known I wanted to get a dog.  A chocolate lab, to be more specific.  I have a big fenced in back yard that is just perfect for lots of running and playing! 

Well, the time has come!  I have been searching on the internet for awhile to find a chocolate lab that isn't ridiculously priced, and I finally found one!  I drove out to a farm in Missouri last night and got the cutest little (girl) chocolate lab puppy you can ever imagine. 

Meet Willow:



(NOT a good picture of her.  She is seriously adorable!)



Oh, and I also got her sister, a black lab - who I named Cricket. 

I just couldn't leave her!  She was the only black girl left, and they already loved to play together...see!

They are SUCH good girls!  The slep the whole way home and didn't whine at all.

They ate on the back deck, went right down the stairs to go potty, and cautiosly came back in to the kitchen to play with some new toys!

It was serioulsy hard to leave them to come to work this morning!!

Easter Sunday

For Easter this year, my parents came up to KC and we all went to mass together at St. Josephs, then out for brunch at Barleys.  Nothing exciting, but it's always good to get together as a family! :)

Funny side note:  my dad let us kids pay for brunch, and my mom got so mad at him (for letting us pay) that she didn't talk to him the rest of the day!!

Days 9 (and 10): Brazilian Steakhouse (and Sau Paulo)

Well I made it home safe and sound today - Saint Patricks Day 2009!!  Mom and Dad were at the airport in KC waiting on me - holding a sign with my name on it, haha! 

So let me back up again - I haven't written since before leaving for the Brazilian Steakhouse in Rio on Sunday!

We all (Patrick, Kalen, Sean, Aaron, and myself) piled in a taxi to head to this famous restaurant in Copacabana.  The freaking taxi driver did not speak ONE WORD of English, so it was a real struggle to get him to figure out where we wanted to go!

He EVENTUALLY got it!  Marius Carnes Brazilian Steakhouse!! 

The atmosphere and decorations at the restaurant were SO cool!  And the food was pretty good too, I mean for all-you-can-eat meat!  I didn't really know what kind of meat they all were, but I tried one or two bites of just about everything they brought by - until I realized they weren't ever going to STOP bringing new stuff by and I seriously couldn't breathe anymore! ;)

One pece of meat Aaron got was literally RAW - and he ATE it!  Ugghh - YUCK!

All the guys gorged themselves until I thought they were going to throw up!

Kalen 

Aaron

Sean

Patrick

I got up to go to the bathroom, and came right back for my camera.  These bathrooms were DEFINITELY picture worthy!!  I couldn't figure out which one was mens and which one was womens - so I just picked one.  Turned out the H on the door is for the guys, LOL! 

The floor was all little pebbles, like you were walking on a rocky beach.  The sinks were full of rocks too (the restaurant was a Pirate theme - did I say that yet??) They had this super cool thing to pee in - with ice on it so it steamed up when you peed!  The stalls were super cool with big pad-lockson the doors.  Coolest bathrooms I've ever seen! :)  The women's bathroom was pretty much the same, except no ice things to pee in! ;)

After the restaurant, we took a taxi back to my hostel and the guys walked back to there's.  It was late and they didn't want me to have to walk through that tunnell again at night (thankfully)! ;)  I just went to bed - I think the guys went out again - crazy partiers!

I took a taxi at the crack of dawn to the half-dead airport, made it through security in about 5 minutes and waited at my gate for the short flight to Sau Paulo.

Sau Paulo was pretty lame compared to Rio.  Then again I was only there a day and didn't really do or see anything cool.  I pretty much drove around in a taxi and walked around the old run-down city.

Back at the airport that night for my flight to Lima, then Houston, then HOME!

My awesome South American adventure has come to an end. :(