Celebrations!

Posted in Brazil by Ashley Z Harper

I’m not sure what you were doing last year for Valentine’s Day, but I can tell you that Michael and I were boarding a plane, moving to Brazil! So this year, we were celebrating Valentine’s Day, Arizona’s 101st Birthday (yes, we always acknowledge this), and the amazing year that we have had in Brazil.

To celebrate, we cooked breakfast together in the morning. Then, Michael sent me lots of little messages throughout the day that eventually told me about our evening plans — dinner at Parigi! And, when we arrived at the restaurant, there was a bouquet of pink roses sitting at our table! Michael had gone by earlier to pick out the table and drop off the flowers. Sweet husband!

Happy girl

VDay at Parigi

As you might gather from the name, Parigi is a mix of French and Italian food. Michael ordered all French and I ordered all Italian and it was ALL delicious! Parigi had a great atmosphere and I would totally recommend it for a nice date-night out.

As special as Valentine’s Day was, our real 1 year Braziversary was Feb. 15 so obviously more celebrating was in order. Thankfully, one of our dear friends, Jana, was turning 30 and threw a really fun party!

Happy Birthday Jana!

It was so great to realize that we arrived here a year ago, hardly knowing anyone, and a year later we were surrounded by lots of amazing friends. So much to be thankful for!

Now here’s to the next year being even better!

16Feb2013

Carnaval in São Bento do Sapucaí

Posted in Brazil, Travels by Ashley Z Harper

Michael and I were a little late to plan our Carnaval this year, as we were slightly distracted with some other major life-changes, work, etc. However, at the last minute, Michael found a place called “The Chalet Above the Clouds.” It was about a 3 hour drive outside of São Paulo and looked like it would be both incredibly beautiful and relaxing, so we booked it!

I arrived home from Turkey late Friday night and Saturday morning we headed off to São Bento do Sapucaí (just outside of Campos do Jordão). The drive up was gorgeous and actually took us in and out of the state of Minas Gerais.

The chalet was very basic and simple, but it included fresh breakfast delivered each morning and the most incredible views of all time. We would basically wake up to gorgeous scenery, eat breakfast on the deck, read, fall asleep again, go hiking and exploring, come home and nap, go to dinner, come back, sleep, and repeat. It was an absolutely perfect 3 days and exactly what I needed coming off of a very busy, slightly stressful week.

View, first thing in the morning waking up

Shot of the chalet on the property

Cachoeira (Waterfall) do Toldi

Traffic

Afternoon hike and picnic lunch. Very fun but we may or may not have stepped on a snake during the hike and almost had heart attacks…

Visiting the local trout farm property

Michael attempting the perfect pour of some Baden Baden Weiss

Baden Baden Brewery! One of our favorite Brazilian beers!

Trying to enjoy the brewery without enjoying any of the brew…

A little Carnaval, street party fun!

Breakfast!

Missing this view!

Farewell!

We are totally going back. Hopefully without and then with the little tyke. 🙂

20Jan2013

13 Weeks

Posted in Baby, Brazil by Ashley Z Harper

How far along: 13 weeks today
Baby updates: Baby Harper is currently the size of a peach!
Mamma updates: I’m still not feeling too well and haven’t been able to shake the exhaustion yet, but I’m hoping that the 2nd trimester “honeymoon” phase kicks in soon. For now, I’m thankful that I have a husband who takes care of me (and everything else).
Weight: -2.5 I have had a bit of a tough first trimester that I’ll write more about soon, but the nausea, upset stomach, lack of appetite and aversions to lots of foods has caused me to lose a couple of pounds. I am working hard to eat as much as possible and gain it back, but I think it’s pretty normal and should all work itself out soon.
Best moments of the week: This was such a special week for Michael and me. We had a pretty important ultrasound on Thursday which checked to ensure that the baby was healthy and developing on track as it should, and everything went really well.

Waiting to go in for our ultrasound!

We had a great technician who spoke really good English and explained everything very thoroughly It was such a wonderful feeling to see that there is in fact still a baby in there and that the baby is developing just as it should. This then led to the next wonderful part of the week — sharing the news! Michael and I felt so overwhelmed by the love and support that we received from friends and family and are so thankful for the blessing of having so many wonderful people with whom to share our joy.

17Jan2013

Whoa Baby!

Posted in Baby, Brazil by Ashley Z Harper

We’re pregnant!! And we couldn’t be happier.

Michael and I are so excited to announce that we are expecting in late July.
Baby Harper’s official due date is July 28, 2013, and yes, our little baby will be born a Brazilian. 🙂

More baby updates coming soon!

14Jan2013

Praia de Paúba (Beach Weekend!)

Posted in Brazil, Friends, Travels by Ashley Z Harper

It’s been far too long since I last posted, so forgive me as I do a little catching up. First, to warm you during these cold, winter days in the US, check out our beach weekend trip from December!

With 12 of our friends and an adorable little dachshund, Michael and I headed 3 hours outside of São Paulo to the city of São Sebastião to a little secluded beach called Praia de Paúba. We rented a house right on the beach and spent the weekend exploring the area, hanging out on the beach and cooking amazing food.

For me, the highlight of the weekend came on Saturday night. We were all hanging out on the beach, playing games and generally being idiots, when we realized that about 200 yards down the beach, there was a wedding reception in full swing. Michael led the charge for the group to go join the party, which I thought would surely end in an arrest of some kind. We arrived and started dancing in front of the gate into the reception, and much to my surprise, the bride and groom came out to the beach to dance with us! A bunch of other guests came out to join them as well and before I knew it, our friend Brad was leading the entire party in the Macarena! What I wouldn’t do to have some type of video/photo documentation of this… Stay warm! xoxox

5Dec2012

Apartment Tour: Master Bedroom

Posted in Brazil, Home / Design by Ashley Z Harper

Much like the rest of our apartment, the master bedroom is itty-bitty. As a general rule, bedrooms are smaller here since they are big fans of the built-in closets. Anyway, we couldn’t fit all of our furniture in our room but we have come up with an arrangement that works for us. Here is our room.

Since getting settled, our bedroom has gone through two big changes.

1) Mosquito Net. We live pretty close to a big park so I think we get a few more bugs than usual. But we also don’t have air conditioning so when it’s 97 outside, you want to open your windows and get a breeze coming through. This creates the problem. One night I was woken up by mosquitos buzzing in my ear 4 times and I woke up in the morning with 8 bites on my face and 9 elsewhere for a total of 17. So…that was kind of the last straw. Our dear friends actually had an extra mosquito net so we snagged it immediately and now sleep under this little guy, safe & sound.

2) Although many São Paulo apartments don’t have AC, we started getting a little worried when we were hitting record high temperatures for the city back in October (the equivalent of April in the US). Fearing not being able to sleep during the summer months, we looked into installing AC in the apartment. Not surprisingly though, it was too involved and therefore was not approved by our landlord. So, we bought a portable AC unit for our bedroom. It is quite unattractive but worth every second of the ugly as it makes sleeping at night so much better.

So that’s it!

29Nov2012

Ouro Preto

Posted in Brazil, Travels by Ashley Z Harper

After having a great time in Belo Horizonte, Michael and I rented a car and drove 2 hours to the charming town of Ouro Preto – translated, Black Gold, as it was the focal point of Brazil’s gold rush in the 18th century. Ouro Preto is a former colonial mining town of about 60,000 people which has what seemed like just as many old, historic and very ornate churches (they are known for their Baroque architecture). The town is full of romantic little cobblestone streets that wind up and down the hills which provided us quite the workout each day as we explored. And at the top of every hill there seemed to be yet another breathtaking, picturesque view.

In Ouro Preto we basically just walked around (a lot), ate great food, saw museums, attended an awesome little classical music concert, checked out a million churches and had a great mass at one! Also, we stayed at an Oscar Niemeyer hotel which, although was not overly impressive in itself, was still a cool bonus about the trip. To all of my friends living in São Paulo, I would totally recommend making your way to Ouro Preto at some point. Here is a little of our visit in pictures…