Swim across lake

Coach Batista and friends swim across the lake. 600 meters each way. Nice Saturday work out : )

Our first marathon

  Today Kimberly and I ran in the city marathon celebrating Brasília's aniversary. But we didn't run a whole marathon... this was a team event, so thankfully we only had to run 5.4km. The course was very tough with long hills, but we made it no problem. Fun times. Here is us with some friends at the finish line.

JP birthday party

Great time with family and friends!

Niece number 3!

Thank You God for the Nix family!
Welcome to the world baby Nix! We are so glad you are here!
love, Uncle JP and Aunt Kimberly

Easter Weekend Thank you God for Jesus!

JP's birthday dinner with family!












Time in Caldos Novas!






This Easter weekend we went to Caldos Novas with Claudia and her friend. We spent 2 full days there going to a hot water park called Di Roma. Every night the water from these pools is emptied and fresh hot water is added. Some pools are hotter than others. My favorite part was the water slide! Yeah, a hot water slide! We also celebrated JP's birthday with a chocolate cake, swimming, volley ball, pizza with family in the evening, and a thank You to God for JP. :)
Easter morning JP and I drove back to Brasilia for church at the International Baptist Church. They speak English there and many of our friends from school attend the church. After the service there was a potluck lunch. So, we had foods from all over the world. It was so good. That evening we went to church at IPN our usual church and they had a beautiful Easter service. The birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead was presented. How exciting to worship a living savior who was not defeated by death and so as to remain dead. But who came to life just as He said he would! Now there is hope for us in His name. How great the humility and intense the love Jesus has. I think He is very brave to take on all that He did just to restore God's relationship with man, His creation. A quote from the musical stood out to me. "It was not the nails that held Jesus to the cross it was His love." His love for you my friend and for me.
Because He lives we can face tomorrow. Because He lives we have hope for today and eternity in His name.

Easter sunrise on our drive back home. The biggest chocolate egg I've ever seen! Thank you Claudia!

Weekend trip to Pirenópolis

We took weekend trip to Pirenópolis. We had a great time! The weather was overcast so there weren't many people at the waterfall. We hiked and swam in 2 beautiful clear natural pools that were flowing into a waterfall. One of the pools was about 4 meters deep. At the bottom of the waterfall there was a trail that lead behind the waterfall. It was like a cave! So cool! We also walked along a small canyon and saw some strange looking plants and vines. It felt like we were walking through an Indiana Jones scene minus the high intensity.
That evening we ate dinner while an excellent guitarist serenaded the restaurant with Brazilian music.

Namibia's Independence Day

We were invited to join the Namibian embassy in celebrating their independence day. We were able to meet and talk with some wonderful people from Namibia and South Africa. The food was very good.

Cool tree!!

We saw this tree after playing tennis with our cousin. Kind of cool isn't it? You walk through it to get to the newspapper stand.

Poco Azul

Today we went to Poco Azul and saw many waterfalls! To get there we had to go down a LONG dirt road with many potholes. But the view was very pretty.

The first waterfall had a cave that the water flowed into. It was very deep. We jumped in from the side of the rocks after watching others jump. The water was COLD! Later we walked down an extremely steep rocky path to see another water fall. This one was down stream from the first one we went to. Later we walked up stream and passed many, many people playing in the water. We found a place just past where everyone was and put our hammock across the stream! With both of us in the hammock the hammock touched the water!So much for staying dry. On our way back to the car a family that was cooking out offered some of their food to us! We took them up on a sausage link. It was good. :)

Agua Mineral

We spent the day at Agua Mineral. The pools here are made from a river that runs through it. Every 3 hours the water is changed by the flow of the river. We saw 3 monkeys watching the people from trees and 2 huge bright blue butterflies! The butterflies were about the size of a small saucer.
We went in a 5 km hike in the cerrado. Kimberly's sandals started making blisters on her feet so we used some leaves to help slowdown the process since we still had 2.5 km to go. Bear Grilles would be proud. By the end of the hike JP gave Kimberly his sandals. Now that's love. :)

The new year in GA

After the beach we went to Georgia! It felt so good to feel the wheels of the airplane touch down on Georgia soil! We spent 8 days in Georgia. The weather was definitely different compared to the beach! All of Kimberly's sisters and their families were near to spend the week with us. We did some shopping, celebrated Christmas again, visited extended family, saw our dear neighbors and had a cookout. :) Our cups were overflowing with blessing after blessing!

Christmas 2011

We had a much blessed Christmas filled with family time. We celebrated the birth of Christ and thanked God for the gift of life offered through Christ Jesus.
Luisa and Preston came to Brazil for two weeks. It was great to be with them! These 2 weeks were packed full. The second week the family went to the beach for a week! Wow! It was gorgeous!!! Here are some pictures.

Pirenópolis

Back in November we spent a holiday in Pirenópolis. It is an old city in Brazil with many, many trails and waterfalls. We drove to the top of a mountain and hiked through the cerrado (on a cleared path.) At the end of the hike we saw the waterfall. It was so pretty!