Europe 2012

Well hello! It has been a long time since either Dani or I have blogged. For all you die-hard Brown Blog-Readers out there. We most deeply and sincerely apologize. But life comes at you fast and alot of things have happened since last blog post. Let me give you a quick run down with some picts.

First and foremost- we went on an awesome trip to Europe. As a graduation gift for Dani, we got to visit my old stomping grounds of Portugal and Madeira As an added bonus, we stopped by Paris on the way home. Dani was loving the European food. I think we lived on crepes, croissants, and francezinhas (you'll see what that is in a minute). Here are just a couple pictures...

Mini Trip #1- Porto, Portugal 

Filled with our fun times with the Sarmento family, tours, walking, bolos (cakes), wine caves, francezinhas, bridges, chapels, history, and beautiful country! 

After Church in Porto we took a walk on the beach.

Rui took us everywhere. He is a walking history book! This pictures is hilarious because Brad thinks he is telling Rui what really is going on...

Bolos!

My first try... yum!

 Also my first try of a Francezinha.  Now for those Americans who have no idea what a Francezinha is- let me tell you... It is basically a sandwich that has Bread-sausage, ham, and some other meat-cheese-bread-probably more cheese-Bread.  On top of that they cover the whole thing with melted cheese.  And the moat around that is the infamous sauce.  This is a beer-based sauce and let's just say it has a very strong flavor.

Do not be fooled by my face- I didn't dig it so much.  I am not picky at all, this was just a...umm..new flavor I wasn't used to.

Aka yuck!

But guess who does like Francezinhas?

 This Guy!

Next up? Tour the wine caves...

If it tasted as good as it smelled...

Boat tour to see all 7 bridges.

Relaxing :)

This was not the only Eiffel structure we saw on this trip!

After all that walking--Knocked out!!!

At Bom Jesus. Translation: "Good Jesus"

This country is incredibly rich with religious history.

 The story behind this is- when it was built most people weren't able to read. So they taught with pictures and sculptures. On each side of the steps there is a statue of one of prophets, and in the middle are water fountains that also represent Jesus. 

Perfect example of Portuguese Cobblestone

 Still today- people climb these steps from the very bottom to show their sacrifice.  They climb these steps on their knees... Oh and this is only about 1/4 of the steps. Ouch!!

One of my favorite pics from the trip

After all those steps we were hungry for a great meal!!

Dani's Fear: Wooden spoons. No joke. I can't handle them! This is a giant nightmare!

On to the Airport to go to the island.

I didn't need my pillow it's fine! 

Mini Trip #2!! Welcome to Madeira!! 

Mo-ped, Bananas, walking, GREEN, Brisa, Ocean, bolo de caco, Mo-ped, and more!

Yes Please.
Please notice how TINY Portuguese women are...

Bolo de Caco- aka a giant toasted english muffin slathered in garlic butter. This is a great idea!!

The Infamous.Can I get an Amen Blackner and Curtis??

Best $50 bucks we've ever spent!!!

This pic sums up the trip: Just 2 crazy kids touring Europe :)

I could get used to this...

Vineyards! I was fascinated.

This mountain never ends!

Alllll grapes...

My pack horse!

If any of you know me- you know I probably couldn't be happier than to be surrounded by bananas!!

Seriously!

And off to the airport again... Except apparently they only put plugs in the ceilings on Madeira... No worries, we can work with that!

Paris here we come.... One airport or another! 

Adventure Story: FYI Buses don't run on holidays, even if you've already paid for the ticket. Instead you can pay about 5x more for a cab and he will drive about 120mph to get you to the airport. Whew. Once we got to the airport, our flight was delayed 2 hours... Dang. But we can handle that right? Sure. 
Once we get on our flight from Madeira --> Porto --> ORLY airport in Paris, we hear our incredibly French flight attendant announce something bleh bleh bleh Charles de Gaule airport.... Say what?? Did I just hear CDG?? We are supposed to be going to Orly. Are we really going to CDG? Oh we are in deed. Because of the flight delay and Orly closes at midnight, we fly into CDG. Crap.

That is about an hour north of our hotel.  And we most definitely don't speak French! All the metros and trains close at midnight and it is about 2am at this point. A taxi is about 60 euros, which I so intelligently now know that turns out to be about $90.  Yikes. We hear a French bus driver say he's going to Paris, so we figure it is going to be closer than where we are now so we jump on blind.

We literally get dropped off in a roundabout that is under construction in the middle of no where.  We ask our bus driver where we are on the map- Oh you are WAY out here off the map. Greeeaaattt. We find a cab driver and ask him if he will take us to our hotel and he says in Frenglish- "oh that is way too far away!" Ummmm are you serious!! At this point, Brad literally is scoping out benches trying to find one where I can sleep and he can make sure nothing happens to us!

We finally find another cab driver who was nice and took us right where we wanted to go.  This was a French miracle.

Mini Trip #3-  Paris!!!
A few hours later we started our busiest day yet.  Our stay in Paris was filled with the tower, crepes, croissants, Notre Dame, the metro, the Louve, walking, Roland Garros (almost), adventure, Luxemburg Gardens and lots more walking.

I spy with my little eye....

Getting closer!

When we got there it was pretty cloudy...

On our way to the top!!

So to get to the top you can either take the stairs to the second level, or the elevator.  Everyone takes the elevator to the very top. Please notice the line to the stairs is to the right... the left- the elevator! Suckers!! We made it up all the stairs in 12 mins! They waited about 3 hours...literally.

By the time we got back down- it was a beautiful sunny day!

When in Paris..!

Favorite Pic!!

Love you to the Eiffel Tower and back :)

I came to Paris to try Salmon Tartare and it was wonderful.
Brad came to Paris to try-- a cheeseburger :) Gotta love it!

A girl can only dream to make pastries that look & taste like this.

But you better believe I'm going to try!

Our next adventure was to say what's up to Rafa and Djokovic!

However without 250 euros, you aren't going to say Hi to anyone.You can still be excited about it though.

With Nutella Please :)

Notre Dame!

So Many People!!!! Well at least we thought. We hadn't been to the Louve yet haha.

We just hadn't had enough yet... 

Next up the Arc de Triomphe and a walk down the Champs de Elysees...

This thing is massive. Pictures do not do any of this justice. Paris is incredible.

After a long, wonderful, full day we went straight to get some French Italian food :) and it was divine!

Next up-- Versailles

Talk about Gorgeous.

And again. Massive!!! Everything is bigger in Paris. Not Texas. Well maybe both.

The Temple of Love. Yes, we've been there :)

Marie Antoinette's Estate.

It is about 1.5 miles to walk from the Queen's estate, to the main palace. Good thing it is gorgeous everywhere you look!

King Louis XIV kinda had a thing for himself.

My Favorite: The Hall of Mirrors.

Versailles was completely overwhelming and absolutely breathtaking. We were only there for about 5 hours. ONLY!

We became good friends with this guy!

:)

This is on Rue Cler.  It is the cutest market street.  It reminds me of Pike's Place in Seattle- French style and we absolutely loved it!!

Baguette, fancy cheese, water, tower- what more do you need in life really?

Daily Breakfast. I miss this :)

Welcome to the Louve!

Welcome all 1 billion of you...

The Louve was unbelievable.  There is no word that describes how big it was. Egyptian wing, Italian Renaissance wing, French Revolution wing.  Each wing had 3 doors to enter, each of those doors had 2 different wings, each of those wings had an up and down stairs. Each of those floors had about 20 rooms with wings of their own.  Just think eternity. That is how big the Louve is.

Winged Victory

Approaching the Mona Lisa

The funniest thing about the Mona Lisa is directly behind it is this huge wall sized portrait that is so much more interesting.  But no one really seems to care about it!

Hammurabi's Code. Awesome!!!

Victim of the Louve!!

Long day. No one I'd rather spend it with.

Last night- Let's spend it here...

Love the twinkly lights! PS- this is at 10pm. It takes forever to get dark over there!

There was a lot of this going on...

We had a fantastic trip. Everything we hoped and more!
Now we might need a vacation from our vacation!

Graduation 2.0 + Canyon BBQ!

Hallelujah!!

(to say the least) 

The last two years of my life I've been a little busy reading Harvard Business School Cases. And writing papers on them. But not until I've completed a late-into-the-night group project on that case. And then changed our mind so we had to start over. But then one of the numbers was off in part A, so we needed to start over again. When we change that we have to change the marketing mix, our WACC, the elasticity of our company, and project schedule/budget and plan.

You can see why, on this glorious graduation day, I seem to be a little crazy. 

:)

Nevertheless, it is here!! Graduation baby. A lot has happened in the past two years, the most important being my handsome husband. His optimistic, calming personality was the only way I survived all of those cases. Just ask my classmates- I was a different girl when I started school. Let's just call it a little bit more..... Haha ok nevermind let's just call it what it is- I was more crazy! I was anxious, stressed, and always seemed to have too much on my plate. 

Enter Brad. 

He is unbelievable at being steady. Oh he gets excited (a lot), and sometimes (rarely) is down too. But he has a wonderful gift of seeing the world in perspective. He doesn't get stressed about the little stuff and handles everything in a very reasonable way. And the best part- he's rubbing off on me :) I'm a much different person than I was in August 2012. I like to call it more mature!

It's looks like a great day to Graduate!

Here it is! The real deal. Master of Business Administration. 

After all the walking and commencing, we got a little bored during the rest of the name reading...

Just keepin it real :) 

 Best Friends

I have a pretty great support team!

 (I felt like this was wedding pictures all over again haha)

 

My parents are amazing! They encouraged me, supported me and yes laughed WITH me every step of the way. Thank you for all you do! 

Sometimes it is good to be fancy :) After graduation we went to the Little America Steakhouse- yum!

Business school is was hard. That pretty much sums it up. But seeing where I am today and looking over the last 2 years, it was incredibly gratifying. I got a full-time job offer from the Church! I've been interning there since January, and I've loved it.  I work as a project manager on the Meetinghouse Technologies team. Incredibly interesting projects and truly gratifying work. I feel so grateful to work where I do and know I wouldn't be there without my education.  Graduate on Friday, and start full-time on Monday- I'd say that was a pretty good turn around!

Now- time to party!

May is my favorite month. But I think this year especially.  We wanted to celebrate both graduation and my Bday, so we invited a bunch of friends up the canyon! We had so much fun! Brad and I went up a little early on Saturday to claim a site and to set up!

The before...

My pyro husband!

Literally a happy camper!

 We had a lot of fun! Good times with good friends.

 

 Oh and ps- Happy Mother's Day! This also means talking to our little brother's. Kyle got to skype. We skyped him via FaceTime haha. We love technology.

Tight and Fast

Ok folks, here's how it is. Dani has gotten me into cycling. Road cycling. I absolutely love it. Little did I know when I joined this sport, that to be accepted into the fraternity of road cyclists, you have to wear tight, flashy clothing. This makes sense as you are trying to go as fast as possible as long as possible with as little wind resistance as possible. When you are as light as me, the smallest gust of wind feels like a hurricane blowing me over. So we recently invested in some tight clothing for me. 

Please excuse the awkwardness of the photo as I was still trying to figure out how it fit.

That jersey makes me feel fast. I am fast. I may have just found my career path.

Brad's Birthday & Update

 Well Brad turned the big 2-3! Wahoo! We both have been looking forward to his birthday for a while :) Unfortunately we both had class/work until about 9pm on his actual birthday, so it was celebrated over a few days instead of the day itself. But it all started with a yummy breakfast and a few little (cycling related) gifts in the morning to tide him over until that night!

I picked up some dinner on the way home from class and Brad and I had a late night meal of his favorite thing on this planet: Chipotle. Haha.

And it was also time to give him the gift I had been so excited about for the past few weeks! Brad got this awesome portrait of Portugal while he was on his mission.  And ever since it has been rolled up in the closet with a twisty-tie. So I kind of stole it and wanted to get it framed for him! The framing places were all asking a ridiculous amount of money because it was oversized and with odd dimensions, so I took matters into my own hands :) My Dad's buddy Andrew does a lot of wood-working as his hobby! You see where this is going... we went out and got all the stuff to build our own frame! And I have to say it turned out awesome. I don't know who was more excited- Brad or I! It was really cool to make it from scratch.  Given, Andrew did a ton, but I helped with all of it and got the matting glass and all that good stuff. Brad was so surprised and so excited! Success :) Now we just have to get it on our wall.... 

And somewhere in the birthday week we went to see the Hunger Games! WooHoo! We are big fans and this movie did not disappoint.  Loved it!

 And then it was conference weekend! What a wonderful weekend.  We relaxed watching the first session on Saturday and then we went a little crazy and did our first sprint triathlon! Are we crazy? Yes, a little bit, but it was a lot of fun.  Now our bodies know what it feels like and now we also have A LOT more respect for Tri-athletes. It was hard!

Us and The Schoumans, they killed it.

 And once the swimming, biking, and running was all over it was finally time for the second session of conference and Brad's traditional Birthday Dinner! Burgers with all the fixins, Cheddar Cheese Ruffles, Lemonade, Potato Salad and of course- Chocolate cake and plenty of milk :) What would this boy do without his milk when he has desserts?? That is a Brown thing, the Schaap thing is ice cream! Haha either way it was delicious!

I loved Brad's birthday celebration week.  We even extended it more by going to Buffalo Wild Wings the next week with The Curtis' and Blackners (Basically the Blackners :) ).  And apparently didn't have time to take a picture in between wings. haha.

 So now we are just doing a lot of this....

 And making a lot of these...

Oh and my new found hobby- Gardening!! I am almost done with school and don't quite know what to do with spare time! My real hobby is cooking (bet you never guessed that), so why not extend that and grow my own ingredients?? I am pumped. Really though.  Cutest garden ever! Now we will probably plant our warm stuff this weekend. YES! 

 AND Happy Easter! Here comes Peter Cotton Tail... Here is an example of what looked like a cute Easter treat. WRONG! Talk about frustrating.  These were the hardest eggs in the world to peel. Tweet Tweet Chomp.

My thoughts exactly.

XOXO