Poncho Verde Churrascaria

Last week my Grandma Emma, my mom, and my two sisters, Katie and Jacqueline, came to visit us here in Sao Paulo. One (of the many) things we did while they were here was go to dinner at the Poncho Verde Churrascaria.

A churrascaria, for those poor souls who've never experienced this first hand, is a Brazilian steakhouse. They usually have a large salad bar/buffet with plenty of unusual and tasty foods like hearts of palm, or bird eggs, or fried bananas to accompany the main dish: meat. See, as soon as you sit down at your table and get yourself situation, waiters (in this case dressed in traditional Gaucho outfits) will start coming around with big skewers of luscious, perfectly seasoned meat. (see pictures below)

The key to these churrascarias is to pace yourself. I always make the mistake of filling up too much on the salad bar so I can't fully appreciate all of the great meat. Another mistake is to feel bad saying "No" to the waiters. You can't feel bad turning down some lovely Pork Loin to save room for the melt-in-your-mouth, meat-isn't-supposed-to-taste-like-candy Picanha that is on its way over to your table.

Stan has definitely mastered the art of saving room for the Picanha and I'm doing my best to learn!

On the left side of the table (from front to back) is Grandma Emma, my mom, and Katie...Emily is hidden behind Katie. Right side is me, Stan, KK, and Jacqueline. Rob is taking the picture (of course!)
After dinner we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the restaurant. This is where the magic happens. By the way, Jacqueline had a crush on the waiter on the right...he was a man who can cook, is not afraid to wear gaucho pants and a neck kerchief, and he even knew all of the english words for the meat on his skewers! She fell--hook, line and sinker. Apparently they keep most of the meat cold after they've already skewered it. That way it's easier to adjust the amount of meat they cook on a given night to the amount of people at the restaurant. I guess you can't tell just by looking at us (we're all wearing sweatshirts), but by the end of the night we felt like our stomachs were pretty much at full capacity. I couldn't quite convince Rob to carry me to the car so I mustered the strength somehow and got there myself. Sigh...

Brazil: Weekend #1

Our Brazilian adventure began very auspiciously: Rob's law firm flew us down to Brazil EXECUTIVE CLASS. Booyah.

There were a lot of expected perks we were looking forward to: bypassing the security lines for the masses, fully reclining seats, and those hot towels they give you after dinner on the plane.
One unexpected perk that was awesome was getting to wait for our flight in the Virgin Atlantic/TAM lounge. It was pretty sheekey sheekey...decorated in a posh seventies style, with beaucoup amounts of free, gourmet food to feast on before we flew. Rob and I both had sushi as an appetizer, a starter salad, then we shared rack of lamb (so good) and a wild mushroom ravioli plate. As I was basking in the first class treatment Rob pointed out that this is one of the perks of selling your soul to a big law firm. At that moment it almost seemed worth it! (I said ALMOST...My husband's soul may cost a little more than sushi and rack of lamb!)
The first Saturday in Brazil was Spencer's graduation. We all went early to Graded, the American Internation school in Sao Paulo, to make sure we got prime seats. Of course, being Ellis', we brought the travel Settlers of Catan game to play in line while we waited. :) It looks like Spencer is following right in Rob's footsteps. Rob graduated from Graded, left to sell books for the summer (a few hours after the ceremony), then served his mission in the Lisbon, Portugal mission. Spencer is on track to do all of those things! If you ask me, it looks like Spencer has a bright future ahead of him.
The proud parents with graduate #8. They've only got one more child left to go!

After Spencer's graduation we had a great dinner at Outback, then hurried to the airport. Spencer was on his way to Nashville, TN for sale's school and the rest of us were on our way to Curitiba for an LDS Temple Dedication the next morning.

After a few adventures at the airport, we made it to Curitiba and woke up bright and early Sunday morning to get to the 9am dedication. One highlight of the morning was getting to meet President Monson and Elder Nelson at breakfast at the hotel!

The dedication was absolutely wonderful and a very powerful spiritual experience. Rob and I both felt so blessed that the timing of our trip worked out so perfectly to let us be there.

After the dedication Emily, Rob and I headed back to the airport so that we could be home in time to get Emily to school and Rob to work on Monday morning.

The Ellis' really know how to live life to the fullest! We are having a great time living with them and are so grateful for this awesome Brazilian adventure we are having! I'll try not to get too behind documenting them all...

Living the Good Life: Memorial Day

After Rob finished his brutal marathon week of the Law Review competition (multiply above picture by an average of 16 hours/day for 6 straight days), we packed up and drove down to Connecticut for some well deserved R&R before our trip to Brazil.

We helped celebrate my mom's birthday with a barbeque and one of Costco's to-die-for huge chocolate cakes. We played in the park, went for a pleasure drive around New Canaan, then went on a Memorial Day afternoon boat cruise. (Life can be rough sometimes!)

Here we are waiting for the little boat/shuttle to take us out to the real boat. From left to right is Matt Sparks (my sister's friend), Katie, my mom, my dad, and me! Rob did a wonderful job being Mr. Photographer and got some great pictures of the trip.

We're enjoying sunshine, the warmest breeze of the season thus far, and some really good cheese and crackers.

The Schneiber Girls having some fun in the sun...unfortunately, Jacqueline couldn't be with us because she was driving home from Youth Conference in Kirtland, Ohio.

Our hosts told us that you can get great pictures from the bow of the boat...so, of course, we all had to go and pose.

Life is good!