Life's Helmet: July 2008

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Mexican Fiesta

Last night our friends threw a Mexican Fiesta at their house. As part of the party, they decided to hold a contest to see who had the best Mexican outfit. While everyone didn't dress up for the party, here is a picture of some of us who did.

Living in Mesa, Ryan and I had plenty of resources to do some in-depth research as to what the modern-day hispanic really wears. People were pretty shocked at how "authentic" I really looked. The pictures really don't do my whole "look" justice, but I guess it pays to look multiracial!

Me & Celeste

On our way to the party we had to stop by El Pollo Loco" to get some beans. It was so embarrassing having to walk in the restaurant dressed like we were. The sad thing is that I don't think anyone realized that we were "dressed up." (That is, until I started talking and didn't have any accent.)

The night was full of Pinata's, great Mexican food, and people trying all kinds of weird treats they thought would be a good addition to the party!

Once again, thanks for the great time Devyn and Celeste! You know how to throw a rockin' fiesta! Just let us know when you're throwing the asian-themed party and I'll be sure to look "authentic."

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Scorpion Hunting

Last night we had a fun night hanging out with some of our friends. One of the highlights of the night was getting to go scorpion hunting. For those of you who are new to scorpion hunting like we are, apparently, you take a black light outside and look for scorpions. The black light makes the scorpions glow in the dark so they're easy to find. As you can see from the pics, our friends are veteran hunters with a variety scorpion hunting "equipment." We can only hope to one day become the experienced scorpion hunters that they are.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Cruise - Day 4

On the 4th day of the cruise, we were in Ensenada, Mexico. We rented an ATV and some off-road vehicles and went to the sand dunes. After the dunes we went into the town and did some shopping.

Leave it to my dad to get his buggy stuck in the sand.

At one point in our shopping excursion we lost track of my dad. When we rounded a corner, we found him getting his shoes shined. It was pretty funny watching him get his shoes shined but I will say that his shoes have never looked so shiny.

Overall, the trip was a blast!! The only downside was that Adrienne and Rob couldn't be with us. Hopefully next time we'll have the WHOLE family! Thank you mom and dad for taking us on this awesome vacation!

Cruise - Day 3

On day 3 we were on Catalina Island. The boys played a round of golf while my mom and I went shopping. Ryan won the game of golf and has made sure that the other boys don't forget it.

Cruise - Day 2

On the second day of the cruise we were in San Diego. While the boys went on a tour of the U.S.S. Midway, my mom and I rented a GoCar and toured San Diego. Not only do these awesome cars get 80 miles to the gallon, but they have a built in GPS and they actually talk to you telling you about parts of the city as you drive past them. I'm pretty sure I want to buy one of these things! After his tour of the Midway, Ryan joined me on the car and we went and took some pictures throughout the city.

While renting the car, we saw the best of San Diego. A few of the highlights were the Ghiradelli store, Little Italy, Petco Park, and Balboa Park.

Cruise - Day 1

This last week my family took us on a cruise to Mexico. We had a total blast! Due to the large amount of pictures that we took, I've decided to break it down into several different posts. The first day of the cruise we boarded the ship and spent the rest of the day exploring the boat. Here are some of the overall highlights of our time on the cruise ship:

One of the best parts of the cruise was without a doubt, THE FOOD! Imagine being able to eat all of the food you could possibly want! It was absolutely amazing! At night we got to eat in the more formal dining room. Due to some booking errors, we ended up getting our very own dining room with our own personal waiter and assistant waiter. The food was SO good! We felt pretty special since we were the only people in the dining room, the assistant waiter just stood by our table the entire meal. The best part was that it was a 3 course meal and we could choose WHATEVER we wanted and AS MUCH as we wanted, and it didn't cost us anything! Talk about heaven on earth!

One of Ryan's favorite channels on tv is the Travel Channel. A couple months ago Ryan saw a special about cruises. In the show, the host talked about the towel animals the cruise line left in her room. Ryan thought that was pretty sweet so you could imagine his excitement when we found towel animals in our room.

One of our favorite things to do on the ship was the shows at night. We had soda cards so we got to sit on the balcony enjoying free drinks while watching the shows.

Another highlight was seeing a few "D" list celebrities. On our cruise we saw "Mad Mike" from MTV's 'Pimp My Ride' and Marcedes Lewis from the Jacksonville Jaguars.