halloween festivities

my favorite part of halloween - well, actually the same goes for all the holidays - are the fun festivities associated with them...like pumpkin patches, haunted houses, halloween parties, and candy. For me, it isn't halloween until you do all these halloween traditions...we started off the season by going to cornbellys pumpkin patch with our buddies chris and sepideh.

i love the pumpkin patch because it always has the coolest things going on! like this tree o jack o lanterns, they had some crazy carvings...definitely gave us inspiration for our pumpkin carving.


ha ha, eric and chris found the biggest pumpkins they could carry, they each took one of these honkers home.
and whats halloween without a fun scary train ride? we went up the heber creeper for a haunted train ride with our good friends amy, tim, emily, and dylan. we rode on the open air cart to add to the scary effect, it actually wasn't too cold. i liked the train ride because it was definitely a different take on the haunted house (and a few bucks cheaper too, now a days haunted houses rape you for your money). the coolest part was when the train stopped and all the scary people hopped on with you...they didn't get in your face so it wasn't bad.





now its dress up time. we went to our ward halloween party and this was my favorite costume of the night: sushi rolls, how creative!
we dressed up as juno and paulie bleeker. to complete the outfit, my good friend jalaine works at motherhood maternity and hooked me up with a pregnant pillow they leave in the fitting rooms. it looked so real and a couple people said they didn't know i was expecting, yeah, im not! but i will tell you that belly was so comfy, it was the perfect heater. now i know why pregnant moms are always putting their hands on their belly, because it is the perfect arm rest! i found myself doing that all night!

on halloween night we went to a rad halloween party, it was 80's themed but we felt our outfits were appropriate...eric looked the part anyway!
i look huge in this picture!
that kid in the ballerina outfit definitely had some confidence. we called him ballerina boy all night.

this was only part of the group, we didn't get a group photo before people started leaving...and we all know i'm a nazi about taking pictures so we had to get a group photo.

we had an awesome time and played 80's scene it, i thought i'd rock at that game because i love 80's movies, but it was so hard...but entertaining to see some of the 80's music videos, they were pretty ridiculous! and we played mafia, the perfect game to play with a big group of people.
we already know what we are going to be next year!

playa del carmen

Every year we’ve been married, Eric and I have taken a vacation somewhere new. In august we went to playa del Carmen, which is just south of Cancun. Being that my mom’s family is from Mazatlan, the pacific side of mexico, I’ve never been to the Caribbean side and have been dying to go. In our travels we haven't kept a journal, but we made it a goal this year to start a travel journal and write in it during our vacation rather than after. So I stole snipets from our journal and plugged them in here for even better memories.

We landed at the cancun airport for our 10 day stay and the second we got off the plane we were hit with the smell – to me – of mexico. Its really the smell of the tropics because it smells the same in the Philippines. We both love that smell and it brings back so many memories for both of us. Smells are the greatest form of memory after all.

When we rolled up to our hotel in our hot sexy Nissan tsuru rental (like an old school sentra) we were amazed at the size and beauty of it, the Mayan Palace. The name says it all. After settling into our room, the first thing we did was have dinner by the pool. I ordered mole enchiladas and eric got some delicious beef tacos…then off to the pool that was 24 HOURS! Never in my life have we come across a pool that’s 24 hours. We swam until the wee hours of the night, it was perfect. There were about 10 swimming pools at this place, they all connected together so it seemed like one big one…and the lights in the pool even changed color, so it really set the ambiance. By the way, this wall is huge and is the first thing you se off the highway.

This is the beach at our hotel, its kinda rocky so we went and toured other beaches along the coast line, from north in cancun to south in tulum.

Here's the view from the little cabana in the middle of the ocean.

Despite being in mexico, everything was really expensive because we were in tourist town. We didn’t bank on spending a lot on food. So we kept it chill and hung out more on the beach than anything else. The water was the perfect temperature, you know the kind that’s cool enough to cool you off and be refreshing, but warm enough you can jump right in without shock to your system! The second day of our trip some gnarly clouds blew in and it started raining. We packed up and headed towards the “Kool” restaurant/lounge and made it undercover just as it started to pour. There were a bunch of us crowded underneath the palapa roof of the bathrooms. It was so windy the birds were flying in place, fighting against the wind. A few hippies, locals, and drunk tourists made the most of the situation by dancing in the rain (the club DJ was still spinning, so why not?). We figured we'd join but had more fun watching.

We mostly stayed south of cancun but had to venture up there to see what the “hotel zone” had to offer. We snuck thru a hotel to get to the beach and it was gorgeous. The water was clearer, the waves were bigger, the beach was less crowded and it was hotter than in playa del Carmen. Less crowds make for more encounters with vendors and activity guides.

playa del carmen:

We hung out under this palapa and played cards for most of one day...it was the perfect day.

Cancun:

Instead of renting boogie boards for a pretty peso, we decided to buy one. we hauled it every where we went and the waves weren't bad either.

tulum:

After a day at the beach we’d go back to our hotel and hit the pool after the sun went down. One night a few towel boys in lava lava’s started getting everyone out of the pool to head down to the beach for a beach party. The beach party was pretty cool, they had a DJ and the lava lava kids taught us (and by us I mean Eric and other gringos..ha ha) a few salsa moves and we danced the night away…more to come...

i love august

august is my favorite month of the year...why? because its my BIRTHDAY. the month you are born is always your fave month...or it should be! this year i turned:

eric wonderfully displayed it on my car! i thought it was so cute...until everyone really started honking at me...i was hoping everyone would just ignore the big red letters that said "HONK" and not honk, but as luck would have it everyone still did. i don't like a lot of attention and with this written on my car i sure got it. i had a handful of honks a day until i happily washed it off. thanks babe!

after an early morning breakfast at my fave joint: kneaders with eric, greg, jalaine and lexi, i headed off to work. this was the first year i had to work on my birthday, we'd just gotten back from mexico 2 days prior so it wasn't so bad. but emily and christina were so cute and had this waiting for me in the office:

it made my short 3.5 hr shift go by that much quicker because i felt "special" and had something pretty to look at. thanks again em and christina! you guys are sweethearts!

that night to celebrate we had an intimate party with greg and jalaine. jalaine made me this awesome birthday cake, my favorite: vanilla with rainbow confetti...yum! those kids are the best!!

blue lemon was a great place to keep the birthday week going, rachel and emily took me out to dinner! good food and even better company.

can't finish the party without a family dinner at the in-laws. eileen always puts happy birthday confetti on the table and lexi had a blast with it...putting it on every ones faces.

i remember when i always looked forward to my birthdays...i still do but sadly they aren't as exciting as they once were...guess it just comes with age. growing up is scary...22 still felt like a big teenager to me, still in college with time to decide what to do next. but 23 sounds like a real adult...i'm done with school (my bachelors anyway) and now its time to grow up.

summer fun

we have had a great summer so far. lots of bbq's, outings, swimming, seven peaks, and friends. here is a little of what we've been up to.

boondocks: eric's old mission companion, cody and his wife carly, were in town from arizona so we hooked up with them and went to boondocks. we got the all inclusive pass where you can get unlimited everything. we did these cool little boats where you spray water at each other, laser tag, golf and games. we haven't seen cody and carly in forever so it was nice to catch up with them. i'm so bad at golf that i hit my ball in the water twice! since cody's friend is so tall, he was a good sport and fetched my ball for me.

american fork steel days: what i love most about summers in utah are all the city festivals. due to the crazy weather we have missed some of the festivals, like strawberry days. but we were able to make it to american fork steel days. because of erics new responsibilities at work (he is now a part of best buy for business), we were able to attend a bbq held by the american fork chamber of commerce, its been good networking for him. scott, melissa, and their cute little boy cole partied it up with us. i dont know how they crammed all those rides into a small park, but i loved it because the rides were nestled in between the trees.

scott stayed with cole while we went on this ride. we went up, down, sideways, upside down...i love this ride at great america but at a carnival it was a little nerve wrecking; it felt like it could break down at any moment. i don't usually get nauseous on rides but this ride made me sick and gave me the worst headache...don't try this ride at the traveling city carnival.

80's partay: next stop was the 80's party at eric's work. every couple months best buy will have a party at the store for all the employees and their family. we watch movies, play games, eat food...etc. the 80's party started because a girl at work had never watched back to the future, then they found out that half the store hadn't watched that movie (all the youngsters and high schoolers anyway, gosh, them not having watched it, let alone heard of it, makes me feel so old). so the store decided to have an 80's night where we watch back to the future and play old school nintendo. eric recently traded a tool box for a nintendo so we played with that baby all night.

trevor pretty much lives in the 80's and was part of an 80's cover band back home, so he was the most decked out 80's style. i just love his costume! because he was in charge of the party (it was a given), he couldn't win the best costume prize.

bonfires and roasting marshmallows are a must in the summer! we grabbed some KFC and headed up the canyon with chris and sepideh.

i need to take pictures of everything otherwise i forget (as with most people, i'm sure). so we took a group picture then decided we'd have fun with it. this was the first try.

chris and sepideh introduced us to a new game...think its called washers. you have 2 boxes and throw 4 rings into a box, the trick is actually getting in the box or the hole inside it. we played couple vs. couple. we won by a point...due to beginners luck! we wanted to buy the game and as luck would have it eric won it at work a couple days later. its blue and yellow for best buy colors.

so you think you can dance has come to an end this summer...i can't believe its already starting up again next month...we're so excited. eric loves watching the show with me, he'll get mad if i watch it without him :) since we are big fans we had to watch it with just as big fans, so we had a sytycd finale party at emily and dylan's with mckay and chelsey. we were ALL rooting for jeanine, except for mckay. he wanted evan to win. between dylan, emily, eric, and i we voted for jeanine about 350 times the night before. we were pretty stoked that she won. after the party dylan was raving about this place that had the best pieshakes; SAMMY'S. if you want a banana cream pie they actually put a slice of pie with ice cream and blend it. dylan got our palettes wet so we had to cruise down there and try this amazing place. we ordered the chocolate oreo cookie pie, pretty delicious if you ask me. i'm hooked and what i love about it the most is its a cute, quaint, artsy little place. on the wall there are polaroids of people at the restaurant. they have rad original artwork on the wall for sale, we were tempted to buy an awesome drawing of 2 polaroid cameras.

fantasticks: we love outdoor theater shows. uvu and sundance partnered together and put on a broadway show: the fantasticks. apparently none of the actors are uvu students...but we still enjoyed it. i love outdoor theaters because it not only makes it feel like summer, but its awesome being high up in the mountains surrounded by big trees and fresh air. it was chilly but chris and sepideh came to our rescue by bringing extra blankets. its still running so if you're interested check it out!

its been a great summer so far, i'm sad its almost over. there are still so many things we want to do, like float down to provo river, go camping, hiking, mountain biking, etc. hopefully this fall won't be too cold, but judging by the cooler summer it might be. its raining and storming right now. i love rain and the smell of rain; it makes me want to cuddle up on the couch and read a good book. we need the moisture but boy how it ruins summer plans like camping and swimming.

laguna beach

on the last day of our trip we went to laguna beach, the beauty needs no explanation. my aunt lorraine and her family live in orange county so we met up with them at the best place for a bbq: the beach. it was the best of both worlds having some family from my moms side and my dads side there...everyone could get by with the little english or spanish that they knew.

tia meri, johan (above) and some cousins (below).

my aunt lorraine wanted to cook some hot dogs, but my dad wanted to show her the real way we bbq (mexicans go all out). we had carne asada, tortillas, quesadillas, salsa, guacamole, and grilled sweet onions. here is liz starting on the salsas, along with my mom and tia meri's help. and the boys doing what they do best, grilling! mmm...i miss my dad's grilling...he knows how to make an awesome carne asada and showed eric how to, so now he is a pro. anyone want to try out erics grilling skills?

my cousins steve and stephanie.

cousins rob and erin, and her hubby.

ana and kelley.

me and stephanie. she just got home from her mission and is thinking about moving to utah (she now has a lot of mission friends here). i really hope she does, she says she can't handle the cold, but i got used to it, kinda.

i love beach days, especially with the fam and a lot of people. here are just the cousins in attendance. i love having a big family...and cousins everywhere!

legoland

this is way old now but i just need to finish blogging about our cali trip before i go onto the next thing (for my records mostly, who knows, maybe i'll print this one day).


so the next stop was legoland...where over 46.5 million lego bricks can be found in the park. we were all looking forward to legoland because none of us have been before, and legos are just so much fun. eric and i asked around and wanted to get the scoop on people's opinions regarding the park...we didn't get the best feedback (not like disneyland, everyone loves disneyland...its the most magical place on earth) but everyone said you need to go at least once....check! the only thing we were bummed about was that the rides at legoland are mostly geared towards kids and we love rides...but we had plenty of kids with us :)
here is the familia.
they had some awesome models made out of lego's of course. many took thousands of legos and some even months and months to build. the facts were the most interesting. here are some cool legoland facts:

1. There are more than 15,000 LEGO models in LEGOLAND California.
2. The largest model is a giant dinosaur named “Bronty” created out of more than two million LEGO bricks (i think he is the picture below but the dragon above is way cooler!).
3. The smallest model is a pigeon on a building in the Washington D.C. area of Miniland U.S.A. which is made out of a mere four LEGO bricks!
4. LEGOLAND California has more than 50 rides, shows and attractions including three rollercoasters.
5. The Freedom Tower is the tallest Miniland building ever built soaring 28-feet into the air. The spire alone is eight feet high and took three days to build.
6. In 2005 alone, more than 85,000 servings of LEGOLAND California’s signature dessert, Granny’s Apple Fries, were served to hungry guests.

...and let me tell you that those apple fries were delicious!

nice drink coaster, eric!

our favorite part of legoland were all the souvenirs...they had the coolest stuff ever,if you're into legos, which we are. we collect magnets everywhere we travel and we bought the coolest city people magnets...they are the real city people with a magnet on the back. we wanted to buy to whole store...it felt like we did: lego ice cube trays, lego cookie cutters, lego key chains, lego popsicle trays...

here is my sister and i with our favorite cousin marcos, who drove up all the way from mazatlan to hang out with us (the whole reason we went down to so cal in the first place).

my mom and dad.

this volvo was pretty cool, eric couldn't stop checking it out. it was built on a volvo chasis. it was built for the automotive show in detroit in 2004. its the only fixture in the park that is hollow and it still weighs over 3,000 pounds. every structure in the park is built out of normal lego bricks, none of them are specially designed. it took a team of 4 guys over 6 months to build this. they said if one person were to build this design, it would take over a year of working on it every day.

welcome to miniland...the place where Legoland recreated major cities in the world. my favorite was san francisco, seeing it felt like home...they did a good job. they even had the seals on fishermans wharf, great detail. they even had a crime scene with a cop and the "bad guy" with his hands up, it was pretty entertaining. the las vegas strip was also impressive, in fact, the walk way down the middle acted as las vegas blvd...all the hotels were in the right spots and everything.

overall we enjoyed legoland. the only other con (aside from the few adult rides) was that legoland isn't very clean, after coming from disneyland where they take pride in perfection and cleanliness, legoland looked filthy in comparison. most of the legos, models, and rides were covered in spiderwebs and dirt. it looked like it needed a deep cleaning, and since i am a bit of a germaphobe it bothered me just a tad. despite those little things we had a blast.

disneyland

this summer we were able to take a quick 3 day trip to cali. some of my family came up from mexico to take the kids to disneyland. so my parents met up with them in so cal...and so did we! that made for a total of 15...big party but it made it that much more interesting and fun. eric hasn't been to disneyland in over 10 years, so this was a real treat.
day 1: disneyland
day 2: legoland
day 3: laguna beach
beware, there are tons of pictures, and only more to come!


me, mom, ana, natalia, iris.
eric and nadja.

isn't that the cutest picture!

Natalia, Marcos, Tia Meri, Dad, Ana, Liz,...and I can't see past Liz. but we filled up the whole side of the Nemo Ride.

here is the whole group - except marcos, he was taking the picture, he had about 10 cameras. i guess we don't like to share pictures in our family!

mom and tia meri.

all the sobrinos wanted to hang out with me :)

yes, we had to eat the infamous hand dipped corn dogs. they were pretty tasty.

and for dinner we all had a turkey leg...it was tasty and a must try at disneyland. we shared it of course, and felt like carnivores.




sisters: cynthia and ana. and the letters were right next to each other, how perfect.





here we are exhausted, red, and sweaty. because there were 15 of us, we didn't make it to california adventure. so we need to hit up disneyland again very soon.

college roommies

last week my college roommies and i got together to catch up on old times. its been four years since the four of us have been together...in fact, since we lived together. emily, rachel and i have all kept it touch, but we haven't seen tasha in years. we had a good time reminiscing and laughing about our crazy adventures as roommies. we all live close by so we wont go as long without seeing each other.

today is my parents 37th wedding anniversary! 37 years later and they are as much in love as they were when they first met. happy anniversary mom and dad, we love you!

fourth.

we started the fourth off by heading to the hot air balloon festival with lexi and jalaine. since the boys had to work, just us girls hung out all day, watching movies and being girls. when the boys got home we put them to work, the burgers were ready and waiting for the grill.

trevor and sarah joined the party and brought their little ones. maddie and lexi played chalk...and of course eric and i had to play too.

i love this picture of lexi, you can't really tell but she has chalk all over her face.

we headed to the park south of the provo temple to watch the fireworks. looks like that's the place to watch em', it was packed. eric bought us those cool lights they were selling, we all felt cool and the kids loved em'. wish the glow lasted longer.

sarah, trevor, michael, maddie.
greg, jalaine

oh, eric and his faces.

group picture.
after the fireworks, and the hour it took us to get home, we had a firework show of our own. eric loves those sparklers and was doing some kind of crazy dance. i love the fourth of july, love fireworks, bbq's, sitting outside, flipflops, and summer festivities. its a great opportunity to remember and thank those that serve and fight for our country.