Lately...

I've been going on hikes every Sunday for the last month and half. I was actually working out during the week to be in shape for our Sunday hikes. I was doing this because I didn't want to feel like I was dying  and need a chopper to come and rescue me during our hikes. Summer came along and heated things up, and weekday workouts ended. I have an elliptical in my garage, which is a great work out but with the heat lately there is no way I can work out in there. I need to stay on track with this work out high and find a way to continue to work out in this heat. My best bet would be to wake up early and work out before the mercury rises, but waking up early is probably the hardest part of my day! I need help, suggestions will work too!

Memory Monday

Wishing this guy's noggin wasn't in the picture!

A black sand beach!

When my husband and I got married we were in escrow to buy our first home. We used our savings to buy our home, throw a little back yard wedding and buy our furniture for our home. Since we both lived at home with our parents, we had nothing to bring with us but our TVs, lots of Cd's, DVDs  and my huge shoe collection! Which by the way, when my husband saw all the shoes I owned he banned me from buying any shoes for like a year! It was rough and lets just say I had to sneak some shoes into my house. Okay, that's besides the point.  What I was getting at was that when we got married we had a lot of expenses, so there was definitely no budget for a honeymoon. One of the promises my husband made me when we got married was that in a year we would go on a honeymoon. My husband is a man of his word, and he delivered. Upon the anniversary of our first year of marriage, we went to Hawaii! Today, I 'm sharing some pictures of that trip. We stayed on the big island and were amazed of all the beautiful things this Island has to offer. 

These pictures were taken on a small Canon camera and have not been edited with any filter.  If you would like to see more flashback post click here and here.

A Trip of Many "First"

The Punta Cana trip was filled with many "first". First time flying for more than 5 hours, first time swimming in the Atlantic ocean, first time feeding a monkey, etc., etc.  Well it was also my first time swimming with a Dolphin! I also, danced and kissed a dolphin.  It didn't stop there, I held a sting ray, let a sea lion kiss me and held a tropical bird! It was such a fun experience that I will remember for the rest of my life and can honestly say I put a check mark on my bucket list! The location was beyond beautiful and I honestly felt like a I was in a photo you see on screen saver. 

Unfortunately we were not permitted to take photographs of any of these activities because they have employees photographing you through out the park and then sell you a dvd  movie and cd with all your photos and footage for a very high price. We paid it because we figured we didn't pay for the entrance so why not? For information on the Dolphin Explorer Experience click here.

Big Bear Diary

My sister in law normally works weekends but this this past weekend she finally had the weekend off. She wanted to take advantage of her weekend and treat her kids to something fun and special. She invited my husband and I to tag along. Her top pick was a snow day! We live in Southern California and we are fortunate to have mountains two hours away. But because it's Southern California it was warm and the only snow to play with was man made. We didn't know this until we arrived but we didn't let this stop us.

 



 

 

We drove around and found a place where we were able to go snow tubing. It was a little busy but we made our way through the crowd and went into the park. Now, I've said this before and I'm not ashamed to say it again, "I'm a big chicken!"  As soon as we saw the slope my sister in law asked if I was really going to do the tubing? I took a good look and said "yes, it's not that high." She asked me because she is also a little bit of a chicken and figured if I backed out she can back out too. We collected our tubes and made our way up the slope.

 

 

 

This photo was taken by my husband.

 

 

Once on top there was even more people so I didn't really get a good look down until I was about to slide down. It was finally my turn and my husband decided to slide down with me. We each had our own donut but he held on to mine and we went down together. OH MY GOD! It was a lot scarier than I thought and as we were going down those were the exact same words I screamed out loud!  It was so scary but so much fun! We laughed so much but lets just say I stayed in the baby slope for the rest of the day.

 

 

After spending most of the day snow tubing, slipping, falling, and laughing we decided to call it a day and headed to the lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While at the lake we entertained ourselves taking pictures, throwing rocks into the lake and taking in the beautiful sights.   Once we were all tired we decided to head home and grab some pizza.  Our drive home did not disappoint, the sunset was beautiful.

 

 

 

It was so much fun to get out of the routine for a day and laugh so hard all day. I'm still laughing at some of the falls we had.

 

Next Stop: Sedona, AZ

If you read my previous post, you know I just came back from a family vacation. Our first stop was Scottsdale, Arizona and our second stop was Sedona. Oh my gosh, you guys, Sedona is beautiful. This was my first time in Sedona and it was a very short visit but wow it took my breathe away! 

Driving into Sedona has somewhat of a desert feel but a lot greener than what I expected.  As soon as we had a chance we pulled over and took in the beautiful scenery. In case you're not familiar with  Sedona, it's famous for it's red sandstone formations.

 Driving into the city the weather was  sunny, with beautiful large clouds and chill in the air. As we walked around taking pictures, the rain started to slowly move in. We ran into the car and kept driving in search of a restaurant we found on yelp. Have you guys used Yelp? My husband and I use it all the time to find new restaurants and see what people have to say, you can say we our fans of the app. I'm not however a fan of some of the long reviews some users leave, but that's a whole another post. 

Anyways, back to the restaurant, Hideaway House they describe it as home style curious country Italian food. Honestly I think that is the best way to describe it, we all had sandwiches and my mom had lasagna. The food was truly scrumptious. The food was not the only good thing about our yelp find, the view was great as well. We sat outside and our view was amazing. Our backdrop, incredible creek side views and the amazing red sandstone formations.  

Once we were done with lunch, we headed into the woods and continued on our journey to the Grand Canyon. Something I learned on this trip, Arizona has forests! I thought it was just desert and didn't expect this at all. It's always nice to learn something new.

Once we were out of the woods the landscape was just as beautiful.

We made it to the Grand Canyon by 4:30 p.m., just in time for the sunset tour. More on that later.