Snuggles

We had a wonderful Christmas. My mom, the snowbird, is visiting and we went to Mexico with the Greens. The weather was pretty good and the food was delish! I love this picture so I had to borrow it from the my mother in-law's blog. Derek bought us all these. My mom calls it the snuggles instead of the snuggie. :)

Canada

Here are a few pictures from our Canadian vacation:


Notice the rainbow? Pretty, huh?


It is 8:30pm and the sun was shining bright as if it were high noon. Welcome to the north.

One of Jon's starting lines. He is the one in the white jersey, white helmet and bike. Some people thought he was sponsored by Cervelo.

Jon got 2nd place. Woohoo! I think he would have placed 1st but he man in yellow fell and got to sit out for a whole lap and won by .002 seconds. They said they had to look at the video to see who won because it was sooooo close. I am so proud of my man!

A random mountain side. That's my youngest nephew. I called this field the sound of music hill. My oldest nephew is five and I laughed when he said, " I want to go to the hill that sounds like music!" so cute! This hill was so steep James almost rolled off.

Blogworthy?

With no work during the summer I have a lot of t.v. time. I watch a little of "What Not to Wear" with Stacy London for her clothes and fabulous hair (I do not believe she actually uses Pantene although she is their spokeperson; thanks haya ;) )

I feel bamboozeled, and scammed, this morning I was eating breakfast with "Cash Cab." I recognized the contestant was once on what not to wear! WHAT?! Is she an actress or a really lucky lady? After some research (remember I am not working during the summer) I found that you're pre-screened for cash cab and it is not a random game show ride that they make it seem. Is nothing real?Speidi are the ones I can count on.jk.

Happy Birthday America!

Our Fourth of July consisted of riding our bikes with a group from Scottsdale to Tempe Towne Lake. It was so much fun even if it was a scorching 105 degrees. Jon picked out this bike for me while I was out of town then he jazzed it up with speakers in my basket. I was the hit of the bike group.

I want my mom back!

My mom has left to go back to the far north. It is still blizzarding up there so next time we think she will stay until April.

Notice my car door open? I closed the door and then 15 minutes later we were off to the airport. We got down the street when my mom said something stinks and thats when we noticed Chopper in the backseat! We laughed so hard; he didnt want my mom to leave either!


We took my mom to Rocky Point before she left. She loved walking the beach. This is at our favorite chicken taco place.


We also took my mom to the Lehi rodeo. Chopper discovered horse manure. It was so funny when girls would come to pet Chopper and then hit on Jon only to have a mixure of green manure and slobber wiped on their legs! Serves them right!

Sick baby

I am VERY sick. I thought it was allergies, but I don't that allergies make every muscle in your entire body sore with a high fever, and whatever else comes with the common cold. Thank goodness my mom is here to baby me back to health. Her rendition of chicken soup was different and a little spicy. Anyways I think I am getting better now. I took a day off work. A lot people have been absent there and my classes have been really small. There is something going around so take plenty of vitamin C. I hear zican is great at the first sign. Spring break starts on Friday so we are heading off to Mehico with the family.

7 random things tag...

1. I was born in Iowa. Everytime I had to answer where I was born I got the response, "...well thats random I thought you were from Canada?" My dad went to grad school at Iowa State and that is why I am so blessed to be an AMERICAN!!! I love it here.

2.Speaking of Iowa, my Father's alma mater mascot was a cardinal... The AZ Cardinals are in the superbowl...my current school color is cardinal red. Now that's random!
3.Contrary to why my ethnic origins may suggest,I do not speak fluent Espanol(Spanish). This causes many communication issues with my mother. There have been so many times that we were talking about two different things and never noticed. Thank goodness I have Jon; he helps correct the both us to make sure we are on the same page..by the way my mom is coming back because she can't get enough of me!

4.I talk to at least one member of the Cortez clan daily. Usually its my sister, she's pretty cool,
5.I have no middle name. I used to make up a really ugly name when people would ask... yes, I am a little odd.

6.I do not like being cold. Although I am from Canada I hate the cold!

7.I have been tagged three times but am finally getting around to doing one.
I tag Lisseth and Haya.

Holiday catch up

We had a great holiday season this year. My mom and brother came down for Christmas and it was so nice to have the fam near by. We took them to Puerto Penasco for a few days.
It is December and my mom and brother both got into the ocean. I thought they were nuts. Those Crazy Canucks!


Jon and Mike road the little 50's around while I got the dune cart. Jon decided I was driving to slow for Mexico and took over for awhile. I think my mom almost had a heart attack. It was so funny hearing her scream while Jon went over some jumps in the sand. Jon bought those shades at the market down there. I think they looked better on me. Thanks hun!

Christmas Eve dinner was at the in-laws. That was so much fun. We reenacted the Christmas Story. You'll have to see those pictures on my mother in-law's blog.

Christmas day we went back over there. Jon and the boys played football in the rain. They were sopping wet! I am surprised no one got sick.

Every holiday there is a ping pong tournament. I think my bro won this game.


For New Years Eve Jon and I went for Italian food. We were fast asleep by 12:05. What can we say we love our sleep.



We had a great 2008 and hope to have an even better 2009! We wish you all the best!

Do you notice that something is seriously wrong with my tree? I bought this last year and asked my mom to put it together for me this year. I came home and no one can figure out what went wrong with the middle. Well, that is what $15 at Walmart gets you.

WE LAUGHED WE CREID WE ALMOST DIED

...my entry just got deleted so here is a quick update.

I went to LA to met up with my big sis, from Canada, and her baby to go shopping. My nephew only likes me when my sister is not around. He is co cute and forced cuddled with me he got on my lap and took my arm to go around him.



While we at the hotel in LA a bunch of people we talking about the fires. I went outside the hotel to check it out. It smelled like smoke and it was really windy. The fire was in the higher hills so I though NBD (no big deal- learned that one from the kiddos in school). My sister and I went to target saw the helicopters dropping off water and again I thought NBD. HA, we even took pictures. Then we went to the mall about 30 minutes away from the hotel. Jon called and he even said you shouldn't worry its not like your hotel is in the hills...wait a secong MY HOTEL IS IN THE HILLS!! My brother in-law called us to say his class was cancelled due to the loud helicopters flying overhead and he said it was snowing ashes. I called the hotel to see how bad it really was, when the attendant answered she yelled WE ARE EVACUATING! WE ARE EVACUATING! The fire alarms were going off and she hung up. I panicked and was so scared I thought the hotel was on fire. Luckliy my sister's husband packed all of our things and got the heck out of there. Within a couple hours of him packing our things the town was gridlocked from evacuation. We were so lucky! Even 30 min away it was snowing ashes.

So far so good!

Jon and I got married TWO years ago yesterday. It has been a blast and I feel so lucky to have found someone I find so amazing. For our anniversary Jon took me for the best steak I have ever tasted in my whole life! I'll write more about my sweet hubster later because I am off to bed.

Jon had his first bike race! I am so proud.It was fun experience even for me the water girl. One mile from the Mexican border is the town of Douglas. The race was 92 miles. There was a storm off the coast of Mexico and the bikers sure felt the wind while passing through the the mountains. We stayed at an awesome hotel that was built in 1907. They say the hotel is haunted but we couldn't find anything, but it did feel way creepy walking down the dark halls. Check out the pictures.

The beginning of the race. I wish I looked this good in spandex!



Jon in front pulling his crew. Even they were impressed with Jon's skills since he is so new to biking. We made some friends that I am sure we will see again in the TOUR DE TUCSON. I can't wait! Oh yeah Jon got a bronze medal- Watch out Lance.


How Grandeur is this place? The columns were leafed with 24 carat gold, and the windows were tiffany stained glass. OOHHLALA.



The Macho Mexican General, Pancho Villa, rode his horse up those italian marble stairs.


Here is the town of Bisbee. It was like going back in time to Westerns.

G-MA

My 88 year old grandma from El Salvador came to visit for a few days before visiting my family in Canada. It was fun having her around, telling stories about my papi. It was too hot to really go sight seeing so we did some drive-bys and of course my favorite, shopping. I got some great deals (may be my G-ma was good luck?!)

She could definetly read this menu without her glasses...too bad it wasn't in spanish.


In front of my house.


Jon was trying to get our dog chopper into the picture. Every meal my grandma fed chopper half of what she was eating. I kept on telling her not too but she couldn't resist his cute face. I was afraid he was going to have a sugar overdose or gas from her frijoles. Chopper loved my G-ma.

By the way we are off to Mexico before I start my new job.

Who wore it best?

For those of you who read People magazine are familar with the "Who wore it best" section. My shirt reads the same as Kim Kardashians, but I think Chopper wore the "Green" shirt the best. Agree? By the way my shirt was made out of recycled material and wears my name! What could be better?

So Cal Summer

For our second trip to Cali this summer we went to Oceanside with Jon's side of the family. We do it every year during last week of July/ first week of August. It is great to catch up with those we don't see very often. I need to remember to bring my camera so most of these pictures were stolen from someone elses camera.
Here are some of the highlights of the trip:

My gal pal Julia, a bridesmaid of mine, picked me up from the airport. We then met up with Jon and had a healthy lunch somewhere near the beach and then went for some awesome frozen yogurt. This yougurt place had tons of flavors and they let you serve yourself like a 7-11 slushie machine.




Here's a glam shot of Jon looking at the surfers. We kind of got lost so we parked at this cool spot. Then when Jules met up with us again she said this was a secret surf spot for locals. Funny that we randomly found it. We went swimming here too, but dont worry I didn't post any swimsuit shots.



Jon did a lot of biking while out there.


The last night we ate at the infamous "Claim Jumper" restaurant. It was sooo good. This is most the fam minus a few.

Need of a new cut...

Lately I've been feeling blah about my hair. It could just be that my dark hair acts an heat magnet and insulator in this crazy Arizona weather. I've also been watching Shear Genius on Bravo and that inspires me to look for a new do.
What do you think of these ones?

Too boring?


I will get these bangs when I finally go in for a cut


Too old school?

I've been seeing a lot more of the middle parting. I will try that next week to spice things up.


But sometimes its gets so hot styling my hair I feel like just going with something less maintence. What do you think?