"Hello! It was his 50th birthday!"

(Name that movie.)

So a couple weeks ago I awoke to the startling sound of my cellular. I answered the phone and heard an unfamiliar voice say "Alina?" me- "yes?" unfamiliar voice- "This is your Aunt Lupe." me- "Oh hi." (meanwhile my brain is thinking "My Aunt Lupe? Why is she calling me? She hates me. Someone must have died.") Aunt Lupe- "Sylvia wants to know if you are coming to your dad's 50th birthday party and why haven't you answered her emails." me- "Sure! What party? What emails?"
Here is Aunt Lupe...Doesn't she look pleasant? Actually this trip wasn't that bad and she did take a keen interest in me, meaning that she insisted multiple times that my hair is too dark and I should dye it blonde, BLONDE! This means she cares! Ahhh.

To make a long story short... Sylvia (my dad's wife) decided to throw my dad a surprise party for his 50th birthday and to add to the surprise she had me fly down to California. The party was at Sylvia's parents house so on Saturday we all gathered there to wait for the birthday boy. Then Sylvia called him with some story about her mother's toilet breaking and that she needed him to come fix it asap. As soon as he showed up she had me open the door. It took him a few seconds to register (he is 50 after all) then boy was he surprised to see me. Overall it was a kickin' good party.

Me and my grandma with the Birthday Boy...
Me enjoying some birthday cake (my dad's left eye)...
Tones and Mateos enjoying themselves as always...At least Matt was enjoying himself until I announced that I would be sleeping in his bed. Then he was mad. What are sisters for?

Mid-life Crisis!

So recently have been experiencing a mid-life crisis and for all you math whizzes out there, Yes apparently I am assuming a life expectancy of 58. I have all the symptoms of a mid-life crisis:

1. Buying a fancy, yet sportier car...2. Fulfilling my childhood fantasy by taking a flamenco dance class...3. Fulfilling my rockstar destiny by taking guitar lessons...

(future me)

4. Finding my inner chi by taking Tai Chi...
5. New hot young boyfriend... (ok not really but I think that is naturally next on my list;)

All of these things I decided to do in anticipation of being bored once I finished my Master's Degree. So have I finished said Master's Degree? Oops. Not yet and now I can't find the time to do it (wink, wink). Ok really I just have one chapter left on my capstone project and I have until the end of November to do it. But in the words of Rihanna "So live your life, ay ay ay. Instead of chasing that paper." Because really... what paper?
F.Y.I.~In hip-hop lingo "paper" means money.

The Real San Francisco Treat

Fact: There is no Rice-a-Roni in San Francisco.
Last weekend I went to San Fran with some friends as a random romantic getaway. Ok so it wasn't really that romantic considering I slept on the floor. By myself.
Anyways. It was a lot of fun even though there was no rice-a-roni to be had. Here are some pics from the trip:
Riding the cable car...Here we are at the Japanese Tea Gardens...Here we are eating a plout at the farmer's market. A plout is a cross between a plum and an apricot. Very tasty...
Sunday was Ukrainian Independence Day. Privit! We stumbled upon a celebration happening in Golden Gate Park. Did you know that the Ukraine has only had independence for 17 years? Fascinating.
Some people were not so enthusiastic about the event...I don't know why not. What's not to love? Singing, dancing all kinds of merriment. This lady with the red hair was apparently in charge and she was very entertaining. She would give a little intro before each number. The best was when she was introducing the choir (her choir) she called them on to the stage. "Now we will hear from the choir...Choir please get on the stage...Choir?!... CHOIR!!!" I couldn't control the giggles. Too bad we were on the second row.Red also introduced the dancing by describing their high steps and intricate stomping...Since we are such good girls... on Sunday we decided to go to church only too bad for us because street numbers aren't so organized so what looked like a one block walk from the cable car stop turned out to be an 11 block walk. This is my favorite pic of Tara because she was wearing pants under her dress and was going to change right outside the church...

I heard you shred the cello, and I'm jello Baby!

Saturday night my brother Jordan planned an event he advertised as "A Night of Mayhem". He and his friend Alyssa performed cello duets in the middle of the cul-de-sac. He passed out flyers around the neighborhood and provided refreshments. Our neighbor put up this sign...Jordan asked me to help him make a grand entrance. Here is what we came up with...

I had to explain to Sandor that this is NOT typical American behavior but it IS typical Ripplinger behavior!

Who's our German Bruder comes from Germany...

He's here!!!
This year my family is hosting a foreign exchange student from Germany. Sandor is his name. Pronounced "Zandohr". He is one cool kid. He speaks English very well, plays the electric guitar and he is super friendly and outgoing.
Here we are making our final preparations. We were running a little late. Clark and I were working on the welcome poster so Jordan was working on my hair.
Here is Sandor's American room. Very festive.
And here we are at the airport.
When Sandor got to our house he said "Wow it's just like being in an American movie". So far Sandor has been introduced to 3 liter soda (fan), squishy bread (not a fan), rootbeer (not a fan, you should have seen his face. I wish I would have captured it on film) and peanut butter (fan). He thinks that we are hilarious. He loved his room, our welcome song and he said I had good German pronunciation when I asked him if he wanted some gum (in German).

Big Winners!!

Yesterday my sister Mona and I went to Smiths to do a little grocery shopping. Little did we know it was "Founders Day" at Smiths. OK so we really don't know what that means except that when we walked in they offered us some cake and gave us some tickets for a drawing they were having. We bypassed the cake (it was white with lots of colorful frosting ..ew..),took the tickets and sauntered on to the produce department. Whilst in the produce department they called two winning ticket numbers over the loud speaker and the winner was.... Me!Can you believe it? I couldn't and I was by far the most enthusiastic person there (except for the 16 year old bagger boy. He seemed to be the only one who noticed that I was jumping up and down with excitement.) Anyway, I spun the wheel and won... a pie? Oh well, still a prize and I like prizes!We continued shopping and we were just about to check out when the oh so enthusiastic store manager got back on the pa system to call out two more lucky numbers. I stood in front of him trying to catch his eye and motion the number 166 to him (that was Mona's number) He called "1-6" and glanced at me while I motioned another 6, "6?". Yay!! We started jumping up and down again. He looked at us and said " You guys won again? You must have cheated." Us cheat? (no comments please) So he checked her ticket and Mona spun the wheel... She won... a brand new DVD of $9.99 value or less!
Overall it was a very successful shopping trip!

We Re-mem...

So many, many moons ago I was an Oakcrest Girl's Camp counselor. Oakcrest is a church camp for girls 12 or 13 years old. Anyways, at this time I had just finished my first year at Snow College and it seemed like a fun thing to do for the summer so my roommate Tasha and I both applied to be counselors. At the time there was a lot of people who applied. The competition was tough and I thought there was no way both of us would be accepted if at all one of us. But after an intimidating interview where we had to bare our testimonies to a room full of people we both made it. It was a great experience and I made lots of good lifetime friends, sang lots of camp songs and did LOTS of ridiculous things. Well this summer was the 50th reunion for the Oakcrest camp. I went and was able to meet up with some of my favorite people.
Tasha and I went up together (or should I call her Roxy. Did I mention we also had fake camp names...)...
Here I am with my "freaky friend Citrus". We were cabin mates and had lots of ridiculous fun together. Now she is Mrs. Utah (in case you thought her face was familiar (jk))...
Here I am with G.D. (Gumdrop) and Roxy...
This is one of my besst friends Lafter the Crafter. (Isn't that presh? I think she was excited to see her old home...ha, ha)...
Here is a bunch of people we knew...Dis, Scuttle, Lafter, Citrus, Sonrisa, G.D., Kodak, Peaches, Splash, Roxy
"We re-mem, re-mem, remember of Camp Oakcrest, good times together..."

When in Mexico...

As most people know every year I like to make the pilgrimage back to the mother country (or is it "father country") anyways... this year I decided to post pictures to depict things I love about Messico:
Paying to use the bathroom...Fresh tortillas daily...
Diving off the pier. Also very entertaining to the locals...
Local friends. This is Pancho with his rooster that he trains for cock fights. No lie...
Ridiculous purchases. This Tara molesting Tanner with the scary looking dog puppets we bought in Hermosillo...
Excuse me I'd like the EXTRA large bag of cheetos...
I am thinking about quiting my job and moving here...
Wouldn't you?

Sponsored!!!

After years of hard work and dedication my talent has finally been recognized and I have been officially sponsored. I feel completely honored to be riding for such a fine corporation. Don't be jealous by my hotness...Just kidding. But I did get to ride with the Albertson's Team (aka Sara and her family) on the MS bike ride in Logan last weekend. It was a super fun ride and by far the easiest one I have done (small hills and only 40 miles). Although I was not the winner I did bring home quite the collection of water bottles and a nifty tote bag that I claimed as prizes.

Pedro and Ming

Meet the newest loves of my life, Pedro and Ming...I got them from an illegal turtle vendor in downtown L.A. somewhere in between Olvera St. and Chinatown. Hence the ethnic names. My intent was to take them to school as class pets but I like them so much I want them to live with me. The first night we spent apart I was missing them and mentioned to Mandy that "they were my heart" and she said "No they're not". But now you can see for yourselves how cute they are.

Give me a "M"!

She's Back!!!

In the spirit of "being green" we decided to recycle the Welcome Home Banner...

Good Times California!

After being off-track for a week I realized that this was going to be my last good break until September and I really should do something (besides watching tv). So I booked myself a one-way ticket to California. It turned out to be a really good time.
Me and my bros, Tony and Matt after getting yet another family picture taken. This time they were professionally done so hopefully we won't have to do it again any time soon...
My cousin Emily lent me her beach cruiser to do some beach cruising. Riding a one-speed was quite an interesting experience, especially when I didn't know how to brake...
What would be a California trip without some Grandma hopping. Here I am ditching church to visit my Grandma Diaz. She lives a couple of blocks away from the church so I like to walk up there after sacrament mtg. Yes, I was a little sunburned in this pic and Yes, my eyes are closed but my Grandma looks so cute...
I also got to spend some time with my cousin Andrew who recently returned home from his mission. This is his mission bobble head they had displayed in the church instead of a plaque. Genius...
I went with my cousin Emily and her two daughters Kaiah and Marley to spend a day in downtown L.A. Here we are eating churros on Olvera Street. Emily told the girls we were eating churros for lunch and if they were good we could have tacos for dessert. Sounded good to me...
Here is Marley and Kaiah with their new friend on Olvera Street. Notice Kaiah's new mexi-dress she bought with her allowance and notice what she is holding (that will be in a post to come)...