Extreme Merriment!

Last weekend our ward went on a Winter Retreat up Milcreek Canyon at Camp Tracy, which is in fact a scout camp. This camp offered little log cabins for our sleeping pleasure, a rather large and fancy lodge for hanging out and a killer hill for tubing. Mandy, Lesli, Larissa and I drove up together. Apparently we were a little "early" (it was 6:30 and they said to be there by 6:00, you know how it is!) so a few of us went to check out this killer hill. It didn't look too bad but there were swarms of 8-10 year old boys (scout camp remember). We didn't (at this time) have our own tubes so I asked one of the boys if we could ride on one of theirs and he said he didn't know while all the others started screaming, "Noo, they are girls!" So needless to say we had to wait for Matt, keeper of the tubes, to accompany us. It was extreme merriment in every sense of the word. Even if it gave me heart palpitations every time!

Larissa and I found out that if we rode together, going face first, we were a lot faster. YIKES!

Here we are roasting peeps over an open fire!

Shout out: This is a shout out to Matt and his killer Team Building activities. Even though harsh words were said (from both sides) I still think your games were the best. I loved every minute of them!

Nice day for a white wedding!

Last Saturday one of my bestest friends Celeste decided to take the plunge and strap on a ball and chain, I mean she got married. It was a fantastic wedding. I loved every minute of it. While we were waiting in the sealing room, for the happy couple to enter, one of the temple ladies came in and suggested that we start passing around the tissue box because "this promises to be a great sealing". And let me tell you, they didn't disappoint. It was one of the best weddings I have been to in a long time.

"Awhh" (in the words of Cele)

Tara came up for the festivies. Always a good time!

My favorite part of any wedding is always the money dance. Personally, I've always wanted to have a money dance assuming that it would even be a possibility. My mother refuses to let me. I don't know why. What's not to love... you're getting paid to dance... on your special day!

What the Folk!

I would like to take a moment to put in a shameless plug for one of the funniest things I have seen this week, in my house, on a dvd. Recently my bro, Clark, introduced me to Flight of the Conchords. They used to be "New Zealand's 4th most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo". Now they are "the almost award-winning fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand." I became an instant fan. But really, what is not to love. Basically it is a show about two guys from NZ, Bret (pronounced "Brit") and Jermaine, who come to New York and are trying to make it big with their band F of the C (that is street slang for Flight of the Conchords). Each episode takes you through a week of their lives with them occasionally breaking out into song. You can see for yourself in this clip from a F of the C episode. It is definitely in my top three!

So did his dance moves "seal the deal" for you?

Ding Dong John is Gone!

After much anticipation the day finally arrived and my brother John entered the MTC to prepare for his missionary service in Japan. While many (mostly my mother) have been greatly anticipating this day I, on the other hand, have not. Though I did my best to suppress my emotions through the use of lame jokes and laughter, inside I was crying my heart out. John is one of my favs. I know he is doing a good thing and I am proud of him but the selfish part of me is sad that I won't get to see my bro no mo' (at least for 2 years).This is John eating his last bean burrito at Betos. No more beans for 2 years. Poor John he'll probably starve.

The Token White Girl

Over the holiday break I stopped by my dad's house in Cali for literally a day. Since I was in town my dad decided it was a prime opportunity to get family pictures taken. Apparently this is "the family picture he always wanted" or so he kept saying during the photo shoot. As much as I love getting my picture taken I especially love family pictures where I stand out like a sore thumb. Luckily with the white background it isn't so obvious.His, hers and oh yeah that one child from his young, wild, mormon days (that would be me)!

Me and my Dad (precious)

Me and my bros Tones and Mateos

My favorite thing about this day was that no one had anything "matching" to wear so Matt suggested wearing a white t-shirt and jeans (because that is what he wanted to wear) but Tony vetoed it by saying that we would look like cholos. That would have been awesome!

An Elephant Blessing!

As previously mentioned, my most favorite experience in India was receiving an elephant blessing in the Meenakshi Hindu Temple. Well we weren't allowed to take in cameras without paying a fee so Rafiq offered to get us a few snaps of the occasion and he sent me these today!!! Imagine my surprise when we rounded a corner and there stood this real live elephant.... ...decked out for the occasion, of course! The Hindu reverence for the elephant intrigued me as it might for others. Here is a little background: One of the Hindu Gods, Ganesh, the son of Shiva and Parvati, has an elephantine countenance with a curved trunk and big ears, and a huge pot-bellied body of a human being. He is the Lord of success and destroyer of evils and obstacles. He is also worshiped as the god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth. Receiving an elephant blessing is a sign of good luck and fortune. I think I have had pretty good luck since I am just waiting for the "fortune" part to kick in.
Here I am patiently waiting my turn while Rochelle gets slobbered on (I mean blessed)!

India- Kondu Vanga!

Over the Christmas break I went on a mini-vacay to India. Rochelle, Tara, David and I flew together from L.A. to meet our Indian friend Rafiq (whom we are pretty sure is in the Russian Mafia. He was always on his phone and he often spoke Russian ironically enough). I had the time of my life. India was a fascinating place. I loved learning about the people, customs, language. Not so much the food except the naan, "You can't go wrong with naan". That was my motto.
I also learned a little Tamil from Rafiq while I was there. I
learned a few useful phrases like "I like your mustache" but my favorite was "Kondu Vanga" which means "bring it on". That is exactly what we did. Here is a brief synopsis of the trip...







December 23rd: Layover in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur was a surprisingly nice and clean city. They even had public sinks such as this one.










But for some strange reason we kept having this reoccurring urge to "kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia".







December 24th: Day trip to see the 5 Rathas in Chennai followed by an evening of...







Midnight Mass at the Santhome (St. Thomas) Basilica.








December 25th: Meenakshi Hindu Temple in Madurai. The highlight of this temple was receiving a blessing from a real live elephant. It only cost 2 rps. Totally worth it!
Unfortunately cameras were not allowed in the elephant blessing room.




We met some people who were doing their end of the year pilgrimage. They walk over 400 miles to visit different temples all while "fasting" which means just eating vegetarian.






December 26th: Another Hindu temple in Madurai. Worshipers were washing themselves in the water that came down from the mountain.






We were feeding bananas to the monkeys.











December 27th: After a 6 hour car ride up a windy mountain we arrive at Coir Village Lake Resort.








Sippin' on coconuts!







December 28th: We stayed on this posh
houseboat on the Kerala backwaters.
We even had man-servants on the boat with us to cook and clean. Need I say more.






They even let me steer for a while.







December 29th: A hot and sticky ride on the Indian Railways from Alappuzha to Calicut. Total time on the train... 6 hours.







December 30th: We stayed at the Vythiri Resort in the mountains of Calicut.







It was a health resort so we enjoyed Ayurvedic massages and mehandi body art aka henna tattoos.







December 31st: New Year's Eve BBQ on the beach in Goa... indi-style!







January 1st: On the beach in Goa...











plus some on-beach entertainment.








January 2nd: The Taj Mahal...











via camel cart.








January 3rd: City tour of Delhi. Main highlights were homeless people camped out on the side of the road...







and men holding hands (that is common and very normal, also not gay).







January 4th: Stranded in Singapore!
I had a 10 hour layover but for some reason the airlines didn't have a confirmed seat for me on the flight out so I had to wait it out in their luxury suite. Poor me!