Monday, June 21, 2010

Mexican ranch!


So, this past weekend was Girls' Camp for our Stake. Since I work with the YW in our ward, I went to camp. It was... fun. I will admit that I haven't really been a fan of YW camp in the past. I liked the year my Mother organized it, because she made the schedule nice and flexible. Camping to me is relaxing and enjoying nature. I feel like in girls camp you are always running from one thing to the next. Oh well... I still enjoyed spending time with all the YW. and actually did have fun with some of the activites.
Ryan came along with Memo, the YM pres.. They were the priesthood holders in absence of our bishop.
The first day, we got to camp, did getting to know you activites, ate lunch, and sat around a fire. Of course it rained quite a bit before bed so we had some problems with flooding in some tents. They aired out okay and things resumed nicely. I forgot to take pics of the first day... but here is what happened on the second!

Day two: We woke up early, did some streches, then headed for our walk.


Here is a view from the ranch, early that morning.


My handsome Fronk!


Ryan and I posing under some cactus that we found on our walk.


Above is a cute little frog that Fronk found on our walk... beneath is a picture of all the Young Women at Girls' Camp.

Here is a group shot of most of the Young Women in our ward that made it to camp

Here is a picture of what our hike looked like

Ryan striking a pose after the walk


After the walk we ate breakfast... yes it was an early walk (What girls' camp isn't complete without having activities until midnight, then waking up at the crack of dawn)! After lunch the boys started taking down the tents.
While packing up the tents the boys found this lovely spider lurking underneath our things! Eck!


And as the boys were busy packing up tents, I was busy doing activities (like relay races, telephone, etc.) with the Young Women. During one such activity, something in the distance caught my eye...
... it was Memo with a piece of tent tied around his neck running around like a superhero, and Ryan, in all seriousness, taking pictures! What the!? There is no doubt these boys are still young at heart!


Here is a picture of me and the Young Woman during the relay race. I am proud to report that we took first place!


After the activities we were free to do whatever we wanted at the ranch. They had blow up toys, tirolesa, and of course... a mechanical bull. So, of course Ryan gave it a go... not sure what happened to the camera at this point... but, here he is!


The after-riding-bull look. Yeah, I guess it hurt quite a bit... he wasn't at all interested in trying it twice!



And that's about it. After the free time, we ate lunch, then headed back home at five. It might as well have been midnight again, because we were exhausted!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

San Luis Potosi




Well, I am back and on a roll blogging.
Yesterday, Ryan and I woke up early (well, Ryan did at least. at 6am for a Young Men's thing). We had church responsibilities until noonday. Then, we swung by our favorite torta hole-in-the-wall place and picked up the highly delicious hawaiian sandwiches. Yum.
Then, we ate on the road to San Luis Potosi, a city 2 hours away. (Ryan got the notion that he wanted to visit a new city this weekend. San Luis Potosi didn't have any too exciting attractions, but nevertheless that's where we decided to go). Though it is fun to get lost, we printed off a google map of the city. We noticed in the upper left hand corner a nice big green patch. PARK! We love the park! I really think visiting the park is one of my most favorite local things to do. So, anyways we went and guess what we found... GRASS. I know this probably doesn't sound too exciting, but it was for us, because I think this is the first park that we have gone to that has it! In fact, this is the first place I found in the area with nice long, soft grass!
So with big areas of grass and trees, Ryan couldn't resist the temptation to climb a few... so that is just what he did. I love that he still yearns to climb trees. I sprawled out on the grass and relaxed. What a great beginning to our day of discovery.
After getting bit by a few mosquitos, Ryan was over the park. (It's funny how Ryan loves being outside so much, but can't stand bugs... they pretty much go hand in hand. I guess when he is outside he normally is moving and isn't bothered). Anyways, I think Ryan is partly allergic cause his bites always get really big.
After the park, we went to the centro plazas to walk around. We found great parking (which is hard to come across) and started making our way towards one of the churches. We realized that we left our camera and made our way back. A car close to ours had a boot on it... uh, why? there weren't any No Parking signs. Then a man washing cars came up and said that we needed to pay for parking up a ways or that we would get booted... whew, that was a close one. For once, I am glad we had to walk back to the car for something we forgot!
So anyways, we found the normal churches and square gardens that speckle the downtowns in Mexican cities as we walked through the globs of people, occasionally stepping into a shop. It was fun and relaxing to watch the people.
Soon it was dinner time. We spent the next hour and a half looking for something that sparked our interest. I told Ryan that I wanted a Mexican style Chili's... and on our way out of town that is exactly what we found, nestled right in a shopping mall parking lot. On our way in Ryan noticed these towers with guards with binoculars. Live surveillance services! Ha! Took a quick snap then sat done and ate yummy local enchiladas and pastor, a personal favorite.
And that was about it folks... might not sound too exciting... prob because it wasn't... just relaxing time together. I love that. My most favorite conversations with Ryan are when we drive longer distances, so the four hour car trip in one afternoon was surprisingly a highlight. We always get on interesting topics... you know to be or not to be stuff:)

Oh yes, and we picked up a big bushel of strawberries on the way back. Freshly picked that morning and sold on the stand that afternoon! That will be dessert for the next several days!
I love all the fresh fruit here!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Wameru Zoo








Ryan and I spent forty five minutes trying to find the small theme park in Queretaro, only to find out that it is closed due to a recent fatality. Scary!
So we spent the next forty five minutes looking for the Zoo here in Queretaro. When we first got there, we were surprised that it was about 7 dollars to get in... especially since all the entertainment here is so inexpensive. When we got in we were pretty disappointed! Roaming around were some cows and horses in the same dirt field we found ourselves walking through. One little cinderblock house had an iguana on one side and a baby monkey on the other. With a few small windows and most of the shades drawn you had to try to angle your vision to see them. That was just about it! Oh, yes and the pony ride you paid another few dollars to walk around in circles five times! Ha! My parents' house has way more to look at; it would have been a safari in comparison! We were pretty bugged, but tried to make the best of it... so we spent fifteen minutes playing with the monkey and taking pictures of the sparse animals there.
Well, of course our camera battery ran out shortly after the last monkey picture. A few minutes after that we realized that you could curve around back and there were more chimps... a few steps later a herd of zebras, a rhino and ostriches... a few more steps and we discovered that we had another fifteen or so acres left to explore filled with animals. Pretty impressive for a local zoo actually. I counted 8 tigers, loads of monkey, a few giraffes, the usual. Our favorite, though, was the huge hippo just on the other side of some cactus (that I guess was supposed to contain this who-knows-how-many-pounds animal). We were only two feet away as his huge mouth chomped on some hay. That was pretty fun.
We ended up having a nice afternoon... only sorry that we don't have more pictures... we are horrible with keeping things (ie phones, cameras, video cameras, etc) charged, found, and in our hands.
I keep trying to work on that...

Baby Violet at 3 1/2 Months




Baby Violet is definitely growing. Here she is at 3.5 months. Her new favorite toy is the stuffed bear that a friend donated to her. (She also loves the crackling noise the water bottles give her when she crunches on them... so the bottle in the background is not us just being dirty:)) I give that bear three more weeks till it is stuffed with fluff no more!