Merry Christmas

I hope you all are having a wonderful christmas!!! Michael and dad went snowmobiling and Angela and I cleaned her room which was a major project. My car is jammed packed of things to take to the thrift store that I cleaned out of her room. We have just been relaxing today. Travis got the game Clue so we have been playing that and maybe I should be a detective because I'm pretty darn good at that game :) Well here is the other video of Angela that somehow didn't make it on my last post. Travis and I did go snowboarding BUT I forgot my camera. Next time, next time. He fell on some rail and now has a big bruise on his leg. Oh but I do have a nice picture of him after he cut his hair and then I styled it for him. I want to give him a buzz cut but he says no way jose. I was informed that he is in style.

Week Two of Vacation

Well it seems like vacation is just flying by. I'm not too sure about this whole global warming thing because I'm quite sure it is not even close to warm around here. Travis wants to go snowboarding tonight because it will be the warmest night, 20 degrees, WHOO WHOO. It snows like every day here so the snow just keeps piling up. I guess we will have plenty of snow for christmas :) Well not much is new. Just keeping busy doing random stuff. Haha. I thought I would post some videos of Angela's gymnastics routine and the last meet she did better but I forgot my camera. whoops. So these are from her first competition. If I take Travis snowboarding I'll have to get some videos of him on the rails because he informs me that he is just like Shawn White. UMMMMMM :)

Christmas Break Week One

Well school is finally out for winter! Its about time. I have been extremely busy since I got home. Getting the right amount of sleep, baking, playing games, not having any deadlines, you know being extremely busy :) I am working at Nike some so I can get that awesome discount. I tell you, now they should be paying me just for walking around since most of my clothes I wear have that nike swoosh on them. This week I only work two days so I have been doing some things for my mom. Like cleaning out closets and stuff. I actually don't mind it all. It's kind of fun seeing things go from messy to clean. It snowed last night, I think we got 4 in and tomorrow night my dad says we are suppose to get 14 in. Now this is coming from Mr. Dan Parsons so I have not checked to see if this is reliable information but as of now that is what I'm believing until I read the paper. I want to do some shopping today but I do not want to get all the snow off my car. Thats like 4 in!!! So I told Ryan that he should get his shopping done today and since I'm on the way to the mall he should just pick me up. That way I don't have to go outside and get the snow off my car. And it worked. So now I'm just waiting for him. Thats about all the excitement right now.

Coming to the End

Well today is the last Monday of classes I will have this semester!!!! YEAH. The best part is I skiped my first two classes my 6:30 am and my 8:00am to sleep in because I have not been feeling too good lately. Guess I caught that cold/flu that has been going around. That's just what I needed :)

Anyways not much is new. Actually nothing is new. I was amazed at all the crazy people that went shopping at midnight on Friday and I was even crazier to work such a dumb shift 1145pm -4:30 and then noon to 5pm. Thats probably how I got sick, right there. There were people all over and I couldn't believe how many people brought their little kids with them. Don't they know their kids just want to sleep and not shop. I guess hiring a babysitter would be defeating the purpose of saving money. Anyways I am glad that day is over as some people get way too crazy. I mean a Wal-Mart sales associate was trampled to death out east. Good thing I don't work at wal-mart. :) I was thinking they should just have all their great sales online and then I can just shop online and not deal with people beating me up for a good sale.

Well today is Dec 1st which means only 25 more days til christmas. For those of you looking to buy me a present this is what i want............. haha JK. Just come visit and that will be the best present ever!!! Well i suppose I should stop blogging and get back to work. Now where is the fun in that :)

Some Pictures from the last couple of months :)

Jane and I after running the Living History Farms Race this weekend 11-22
Ryan and I at the zoo

Jane and I before our half marathon in Oct. 2008

Travis and Duke!!! :)

Almost Thanksgiving

I really should be writing a ten page paper but I thought I would actually try to post instead :) This sounded much more fun. I just got back from Iowa where I did a 7 mile cross country race with my cousin Jane. We had to go through 8 creeks I think but I only got from my ankles down soaking wet but that was cold enough. It was pretty cold and when we were done it started snowing so we were glad we got to go sit in the car then. Some people, who really care about their time, go flying through the water and end up completely soaked. If you know me you know I hate being cold so I avoid ice water to all extremes. We then just hung out the rest of the weekend and I came back to Mankato fairly early today to get some homework done and I have done fairly well, could have done better BUT :) This week is short because its thanksgiving. My family will be going out to Montana so it will just be Michael and I. I have to work crazy hours at Nike for those crazy shoppers. I start friday night at 11:45 pm and work til five in the morning and then back in at noon on Friday til five in evening. Lucky I get to get all my discounts on Wednesday so I'll get all the stuff I want before its picked over and for cheap because I get my discount on top of all the black friday discounts!!!

Well I hope you all have a great thanksgiving. I have been remembering some of the past thanksgiving and one thanksgiving I will never forget is my grandma parsons' last thanksgiving. We were all at our place. I remember I had made her a poem that I gave her and she had told us all that she was going to fight her cancer. I'm thankful for those memories I have that are as clear as can be. I wish every thanksgiving that she could just come back for that day so I could just talk to her. I'm so glad I had such great grandparents on both sides of my family and I miss them all so much. And I'm thankful I have great parents who mean the world to me and my siblings. I'm just glad that I have such a close family. It shocks me every day to hear of people who hate their parents and siblings. Its very sad. To sum it up I am thankful for my entire family, both the Braatens and the Parsons and even though every one is leaving me for thanksgiving... I know i hope you are all feeling bad :) jk..... I want you all to know I love you all very much and am thankful to have you in my life!!!! Now don't eat too much on Thanksgiving. For my internship I have a board I have to keep updated with facts and did you know the average person eats 3,000 calories for thanksgiving dinner and with all the leftovers the average person consumes between 5,000-6,000 calories for the day. So think of all the work it would take to burn that off. BUT you know what, its one day out of the year so this is what I say. Enjoy the food but just watch the portion size :) Ok well I think I'm going to call it a night. Up at 5:45 for class tomorrow. Only a couple more weeks and the semester is over!!

Ok Ok I"m a Blog Slacker

Well some people think i'm slacking so I guess I will tell you what I have been up to lately. Nothing. Ok the end:) Just kidding. Well i started my last year of school this year at Mankato and I got my approval for graduation so I will be out of here in May. Crazy how fast college goes. I am looking to go to grad school to get my masters in clinical exercise physiology with an emphaisis in cardiac rehab. There is a really good program in La Crosse WI but they only accept 15 students so I am crossing my fingers. So basically my weeks are consumed with class, my internship through the campus rec department where I do fitness assessments and write up exercise prescriptions. I am also working on getting a program called Maverick Boot Camp set up, which is basically like Biggest Loser. I'm hoping it goes over. I also work on compus as a personal trainer and at the Mankato YMCA as a wellness coach and personal trainer. So between all of that I keep busy. This semster has been a little crazy as I have like 21 credits but next semester will be a breeze. I go from seven classes to three!

What else.... I ran the Des Moines half marathon with my cousin Jane the end of October which was ton of fun. I am planning on running the half marathon in Madison in May so if anyone wants to join. I don't think i could do a whole marathon like Brenda! She did awesome!!! I actually have another race in Des Moines in two weeks. Its called the Living History Farms race which is a seven mile cross country race through lots of mud. Last year when I did it i was extremely muddy and wet because someone had shoved me into a stream BUT its fun.

Well thats about it. I will try to be better at posting. Its just you guys are all crazy with blogging and i'm just normal :)

Finishing up Summer Tour 08- Europe

Well the trip is coming to an end. Today is our last day as tomorrow we get on the plane to fly back to the good ol' USA. We have kept very busy in Ireland going here and there. On Thursday we went to downtown Dublin and it was pouring rain..... NOT FUN; however Ann finds joy in dragging me out in the rain so we were actually down there all day. We went there again on Monday and it was not raining and it was much better... I enjoyed it a lot more. We went to trinity college and they asked me to come there and gave me a really good scholarship opportunity soooooooooooooooo...... of course I could not pass it up and am planning on doing my grad work over in Ireland. Can you believe that? Well you shouldn't because I made it all up!!!!!! haha. Anyways we did that tour and then walked around in the nice weather. Back to Friday, Roy Griffin from here took Ann, Me, Maria, and Edita to some castles in the countryside. We ended up at Bunratty castle and there we had a big ol meal in the castle. Marino met us there too. On saturday we did more touring and then Saturday night we went to Marino's for the night. On sunday we went to meeting with Marino and then went to Lilianna's (another peruvian who married Ian, from Ireland and they have three little kids). We were there pretty much all day. Tuesday we went to jail. We got in trouble for jaywalking and got thrown into jail. Ok not really but there is an old jail here that has a lot of history, it jailed a lot of the men involved in the Easter Rising. We then had dinner at Marinos and went to somewhere out in the country that is quite differnt from the other areas...... was more barren. We were running low on petro and I was so scared we were going to get stuck out in the middle of nowhere BUT we did make it to a petro station before we had to push. Today we are packing up and Norman Nash, one of the workers here is spending the day with us.

I have seen a lot in three weeks and am so thankful to Ann for taking me with her!!!!!! There were times she probably wished she had left me in the states but I am gald she didn't. We have had a lot of fun and have lots of good memories so Thanks Ann for everything and I have no idea where you get your energy to run around all day long :)!!!!!!!!

Brussles and now Ireland... the final place of our trip

We left Amsterdam on Tuesday around 11 and got into Brussels around two or three... sometime around there :) It was a very nice day in Brussels which was very nice because I got a really bad head cold in Amsterdam.... I'm sure it was from the cold weather. Brussels is a business capital and is very pretty and is full of Belgium chocolate. There are chocolate shops all over and of course who knows when we will be in Belgium again so we had to eat as much as possible. And the Belgium waffles with chocolate are so good that we had some of those too. As I said before we are eating our way through Europe. Today we left the hotel around seven thirty and went to the airport and headed out to Dublin Ireland. Ann has a lot of friends here that used to live in Peru when she was down there. Right now the weather is nice but I hear that it will be cold. Good good. The plane right mixed with my head cold was not a good mixture whatsoever so I have been laying low today. We really don't have any plans for Ireland but the days seem to be filling up as everyone wants us to stay with them and wants to take us here or there. So each day will be a surprise. We only have one more week and then we will back in Wisconsin and compared to this weather Wisconsin is going to feel like the tropics!!!!

Last days in Paris and Amsterdam

So the day after my shoe broke we got up and then we went to the Effel Tower but we did not climb it because we had a dinner date with ken Neuman and his family at noon and if we waited in those lines we would never get out of there. It was beautiful day so we got some perfect pictures!!! We then had lunch at Ken's and it was nice meeting his family. They are from Texas but had lived in paris in 1990 til 1993 and now were here for three months this summer. After that we went to a museum that had everything in it and I mean everything! We ended the day by going to where all the artists are painting. That was the hot spot and we just had fun people watching and listening to little bands along the way.... oh and eating crepes. :) On Sunday we went to meeting with Ken and then we went to the train station to get a train to amsterdam. We waited in line forever because we had to get a reservation and we got one then for like a little over an hour so we just killed some time and then we took the train first to brussels and then Amsterdam. We got in around eight and our hotel was recommended to us and we had no idea how to get there. After walking around for i don't know maybe 25 minutes we finally found out we just needed to take tram 2. We got on tram 2 and the people kept piling in and before long we were just crammed in there. So you can imagine getting off. We had to lift our suitcases above everyone's head hoping that we would not knock them out. If we did who knows if they would even know. We did find our hotel and it is very nice and is located in a good spot once you find it. We walked around til about 11:00 last night and then I was dead tired so I made ann call it a night:). Today we got up and first went to the Anne Frank house. It was very sobering and it was very interesting to see everything from that portion of history. After that we went to the Van Gogh museum and even though I'm not big on art museums this one was good.  Then we just strolled around and since it was in the afternoon and not night we took a walk down the red light district. Very interesting to say the least. You can do anything in Amsterdam I am pretty sure. We also did a boat tour of the city which was about an hour and then came back to the hotel just to rest for a bit and I am sure we will be going back out tonight. We have to check out tomorrow at 11 and then will probably get a train to Brussels. We have a hotel there for tomorrow night and then a flight out of Brussels to Dublin Wednesday morning. 

Real Info on Switzerland and Italy

Ok first of all i forgot to mention that on our way to Switzerland we stopped in Freiburg Germany because we just wanted a break from the train and to our luck there was an international festival there and guess what? There were students from Madison Wisconsin. Now how unreal is that. We actually spent a lot of the day there so we got to Switzerland, the relatives, around six. Well Ann has not been there for twenty years so to find their house was fun. We started headed towards the ski resort but then realized that was not right. We were lucky there was a sign with their name on it so I am so glad otherwise we would have headed right up a hill which would have not been necessary. We stayed with luzi and his wife and their two kids. They were very nice and we enjoyed our stay. On Sunday we went to luz and ruth's house which is luzi's parents for tea. We met a bunch of the other family too. On Monday Luz took us on our own personal tour of Switzerland and I must say i got car sick and I never get car sick. It was nice though and we saw a lot of eastern Switzerland. It is very beautiful and clean and the only thing that would have been better is if we had sun. Then Tuesday we headed out towards Venice. We left at seven thirty, took a couple of buses and then got two trains. Our first train took us to Milano and we got off and had about fifteen minutes to burn until the next train and were walking around and then Ann goes MY BAG. Lets just say she left our life on the train. So she went running towards this train which was like the one we were one but not the one and I watched her with the luggage and I saw her head that way and then that was it. Then the train took off. Here I thought, oh great here she hopped on the train thinking that was the train we were on and it took off and here i sit with the luggage. My game plan was to sit there and wait for her to come back because first of all she had everything. BUT come to find out she had went to the help desk and was working with them so I was happy to see her. It took about two hours until we left because they found the bag and then sent it on another train back and then we got it. Now this was no ordinary bag. This had all the reservations for the rest of our trip and all Ann's summer reservations, her dissertation, the computer, her camera, and all our money. And get this.... all of it was in there when we got it. We must say we love the Italians. So a little delayed we got to Venice but it was like six thirty so not bad. We just toured a little that night and then went to bed. The next tour days we walked the whole city of venice. It was so nice and beautiful and we saw everything. The second day we then had a night train to Paris which is where we are now. We thought our hotel said we could check out late, like around four but turns out they were not very happy with us and we left quick at one. We stored our luggage at the station and then walked around until about seven and then just waited for our train with left around eight. This, as we were told was a special train... for special people I suppose :) Our sleeper car was very nice but very small. It was just the two of us so that was nice but they are made for three and I can't imagine if we had another person in there. Of course Ann entertained me by trying to wash her feet in this little sink and getting herself all tangled up so the ride went fast. We got into Paris about ten on Friday and went to our hotel and left our luggage and then of course had to see EVERYTHING possible :) We first went to the Louvre and were there for a couple of hours. It is huge so we just hit the highlights, such as the mona lisa and micheal angelos sculptures, napolean's rooms etc. Oh let me mention that we really figured out the metro system. The first time we got our tickets we got took... paid for a day pass but got a one time pass because some guy who we thought was really helping us out was not being honest but oh well. Then we continued our art gallery tour by going to the Musee d'Orsay. On the way there this lady claimed to have found a ring right in front of us and wanted to give it to us as a gift. We of course did not want it but she gave it to us and then took off. Well it wasn't long until she was back wanting coffee money so we gave her a couple of Euros because she would not take the ring back. Then across the street, another man found a ring just like the one the lady found. Funny. Although it was funny when ann showed him the ring and said oh i already have one. After that art museam we went to Notre Dame and we climbed the towers. It was a hike but beautiful at the top. We had to wait awhile to get in but it was def. worth it. Then we came back and showered but our night was not over. We then headed towards the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysess. That again was another huge set of stairs to climb but we had no problem whatsoever UNTIL my shoe broke. And it was broke so here I had to walk all the way back barefoot in one of the most fancy parts of Paris. My feet were disgustingly dirty. Anyways we got back around 11 and called it a night as it was just getting dark. Our battery is dying but that gets you caught up til yesterday. We are getting pictures so just wait a lil bit more. Hope you all are doing well!!!!

Germany, Switzerland, Litchenstein, and now Italy

Well we have not had access to the computer lately which is why i have not posted. So lets see if i can catch you up. We left luxembourg Friday morning and took a train to Frankfurt Germany. We actually decided to get off in Tier... or something like that :), and we just walked around there for a couple of hours and then got back on the train. Tier was more of a historical town with cobblestone streets and little shops. The markets were just opening up when we got there so that was fun to see. We got into Frankfurt around mid afternoon and of course decided to take a walk and see what was around. It turned into a three hour walk but no fear i swear we stopped every half an hour to buy something to eat. I honestly think we are eating our way through Europe. We of course had a german pretzel, bratwarst, and i cant even remember what else but a lot of good food. We got a little lost because we thought things looked familiar so we kept walking towards them and then we realized we were walking in a circle. That night we got back to the hotel around six and took a little nap which was five hours. I guess we were tired and for ann to sleep that long is simply amazing. We then just went to bed for the night but people were up and about til five in the morning. Then on Saturday morning we got up early, since we slept so much it was no problem, and got a train to switzerland to be with the relatives. We got there around five i think. They live way up in the Alps so it was beautiful but cold and raining. Well we got to go now so thats all you get :) I am in Italy now until tomorrow, venice and its beautiful and the sun is out!!!!

Europe = RAIN

Ann and I had a very adventurous day today. Sheila told us that we should take the train to this town that is about an hour north so we could see some exhibit. So we went to the train station and had a hard time because nothing is in English. Its either Luxembougish, French, German or some other language. With my spanish though I can give a good guess what the French is saying. People just talk to us too like we know what they are saying and we just nod and smile. What tourists! Well we found our train but had about an hour til we left so we walked around and the bakeries here are simply amazing!!! So of course we had some baked goods, all healthy for us of course! We then got on our train and once we got there it was raining and we were just wanting to buy an umbrella but guess what. Everything closes at noon for lunch and I mean everything, even the restaurants!!! So here we are walking the streets of Clerviox getting soaking wet and nothing is open. We looked for this exhibit we were suppose to go to but after 45 minutes we said forget it and went back to the train station and got back on the train to come back home. Wait til Sheila hears that we didn't even do the lists of things she wanted us to see! Once we got back here we found a restaurant to have soup and then we took a bus back to Sheila's. We are little chilled but warming up. It stopped but the weather changes so fast here that I think we will wait to do anymore exploring today! So lesson of the day is always take an umbrella with you even if it is blue skies and sun in the morning and don't get stuck somewhere around lunch time because everything is closed.

Made It!

Surprisingly I made it here with no problems what so ever. I made all my flights and got my luggage. Well the only thing that was a little wierd was that I got pulled over for a security check in Amsterdam and in front of everyone they really patted my down. They certainly did not miss anything but I was so tired I was just like whatever. I got in into Luxembough at 10:00 am time here which would be like 4:00 am back home and of course no sleeping allowed now. I have managed to stay up for pretty much most of the day. I did get a thirty minute nap while Ann worked on her paper for school but unfortunately she finished it fast so that ended my nap pretty fast. We did some touring of the town. We are staying with Ann's friend Sheila so she gave us directions to where to walk and we didn't even get lost. It is really peaceful and quiet here but just a little chilly. The country is actually really small. I think its like fifty miles wide and seventy miles long or something close to that. We took a little tour on a train and got a history lecture, walked around a bunch of the shops and then visited some of the parks. We are going to stay here tonight and let me tell you, I am ready for bed, and then tour again tomorrow. Friday we will head on the Eurorail to Frankfurt. We should get there around noon so we will stay the rest of the day there and then on Saturday we head to Switzerland to stay with the relatives until Tuesday. We finally talked to them today and Ruthie knew we were coming but Lutsi had no idea so I guess that was his surprise for the day. So that is what is in the agenda for the next couple of days!

Europe!!!!

Well tomorrow I head for Europe which crept on me really fast. I just started my laundry tonight at 11 so tonight is going to be a late night but I figure I'm just adjusting to the new time zone a little early right? I leave tomorrow afternoon at 1:30 from Madison and will be in Luxembough in like 13 hours I think. Once I actually looked at my itinery, like at 12 tonight, I was surprised how fast the trip will be!

Things have been very interesting over here in Wisconsin. Lets just say that we have gotten way too much rain. We had some wicked storms Sat. and Sun. and today the flooding began. Lake Delton which is a big lake where a lot of Dells attractions are on like Tommy Bartlett and where the Dells Ducks go actually does not exist no more. The dam broke this afternoon and the whole lake drained out into the Wisconsin River. I went up there this afternoon and could not believe it. Some of the condos even floated away right down the Wisconsin River. The engineers cannot figure out a way to stop it so it will basically be absolutely no water by tomorrow or the next couple of days. And it will take years to fill up............... like lots and lots of years so Lake Delton/Wisconsin Dells changed forever today! Dams are breaking left and and right and towns by the rivers are getting stuff out of their houses fast. It is a sight that I can't even explain. I actually went out and walked in the middle of the lake, empty lake and was standing in piles of dead fish! Soooooo............... on that note hopefully the rain doesn' t follow me to Europe.

Mom, dad, Angela and Travis left for Canada on Sunday. They left a little later than they had liked, they wanted to leave on Sat., but they are up there now and hopefully will enjoy the week up there!! Michael will be holding down the fort while they are gone and he does an impressive job at that so they should have no fears.

Well I am thinking I really should take a two hour nap because I just can't think straight anymore :) Then I will get up and finish packing! Keep tuned to updates on my travels over the next three weeks and here are some pictures of the lake draining.

Graduation Time

Well today was Michael's graduation and I realize that he certainly beat me to graduating. Now he will be making big bucks, have a good job, and I still will be going to school for the next years. Oh well :) I hope he gives me a loan. Haha. He is now heading to Mexico which is where I should be since I am the mexican in the family, but I suppose he deserves a nice vacation!

I got home from school last Thursday and started work at Nike and the Camp as soon as I got back so I can make as much money as I can for my Europe trip which I cannot believe is coming up fast. I have already spent a lot at Nike but I promise I needed everything I bought and I got it for really cheap. I have been getting up at 5:30 and running everymorning before going to work so that is what gives me my energy to keep up with all the tourists.

Well that is about all that has been happening. I hope all of you are enjoying spring, or this thing they call spring but still doesn't feel like it.

Some pictures From FL

Here are some pics I stole from Taryn...... I never seem to have a camera. Whoops :)

Almost done!!!

Well I suppose I should continue to update this. Spring break seems so long ago, but I only have a week of classes after this week and then a week of finals and then it is summer!!! Finally..... although no one would ever guess with this crazy minnesota weather we have. You would think we were living in Alaska. Never warms up but it will tease you. Sixty one day and snowing the next. GRRR. Oh well i must say that the last two days have been nice so maybe, just maybe, spring is finally here. I have just been busy with work and school. I ran a race on last weekend which wasn't the smartest thing I have done since I had a cold but my roommate and I had already paid and there is no college kid in the world that would pay for something and not do it! Well lets see..... here are my summer plans so far. I will go home prob May 8th when I get done with my last final. Michael and I and one of his friends are going to live in my grandparents old house, the green one so that aught to be fun! I will work at the campground and Nike til June 10th and then I am flying over to Europe to meet up with my Aunt Ann. We will be traveling like crazy til the 3rd of July but I am so excited. So I wonder what kind of adventures will happen over there:) Seems like overseas travels always end up in really good stories!! Then I will come home and work til school starts with a short break to go to the family reunion in August! I am excited to see everyone and I cannot believe how all the little ones are growing. Makes me feel old. Before long I will be one of those people that goes up to the kids and say " I remember when you were this big....." Oh geeze. Well i hope that everyone is enjoying spring. Hopefully not cramming for tests because that is no fun, no fun whatsoever!!!

Spring Break

Well unforutately my spring break has officially ended just now!!! I just got back from Tampa Florida where I spent the last five days with my parents, Angela, Travis, Dale and Bonnie, and my roommate Taryn. We had a blast and I have decided that I am going to have to join in on all their spring break vacations. I must say we laughed so much that maybe it didn't matter that we ate about 5,000 calories a day! Taryn and I flew down on Wednesday and got into Tampa around 3:30. We then took the super shuttle to our hotel, the travel lodge, which was a little interesting. I think Taryn was afraid we were going to get robbed or something so as we walked into our room we shouted.... what time do mom and dad get in again. haha. Traveling really wears one out so we just relaxed the rest of the day. Thursday we hung out at St. Pete's beach because that is where the travel lodge was. We then went and picked up the key to the house and went there and were planning on going swimming in the heated pool but we realized very quickly that the pool was NOT heated. We took a walk and then were in the house to surprise Dale, Bonnie, Angela and Travis since they did not know we were going to be there. We just laid on the couch hoping they would not see us right away but travis is a pretty intentive boy and figured out right away that we were there. We started out our vacation by going to Wal-Mart. That is how every vacation should be started. We ended up with seven boxes of cereal and I hope they are able to finish them by Thursday. After our shopping spree we realized that even though we bought out the Wal-Mart store we had not purchased any "real food" as Bonnie said so we went out to eat. Of course, even with the Tom Tom, we would go way out of the way but we did finally end up at Crabby Bills which ended up being an automatic favorite. Friday was raining so we stayed in quite a bit. We had thought it would be our beach day so we headed to Clearwater beach but since it was raining we decided to just eat at a restaurant that Mom and I had ate at when we were down there last. Of course it happened to be Crabby Bill's so we ate there again... twice in two days but hey it was a different location. Oh and if you think that was it Mom just texted and said that is where they were eating today so as I said they really really like Crabby Bills. We were going to walk around but no one was too excited to be in the rain so we went back to the house and took naps and then that evening we went out to the pier in St. Peterburg to eat some more! Saturday then turned into our beach day! The day started off bad for Uncle Dale as he stepped in some dog poop but he found out later that he shouldn't have complained about it too much because much worse was about to come. We went to Treasure Island to the beach and were there pretty much the whole afternoon. Even though we applied sunscreen we did not realize how burnt we were getting. Of course it takes a while to get beat red so when we got home we went swimming in the pool which thankfully got warmer thanks to Dad and Dale. By that evening everyone was redder than red. Dale then realized that a little dog poop was NOTHING compared to this aweful thing called a sunburn. He claims he is never taking off his clothes again. I don't think the night was very pleasant for anyone but I must say the only thing that I burnt were my eyes. For some reason I did not apply the sunscreen very well on my face so my eyes got fried and swelled which looked very attractive. Oh well. Sunday we had to take it easy so everyone could recover. Taryn and I had to leave this morning so we were up at four to leave for the airport at 4:30. We got back to Mankato around 3:30 and now I am trying really really hard to get back into the real world. I better get some motivation fast because I have to go work in ten minutes!!! It sounded like today the lucky ducks who get to stay til Thurday were going on a Pirates cruise and it sounded like my mom and dad were dancing away and embarassing Angela.... whats new? Well i better get moving.

A year later.........

Wow!! Well a year has passed since I have been in Mexico... ok so maybe that is a lil lie since I did go back down in May but it has almost been a year! Well lets see. Quick recap..... haha aren't you all excited to hear what I have done in the last year. Real easy school, mexico, work, school. Haha. Really though that is it. :) The semester after Mexico was HARD. You know it was nice only having class four hours a day, not really having homework, and having fun way too much. Although it doesn't take long to get used to the hussle of life again. In May Emely and I went back down to Mexico to visit for two weeks and then when I came back I worked really hard at Nike and the campground. I basically worked and that was it because that was all I had time for. I had to make money to pay off for those Mexico trips :) School started up again in August and I moved into an apartment with Kelly, Taryn, and Alyssa all of whom I had lived with in the dorms. We live about a mile from campus which is nice. I also started working at the Mankato Family YMCA which i love way too much. I took my personal trainer test and in November started training clients which has turned out to be a blast. I just love it when people don't understand that if you continue to eat McDonalds for every meal of the day and only work out for twenty minutes twice a week you will not lose weight. I have had a lot of interesting clients to say the least but I love what I do and have meant some amazing people! I am also training on campus so my days usually consist of a lot of running to class and work but then again it makes the time go fast! Over Christmas vacation I came home and worked at Nike but it was pretty easy, not going to lie! Then it was back to school and this semester has been trying as I am putting in lots of hours of work and have 17 credits. I am on spring break now and got home last night so I am just going to relax....... and of course read the 300 pg book on hip fractures that I need to write a paper on by the end of break :) Well ok that is about it!!!!