Bike Ride Down Haleakala 2005

I went hiking today with one of my friends and it brought back memories of Hunky J and I biking down Haleakala in 2005. In Maui, they offer a bike tour where you leave at 2:30 am and take a bus for several hours up to the top of Haleakala National Park. Once you get there you go and watch the sunrise and walk around and see the craters. Once they are done showing you the sights of the National Park then you take a bike tour down a long and winding road. It is very steep and you go really fast. They tell you to keep your eyes on the road at all times and to watch the biker ahead of you. Anyways, that is the tour part of the story. The funny part of the story is that Hunky J and I had fallen asleep early the night before b/c of too many mai tai's. I woke up about 9, ordered some food. I then realized that I didn't have tennis shoes or any closed toe shoes for this tour. Yikes! I woke up Hunky J and we left right away to try and find swim shoes, any kind of tennis shoes, whatever, as long as they were closed toe. Well, luck was not on my side or I should say the Hunky J's side. My wonderful husband sacrificed his tennis shoes, which made me look like a clown, so I could go on the tour. He wore his black patent leather dress shoes. I felt so bad. So, here we are in warm-ups, me wearing men's tennis shoes a couple sizes too big and Hunky J's in black dress shoes getting ready to go on this bike ride. When we stopped at the top the driver asked if anybody needed anything. I then found my opportunity to ask if they had any extra closed toe shoes so I could give the Hunky J back his tennis shoes. Okay. It was that statement which led to embarrassing moment #1. When I did that it brought attention to the Hunky J’s nice and shiny black leather dress shoes. Of course, they didn't have a spare so he had to bike down in dress shoes with everyone else now knowing his situation thanks to my big mouth. When we were almost done with the tour, we stopped for breakfast. Once we were done Hunky J went to the van to change his dress shoes for his flip flops. I thought that was kind of dangerous, which brought up, you guessed it, embarrassing moment #2. Once again, I brought attention to the Hunky J’s shoe situation. The guides were standing right beside me, when I was letting my husband know the danger of wearing flip flops on the bike tour. Oh boy, if looks could kill, I would have been dead. The guides didn't say anything b/c they were either: a.)Scared to bring it up, or b.)They felt sorry for him. There wasn't much left of the tour anyways so I guess they let it slide. We ended up having a great time despite the shoe incident but it is a memory that neither one of us will ever forget.

Cinco de Mayo has come and gone.

Well, Cinco de Mayo has come and gone. There was No McFiesta Party this year. I'm not sure if I'm sad or relieved. Last year was definitely a fun time. Just takes a lot of work getting the house together and the food done. Oh, and I can't forget my sheila-rita's. My special recipe for margaritas that go down smooth but if your not careful will hit you like a ton of bricks. In other words, Drink with Caution. Here is a group pic of the whole gang. Well, not everyone made it in the picture but you can kind of get the idea of the fun we're having by the look on our faces.

Pretty, Pretty Sedona

Here is a panoramic pic of me in Sedona. Hunky J and I stayed at the Wishing Well Bed and Breakfast. We did a wine tasting in our room and the winning wine went along with us on a hike behind the B&B. I forgot the camera and had to go all the way back down the the car so I could take come pics. This camera has a panoramic option. Sedona is such a pretty, pretty place.

Let There Be Fire!!!!!!!!

O.K. I had to post a blog to this picture. This is Hunky J after having a bit too much to drink at the Halloween Bash. He thought it would be really cool to build this huge fire in our fire pit. Then he thought it would be really cool to stand in front of the big fire. La Princesa, his sister and his Mom, were ready to come unglued. They thought he was going to catch on fire. Robinetta came to the rescue and threw water on it causing a big puff of smoke. Here is a pic of him in front of a fire.

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Look! It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I don't think so. I think if Linus saw this pumpkin coming out of the pumpkin patch, it would of scared the holy crap out of him. Instead of delivering presents to good boys and girls this pumpkin is more than likely to be eating little boys and girls. Hunky J, my hubby, is the artist of this masterpiece. I bailed last minute to continue preparations for this year's Halloween Zombie fest at our house. Kind of crazy this year b/c we had our Halloween party after Halloween.

I would definitely say our pumpkins have come a long way from the first ones we carved when we first moved here. I thought we would be real ambitious, so I bought 4 pumpkins one for each of us. I thought this would be a great family activity. Yeah right! So after a lot of complaining and hair pulling we managed to get four pumpkins up and ready. We displayed them on our mini-patio that was attached to our apartment. The first thing we learned about carving pumpkins in Arizona, is not to carve them too early. Between the cool evenings and the scorching hot afternoons, our pumpkins mutated into mush. That would all be fine and dandy, kind of adds to the horror of it all with the exception of the bad smell that came along with it. Well, we skipped a few years after that. I think we all were a bit traumatized after the whole experience. We've decided to work as a team and if the kids don't want to participate, we don't hold them hostage. It's more peaceful that way.

The Graveyard Shift

It's that time of year again. I think Halloween would have to be one of my favorite times to decorate. I love pulling out all of our Halloween decorations. I start looking in the stores shortly after school begins b/c I know Halloween decorations will start creeping there way in. I don't know who gets more excited, Hunky J or me. We definitely have more ideas than money that's for sure. It would be quite scary to see what our house would look like if we had a money tree growing in our backyard. I think it is pretty extreme as it is. I know we are the spookiest house in the neighborhood. This year we had some dirt leftover from planting new trees. It was just sitting there at the corner of our driveway when Hunky J came up with the idea of making a graveyard. This is a picture of our graveyard. It turned out really great. The only problem is I don't have any idea of what we can do next year that will top this.