Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My!

For my birthday, Efrain and I went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. It was so cool! It's not like a regular zoo in the sense that it's not just cage after cage of animals. You feel like you're out in their element watching them. It was huge! I was so tired by the end of the day. Then we went and had dinner at our favorite mexican restaurant down there, Cafe Coyote. (If anyone ever gets to San Diego, you have to go here. They make homemade tortillas that are to DIE for!!) Here are a few of the many pictures I took.

This gorilla kept posing for all the cameras and playing with the kids running around.

They also had a petting zoo area where you can pet and feed the animals.

Here's Efrain in a (I think) birds nest. So Cute!

Engagement!

And now for the BIGGEST news! Efrain and I got engaged the Saturday before Labor Day at the Grand Canyon. It was incredible! (both the canyon and the engagement) Neither one of us has ever been there before and I was so taken aback by how beautiful it was. Right when we got there the clouds started rolling in and after about 45 minutes it began to POUR! It was seriously a torrential downpour. We scrambled to get some lunch and wait it out. The problem for me was that I hadn't taken the time to do anything to myself that day...I don't even think I showered. So once the rain started down, I looked even worse! So I get to look back on my engagement photos and wonder what I was thinking. Well, anyway...we started hiking along the edge of the canyon and after awhile I needed to sit. So we climbed down to almost the edge (Yes, I was FREAKING OUT!) and rested for awhile and took pictures. Finally I needed to go to the bathroom, so I told Efrain that we needed to start heading back. He kept hemming and hawing and I couldn't understand why he didn't want to leave. All of a sudden he told me he had a gift for me and pulled out the ring. Right at that moment, a man walked up right next to us (we had been completely alone). So we sat there and waited and I gawked over the ring. Then he got down on one knee as I tried to make sure he didn't fall off the cliff! It was so romantic and I'm so excited! Efrain is the greatest man a girl could ask for and I can't wait to marry him.

I can't seem to get a good picture of my ring! It's too sparkily!!

Us being dorky after the proposal

Here's where we got engaged

And Efrain trying to give me a heart attack!

August Wedding

Okay, so I haven't updated in awhile...which is really sad considering some pretty cool things have happened. (DELETED ITEMS FROM AN EVENT WE WANT TO FORGET) Then...We went to the Olympic Park and went on the SCARIEST zip lines EVER! I was freaking out, but I survived. It was so much fun!

Efrain as an Olympic skier!

KOA Camping

So I decided to surprise Efrain and take him to this camping spot we had seen once while riding our bikes. It's actually not far from his house and has a place to fish. I made the reservations and was so excited! Until we got there...I had made reservations at the wrong place. We ended up camping at a KOA hooked onto the fair grounds. They also neglected to tell me when I made the reservations that they were under construction...ten feet from our campsite. Needless to say, it wasn't the best camping trip, but we still had fun.

Here's our little campsite.

Here are the tractors right in front of our camping spot. We woke up to them at 7am.

This where we went fishing. It looks a lot nicer/cleaner than it really was.

Here is my fisherman...

"Indy would be proud..."

We went to the La Brea Tar Pits today. It was really cool. The museum was very interesting, showing many of the fossils that they've collected over the years. Outside in the main pit, they started an excavation project in 1969 and they're still excavating there every summer.

This is what the main excavation pit looked like back when they first started digging.

This is what the site looks like today. During the excavation "season" last year, July-September, they collected over 3300 fossils.

I would hate to accidentally step in here...

The large pond and pit...

Stuck in the pits...

Aren't we cute?

The mammoth!

Replica of a sloth getting stuck in the tar and a saber-tooth cat attacking it.

Fossils...

This is a cool turtle that we saw...

More Pictures from the Cruise...

Beautiful...

...

I like this one...

How cute!

The Royal Caribbean Mexican Extravaganza

I know I haven't posted in along time but I'm about to make up for it...and then some! Last month Efrain and I went on a 7-day cruise to the Mexican Riviera. It was AMAZING! We went to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. Here are some pictures...(I'm going to scan our professional pictures tomorrow and post them on here)

Our room

Cruising!

So handsome!

Every night of the cruise our room attendant would leave an animal for us. This was the first one.

Our first day we went snorkeling in Cabo. We kept a life jacket on Efrain the whole time...he can't swim. (he doggy paddles really well)

On our way to snorkeling we saw these awesome rocks

We saw sea lions. We all figured this guy must be the "leader". He was HUGE! (and he posed)

This beach is called "Lovers Beach". It was so beautiful until I got stung by a jelly fish! It hurt so bad, but myboyfriend, the gentleman, offered to pee on me. NO THANKS!

We saw whales! It was a mother and a baby and definitley one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

This is a very lovely picture of me in my snorkel gear.

Us waiting for one of our MANY dance classes to start

In Mazatlan we hung out at the beach all day.

The beach in Mazatlan

Efrain almost drowning in the waves :)

Our "Mexican Limo" that took us from the boat to the beach.

Our dorky portrait

Our Senor Frog pictures

Our doggy

Our ship docked in Puerto Vallarta and in the foreground is the catamaran that took us to a private beach. It's the beach where they filmed a movie back in the 50's or something.

We saw these rock formations on the way to the beach we were going to. Funny thing is this is the same place I went snorkeling when I went to Puerto Vallarta right after high school graduation.

Cool Bird

Just pictures of the beach

You could walk all over the hillside and they had little places to hang out.

They had hammocks all over the place and Efrain fell in love. He even bought one when we got back to town.

Here's the outdoor "restaurant" on the beach.

They had animals for you to hold and take pictures with...I thought the owl was going to attack Efrain

I was a little nervous

Another hammock for Efrain to love

Here's the view from the hammock

They also had a monkey you could take pictures with.

Efrain and the "Welcome" sign at the private beach

Puerto Vallarta in the distance from our catamaran.

One night they had a buffet by the pool. Even though we'd eaten dinner three hours before, we still pigged out.

Here is our monkey! :)

This is my favorite picture of Efrain. He tends to not be able to smile when people point a camera at him, but this one worked!

This is the theatre on the ship. It was the farewell show and they let a bunch of balloons go and people were hitting them everywhere. It looked so cool. (The picture doesn't do it justice.)

This was our last towel animal. He's so cute!

This is us and our dinner partners, Tracy and Tony. They are from Colorado Springs and got engaged on the second night of the cruise.