Family Photos

I think its important to get family photos at least once a year. Or I think you should at least try. My husband, like most men, hate taking photos. Even though he is so photogenic.

So when I informed him that we would be taking family photos this year his response was. What family? Yes dear, you and I are a family, even though we don't have any children, except our 2 kitties, we are still considered a family.  After we took them I informed him this will be occurring every year in the future if I remember to plan it and that 1 hour out of 365 days isn't that bad to sacrifice to make his wife happy.  These were the results and I was quite pleased with the little cooperation and not going far to take them.

He seriously make me laugh so hard all the time.  Even when I am so upset he can some how make me relax and laugh about it.

Suja cleanse

I am not a healthy eater, you could take it as far as calling me a junk food junkie. This was our first year in our home for Halloween and we didn't know how much candy to prepare for. Of course we bought too much, 2 huge costco size bags. Unfortunately we only had 12 trick or treaters this year and even though they each got a hand full we ended up with lots of left overs. I am one to not turn down a treat and my in laws gave me their left overs as well. I have been stuffing my face full of junk and have actually felt guilty about it. So what do I do, I decide to do my 1st cleanse ever. I have heard wonderful things about the suja cleanse so I figured for my first one ever this would be a perfect start. Now before anyway gets defensive that has done this cleanse before I want to admit that I'm not healthy when it comes to food choices so my opinion is coming from someone that is trying to make healthy choices but her taste buds are use to sweets.

All I heard about this cleanse was how good it tasted and how people weren't ever hungry with this cleanse. I will agree with one of the two points. I wasn't ever hungry in this cleanse. I craved food, especially while sitting at a lunch office meeting and smelling all the food, or watching my husband cook dinner for himself while I chugged down a juice with spinach. I was never hungry though. I on the other hand did not find these to be oh so good tasting.

I opened the first juice in the morning with high spirits and proud of my good choices for the day, took the first sip and instantly wanted something sweet to take this horrible taste out of my mouth. Glow is the first drink with apple as the main ingredient but the other ingredients overpower this drink. My first thought was I was eatting leaves. The collard greens, spinach, and celery were very overpowering. I discovered the best method for me was to just chug the drink and get it over with. Fuel was next and I was a little nervous about the carrot orange color but figured this drink had promise, carrot, orange, apple, pineapple, lemon, and turmeric were all the ingredients, those didn't sound horrible to me.  This one was so much better tasting to me and I started to get high hopes for the rest. When it still came down to it I had to chug this drink as well though. Next was Purify and I'm not going to lie the red color gave me high hopes. I'm like a child with candy; the bright colors of pink, red, and grape always taste better. Beets and celery just punched me in the face and I had to chug the drink yet again. Purify did taste better to me then glow, not as good as fuel, but I still wasn't jumping for joy. I still have high hopes for myself and head off to a lunch work meeting. Luckily I was full and had no food myself to tempt me because watching and smelling everyone's lunches would have normally made me cave. To be honest I felt satisfied at this point and proud to talk about my cleanse amongst my co-workers. My spirits were still high.

I get home a lot later then I had hoped. I should have brought a drink with me to work cuz now I'm staring at 2 drinks that are both green. First thought that come to mind, celery and spinach. Of course the 1st one I need to get down has both of those ingredients. Fiji is staring at me as a glare back at it. I was afraid of the kale, spinach, and collard greens but what got me was the ginger. It left the strongest after taste which I couldn't get rid of. Maybe this was a good thing I had to play catch up to disguise this after taste. The more I drank the more flavors I pulled out of the juice. Lemon ginger, spinach and celery filled my taste buds. You would think the ginger spice would leave a good taste in your mouth but it wasn't pleasant to me. I kept trying to think of gingerbread cookies. Oh yum cookies! I immediately open green supreme and start to drink up. Now the name has been scarring me all day. Green supreme doesn't sound like a good one. Is it just me, this drink has been the best one so far. Or am I just getting use to these odd foreign things going into my junkfood body. Apple, kale, and lemon are the only ingredients in the green supreme and I'm not going to lie, yes I could taste the kale but I was pleasantly surprised. I still chug this drink though.

After a few hours it's time for my dessert, my favorite time of dinner. I am really looking forward to vanilla cloud.  Water, coconut, honey, almonds, acerola cherry, cinnamon, vanilla bean, nutmeg, and camu camu. Most of things sound like heaven to me. I shake up the drink real good and taste a sip. Best one so far  but the texture is throwing me off a little. I'm still not loving these but I tell myself last one and it's not so bad. I still chug it. They all needed to be chugged in my eyes. But I'm also so proud of myself for not giving in and eating that roll that was screaming my name. I don't know if my husband helped me or made it harder. The hardest moment was starring at 2 green drinks while my husband cooks dinner. I thought I was going to cave, I begged for little bites of his meal. I even felt envious of our 2 cats as they got little scrapes and he wasn't willing to spare any my way. I am grateful for his stinginess now. I know he did it for me. He knew I'd be disappointed if I caved and didn't pull through. He was right. I am so glad I did this cleanse. I feel a lot better today. I honestly do, I am not craving the candy that still sits in a bowl in the front room. I am writing this with the temptation right there and this is the first time I realize I don't want to reach for a piece. I was so excited to wake up this morning and eat real food though. Yes I did the 1 day cleanse, I didn't stretch myself too much but for a junkfood junkie and a 1st time cleanser I thought that was the smart choice. Why set myself up for failure, start with something small that I know I can achieve. In 2 years I'll be doing the 5 day cleanse. Would I do this cleanse again? Yes I would. It was easy having the drinks already made for me and the fact that I was full the entire day.  Am I totally looking forward to the 3 day cleanse? Of course not, I would be lying if I said they tasted so good to me, but I now know what to expect and will just chug the drinks quicker next time.

Lancetilla Botanical Garden, Tela, Honduras

Lancetilla is the 2nd largest Botanical Garden in the world.  Who would have known that Honduras has so many 2nd largest things.  They have the 2nd largest amazon and the 2nd largest coral reef to dive over.  I couldn't wait to go to the Botanical Garden's and mark it have my to do list of the world.  When I was walking around the gardens Astrid kept saying to me, its like we are in Narnia or Avatar.  I couldn't agree more with her.  It definitely made me feel like I was in another world.  I only wish it hadn't been raining so much lately because we weren't able to explore all the area's we wanted too, too dangerous to get stuck.  Enjoy the scenery in the photos, I know I did.

Once we entered deeper into the park you were just covered with these trees that created an archway.  It was breathtaking to feel enclosed by nature and just loose yourself looking up into the sky. I loved this point of view and found it to be beautiful. 

The walkways were enclosed with plants that were taller then all of us.

This tree, like many of them there reminded me of the tree's that the avatar people lived in. I couldn't believe how huge they were and this one isn't even one of the largest ones, I couldn't get it all in the photos.

Ants that were huge and carrying chunks of leaves to their nests.  The holes where they were living were bigger then my thighs.  I couldn't believe the size of these things and I got lucky.  I was the typical dumb tourist just walking around with my face into my camera and I stopped to take photos.  Astrid looked down and freaked out informing me that I was standing in the middle of their path.  I was so lucky they didn't bite the crap out of me.

The ants are just eating away at all the plants, its quite sad but I guess that is how nature is.  And the world goes on.

I wanted to end with this breathtaking photo of the walkway that I mentioned earlier.  I couldn't believe how huge it was first off and how they were just naturally creating this arch. It was so gorgeous.

Tela, Honduras

I was so excited to get the beach I honestly was counting down the minutes. There is just something about being at the beach that brings me peace.  I can relax, read a book, and soak in the warmth of the sun. I was also excited to get out of the city and start seeing more of Honduras.

This was our home for 4 days, our little cabana.

 My feet couldn't wait to get into the ocean.

 The next morning, when the sun was shining. The beach was so beautiful and relaxing.

 The beach

The resort behind the palm trees.

In my happy place.

Pina Colada's, too bad they were so pricey, around $6 american without alcohol, REALLY!

Beautiful flower at the pool.

You would see a lot of people's transportation being horses.

At the cabana's pool.

These birds were just soaring around, they were barely moving and just gliding around, it was so beautiful I wish I would have filmed it rather then a picture.

I found this to beautiful.

These were super tasty but kind of freaky.

Cooking failures of a wife

I have always been one to bake up treats rather then cook a meal. I was like that as a kid and have always been that way. But there are certain rules to my baking, such as, never assume that I know a step or order of things, it has to be all laid out in front of me for me to understand.  I have always been the type that had to learn from doing and I am taking this as a learning experience. I might have cooked rice krispie treats as a kid, I might have just had them made for me, I don't really remember making them. I remember watching a few times but obviously I didn't pay much attention. I was going to make this awesome dessert tonight for me and the hubby that a friend of mine use to make growing up, I loved it. Rice krispie treats with carmel frosting on top. So the instructions named off the ingredients and said melt for 3 minutes. Lets just say that obviously you needed to melt the butter and marshmallows together and add the rice krispies after. HOW was I suppose to know that, the recipe didn't say that. So yup another wasted attempt at food. I don't even want to know how much money we have lost in my attempts at cooking. Most couples save money by cooking at home, we lose it. Not only do we pay for the food for me to screw up but then we have to pay for a meal afterwards because we are still hungry.  For all you wives out there that think you can't cook, I should give you hope. At least you didn't burn rice krispie treats. I think I need to be on that cooking show, worst cooks in America.

Tegucigalpa

I was exhausted after traveling all night on the red-eye and our early morning flight into Tegucigalpa. I couldn't sleep on the plane.  I was looking forward to getting to our rooms and just crashing but I knew it wouldn't be that easy.  We would be staying with my friends grandma and relatives and we would have to make the rounds and meet everyone.  Once we had settled in a little bit I think it was obvious I was going to crash so we headed to our sleeping quarters and I was out for several hours.  After I was able to catch up on some sleep I was able to focus more on taking everything in.

I think that I should point out how much security there really is when your staying in the city.  Our neighborhood was gated and had armed guards at the main gate, then each home is individually gated up and at the top of the walls there are often broken glass or barbed wire sticking out of the concrete to prevent climbers. We were staying next door so you had to have a key or have the maids let you in as you went.

This is the gate to the home that we were sleeping in.

And this is the grandmas house next door all gated up as well.

One thing that I have noticed form this trip is that everyone is amazing hostesses.  Almost too good if you ask me.  We started the night out with attending a birthday party of a cousin. There was tons and tons of food and candy all around and the women would walk around offering food to you.  You don't want to offend anyone so you feel obligated to at least try each of everything.  It got to a point were I was stuffed.  I had been warned that we were going to attend a bridal shower of a cousin's future wife that night as well but I knew we were going to head home first and change and I figured I better fill up now since my plan was to get out of the bridal shower and rest up.  We had run out of time though and headed straight to the bridal shower from the birthday party.  Not only was I not dressed appropriately for this occasion (luckily none of us were) but I didn't know a single person, the language, and I was stuffed to the max, or so I thought.  We got there and it was a 4 course meal and oh it looked amazing.  How could I resist not trying everything, just a bite (or the whole thing).  I didn't want to regret not being adventurous but now I know why Lourdes said she gains like 10 lbs on these trips.  Doesn't this bridal party meal look amazing?

Lourdes mother reminds me so much of my husband Todd.  She is an animal lover and honestly goes above and beyond to save animals.  She was telling me the story about how she came to be the mother of this gorgeous owl.  She had come across a homeless man and gave him some money.  In exchange he offered her this baby owl that was sick and dying.  She explained to me how she had to sleep out on the couch sitting upright all night and had to have the owl tucked inside her chest area to this owl warm and alive.  She continued to tell me that the owl had actually died several times that night and she rubbed her hands together and brought him back but one time it wasn't working so she called her daughters who were back in the states and asked for help.  She then attempted CPR on the little owl and it came back to her.  They have this amazing bond and when he hears her voice he starts looking around and hoping around his cage.  They were telling me that he often gets out of the cage when he is outside but doesn't fly far and always comes back.  It was so amazing to experience touching a wild owl that feeding it.  Most people can't say that they have done that.

While in Tegucigalpa we visited the LDS temple that had been built recently.  I knew this would mean a lot to my brother since he wasn't serving in the country at the time of a temple being present.  It was interesting to hear the battle that the church went through to get a temple here and what a big deal it was on the location of the temple.  They were telling me that when the temple was getting dedicated everyone knew about it in Tegucigalpa and that even the president came.   It was gorgeous and had an amazing view of the city.  It was interesting to see where the original plan was to be built but this location seemed so much better.  You could see it as soon as you landing in your plane and the view was amazing. Interesting how that stuff seems to work itself out.

The following day we knew we needed some relaxation time so luckily their aunt invited us over to visit her house and swim in her pool. It had an amazing view of the city as well and luckily today was a gorgeous day. It had rained every other day since we arrived and I didn't really care to get stuck in the pool on a cold rainy day. It did end up raining today after all it just happened after we got some sun.

This was a huge cactus that was about 4-5 stories high. It was so windy up here too, I was nervous it was going to break off and land on me.

 This was an avocado that they claimed was small. It was double the size of any in the states that I've seen.