Here Comes the Bride...

On June 26, we had my little brother's wedding in the backyard. My fourth wedding in a month. Wow! Talk about stress on my mom, along with other family issues, but all in all it turned out well. His fiance's name is Alicia, from Chicago, and they met up in Salt Lake in November. It turned out really pretty and quite a few people turned out to show their support. We had both the reception and the ceremony in our backyard. They plan on being sealed in the temple in a year. Kudos to mom to pulling it off and kudos to them!

Ryan and Alicia

Kissing the bride

Poore family

Mom and Ryan

Me!

Mom and the boys

My good lookin' brothers

Lake Powell

For the first time, I finally got a chance to go to Lake Powell. And it was just what I needed. Relaxation away from life and the chance to meet new people. It was a lot of fun. I drove up from STG, on a Sunday, arrived at 8PM, and stayed through Wednesday morning. We wake boarded, water skied, jet-skied, tubed, lounged around the houseboat, and slept on top of the houseboat under the stars. It was really pretty; although, the sun gets up way too early without any mountains to block it. Wake boarding 8AM

Dancing on the boat...notice the guys behind us :)

Chilling on the boat eating Otter Pops (I ate so many)

I had one of the guys take me out on the jet-ski, and before we were even out of sight of the houseboat, maybe 2 minutes, he dumped me into the lake and himself by flipping it. He ended up partially sinking the jet ski and it wouldn't start. I just layed in the lake laughing hysterically. They had to tow it back to the houseboat with the other jet ski and ended up spending an hour fixing it. I showered while they fixed it :)

I wake boarded again which I was totally stoked about. I hadn't wake boarded since 2008 and was afraid I wouldn't be able to get back up again. I didn't have the chance to get to the lake last year so it had been about two years since I had been; but, I got right up and did quite well the first day. The second day I didn't do so well because I was so sore. I woke up that morning and I swear every muscle in my body ached. But luckily we had enough guys willing to give us massages. :) I spent the entire time with no make-up on, one shower in 3 days, my hair piled on top of my head, and my days spent in a swim suit. Loved it! I hope to be able to do it again next summer!

2nd day wake boarding

My crash....

Mexican Riveria Cruise

Two days after school let out we left to the country. Yes, finally. I left the mainland as I call it. The family took a week long cruise to three cities in Mexico. I thoroughly enjoyed most of it minus the rocking of the ship. My stomach didn't handle it too well. We hit Cabo San Lucas, which I think was the most beautiful place, Mazatlan, the most irritating because of all the vendors, and Puerto Vallarta, where we hit the jungles of Mexico.

Staircase in our dining room

Arriving in Cabo

Just sailing along

In Cabo San Lucas, we walked the streets looking around and then took a glass bottom boat out to a 'lover's beach" and snorkeled. All of us minus Mom came out with battle wounds from snorkeling. After I got thrown into the rocks while snorkeling, I didn't really go back out. I also had a difficult time relaxing with my head under water trying to breathe at the same time. But it was a gorgeous place.

At Lover's Beach

My battle wounds which turned into a nasty scar

Pulling into Cabo

In Mazatlan, we did most of our shopping. There were vendors all over the place, and no matter where we went, we were bombarded to buy something. I felt really bad because I knew this was some of the people's only income, so as my brother's put it, "I got hosed."

This boy was walking around the beach looking for people to pay to take pictures with his iguana. As he walked away another vendor said, in broken English, "quick, take picture now." This got the kid's attention and Jeremy snapped it right as he turned around. Notice the disgusted look developing on his face...the other vendor then laughed and said, "he got picture; didn't have to pay." lol

Puerto Vallarta was the most fun place for us. We did an outdoor adventure in the jungles where we rappelled and zip-lined through the jungles, It was so much fun. The guides we had were hilarious and we had a great time with them. Mom was sure she was going to die on this excursion but she made it through!

Funny story about this: I ended up kicking one of our guides in the shoulder as he shook me on a zip line so to get back at me, he dropped me 15 feet into the water. So as he was helping me up, the girl taking the pics told me to pull him in. So I did and here's both of us in the water.

I had trouble on this one; I get slipping and slamming into the rocks...

First Zipline

I have decided I prefer air and land travel due to the lack of liking all of the rocking on the boat. But I highly recommend a cruise once in a lifetime. Our attendants and servers were so nice; and he food was amazing. All you can eat! We had a great time.