Puerto Rico

We left on Friday morning for Puerto Rico and stayed the night in a cute little non-hotel called San Juan Suites. I was pleasantly surprised with the place Carma & Travis picked out. They did a great job! Once we checked in, we found a great place to eat called Las Ruices just two blocks away. The common dish in Puerto Rico is called Mofongo, which is mashed green plantains served with some kind of protien. It is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I really want to learn how to make it. However, as good as it was that night, it didn't agree with me the next day, if you know what I mean.

A plantain is pretty much like a banana. Too much fiber maybe.

Is that TMI?

Who cares...it's my blog!

After we ate, Mike, Kristie, Blake, Shannon, Joseph and I went in search of a fun disco. By the time we found one, Joseph and I were exhausted so we decided to go back to the hotel. The others stayed and had a blast. Needless to say, I was a little jealous hearing their stories the next day. I wish I would have stuck it out.

Joseph and me on the plane

We've arrived! Outside our hotel

Dad, Mom, Carma & Travis at Las Raices

J, me, Mike & Kristie

Shannon & Blake

All the girls with our server. They all had to wear this outfit. When I was looking at this picture later, I thought "Who's the girl on Shannon's left?" and then I realized it was part of the painting. Just a little glimpse into a day in the life of Erin. :)

We had all day Saturday to see the sights in Old San Juan before we had to board our ship. Old San Juan is beautiful! The streets are lined with colorful buildings and everything is really compacted - nothing like Texas. A cobblestone street runs all through Old San Juan also. We went to see the San Juan Gate which is the three mile wall that encloses Puerto Rico. In order to enter the city, you had to enter through one of five gates. The entrance we went through was used for centuries by Spanish dignitaries. They would enter and immediately walk up the street to the San Juan Cathedral to give thanks to God for a safe journey. Guards secured the gates at night and if you were on the other side when they were shut, you were locked out until the morning! Once we entered through the gate, we went to see the fort. This was really cool! All the history behind it was pretty amazing and you really got a sense of what Puerto Ricans went through in order to protect their families and their land.

One of the streets we walked down. I love all the colors.

This building was my favorite. I'm a huge fan of orange and blue. Check out Dad in the corner. There was a FOR SALE sign. We were all trying to get him to buy it. :)

Shannon on the streets of Puerto Rico! That should be a song.

A really fat cat on the streets of Puerto Rico...that should be a song too.

Brothers


Me & J outside of San Juan Gate

Just a normal day with the Martinos. You can see the fort in the background. And Mikey doing an Irish jig. I was so proud!

All the girls standing on a Danish battleground. Yeah, we lift weights...

An amazing backdrop

This was the view from the bathroom

The boys with cannonballs

The girls with cannonballs

Joseph being awesome in a sentry box. This is where guards would hang out and watch for invaders.

This is one of the many living quarters for the soldiers and their families. This picture doesn't do the cramped space justice and two or three families would live in each room!

We also went to see San Juan Cathedral but those pics are pretty boring. All in all, we had an incredible time in Puerto Rico and it was the perfect start to our vacation.

Happy New Year!

This year, Joseph and I had plans to go out to eat with his brother and sister-in-law, along with his cousin and his girlfriend. We were all dressed up and ready to go when unfortunately, our babysitter cancelled at the last minute! So instead of going to dinner and a movie, we got take out, played games and rented a movie. We still had a blast. We also ate a ton of candy leftover from Christmas. I had to get it out of my house. As you can see from the pictures, the boys were on a sugar high.

Remember me?

Hi everyone! It's been a while. Remember me? I'm that weird girl who snorts when she laughs...ring a bell? I can also pop my shoulders out of socket. Anything?

*crickets chirping*

Hmm...

Well, you know you haven't blogged in a while when you have 107 pictures to upload from your camera!

Things around here have been pretty crazy. Not bad crazy, just busy crazy what with the holidays and all. We had a fantastic Christmas! And let's hear it for the snow on Christmas Eve! What a shocker! Too bad I'm too much of a wimp to take Jonathan out to play in it. What can I say? My feet get cold.

Ok. First things first. My mom and I met The Pioneer Woman, also known as Ree Drummond, on December 1st at the Borders in Dallas off Preston. Her book signing started at 7:00 so we got there around 5:15 thinking we would be out of there in time to go to dinner. Boy were we wrong! I had no idea that Borders was handing out colored wristbands to determine what group you would be put in to meet Ree. When we got there, our wristband was yellow. I soon found out that we were the 5th group to meet Ree.

That doesn't sound too bad. How many people are in a group?

Oh...100 per group?!

CRAP!

Needless to say, we were there until 11:15 and we had Jonathan with us. He was such a trooper! Thank goodness Borders had an incredible kids section with books and toys otherwise I probably would have pulled my hair out. Instead of a nice meal at a sit down restaurant, we had McDonalds. Disgusting!

Also, my camera died (or so I thought) right when we got to the front of the line. Little did I know that it was on the video setting, so both of the pictures I attempted to get are videos. My brain farted big time!

Ree was super nice to take a picture with her camera and she even took a close up of Jonathan, saying he had the greatest hair. The next day, I was looking at her blog and there was a picture of me and my cute little kiddo! We're famous! Woo! Check it out here. Too bad I hate the picture of me, but Jonathan was super snuggly, it being 11:00 at night and all.

We had our Annual High School Girls Night Lingerie Party on December 19th. For those of you who aren't familiar, no we do not get together and wear our lingerie. It's a Chinese gift exchange and the present has to be lingerie. We've been doing this since our sophomore year of high school. The most common present back then was just panties, but now most of us are married so there's more of a demand of "outfits". It's crazy fun and I always like to bring the skankiest and classiest outfit I can find. I say, if you're gonna dress up, why not go all out? This year, I brought a bustier and panty set that was "classy" and a fishnet crotchless body stocking that was oh so "skanky". Needless to say, I took home my own gift and was PUMPED! I had to steal it to get it but the bloodshed was well worth it! :) Here's a picture of me in it...

Haha! Just kidding! That's a whole 'nother blog. One I don't own.

All the girls had a blast. We were missing Chaney and Lauren but everyone else was able to make it.

All the ladies

Me & Whit - she has the most ADORABLE twin boy & girl!

Love this picture!

Jenifer & Krisi

Me & Staci - in all the years I've know this one, I've never seen her hair as straight as it is in this picture. We were all mesmerized!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

From the Martinos!

Christmas Eve

What a crazy white Christmas Eve! My parents and brother were planning on coming up to Denton to spend Christmas Eve with us and Joseph's extended family. I was so excited for them to see the Nativity Play the kids put on each year since this would have been the first year for Jonathan to participate in it. Unfortunately due to the weather, they weren't able to make it. They loaded up the car and drove for an hour (which would have put them at our doorstep) and only made it 18 miles from their house! The highways were like a parking lot so we told them to go back home. It took them another hour to drive back! Bummer. But at least we took pictures.

This year, the Martino Christmas Eve was quite small as compared to other years. Normally there is between 70 - 90 family members there (Martinos are baby making machines. We're Mormon, what can I say?) but this year we only had around 50 due to people going out of town. Still, it was fun. We had a wonderful dinner, lots of great conversation, the Nativity Play and then Santa came! Jonathan was so pumped. He loves Santa - as in, sees him and lights up. No tears, no fear. He goes straight up to him and sits on his lap. It's super cute and tonight was no exception.

After everyone left, Joseph's family stayed around and we all opened presents from Nona and Papi. Joseph got his shotgun he's been begging me for and I got an incredible leather jacket and some great books - The Giving Tree, Putting on the Armor of God and The Peacegiver. I can't wait to read them! Jonathan got a slide from Nona and Papi and he loves it. It's in our living room right now since it's been so cold and snowy, and he climbs it and slides down all day long.

Here's the Nativity Play:

Jonathan was a shepherd

Happy shepherd!

The angel telling Mary not to be afraid and Joseph that she's cool to marry even though she's preggo.

Mary riding a donkey around Bethlehem

The donkey fell asleep.

Presley, Carter & Landon

Cute baby angel Katie

CJ being a shepherd wrangler

CJ & Baby J after the play. Best buds

SANTA CAME!: Look at that face!

Grabbin' from the goody bag

Hey Santa! I'd like an Elmo doll and a tricycle. Make it happen old man!

And I'd like a baby...You don't have to make that happen. I'll do it myself.

Yay! A good one of me and the hubs! A rare find.

Say cheese!

Little boys in Christmas jambos...

...You can't go wrong.