Around here lately.

Well you may have noticed, that it's been quite a few months since I've last written. Time really gets away from ya man.  Here's an update on what we've been up to. 

So that up there ^^ I wrote probably two months ago. Yikes I've never been super good at journaling or blogging. Not my forte, but I really love the idea of keeping a record of Jeff and I's life. So here we go again!

We finally came back to America from Nicaragua on Dec. 22 and spent Christmas in Florida with my fam, and then went to California to see Jeff's side of the family for New Years!

BTW you should have seen Basil and Jeff's reunion when we got back. Pup skipped right over me and went straight to his BFF! I would have been mad except it was so darn cute. 

Love my sissies!

 This guy's dreams were made at Three Arch, he went to the beach every single day. Such a beach bum. geez. 

 Snow on Saddle Back!!!!!!!!! It was a big deal y'all.

 California is seriously the best. So is disney land- except for the lines, and they also don't have the best pretzels, but what can you do. 

 Also we did it!! We've been married for 2 years!! So we celebrated with the beach and really good food. + Roller Coasters at Knotts Berry Farm till we were sick. 

 The Sunsets in Laguna Beach were unreal, and look at Catalina!! 

 And then we decided to pack up and move to Utah with no jobs, no apartment and no furniture. But the mountains sure are pretty!

 Have y'all tried Cupbop?? I might of gone through withdrawals when we left Rexburg. And I'm sooo happy about being able to eat it again.

 We take our man buns pretty seriously around here ^^

 Happy Birthday JEBREY!!!

 I have such handsome boys!

 My first real job as a vet tech, and I freaking love it!

 We were able to go to conference, with my girl Morgan. She's the funniest and the prettiest!

Now we're just working and saving and exploring Utah. I'm so excited for summer here,  it's gonna be the best. Jeff is in heaven with all Mountain Biking around here and the shooting ranges, but let's not get him started on that ;) Also he has a big Job interview coming up so wish him luck!!

Dia de la Inmaculada Concepcion

So for the past week and half the grand people of Granada have been waking up and participating in a very loud parade complete with fireworks (i thought we were being shot at when it first started) at 4:30 in the morning, every morning.... Jeffrey and I were annoyed, to say the least. We had no idea why they were doing this and how could you be so inconsiderate (not considerate at all shoot). It had to be for some holiday but the only holiday was for today, December 8th and the parades every morning just didn't make since to me I tell you!  I'm all for decorating for different holidays and having parities in honor of that holiday, but a parade at 4:30. please make it stop! After talking to some locals, sure enough the  celebration was in honor of the holiday on December 8th. The day of immaculate conception.  Basically they celebrate the fact that Mary was conceived and born with out original sin. They don't believe that she was born on December 8th they just picked that day (week) to celebrate it.

Really loud parades and constant fireworks aside, it has been really cool to see a different country celebrate a native holiday. Surprisingly, nothing much happened yesterday, the 8th (the actually holiday) We were told that everyone would have off, but grocery stores and a lot of little shops were still open. It was the week leading up to the 8th that was madness.

You already know about the 4am parades, add in constant fireworks, shrines to Mary outside your door, individual serenades at your front door and an all night festival and you have experienced Dia de la Inmaculada Concepcion.

December 7th the day before the holiday

                        During the day you had your local door stop worshiping and serenading^^

but at night was when the real celebration began

This is the street a few houses down from ours, it was packed with people hanging out, selling food and waiting for the parade to come by.  it was packed!

Once the parade started getting closer, the street started to get so congested! It was like the buses, i don't know how you can fit 70 people on one little bus and stop for more but you can!

All of these people were waiting for this shrine of Mary. There wasn't a car pulling it but tons of people pushing and pulling it and walking beside it.

After this shrine went by, everyone cleared out. People raced to Parque Central, where there were even more people packed together and even more food carts! 

Even though they were tons of food carts, they were all selling the same types but we figured we should try a little bit of everything. 

Fried chicken and fries-- what more do you need! they loaded it up with sour cream, ketchup and sometime of dried cheese. And boy was it goooood! Hit the spot I'll tell ya.

Everyone was selling these candied apples. They looked amazing and  I wish I could say the same about how they tasted. No good. Don't try them. They were super mushy and the candy coating wasn't very good either. 

Also this picture was pre wind blown hair into sticky candy apple.  Of course after the apple incident we got cotton candy to make up for it! After an hour or so the party wasn't really ending, but we decided to head home. 

December  8th- The actual holiday

The streets were deserted yesterday (the 8th) It was so bizarre, I'd never seen Granada so quiet!

Also there was no parade at 4am so hashtag blessed.

Aren't these houses just to die!?

We walked back to Parque Central later in the day and it was pretty deserted too.

Except for the cutest of cutest naughty boys trying to light fireworks.

We've hit the two week mark till we go home!! (hallelujah!!) We are so excited to be back in the states and eat some corn dogs and twizlers - actually that's just me- but we are gonna do as many things as we can here before we leave! This weekend were head off to the beach so stay tuned!!

Leon, Nicaragua--Volcano Boarding

Our second day in Leon started bright and early, as we had to meet our tour guide to get things ready. We went with a non-profit organization called Quetzaltrekkers (try and say that 5 times fast, or saying it at all...!) they run completely off of volunteers from all over the world so that the proceeds can go to the children that live on the streets. (they also run hikes and tours in Guatemala, in case your headed that way).

Quetzaltrekkers seem like the best group to go with because
1. it supports the children of Nicaragua
2. Lunch, water, and a snack is included (Can you tell i love food?)
3. you can board down twice (though after the first hike up carrying a 30 lb board, i could be exaggerating on the weight, i didn't really want to do it again..)

The other groups that go usually have at least 30 people (our group only had 6!!) and don't provide lunch, just a mojito afterwards.

So what is volcano boarding, you ask?
Here's a little history:

Cerro Negro (Black Hill) first appeared in 1850 and is the youngest and therefore newest volcano in central America. It is still very ACTIVE. It has erupted 23 times since 1850. It's last eruption was in 1999 and it is predicted to erupt every 10 years.. so it is about 6 years overdue.  It is made up of a gravelly basaltic cinder cone, so basically crushed lava rock.
 Don't ask me who decided it was a good idea to board down a very ACTIVE volcano ( it was actually about 5 years late to erupt!)

Who was the person to think of sliding down this giant volcano? A man with a mini fridge, that's who. The logistics of his first sled down were not thought out very well, but he survived and went on to make a much more sensible contraption, known as the sled. Which thank the Lord, is what we used.

After about a 45 minute drive we made it to the park and were at the base of Cerro Negro. This is when  I started freaking out. Though it is only about 1,500 feet from top to bottom, it looked sooo freaky and steep, and how the heck were we supposed to climb up that thing!

Now the rest in pictures because they are better at explaining than I am!

 Hiking up took about 45 minutes and it was so windy at least 45 mph, so naturally  almost the whole way up I was praying to not get blown off into the volcanos/fall and die.

This was about a 1/4 of the way up!  

         I was freaking out, because we were already so high and we hadn't even gotten half way.  

 Still scared, but really excited!!

We finally made it to the top. The view was breath taking, literally because it was so pretty and i was freaking out about how freaking high we were. 

When we got up there our guide told us that the way we could tell if the volcano was still active was by wiping away some of the gravel on the ground and feeling where you wiped off with your fingers. If it felt normal, it probably wasn't active, if it was really hot, it was active. Y'all it was really hot, almost to the point of burning me!

I just love these two pictures. Such a happy dude when he's outside exploring! Side note, I'm pretty sure that last picture is right after he pretended to slip off the edge/give me a heart attack.

   

 If you look to the left in this picture you can see some sled tracks, from where people have already gone down!

Putting that selfie stick to good use.

After we walked around the top for a while it was time to suit up!
and by that I mean a classy jumpsuit complete with googles and gloves.

That little dot with dust coming off it is me..!

 I decided I would only sled down once, but I went back up with every one and ran down. Probably way more  scarier than sledding, but just as awesome!

This guy had such a blast, like a kid eating a lot of cake. 

Jeff went down twice, and he was so happy about it! 

This was at the top looking off the volcano.

Isn't the world a beautiful place? I'm so happy I get to experience it with my guy.

At the end of the day we headed home aching and tired,  with hair and clothes full of volcanic ash, but heck we sledded/ran down a volcano! If that isn't awesome, I don't know what is..