Thursday, April 17, 2008

superstar hair challenge

I am SOOO excited!! Our good friend and hair stylist, Bryan is a contestant on Season 2 of Superstar Hair Challenge. He is the handsome one in the black tee on the far right. For a close up look, check out this post from '06.

The first show is May 6th on Slice (in Canada...don't know if this channel is available in the States). At the moment, they only have the synopsis on their website, but as the date gets closer, they will be putting up bios. After each episode airs, the contestants will post to their blogs! This is going to be AWESOME! I can't wait! Good luck, Bryan!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

puerto vallarta...part iv - sea safari...paradise and perspective


Here is the last post relating to our trip to PV. This was one of the highlights for sure!


The Sea Safari was a day travelling around magnificant Banderas Bay (triva fact - third largest bay in the world).

After a short bus ride to the marina, we boarded a 30-person zodiac and headed down to PV, where we picked up our guide and some additional passengers.



There was only about 20 of us in total, so we had lots of room on the boat. Once we were out in the bay, our fabulous guide Carlos says, "Welcome to my office!" I think we were all thinking the same thing..."I wish I had his job."

(One of the things we noticed during our stay, is how passionate the various guides were about their country.)

The water was calm, the sun was shining and the vistas were fantástico!


We travelled along the waterfront of PV and then headed out for some whale watching. It didn't take long before we were watching in awe as a momma humpback whale floated along and her new calf frolicked all around her. Amazing!



Next, we travelled south and came back towards the coast and passed several boats loaded with scuba divers, snorklers and partiers.




We passed large rock islands that were home to hundreds of pelicans, friggits and blue-footed boobies.









We were taken to a private beach at the south end of the bay. This area is only accessable be sea, and the locals have to bring in all of their supplies by boat.

Some of the gang went snorkeling while the rest of us lounged on the beautiful white sand.










We were treated to a delicious lunch and beverages from the open bar. Coco-locos were served fresh. Stephen was brave and decided to try one. Stephen liked it but I had one sip and thought, "Uck...cough syrup." Take a coconut, hack off the top, add grenadine, rum and water to the coconut milk and viola (I still say 'uck').

After lunch we played volleyball. There were four gals from Red Deer, Alberta who obviously had played before (in college as a matter of fact). It was so much fun!








Before heading back, Carlos took us into one of the local homes where we were shown how tortillas are made, from grinding the corn on a stone that had been passed down through four generations, to cooking them on the limestone/mud stove.

The people in this area don't have much, but in other ways they have everything. This is where the perspective comes in. Carlos told us the last person they buried from this little village was 102 years old and when he died, he still had all his own teeth and walked without a cane. I guess living with less also means living with a lot less stress. And living in this tropical paradise can't hurt either.

We zipped across the bay on the return trip. At one point, we had a pod of dolphins swimming along beside us. What a sight to behold!

Other than a sunburnt ear, lip and legs (even with our hats and sunscreen) fue un día IMPRESIONANTE!

Monday, April 14, 2008

happy birthday!


19 years ago today, our precious son was born.



Happy birthday, Wesley!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

puerto vallarta...part iii - juan helluva night


After having learned my lesson from Sunday night, I was better prepared to handle the "juan helluva night pub crawl" on Tuesday night. Along with fellow JACK members, Robin & Darren, Tammy & Sean, Sharon & Chris; as well as, Megan & Nathan and about ten others, we had a tequila toast with our Signature rep, Pete before heading into PV for our outing. We stopped at two resorts along the way to gather a few others, including Winnipeg-Chris (more about him in a bit).

We had been warned about the 'tequila-girls' (TG) in the bars before we left our resort and also advised that they were not included with our all-drinks wrist bands. We learned why rather quickly at our first stop, Carlos O'Brien's. There, a clown made us all balloon hats. Flowers for the girls and well, check out the pic for yourself to see what the boys got.



On one of our stops, we picked up a couple from Iowa. They, obviously, had not been warned, so when the TG came by blowing her whistle, they decided to go for it. Three quick shots of tequila later, his head was being rubbed in TG's boobs. Next up was the Mrs. She also received the head-in-boobs treatment, but she got something extra. TG then took her hands and gave Mrs. a good ol' boob rub...first outside her top and then underneath! OMG! It was funny, yet disturbing at the same time.



Next stop, Senor Frogs...that is where Winnipeg-Chris thought it would be fun to get a henna tatoo. The one on this back looked pretty basic...then, with the help of his buddy, he ended up getting another on his stomach. As I saw his buddy draw the outline for the henna guy, I thought to myself, "No...he isn't really going to do that. OMG, yes he is!" Hey, to each his own. Made me laugh out loud, and I can honestly say, I wasn't the only one. In order not to offend anyone, I have censored the pic. If you can't figure out what the tat was, let's just say, his new nickname was 'dick-boy'.


Now, as you can imagine, this tatoo garnered its fair share of attention. Next thing you know, Chris is up on stage with two other contestants for a banan-eating contest. The rub was, after they blindfolded all the contestants, they took the blindfolds off the other two leaving Chris sitting in the middle of the stage with a banana in hand. He's thinking he's in a competition and pounds back the banana. The MC announces there is a tie between Canada (Chris) and the US fellow. So they hand him another banana. At this point, I start recording this little event, which I shared with Chris at the conclusion of the contest! Thanks for the great laughs, Chris!

If you are interested, you can find it here.

Our final stop was Mandala, a new disco that had opened about a month earlier. There we danced, sang and partied until it was time to hop back on the bus.

It really was Juan Helluva Night!!

Next up...our Sea Safari.

puerto vallarta...part ii - downtown

Due to, what I refer to as, being 'bitch-slapped' by tequila the previous evening (we did have a REALLY fun time in the pool with Megan & Nathan from Medicine Hat and Dave & John from Calgary), I was unable to join Stephen on the tour of PV. I tried, but there was no way I was able to make the 8:00am start time.

He enjoyed the day and took lots of pics for me. After visiting a marina and downtown, they also went to a silver factory and Mr. Tequila tequila factory. Here are a few of his best shots.









Next up...Juan Helluva Night!