I'm on a boat and I'm goin fast anddd....

Sooooo for Christmas this year my parents got Santa to give us a 4 day cruise!

Our ship was the Carnival Destiny, and the sign I got a shot of was so true, we exited

regular life for a few days. :P

While we were waiting for Dad to get the car parked, we were just kinda goofing off, and once we got onto the ship I got a pic of me and my bro in the crazy high atrium area that goes from floor 3-9!!! It was kick-awesome.

    

Once we got to our room on top of beach towels was this sign that said "TAKE ME OUT. SUN NEEDED." hahaha

soooooooooo true!!! My goal for the cruise: turn BROWN... because I'm not brown enough :P ahhahaha

After you get settled in, right before you disembark there is always a drill where you go to a muster station. Mom was so happy to be there... thats where I get my dazzling smile from :P

 Day 2 was in Key West... now don't let the bathing suits and snorkeling gear fool you completely... it was a chilly 70 degrees outside! and when that boat was going... shoot man we couldn't even tan!

Sooooo after we got out of the water and stuff we bundled up, and decided to take model pics, you know bring out the 'ol Lagrosa charm. William says this little smirk gets all the ladies....

...me... I was just pretending I was flying :P

 Day number three: COZUMEL! I got some super great sunglasses after a long day on the beach ;)

 

When we got back from the beach in Cozumel our boat was all lit up and gorgeous! 

Not unlike me and William the night before looking all fancy for dinner :P

Did I mention that we were on a boat for a Christmas cruise? T-Pain even came along :P 

The Santa hat rocked :P

  

Welcome to Hellfire!!!

 

This was the setting of our wonderful sushi adventure  (beneath) and what an adventure it was!!! The lovely Rebekah Seastrand and I set out with some much needed moral support from Charlotte Searle, to conquer 2 pieces of level 6, 2 pieces of level 6.5 and 6 pieces of level seven spicy hot hellfire sushi!!!

It started off with some anticipation, and nervousness in the pit of my stomach as we walked in, looked up and saw our prize (a t-shirt bearing the name of the challenge). We were seated and told our nice quiet waitress that we wanted to do the challenge! We had to first overcome 2 pieces of level 6, and honestly, it wasn't too bad for me, but Bekstrand was feeling the heat pretty bad, and then decided to try the "Russian Roulette Roll" while I continued with the challenge. In her roll she got a surprise level 6.5 piece, while I ate two level 6.5 pieces to prepare for level 7.

They were so spicy! I was not expecting it, and Bekstrand, well, she was expecting it even less haha.

Take a close look, and you'll see the top of it is covered with powder, that is pure Thai chili powder!!! And it was like getting into a warm bed on a cold winter's day... at first, then it was like someone lit a fire in the back of my mouth! Insanity, I was told I turned red haha, but it wasn't so bad b/c right as I ate the second one, Bekstrand found her surprise roll and well, lets just say, she isn't as used to spicy food as I am :P

Caption for this pic: "I can do impossible things."

So yeah, it was a good night, I was looking at a waiver to sign before starting the level seven part of the challenge (consisting of 6 spicy rolls!) and decided that the drive back to Provo that night would be much safer if I chose not to continue on. But we are going back to celebrate my birthday in November :D

Get Ex-CITED!

Palawan (El Nido and Villapaz)

The Philippines was so great! A really fast paced, yet relaxing adventure. We flew over 7000 miles to Hong Kong from Chicago, another couple hundred to Manilla (where we settled for a couple days), and just under 60 to get to the beautiful island of Palawan where my Father was born.

When we landed we were greeted by these wonderful Filipino singers who were beautiful, and even let us get into line with them :D They even had a native Filipino Carabao there for us to pet in the back! :D 

We got to the cottage we were staying at (owned by family of course!) and were breath-taken by this view on our front porch. We breakfasted 2 days looking at this beauty and, my oh my was it wonderful! Mountains and beach! Right up next to each other :D

The day after we arrived (as we arrived late in the afternoon) we went island hopping around El Nido, and this was the wonderful spot where we ate lunch and the sun worked its cruel rays upon my unsuspecting snorkeling back. We swam out to that rock a couple times (which is quite safe, as there is no current in the northern part of Palawan) and I later got leprosy skin for that.

Carrying my sunburn on my back and my backpack in my hand; I headed West with the rest of our party on a short(ish) car ride to Villapaz, a small rural (even for the Philippines) village that my father grew up in. Our experience there was amazing, although it was for barely a day, I learned much about the goodness of my father and the children of his village.

I met one of my nephews, a student in 2nd grade there.

This school had over 270 children attending grades 1-6.

And there were construction projects to build small shelters for the kids to be able to read in the shade. 

My father started his work here in 1995, and has seen many good things happen. The new head teacher of the school presented him with an award.

It was a beautiful day that ended with us on one of the smallest piers I've ever seen, on our way to Batas, a small island not ten minutes away from this amazing village.