My mom's funeral info

We will be celebrating my mother's life on January 9th and 10th. On the 9th, viewing will be from 6-8 pm and a short memorial service will start at 8 pm. On the 10th, we will have viewing from 9-11 am with the funeral services at 11:30 am. These will all be at the Mililani LDS Stake Center. The burial will be at 1:30 pm at Mililani Mortuary. Please join us for lunch following the burial at 2 pm at the Stake Center again. Hope to see you there.

Merry Christmas Mom!

Linda Chiang Ling-Chuan Kim

January 28, 1948 - December 26, 2008

This morning around 9 am Hawaii time, my dear mother passed on from this world. She was an amazing woman who touched many lives, most of all the lives of her children and grandchildren.

It happened really quickly. On tuesday, the 23rd, my mom was complaining of a really intense and painful headache. My father had her take her blood pressure and after getting the reading, she was rushed to the ER. Shortly after that, she lost consciousness and was put on life support. I knew when she had gone to the hospital, but didn't think it was anything serious until I got a call at 3 am UT time. Thats when I knew - before Bill even answered the phone- that things were seriously wrong.

My mother had suffered from a massive brain anneurism. They didn't think she was going to last through the day. I stayed at the hospital that night with my father and my siblings returned the next day. The nurses kept telling us it could be any moment, so we stayed.

But my mother - as my brother Daro put it- wasn't only strong willed, she had a strong heart too! All those marathons and exercise classes and running at 4 in the morning helped her hang on long enough for us to make peace with it. Also my father was worried if she died on Christmas day that it would be a bad memory for his grandkids. That was just like my mother and father to be thinking of others at a time like that.

My mother was strong and steady and surprised even the nurses. This morning, she started to decline and then passed away peacefully.

As for me and the rest of my family,

I was lucky and got the first flight out on the 24th despite being the busiest travel day of the year. I was also lucky since it was a direct flight and also because it was a clear day - just before that massive snow storm hit UT. I was in Hawaii by 3:15 pm Hawaii time that day. Zui picked me up from the airport and took me directly to the hospital where I met up with the rest of my siblings.

Like I said before, me and my dad spent Christmas Eve with my mom. It was nice to be able to be there for my dad for once. Altho as one of our family friends put it - my dad is the rock of gibraltor! Christmas day, the rest of my siblings and their spouses joined us. We hung out together taking shifts to be with my mom in her room (only 2 people were allowed to be in there at one time). We had a good time bonding and reminiscing about my mom. It had been a while since we had all been together you know with my sister living on Maui and me living in UT and all. We even laughed so much my stomach muscles are still aching from laughing so hard.

Later that evening, she took a turn for the worst, so we called all my dads siblings. The cousins and uncles and aunties came and we all piled into the room (with the doctors permission of course) and sang several hymns and carols in 4 part harmony (if you knew my family, you'd understand) and ended with Aloha Oe. Then we all said our goodbyes. Luckily I had brought my laptop with me and I had pictures from making my mom a digital scrapbook for her 60th birthday. And also luckily, Darrell had just downloaded the pictures from her camera and had his flashdrive with them on him. So we had pictures from her youth all the way up until last week. We combined them and had a slide show running the entire time.

After we were done, her vitals started to go up again! We were so surprised at how strong she was. We knew though that because her vitals had been dropping even on life support that it was just a matter of time. So we stayed and waited. We had an adult slumber party in the waiting area of the critical care unit. Since my mom was transfered to the ccu, we had taken over this area. It was like a cubby - small but cozy! Daro, Amy, Lory, & Alma slept on the ground with blankets the nurses had provided us. Brent and Lehua shared two chairs and I put two chairs together and used it as a bed. Zui and Dad slept next to moms bed. Here is a picture Lehua took.

As you know, she lasted through the night. The next morning after the shift change at 8 am, the nurses told us her heart was having pauses between her heartbeats so she wasn't going to make it much longer. We kept taking shifts keeping a close watch on her heartbeat. When it was my turn, her heartbeat dropped to 19 beats per minute. So I went out and told the nurse and dad went in with her. He waved us all in immediately so we all went in and stood by her as she slipped peacefully beyond the veil. We sang Families Can be Together Forever, I Need Thee Every Hour, Love at Home, Kanaka Wai Wai (Let Me Walk In Paradise with You, Lord), E Hawaii Aloha, Arirang, Liang zhi Lao Hu, Wo Shi Shen Di Hai Zi, and the theme songs from Ni Hao Kai Lan and Sagwa. We laughed about how funny it was that after all the chinese classes that mom taught us, we were singing Chinese songs that we learned from TV! We said our goodbyes again and left sad yet at peace.

We are waiting for family to come from the mainland and from Taiwan, so the funeral will be on January 10th.

I am just glad that my mom was able to have one last trip to Utah at the beginning of December. We had a good trip with her and the kids LOVED playing and hanging out with her. The first picture at the top was taken just before the Beneficial Life Financial Group Christmas party they attended while they were there. She was and always will be a beautiful person inside and out.

We will miss you mom! Aloha 'Oe until we meet again...

** My father has asked that if my mother has personally affected your life in some way that you share it with us. Please email your experiences to lindaclckim@gmail.com . Thank you!

Tagged!

*8 Shows I Watch Regularly
1. The Office
2. The Mentalist
3. Numbers
4. Rachael Ray
5. 30 Rock
6. Gary Unmarried
7. Big Bang
8. How I Met Your Mother


*8 Things That Happened Yesterday
1. Kai crawled up to me in the morning and said "Mommy, You're the bestest friend!"
2. Koa slept through the night!
3. I shoveled the snow
4. I was able to listen to my ipod (instead of letting my kids hijack it to watch their shows or play games!)
5. I helped with accounting at Fat Bob's Garage
6. I helped install fender flares on a Tundra at Fat Bob's Garage
7. We received goodies from neighbors (thanks!)
8. We had Aaron over for steaks, rice, and mushrooms and onions after work!

*8 Favorite Places to Eat (ooh I *LOVE* this category!)
1. Tempanyaki
2. Chili's
3. Outback Steakhouse
4. L&L Drive In
5. Best Teriyaki
6. University Broiler & Grill (only the one in Ogden)
7. Flemmings
8. Sizzlers (I know, surprising right?!)


*8 Things I am Looking Forward to
1. Christmas!
2. New Years Eve party!
3. My birthday!
4. Koa's birthday!
5. Bill's birthday!
6. Kai's birthday!
7. Transamerican Expo in Cali!
8. Reuniting with old friends (no nothing is scheduled, but I want this to happen!)

*8 Things on my Wish List
1. For Bill, Kai & Koa to be happy and healthy!
2. Day Spa anything!
3. Trips anywhere!
4. For more business at Fat Bob's Garage!
5. iPhone
6. To go back home to Hawaii next year for vacation!
7. A nice camera
8. A nice fireplace

*8 People I Tag
1. Lory Aiwohi
2. Jenn Kim
3. Krista Griffiths
4. Allison Griffiths
5. Kim Nelson
6. Kaui Brown
7. Sara Berg
8. Sarah Parkin

Christmas lights

If any of you are my facebook friends, you were updated frequently as to the status of my Christmas lights' progress and my plight in getting them done! One of my friends from my youth Lisa asked for pics so here they are:


So it started with the lower tier which wasn't too bad since I could have the ladder on the ground. The upper tier was harder. For one thing, I had to have the ladder out on the ledge of the lower tier- like this!

Not exactly the most stable thing in the world! It took me a good hour to get the ladder out the window and open like that! I then climbed up the ladder with the lights, a staple gun and staples and my emergency cell phone in a back pack. You know, in case I fell off the roof or the ladder fell and left me stuck there... You get it.

So this is the finished product - at least for the lights. These are the lights with the camera flash on.

These are the lights with my camera flash off.

And this is the close up of one of my "holly berries"!

All in all, it went well, but due to my almost debilitating fear of heights, it was harder than you would think! Getting down was soooo scary. I thought going up was hard! I got stuck up there for about an hour trying to get the guts to get back on the ladder. When I finally did, the ladder shifted and scared me so back on the roof I went! After another courage building prep period (which was longer than I am willing to disclose), I held my breath, looked up at the top of the ladder, and took the plunge off of the roof. Then I went VERY slowly down step by step. About what seemed like 5 minutes later when I got all the way down, I finally let out my breath and let my heart rate slow back down!

The things we do for the unsaid peer pressure from the neighbors, right?

What?!

This past week while I was teaching piano, Kai came to join me as he often does. This week we were practicing for our Christmas recital and I had my students stand up, introduce themselves and what songs they were playing. During Jason Peacocks lesson, he did just that. But as he was doing it, Kai stood up too and said:

"My name is Kai Griffiths and I like to pee and fight animals!"

What in the world?!?!?!?

:)

My little vampire

So I think I've mentioned before that I am a huge Twilight fan! Haven't seen the movie yet, but I will! But I digress. If you have been a loyal reader of my blog, you also know how much Koa likes Oreos. Well, if you've bought Oreos recently, you will understand how an Oreo could transform my little Koa ...

Into my little vampire!

Not your typical Thankgiving- but fun still the same!

It started as a normal Thanksgiving. Kai and I were de-stemming mushrooms to make stuffed mushrooms. I made sausage & cream cheese stuffed mushrooms and artichoke stuffed mushrooms. Surprisingly, the artichoke ones were delicious! I just knew I like artichokes and mushrooms and now I know I like them together!!

These were the artichoke mushrooms

These were the deviled eggs I made.

They're mostly gone because they were the only edible food available when we first got to Daves house! The reason for that is because about an hour before all the food was supposed to be done, Ogden had a power outage that affected 500 homes! Luckily, Dave has gas stoves so we were able to cook some things by candle!

And we also had their amazing grill that is just like an oven! Here we are cooking our rolls and my mushrooms in it. That is after we finished cooking the turkey in it!

And of course, it wouldn't be thanksgiving with out the dress up. The fact that Jake got upset about it was just an added bonus! Look how pretty Hunter is!

Shortly after we finished cooking everything, the power came back on! We all cheered! It was kind of funny! All in all, it was a different, but fun Thanksgiving after all.

What I'm thankful for...

This morning is what I am thankful for. I woke up to Kai leaning over me and Bill and when he saw our eyes open, he says "Good Morning Mommy! Good morning Daddy!" Just then, Koa came over and fenagled his way in between me and Bill (he has great skill in fenagling his way into wherever he wants to get!) and Kai says "Good Morning Kokodrillo!" So cute! Then he brought me a book to read and when I finished, Kai closed the book and said "Amen!" Thats right Kai, Amen...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Kai & Koa's Disney on Ice experience while we were in Vegas!

Ben & Melissa took Kai & Koa to Disney on Ice the saturday we were in Vegas. They had a blast! Here are some comments Kai made:
Kai: (about Its a small world) Thats AWESOME!

Kai: (about one of the princesses) "Shes BEAUTIFUL!"
Ben: What did you say?
Kai: Shes Beautiful! Just like my mommy!

Awww! Isn't that just precious? Koa loved the whole thing too- except for the Genie in Aladdin! I guess that scared him. I'm just glad they had a good time while we were having a good time too.

Our anniversary in LAS VEGAS!!!!!!

Okay, so 2 weeks ago, Bill went to Vegas for a SEMA convention. I was so upset he went without me I didn't talk to him for 2 days. Then something unexpected happened! When he came back, he asked me if I had plans for the weekend of the 15th. I told him I did! He then asked me if I could cancel or reschedule those plans. I asked him Why? It turned out that Bill had planned an early trip for us for our 9th anniversary!

It was AMAZING! Bill kept me in the dark about the whole trip except for the dates (Friday, the 14th- Sunday, the 16th) and the fact that it was in Vegas. Even up until today, I had no clue what was coming next! Right from the get-go when we got off the plane in Vegas, Bill was acting a little suspect. When we got to the baggage claim area, I understood! Bill had hired a Limo to pick us up! She was holding up a sign that had our names on it and everything! It was pretty cool! I couldn't stop smiling! Our chaufeur then drove us to our hotel- another detail I didn't have a clue about! When we pulled up to Mandalay Bay I was SOOOOO excited! It was too early to check in so we left the bags with the bellhops and walked the strip. When I say we walked the strip, I mean literally the entire strip, from one end to the other! Bill had gone to the great Italian restaurant on his last trip and wanted to find it again. However, he didn't know exactly where it was. So we walked til we found it! It took us around 2 hours! But we found it! The food was delicious and totally worth it! The restaurant was next to a mall, so we went inside and I had fun shopping for Bill! He let me choose out a shirt, jacket and shoes for him! After that, we took a taxi back to our hotel to check in. Bill didn't want me around while he did that to keep things a surprise, so I went and played some slots to kill the time. I played $20 and won over $100, but didn't quit so I ended up losing it all! Of course! So Bill came and found me and then we headed up to the room. Only it wasn't just a room! It was a suite on the 2nd to the top floor! Next to the penthouse! It was really cool! And once again, I was totally blown away and couldn't stop smiling!



Prior to going to Vegas, Bill told me I could choose one show to go to. I chose Mamma Mia! Luckily, Mamma Mia is in Mandalay Bay so we got discounted tickets. So we went to book it for the next night since there were no shows on Friday night. After booking the show, we went back to the room to get ready for the night Bill had planned for us that night. He told me we had to dress nice so I assumed it was a show. We took a taxi to the Stratosphere and I just followed Bill wherever he was going. We got in an elevator and went up 107 floors! We got out and we were at The Top of the World restaurant! Its a restaurant at the top of the Stratosphere that rotates slowly around! Bill had made reservations long ago for this evening! There was also a live band, a professional photographer and excellent food! The waiter told us that the chef there is the highest paid chef in Vegas! This was really a special experience for me! When I was younger, there was this restaurant in Hawaii called John Dominis. It was THE restaurant to go to. I remember thinking, one day I will be rich enough to go to that restaurant. So I never went to John Dominis but I did get to go somewhere even better! And with someone I love!



It was soooo romantic! We had a candle lit dinner and we had a table right next to the window, so we could see the city as we went around! We both had steaks and they were mouthwatering delicious!!!!!! It was great just to hang out with the love of my life enjoying the atmosphere and food and company!



The next day, we just relaxed! After walking the strip the day before, our frail old and unexercised bodies had taken a slight beating. Between that and not really having a break for so long Bill needed a day to just relax. So, while he slept in til early afternoon, I read Eclipse, book 3 in the Twilight series (I'm addicted!) After Bill woke up, we went to a Sushi joint in the middle of the casino in Mandalay Bay. After eating, we went back and got dressed up again and then headed down to go to Mamma Mia! I was super super excited! In case you didn't know, I've always dreamed about doing a Broadway Musical one day. My happiest memories from high school were the musicals I did! Anyway, back to Mamma Mia- We had AWESOME seats! We were 8 rows up and dead center! We were literally eye-level with the actors! We were so close we could see their "hidden" microphones, every facial expression, the slight body language nuances, and best of all, the musicians in the pit! they were seriously the perfect seats. Any closer and we would have had to look up and wouldn't have been able to see the musician pit. Any further back and it wouldn't have seemed so intimate! Perfect! I had never seen Mamma Mia - even the movie - so it was fun to see it with fresh eyes and without any expectations! Even Bill was able to feign enjoyment at times! Plus, I love ABBA! I was dancing through out the whole show! I swear the actors could see me because they would make eye contact with me! After it was over, I was on such a high!

Bill and I walked the casino and made our way to the Luxor. We were looking for a steak place to eat dinner at and saw a restaurant called American Bistro. Sounded good, so we went in and got seated. They brought us our drinks and told us that the waiter would bring us the menu. Finally after 10 minutes and speaking to the water guy, our waiter came and brought us the menus. The reason they waited to bring the menu was because they had to explain how to use them. The explanation? Its a la carte and every item is 2 oz each. And they only serve one item at a time. Yes, that is what we waited 1o minutes for. Then when we looked at the menu, there wasn't really anything "American" on it! There was sushi and some other weird stuff! We didn't want any of that so we asked for the check and left. I think it must have been one of those trendy restaurants. It sure had a blase name for a trendy restaurant. It was really misleading. So we left and found a real steak place! It was super delicious! They had new zealand grain fed beef, american kobe beef, japanese kobe beef and others! Now thats what I call a steak house! After dinner, we played a few more slots and then went back to our room. We had a jacuzzi in our room, so we relaxed in the jacuzzi and enjoyed each others company. We got ready for bed and then Bill watched tv and I finished Eclipse! Awesome day!

The next morning, we woke at 8 am because Bill had a surprise for me at 8:30. We got in the elevator and when I attempted to get out at the lobby, he held me back. We went to the floor below the lobby- the pool, beach and spa. When we headed towards the spa, I was blown away! We were taken into the separate women's and men's spa to relax until our appointment at 9. There was complimentary snacks and drinks, every temperature pool you could want, a sauna, waterfalls, cucumbers for your eyes, and a very comfy robe (a little long on my short body, but comfy nontheless!) and slippers. It was soooo relaxing. When 9 came around, Bill and I met up again in the lobby of the spa and we were taken to a room for a couples massage! I chose the hot stones massage and Bill chose the deep tissue. It was sooo relaxing I fell asleep a couple of times! It didn't last long enough! But it was still awesome!

After leaving the spa we went back to our room and packed. We checked our bags with the bellhops and went to the casino. We ate breakfast at the House of Blues ( I had one of the best omelets of my life!). Bill isn't fond of gambling, so while I stayed in the casino and played the slots, he went to see the shark reef aquarium. Bill and I both had been to the aquarium twice previously, so I didn't feel the need to go again. Bill on the other hand, can never turn down an opportunity to see aquariums! After the aquarium, we met up and went to the bookstore. We bought Breaking Dawn (the 4th book of the Twilight series) and we sat in the food court while I read Breaking Dawn and Bill read a magazine. After an hour, we headed back to the luggage pickup and got our bags. A limo was already waiting to take us back to the airport. AWESOME! Part of me didn't want to leave this perfect weekend behind and another part of me couldn't wait to get home to see my kids! After 9 years of marriage, Bill still loves me and I still love him and even better, we get to share this love with our wonderful sons!

Random pictures & videos

I'm a little blogged out (4 posts in 2 days!), so here are some pics of Kai & Koa.

Kai likes to take pictures and he'll get a pretty good one once in a while. His favorite things to take pictures of are Koa, our yorkies, me, Bill, & his favorite tv shows on the screen - in that order. Here is one he got of Koa:
Melissa has started working as a consultant for Taste of Home Entertaining and had a expo she worked. We got to watch cute baby Braden for a day! There was a 10 minute period during the day where Braden was crying and then Koa was crying partially because Braden was and also partially because I was holding Braden! So I was trying to juggle them both at one point and Kai went and got the camera and took this picture! I didn't even ask him or tell him to! He just wanted a picture! So cute!

Kai loves playing with Braden!
My boys both LOVE when Uncle Aaron come over!

Kai refused to wear his light up goggles that went with the costume and Koa refused to wear his cowboy hat. But, it still worked!

Woody & Buzz: Best Friends



Bill & Kai's seahorses

Some videos for your enjoyment!

Adorable, right?

So apparently I still had some bloggin' left in me! But now I'm done!

Kai's 2nd 4th birthday!

We had another party for Kai the Sunday after his actual birthday. The reason behind this second party was that we didn't invite Bill's grandma's to CEC as one of them is on oxygen 31 (i.e. 24/7 - if you watched Two & a Half Men you'd understand!) We also hadn't invited any of our friends or family from Provo or SLC because they wouldn't have been able to make it up to Layton on a Monday (& school) night. So we had this 2nd party. It was quite the contrast from CEC! It was more laid back, you could actually hear each other without having to scream from a foot away from someone and my cousin Jamie set the mood playing mellow songs on her new ukulele. I was so busy cooking that I didn't get to take very many pics. So here is what I got:

This was really cute! Kai insisted his twin brother from another mother Kimball help him open his presents!


Aren't they just two peas in a pod?!

Grandpa helping them put together one of the toys

Grandma coming to the rescue!

Grandpa & Grandma Griffiths; Ben (#2 - he was born later), Melissa, & Braden; Ali; Michelle & Jeremy; Kathy, Kala & Kawena; Janzell & Ben (#1); Nathan; Jamie; Denise, Erik & Kimball were all in attendance.

Kai's 4th Birthday!!!!

Kai turned 4 years old on October 12th! When we woke up that morning, there was 4 inches of snow on the ground! It was pretty cool.

Since it was Sunday and there was snow, we stayed inside and and just relaxed. Ben came over because Melissa and Braden were visiting AZ. We watched TV, played Mario Kart Wii and made cookies!

As you can see Koa was eating more than he was helping, but it was still cute! We were making peanut butter cookies with m&ms on them. It's a good thing I bought a big bag of m&ms because we all were eating them on the side as well (myself included)!

The next morning, Kai celebrated his birthday with his preschool class. Miss Mary had me bring pictures of Kai to show the classmates and a snack. I brought fruit rollups and a birthday face cake from Sam's club. Here are some pics:

We decided to have his birthday party that evening at Chuck E Cheese's for a couple of reasons. #1: We had just left him for a week to go on our trip. #2: A new Chuck E Cheese's had just opened in Layton. #3: We knew Kai would LOVE it!

Before we left on our trip to Mexico we asked Kai who he wanted to invite to his party. It was really cute. He actually did give us names of who he wanted there!

We booked a birthday party with C.E.C. for the 13th because it was a monday night and we thought it wouldn't be busy. Boy were we wrong! Apparently C.E.C. is busy all the time because it was so new! In fact after I came back from Mexico, I looked into maybe moving his party date and found that CEC was booked for 2 whole months without any openings at all except for on Sundays!

So back to the party. The Hogge's came, the Dee's came, the Sillito's came, and Aaron, Ben, Melissa, Tarra, Paige, Huner, Dave, & Courtney. It was a zoo! But soooo much fun! We had a whole reserved table, a dedicated server and tokens for everyone to play with. We had pizza, sandwiches, and cake! In fact, CEC himself came out to sing happy birthday to Kai. It turns out Kai is a little afraid of huge costumes. He was pretty scared of Chuck. And to make matters worse, their own special birthday song they sing is like 5 minutes long! It was almost torture for Kai! Although I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, here is what I've got:

My life didn't flash before my eyes. I just thought "This is it. This is the end..."

WARNING: I have been working on this post for about one month because I didn't want to forget or leave out anything! Because of this, beware: this post is LONG!!!!

Our Mexico trip was everything you love in a great movie: Romance, fun, excitement, action, comedy, beautiful scenery, and of course a near-death experience! I'll get to that in a little bit though.

We first flew into San Diego where Pro Comp (the company Bill won the trip from) sent a 6" lifted Tahoe to pick us up. Dave - one of the higher ups from Pro Comp was there personally and was impressed that I could get into their Tahoe without any help!

He then drove us to the Marriott in the Gaslamp district. Apparently its the happenin' place in San Diego. Our room was gorgeous and very comfortable. We didn't even know what to do with ourselves since we didn't have any kids! So what did we do? We called them of course! Especially since we were going to be out of cell phone range for the week. After we knew for sure that our kids weren't going to burn our house down and weren't going to die of broken hearts without us, we decided to scope out Gaslamp.

We were told that 5th street was the place to be so thats where we headed first. Surprisingly, it was pretty dead. Then again, it was also a monday at 1 pm. When we went back at night again for Sushi, it was a little busier, but not much.
The next morning we met all the other guys who were going on the trip too. Some of them were at the hotel and the rest of them met up with us at the ProComp factory. There were 15 of us total. And I was the only female! Bill actually won 2 trips, one for me and one for him. All the other guys only had 1 trip each. So thats why no other wives were there.

After touring the factory (which was HUGE and VERY interesting!) we headed over the border. We stopped at a restaurant called La Fonda for lunch. When we pulled up to it I kinda giggled because it made me think of Napoleon Dynamite! Anywho, La Fonda was awesome. The seafood was fresh, the chips were homemade and we sat right off of the beach. Anyone who knows me would know that I LOVE beaches! In fact, beaches are the number one thing I miss about Hawaii (my family is a very close second!)

The beach at LaFonda

The Guys at LaFonda

After a nice and relaxing lunch and a mexican coke (so much better than USA's because they use real sugar cane!) we headed to our starting point for the "race"- Horsepower Ranch. There we saw where the baja vehicles are built. It was really interesting. Because Bill and I are husband and wife, they put us in the honeymoon suite! The resort wasn't super fancy, but a cute rustic ranch. The food was DELICIOUS!!!! The staff was super friendly and they really took care of us.

We had an orientation and watched an instructional/safety video. The rest of the night we just hung around the lobby and got to know each other better. I started playing ping pong with one of the crew members and had a blast. We also found out one of the guys on the trip was also LDS (Wayne) so we were happy to know we weren't going to be the only ones not drinking (as that is traditionally a big part of this trip!) As it turned out, there were a handful of us that didn't drink. Which was good as half of our group went to have a night on the town that night i.e. drink! The rest of us hung out and talked or played ping pong or darts. There wasn't power wired there so they had a generator going which turned off at 10 pm. That was a good thing though since we were going to have a 7 am start the next day!

Believe it or not, I was actually up EARLY!! I guess it was all the excitement! As we got situated we realized I wouldn't be able to reach the clutch even with the chair as forward as possible. So they pulled out a cushion made just for that reason. What they didn't expect though is that even with the cushion, I still couldn't push the clutch in all the way! So I ended up having TWO cushions! The guys all teased me about having my own personal couch to sit on while driving! As we started going, we had a trial run to test the driving and radio skills. See, we were driving in a caravan style. There was the lead car which had our 2 guides (Sto and Bozo) then following them was car 1, then car 2, and then all the way to car 8. The guide would go a mile or so ahead of the first car and then relay big rocks in the trail, ditches, which way to turn etc. We all had navigation systems in our cars and we would sync them so when he said to turn left at mile 3.7 we would know exactly where we had to go. The lead car would tell car 1, then car 1 would relay it to car 2 and so on so forth. The reason we had to do that is because there were times when the lead car and the last car would be separated by 4 miles or so and the radios would not be able to transmit that far. We were separated by that much because we couldn't drive in the dust of the car in front of us so we would wait at every stop point until the other car was 30 sec or so in front. Here are all the cars lined up at one of our stop points:

Here is a pic of Bill and I together that first day:

The reason I know it was the first day was because that was the only day we drove together! Yes, you read that right. You know the old cliche of a husband and wife driving somewhere trying to find a place and arguing every step of the way? Well imagine that times 10! Thats what happened to us as we were trying to follow the trail, listen to the radio, transmit the instructions to the next car as well as your driver and trying to drive without going off a cliff! It probably didn't help matters that Bill's helmet wasn't working properly and couldn't hear anyone except me! I swear we were ready to kill each other! In a loving way of course! Throughout the day all the drivers and co-drivers would switch spots at bathroom breaks. Speaking of which, yes, we went to the bathroom like neanderthals - out in the wilderness. It was a little harder for me than the guys though because I had to find something to hide behind and usually it was a cactus so I had to watch what I was doing or else I could get skewered (which I did a couple of times!) The guys would just walk a couple of steps away and just go! I swear everywhere I turned during those breaks all I saw were guys peeing!

Anyway, that was kind of a long tangent! So, whenever we would stop we would switch drivers. When it was my turn to drive I had a blast! I would go faster than Bill was comfortable with so cue more arguing! The guys would later tease Bill that I was a better driver because the cars behind us didn't have to wait as long as they did when Bill was driving! Well, one time we were driving and looking for a pipe in the road that the car in front of us warned about and we were going up a hill and I went fast so we could catch some air. I figured it was safe because no one warned us about any sharp turns or anything, so I went for it! Unfortunately, as we were flying up over the hill in the air, I saw that there WAS a sharp turn afterwards and we were headed off a cliff! My life didn't flash before my eyes like they say in the movies and on TV. I just thought "This is it. This is the end..." I was absolutely sure I was going to die. All I could see were the huge boulders at the bottom of the cliff which I was sure we were going to roll into once we landed. Time seemed to stand still as we were flying through the air. Suddenly we hit the ground and I hit the brakes. We had landed at a 45ish degree angle sideways. I kept leaning upwards toward the top of the hill trying to keep the weight on my side so we wouldn't fall down to the bottom (which was Bill's side). Bill undid all his harnesses and jumped out and took off his helmet.

We radioed everyone to alert them that we were off the trail and on the side of a cliff. They asked me if I was okay and tried to ask Bill if he was okay but I told them that he couldn't hear them because he was out of the car and had taken off his helmet. Later the guys would tell me they thought I meant that he had been thrown out and his helmet had come off. Eventually they found us (we had taken a wrong turn somewhere before that hill and so they couldn't find us at the mile marker we told them because our route was different than theirs. After lots of pictures of my folly (not to mention the teasing), our crew towed our car off the cliff and continued on. At lunch, everyone kept teasing me good naturedly. I just smiled and took it in. After all, I did almost roll the baja over a cliff! After lunch, it was Bill's turn to drive. After we were on the trail for a couple of hours, we heard some of the cars in front of us alerting the following cars to watch for a big dip at mile 26.7. As we approached that marker, I saw the dip and some weird stuff all around it like a backpack and pieces of something. A split second later, I looked past the ditch and saw this:

Except no people around it but one of the guys still strapped in upside down and the other guy crawling out of the front window. I immediately called out on the radio that car six had flipped! Then as fast as we could got unstrapped and ran to help the guys. Luckily, there wasn't any super serious damage. The driver, Mason, had a few bruises where the harnesses were on his shoulders. The co-driver- I can't think of his name right now- had the same bruises but also was hurt in his arm. He can take it though. Shortly before he came on this trip, he was racing his dirtbike and crashed and got ran over by another bike. He had this mean old wound on his back that looked like he'd been stabbed! Anyway, back to the crash in Mexico.

Our crew was able to get a replacement vehicle and flip the crashed one back over and was able to load it up on a trailer. The only good thing about this was that I was no longer the butt of all the jokes! At least my crash wasn't a crash and didn't cause any damage to anyone or anything! I could have, but was lucky! After we got everything in order, we finally resumed our trek to San Felipe.

San Felipe is a cute town on the coast. When we got there, we were assigned rooms and we all went swimming. Some in the ocean and some in the pool. I opted for the pool because they had a bar there. Yes, I am a heavy drinker! Just kidding. They made me VIRGIN margaritas. They were awesome. Also, after a hot sweaty day in the dust, the pool just seemed more refreshing and clean.

After swimming, we all got ready and went for dinner and a night out on the town. We walked about 10 minutes to this restaurant reknowned for its shrimp. After driving all day, it was kind of nice to walk. During dinner, Loren, the head honcho of ProComp and the guy who gave us these trips took me aside and told me how glad he was that I came on this trip. It was kind of cool.

When we were done eating, the non-drinkers (about 5 of us) headed back to the hotel while the rest of them stayed there. Bill and I were pretty tired, so we just went to sleep.

The next day, I woke up at like 5 and couldn't get back to sleep. So I went and sat out on the beach and just watched the waves roll in and out. The seagulls were out trying to catch the fish that were flying out of the water and the fishing boats were way out casting their nets. I just sat there and took in the calm beauty of it all. I watched the sun rise too. Here are some pictures I took of that peaceful dawn.

On this day Bill went in Dave's car and I went with Loren. We figured we wanted to go with experienced drivers so we could see how far you could push the bajas and how to get the hang of it. After driving with Loren for a few minutes, I knew we had made the right decision! Loren was much more patient and since he knew what he was doing, he taught me how to know when I could go faster and when to pull back. Same for Bill and Dave. And as an added bonus, Bill and I weren't fighting, but enjoying ourselves for once! I know this makes us sound dysfunctional, but oh well! Maybe we are a little! We still hung out at all the breaks and later at the next ranch. See?

During day 2 of the "race", we ran into some federalis. Apparently, they were on the side of the trail and when the lead car went past them (going super fast since they knew the trail) the federalis (who were on foot) started running after them with their oozies. The lead car saw them and immediately stopped. I guess the federalis thought we were drug or gun or human traffikers since we were going so fast. It was a good thing one of our crew guys who spoke English and Spanish carried around lots of water and treats for us, because he offered them to the federalis as a sort of peace offering and to help them be more understanding as we explained what we were doing there. After the federalis were appeased, we continued on. It was still a little unsettling to see these mexican guys wearing camo and carrying machine guns!

That night we went to Mike's Sky Ranch. We had traveled up a mountain that day so we were at a higher elevation and it was quite a bit cooler, which was actually refreshing! I was still hot from the day so I put on my swim suit and dived off the diving board into the pool. I felt like I was doing the polar bear jump! It was FREEZING!!! I'm surprised the pool didn't have ice in it! I tried to stay in it for awhile hoping I would get adjusted to it, but no, my legs just got numb and I started losing feeling in my body. So I got out. The funny thing is that in our group we had 3 Canadians who we teased a lot for being, well, canadian! Mason, Kelly and Adam had gone swimming with me at both San Felipe and at Mike's Sky Ranch. At San Felipe, they were complaining that the pool wasn't cool enough where I thought it was just perfect! At Mike's Sky Ranch I was freezing, but they thought that they were in heaven! I don't think I ever want to live in Canada if that freezing body of water they called a pool was considered refreshing!

This is the driveway up to Mike's Sky Ranch

This is the courtyard around the pool at Mike's Sky Ranch

After I got out and changed into warmer clothes, we all sat around the pool and listened to music (Adam had brought his ipod and a speaker set) and hung out and talked. It would have been nice except that there were incessant flies bothering us! As the outside temperature cooled down quite a bit, the flies began to disappear. We ate dinner (another yummy authentic mexican meal) inside the dining room and then went back outside to enjoy the clean air. Thats when Bozo broke out his margarita machine he made out of a blender and a motorcycle engine. To make the blender work, you have to rev the motorcycle handles like you're driving one! He let me play with it which was a huge deal because he usually doesn't let anyone work it! Bozo made margarita after margarita and it was kind of funny to watch some of the guys lose theirselves as they got more and more drunk! I had never been around people who drink so this was a new experience for me! Luckily they were loving drunks, not angry drunks! It was seriously hilarious! At 10 pm the generator turned off so we all headed to bed. We used flashlights and candles to find our way around and do our night routines. I love that feeling, you know the same one you get when you're out camping in the wilderness! Everything is silent and peaceful and you see more stars that you ever have before. Man I really miss it.

This is the motorcycle blender & me driving it

Behind me are 2 of the canadians, Mason & Kelly

The next day, we woke up had a great breakfast in which our crew kept stuffing food into Sto's pockets without him noticing while he was talking to me. I knew they were doing it so I was deliberately distracting him. Pranks were flying throughout our trip - mostly between the crew members! There was a new crewmember and they were initiating him- mostly with pranks! It kept the trip quite fun actually. They threw him in several pools and dumped water on him a couple of times too. And other stuff I can't remember right now!

After we had breakfast, we headed out and continued on our last leg of the race. We were returning back to Horsepower Ranch. This day, there weren't any major incidents. I did lose control of the baja once and spun out off the road and then got stuck in a ditch while trying to get back onto the trail. But I wasn't the only one who got stuck that day, so I didn't feel bad. Here is one of the other cars that got stuck in a ditch. Also for the record, the guys in that car had come on this trip 4 other times.

For about 20 minutes before we got to the ranch, we drove on the paved freeway. I was the co- driver at the time and since we didn't need the radio on the freeway, I relaxed and actually fell asleep. I guess even after we arrived at the ranch, I was still sleeping soundly because Bill showed me all the pictures everyone took of me sleeping in the baja vehicle. In my defense, in order to ride in those vehicles that bounce around constantly and not get motion sick (which I get really bad even in normal vehicles on paved roads) I had to go on some medicine. The medicine would make me fall asleep when I was tired and relaxing. Between that and my "couch" of a seat I was riding on, it was really easy to fall asleep. The guys were teasing Loren that he must be a mild driver if I could fall asleep in one of those cars!

At Horsepower, we ate showered, ate dinner and filled out customer satisfaction surveys. Once again, the dinner was delicious! Out of all our great meals on this trip, Horsepower Ranch had the best food. After we were done, we all boarded the shuttle back over the border. We had to get out of the shuttle and physically walk over the border after going through customs. Once we were over the border, everyone and I mean EVERYONE of us pulled out our cell phones and started calling our families. One of the guys - Ryan- said loudly, "Does anyone have a cell phone? Anyone? Anyone?" It was a pretty funny sight.

I was absolutely amazed at the news I got from Melissa! She told me that Koa had done just fine with them and that Kai wanted to stay at the Sillitos the entire time! He slept there and everything! I was definitely relieved to say the least!

Most of the guys were headed home on flights that evening. Bill and I and the canadians were all staying the night at the Marriott again and then headed home the next day. So we all went to dinner after checking in. We went to 5th Avenue again and it being a Friday night, was soooooo different than it had been on Monday! It was like being at Mardi Gras! There were lines out the doors of every restaurant, Hare Krishnas walking the entire strip back and forth, cars cruising the strip including billboard size lighted ad signs being towed on trailers behind trucks and even a walking carnival! There was the fat lady, the tall skinny man on stilts, a unicyclist, a guy walking on a ball, and some other guys. Then there were also cheerleaders wearing skimpy uniforms asking diners sitting in the outdoor areas of the restaurants trying to get donations for whatever cause they were working for. It was CRAZY! Yet, oddly fun! It was a nice evening spent with the Canadians, who incidently were my favorites from the whole trip. The next day we said our goodbyes and headed home.

This is our group picture. When we took it, 2 of the guys were already in their car and didn't want to get unharnessed for it so I took a pic of them in their car.

This is most of our crew

This is Sto and Bozo

This is Danny. He was the guy who helped with most of the mechanical issues like our helmets and my problem of being able to reach the clutch. It was kind of weird to see a white guy only be able to speak Spanish.

What a trip! Every time I think about it I just smile and relive the fun. As it is 1:30 am right now, I'm going to have to edit this later and add the pics then too. But Hoo- rah (say it like Marines) I finished this post. Finally.