I. Hate. Fruit. Flies.

Pictures from the 4th of July in Boston:

I love the Citgo sign in the background!
The river is packed with people in their boats waiting to watch the fireworks.

On July 2nd and 3rd I went down to New Canaan, CT to spend some time with my favorite Quinn family. Sadly, this was the only picture taken!! As always, though, the Quinns never disappoint. Love those guys. And it seriously made my weekend that this little guy decided to be my buddy.

Everyone: July 4th in Boston is the best. You all should have visited. Taking reservations now for next year.

I kind of feel like neglecting my blog lately. Actually, I have been neglecting my blog lately. I've been busy doing a lot of things to get ready for next WEEK when I have a jam-packed 4 days in Utah!!!! One of my bff's is getting married and we have a weekend of major festivities planned. In case you couldn't tell from the Cancun posts, I kind of love my girls, and I can't WAIT to see all of them again. I am lucky to have such close girlfriends that I will be friends with until the sidewalk ends. :)

In the meantime, I am busy....

planning a girl's night/bachelorette party

buying gifts

thinking about converting my blog to wordpress

getting ready to build a website for all of my flutey things

shopping for a dress (when am I not doing this?)

SWEATING

being sick (last weekend)

trying to sell my old flute (fingers crossed)

looking for a new place to live

writing a speech for KA's luncheon

practicing

teaching

oh and working, too

Let me elaborate on a few of those.

1. I was sick last weekend. The blessing here was that it was cooler than normal last weekend, so while I was sick I wasn't too hot. Also, the landlords have been doing some work in our apartment and left for the weekend with my door unable to close. Sooooo I was sick and my door wouldn't close. I had lots of lovely visitors.

2. I'm selling my old flute. This guy sounds serious about it, but if it doesn't work out-- ATTENTION FLUTE PLAYERS: I'm selling my old Miyazawa/Brannen. Give me a holler if you want to try it.

3. My competition is in exactly one month from today. Getting sick last weekend was not what I was hoping for. Going out to Tanglewood this weekend to hear some good music and have a lesson with Linda. Hopefully some miracles happen. P.S. My mom is coming with me to L.A. and I'm excited to get her to myself!

4. Guys. Houses in New England weren't built with Air Conditioning. What the what?

Oh and this guy is coming with me to Utah next week. Kind of excited about that. :)

That picture is from the 4th.

And this is where it all stops.

The last full day that I was in Cancun was Mel's birthday! The big 2-5! For breakfast we had German pancakes with lots of yummy stuff on top (I even brought syrup from Boston, okay).

This was the breakfast spread. Are you feeling kind of jealous? Some genius decided to take pictures at 7:30 WHILE WE WERE MAKING BREAKFAST AND LOOKED LIKE PEOPLE FROM FRAGGLE ROCK, but those pictures obviously didn't make it to the blog. Bummer. They're worse than the snorkeling pictures if you can believe that.
And, of course, it wouldn't be a birthday without a picture in "the hat." What a babe.

Ow ow.
Wow

I know I'm a dork, okay. Play I Spy and you can see the nice burn up on my right shoulder. Just, ya know, a tiny little strip where I forgot sunscreen the day before. Awesome. Seriously, NBD. NBD.

For lunch we had watermelon, pineapple, mangoes, leftover guacamole, more quesadillas?, and hint of lime chips out on the patio. It was raining.

Of course it wouldn't be another day in Cancun if we didn't take a jumping picture. Here is the "I have to go to the bathroom" before shot.

It was a struggle to get a good one. Mel looks like she's doing a heel click. Seriously, she can jump.

Sarah and Mel were off being adventurous that day, but Rach and I just kinda wanted to chill. Good times.

We went into town that night and ate at a yummy little Brazilian restaurant for Mel's bday. My food was delicious. I know this is ridiculous that I only have a picture of me at Mel's bday dinner but what can I say? I love myself.

We took some time for a photo op when we got back to our place. This is in front of the hotel. You might think that is a Mexicano with us, but it's just Sarah. Don't worry about it-- she's brown.

Sarah and I soon found out there were killer ants making their home by that sign. There was also a super creepster TAKING PICTURES OF US TAKING PICTURES. Scary! Remember how we ran away from that guy?
One dork+one dork+another dork= 3 weirdos

We came home and had cake for Mel's bday that night. Strawberry shortcake, actually.

Mel was kinda depressed because she saw me putting the candles on the cake and saw that I used a whole box plus an extra one I brought from home and realized that she no longer is the same age as a full box of candles. It is a sad thing but she pulled through like a trooper.

Isn't she cute? And I know the cake doesn't look all that special but BELIEVE ME. It was excellent. See below.

I know this picture has already been on the blog, but this was the best picture of the cake. Mmmm. She may look like a nice little math teacher in other pictures but don't be fooled. She will put up a serious fight for cake.
Kinda miss that place.

Hey guys. I'm done blogging about Cancun. I know you're excited. I promise to never document any of my vacations like this again. Forgive me.

Chichen-Itza (One of the 7 WONDERS!!!!)

It's kinda hard for me to take a break from Persuasion (I recommend it, by the way) to write this post, but I know it needs to be done (only one more, guys). And day 3 was definitely the craziest day, so this could take awhile. Uh-oh.

So day 3 we splurged and went on a guided tour of Chichen-Itza. It was a blast.

Girls on the bus! It took us about 2.5 hours to get there and a little longer to get home, but we had a party on that bus! Except when it was freezing and we had just been in the sinkhole...

That's me and that's Chichen-Itza, too.

Why can't we just be normal like the other tourists? We apparently like to jump everywhere we are. Don't worry, there are more in other locations. They never really turn out... but we keep trying?

Cutest couple ever.

Seriously, I love this chica. She's lucky I didn't post the ridiculous ones she took of herself on the boat! Hilarious.

Beto was our tour guide. We had to wear these necklaces everywhere. I heart him.

I am going to blame this on heat exhaustion. Who's idea was it to do a booty shot?

This could be in the running for most awkward family photo ever. My hands on knees look is extra nice.

That is a very important hole behind us. Someone with a better memory than me will tell you why it is so important.

And then we started to get tired.

Then kinda crazy.

Then hot and sweaty and ready to leave.
After spending a few hours at Chichen-Itza we got back on the bus and they took us to this really cool sinkhole! This is the view from above.

Me and Rach went together and we were kind of afraid. Okay, maybe just I was. Only because I thought the water was going to be freezing.... and then when we got up to the top I got a little more scared.

Me and Rach jumped together!

The after picture. Look at what tough girls we are.

Sarah and Mel contemplating the jump.

Jumping!

Couple of crazies!

Oh my gosh our towels match! How cute are we?!
It actually wasn't St. Patrick's Day that day. We just had lots of green food for dinner that night. Quesadillas, guacamole, salad, and hint of lime chips (I love those!). It was kind of yummy.
I also had my first experience with So You Think You Can Dance that night. Kinda fun. And we made smoothies that tasted kinda funny.

Our tour guide that day was definitely the best tour guide I've ever had anywhere in the world. He was HILARIOUS. Maybe that just shows you what I value in a tour guide... Rach caught him telling this joke on camera. We were dying.

We were hot, okay?

It's probably not blog-kosher for me to be posting so many pictures, so I'm sorry if this is too much. I understand the desire to not comment.