Our Response To A Challenge: Our (1st) Annual Skiing (and Snowboarding) Trip!

So who was the idiot who suggested taking everyone skiing (and snowboarding)?

Hey, let's not point fingers or anything back at me, even though I did suggest it.

Actually, the blame lies with another family who tried this and suggested it to us. We won't mention any names.

The most daunting part of our journey was getting the chains on the van. Would we be able to untangle them? Would we be able to get them on? Would it all end in tears and swearing? Bungee cords? Really?

Much to our relief, Juan got the chains on the wheels fairly quickly, and in spite of the horrible noises, they did not destroy the car.

Glacier Point Road, just a few miles to Badger Pass, but it was a slow drive.

We arrive at Badger Pass! The high for the day at Badger in Yosemite was 37 degrees.

After much confusion, running back and forth, and trying to figure out how to put on ski boots, we got the kids to their classes. In the time honoured tradition of having nicknames, the kids will now present some of their own comments under their Extreme Sports names!

And now, here is Badger X!:

"you are probably wondering why I am not using poles! Because young children do not use poles!"

And now Ski Bunny!

"Ski Bunny goes down the hill! Ski Bunny loses control and regains control!"

A view of Badger Pass looking Southwest.

Coolest snow boarding helmet we saw that day.

And now a comment by Terminal Velocity!

"Hi! The first thing we had to do was learn how to strap in our main foot. Apparently I am goofy. I was the only one in my class. Goofy is leaning on your right foot. "

"Wheeeeee!"

"Yay! I managed to stop without wiping out!"

And now, here is Bram Stoker's Dracula!

"Hey, I am doing something I couldn't do this morning!"

Skiing was lots of fun, and I enjoyed it. I hope to do this again pretty soon."

This guy looked pretty good. He looked like he was coming down at about 30 MPH.

Ski Bunny!: "Ski Bunny finds her way down the hill."

The Ski and Board equipment for the day as we ate lunch.

All the Mendoza kids on the same slope at once with a little girl who got in the way. Get out of the way, little girl! You're ruining a family moment!

"Ski Bunny goes wild while racing with her brother."

"Here is Badger X is racing Ski Bunny. It looks like I am tied with her."

Terminal Velocity: "Aww, the board was flat. You're not supposed to do that!"
It was all fun and games, until Terminal Velocity wiped out, and mentioned how she was going to break her ankle doing this.

So a great time was had by the kids, especially at the end when they got to the gift shop and choose their stickers. The staff at Badger Pass was awesome. they were friendly and professional, and showed the kids a really good time learning how to ski (and snowboard).

And now back to Mariposa for some delicious and well-deserved Pizza!

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

We wish we could be with you on your birthday building Legos and eating cake.

Looks like you have plenty of snow over there. We just came back from snow, and it was lots fun. Now we can ski and snowboard with you over at Gunstock, near Laconia, home to FunSpot!, the world's largest arcade!

It would be fun to throw snowballs, and just have some fun in the snow.

So enjoy this virtual birthday cake that looks like a Lego pyramid.

May God bless you, and grant you many more years. We love you very much!

Catch Us On The Web!

Unlike the New Broadway Spider-Man Production, no children were harmed in the making of this photograph.

Kramer Sighting: Inception Edition!

By now, even the Mendoza Family has seen the movie, "Inception," the movie just about everyone told us that we absolutely had to see!!!

Well, we would have seen in it in the theatre if people had just told us that the Kramers WERE IN IT!

Let's look at the evidence!

As you can see here in exhibit A, as Jack from that other movie, "Titanic" is whining on about Rose and the heart of the Ocean, the Kramer van, otherwise known as the Beast, is clearly visible in the background.

Exhibit B... Here they are again , coming out of an abandoned warehouse. Warehouses seem to be in every movie we watch. There is probably a music video being filmed on the other side of the warehouse.

Here they go in Exhibit C. They've got everyone packed up, shoes or no shoes, and are off to church.

Exhibit D...

It seems they're being pursued by some bad guys. Possibly handing out Jack Chick pamphlets. Nothing can outmanuver villains on motorcycles like the Ford Econline Van! Everybody lean to the left!

Believability Rating: 0%. There is no believability in this, as we saw "Inception" in a dream, so none of this actually happened. "But wait!" you say, "how could it be a dream if you've got pictures?" It means that you are also dreaming right now! Wake up! WAKE UP!!!

WAKE UP!!!!!

Why is the top still spinning???

Happy Birthday Marta

Today is a good day for birthdays!

Nicholas, our Schola director's little grand-daughter, and you, Marta!

So just for you, here is the tradtional (you like traditional stuff, right?) Mendozablog birthday cake.

Okay, I know it says 6, and you're actually 21, but that's just a minor detail. The point is, we remembered!

Have a blessed birthday!

Happy Birthday, Nicholas!

Happy birthday, Nicholas, all the way from Bilund, Danemark! Ole Kirk Christiansen here!

OK, I am not the inventor of LEGO's, but since you see everything as Legos, you might not notice the difference.

I can't make you a cake this cool, but we can get you a picture of one, so here it is.

We love you very much, and we thank God for giving us the gift of a clever, funny, sweet boy like you.

Happy 10th birthday!

Bookstore FAIL!

One of the things we like to do is go up to San Jose every once in a while. Specifically to go to Bookstores. My family puts up a lot from me.

Anyways, we recently went to Recycled Books in San Jose, and our son took a picture of the Emergency Exit, right below.

What is extra cool is that he submitted this picture to Failblog, and they actually published it today! Here is the entry:

http://failblog.org/2011/01/26/epic-fail-photos-emergency-exit-fail-6/

Congratulations!

Walk For Life West Coast 2011

Pictures form Walk For Life West Coast in San Francisco on the 22nd of January, 2011.

Last year, there were 35,000 participants, and organizers were expecting more this year.

The Walk stats, and we are off to the Marina Green.

Liked this Monk on his mobile Phone.

TransAmerica Pyramid.

About halfway there, at Fisherman's Wharf.

The SFPD were great, and truly keep order. The ones I talked too were pretty friendly as well. Thanks!

Alcatraz (Pelican) Island form the Walk.

A blessing to see many Spanish-speaking groups.

Thank you Lord, for a beautiful day to Walk, and to pray for the unborn. Convert the heart of our President and of our country, and do not hold this Sin in judgement of us.

Thank you and God bless all those who prayed for us as well on our Walk.

Our Annual Visit To The Mall

For whatever reason, we just haven't gone to our local Mall as much. Perhaps it was the young ladies dressing in a scandalous manner. Maybe it was the crazy shopper who tried to run over somebody with their car. Or perhaps it was the insane gangs members shooting inside the Mall.

Just seems like a better shopping experience could be had elsewhere. Every once in while though, you gotta go get a free sample at See's, Check out Best Buy, catch a movie, or just take a walk while the weather outside dips all the way down to the 50's and turns nasty.

We recently did just that, and on the busiest shopping day of the year. Come take a stroll with us to our local mall and have a look around.



Some exercise program being sold at one of the kiosks.

A fun shirt to have!

We thought that businesses with names like this were only on The Simpsons.

The little Old Navy dog that creeps out the children.

We looked for the other Deadly Sins, but all we found was Gluttony which was located in the food court.

Got this calendar for afriend last year, and apparently it was pretty funny and informative. Come on, it's poop!

We swear, this store was just a few doors down from...

This one! Guess not having a star in the "R" made it alright.

Now here was something nice! One of the 72 Jewelers in the mall sold some very nice Rosaries made out of precious and semi-precious stones.

"There's a camera trained on me, gotta make a scene!"

That about wraps up our annual, state and federally mandated one trip to the local shopping mall. We didn't buy anything, so it didn't do the economy any good. Since we had some free candy at See's, we may have actually taken away from the economy. So much for our civic duty.

Christmas And Epiphany, 2010-2011

35 dollars for a package of pictures with Santa?


Really? And it is not even the most expensive one!


Man, I'll take my own.


For whatever reason this past Christmas, the two smaller kids wanted to mail off letters to Santa.


They never asked to do this before!

The letter is off to the North Pole.

Christmas Eve dinner. We lit up the advent wreath for the last time.

After dinner it was off to Byzantine Divine Liturgy. It was one of their shorter liturgies. Only three hours.

Lizzie has been wanting to wear Monica's old First Communion dress somewhere. We decided Christmas Eve was special enough for a dress that fancy.

In spite of our late night, we all woke up early Christmas morning to open presents.

She actually chose a Hat over a video game.

It's not rattling...

Christmas Win!

Twelve days later, it was time to break out the Official Mendoza Family Epiphany Wrapping Paper.

After Mass, we had a Rosca de Reyes (Three Kings Bread). The lucky person to find the hidden baby Jesus figure in the bread won a glamorous aluminum foil crown and a collectible photo of the Mission. Taken by your humble blogger.

Funny, a lot more people showed up to share the Rosca than we thought.

All in all, it was a beautiful Christmas Season, which is still going on until Christmas ends on the 2nd of February, the Purification of Mary.

Thank you all for the prayers and the presents, both known and anonymous, and God bless you!

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

No, this is not a repeated posting!

Happy birthday, sweetheart!

Here, enjoy a delicious Princess cake.

Also, please enjoy this video of a love song by a 70'2 big haired rocker who amazingly is still alive.

Happy Birthday again, Sweetheart. I love you very much.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Laurie! We can't take you to Chuck E. Cheese, so we hope you will like this picture of a cake. I know it says you are six, and we all know you are twenty-nine, but close enough, right? And who doesn't love Disney Princesses? So we hope you are having a great day, Catholic Kansas Mom!