Hello again!

I know, I know... I am horrible at updating my blog. I have been extremely busy the past few months and when I had down time working on the blog was the last thing on my mind. Truthfully, I am just lazy when it comes to blogging. My attention span is so short that after 30 min. I get bored and quit what I am working on, and I never finish. This year I am going to try better at updating the blog. Eric is always asking when I am going to update it. I told him he is more than welcome to do it himself. He's response was, "Uh, that's a little too girly for me."

We have had some fun events during the past couple months. I went to Minnesota to visit

my family in Oct., then the first week of Nov. Eric competed in another triathlon. He's a stud ladies. The week before Thanksgiving I went on a cruise to the Caribbean with the family I work for, (Rough life, huh?) and we just got home from spending Christmas with my family in Minnesota. I am going to fill you in on each occasion as if I was posting them separately.

I am going to start from the most recent event.

CHRISTMAS VACATION

Welcome to the Pico household!

We went to Minnesota to visit my family for Christmas. It’s so stinkin’ cold there. Right as I stepped outside from the airport I could instantly feel my boogers freeze. Gross, but true. Despite the fact that it is terribly cold there, we had a blast. I absolutely love being with my family. We sat around talking and laughing about our childhood days and how we were all crazy and need to be medicated. We played games, watched movies, went shopping to the Mall of America. We had snowball fights. It was more like shove the person in the snow fights.
Max, my parents dog didn't like when Eric would hold me tight and taunt him saying,"I've got Kami". Max would jump on Eric and try to get him off of me.

Max is giving me kisses because he is happy that Eric isn't "attacking" me anymore. Eric is being so kind and not letting me escape Max's wonderful kisses.

Max loves the ladies

My dad has taught Max to balance a piece of food on his nose and when you say "bird dog"

he'll throw it up and catch it in his mouth.

He is showing off with a piece of hot dog on his nose.

My dad took us ice fishing and we all really enjoyed it. It was a little scary driving over the ice. It was warmer that day so there was slush and water on the lake from the ice melting. You could hear the ice cracking below you which would freak you out. I found out that it is good when you hear the ice cracking because that means it is making new ice beneath. You fish in these little huts that are surprisingly warm. People have t.v.'s, heaters, beds in their hut; very cozy.

This is my handsome father showing his prize fish. He threw it back in.


At first we really weren't catching anything so my mom decided to feed the fish a Cheez-It. What fish wouldn't love that?

This is the only fish I caught. It was the biggest fish out of all the others.

You can imagine how proud I was.

My sister, who is an unofficial PETA activist caught the most fish. It was quite amusing. She kept catching fish after fish. Finally we would have her switch us fishing hole's hoping that that was the problem, but nope...we still wouldn't catch anything and right when she would switch holes she'd immediately catch another fish.

Eric is pouting because Kris just caught a fish after they switched holes. They switched holes since Kris had been very successful at her hole hoping that he would finally catch one.

After Kris switched him holes she caught one within 5 min.

Hooray! He caught a fish!

My mom and dad waiting to get a bite.

My dad took Eric quail hunting. Max the dog has been trained to hunt and he LOVES it. Anytime you say in a quiet voice, "Max, where's the bird?" He goes insane and runs around like a lunatic trying to find the bird. My dad works for the NFL team the Vikings and he takes the players out hunting with him all the time. Jared Allen, he plays the defensive end went with them. He is a really cool, down to earth guy.

This is Eric and Jared Allen. Keep in mind that Eric is 6'1. Jared is huge!

Everyone but me went to the Vikings game. I was sick. :( They got to go on the sidelines before the game. I picked a great day to get sick!)

My sister, Mom, Dad, and Eric on the sidelines.

Eric and I goofing around on the piano.

So the night before we left we were at the mall and stopped at a Kiosk that sells clip on hair extensions. Just for fun we had them put them in our hair to see what it looked like, and we ended up buying them. It's nice being able to have long hair since my hair can only grow a little past my shoulders, and when I am sick of it I just take it out.

Oo la la! Aren't we sassy?

We are all fighting to be the focal point in the picture.Max loved to play in the snow. We would throw snowballs and he would catch them. Each time he caught one it made my teeth hurt.
It looks like he dipped his head in a bag of cocaine.

Scary I know. We just woke up and I looked scary so I decided to make myself look even scarier for our walk. The orange hat and red lipstick was a nice touch. I was laughing coming down the stairs thinking that I am hilarious for dressing like this, and everyone else will think so too. Eric looked at me without cracking a smile, shook his head and walked away. I thought it was funny. I still went out on our walk looking like a crazy person.

Eric built this snowman. The sign says 'Please Help I'm Dying! I need fresh snow. God Bless.'

Our trip to Minnesota went by way too fast. I was so sad when we had to leave. I always go in a deep depression when I leave my family. I am grateful for my family and that we all get along. I can't imagine life without them.



CRUISE TO THE CARIBBEAN

As many of you know I work with a young man, David, who has down syndrome. I have worked with him for over 4 years now. I have grown to love him and his family dearly. In Nov. I went took me on a cruise with them. What a horrible job I have!:) I was David's "buddy" so to speak. We had lots of fun. David was known as the party guy to all the stateroom attendants on our floor. There definitely wasn't a dull moment with David. We went to Key West where we went on a boat ride call the White Knuckle Boat Ride. It was a blast! It's a speed boat that fits maybe 12 people and they do crazy tricks in the water. We were soaked at the end of the ride. David and I went dancing. He stole the show. A circle formed around him and he started break dancing and showing off his famous dance moves. We also went to Cozumel. That was lots of fun walking around and visiting the fun shops.

David and I on the shuttle bus to the airport terminal. He is Mr. Smooth when it comes to the ladies. He is always kissing my hand saying, "My Love".

This is our first night on the cruise in the dining room. To the right is David's parents Curt and Gina. They are also known as Ray and Tamara. That is what David calls them.

We are tired and ready for bed.

Me and my love. (He's the only other man that I am allowed to call my love.)

This is David and I dancing at the club. Funny story...He was breaking dancing in the middle of the dance floor and he went down to do the worm and his shoe went flying in the air and his some lady in the stomach. He looked at her and said, "Oops, my bad."

This was taken in Cozumel. The water was crystal blue. It was beautiful.

My two new best friends!

David and Gina. I love this picture! David was mad and a bit crabby because he was tired and hungry so he wasn't about to smile for anybody.

One more funny story. David and I shared a cabin and at night as we were getting ready for bed he was writing in his journal. He was talking out loud to himself as he's writing. He gets this smile on his face and he says, "Who him? Why not?", and he starts busting up laughing like this is the funniest thing has ever heard. It was the funniest thing. I wonder what was going on in his head.

CASA GRAND TRIATHLON

Eric competed in another triathlon Nov. 1st. He did incredible, and I'm not just saying that because he's my husband. He got 92nd out of 405 and came in 8th in his age division. I have to brag and say that he was insanely busy with school and work that he didn't have time to train, and he rocked that race! Way to go sugar!

On a side note. I wore flip flops to the triathlon and one of them broke. The thing that separates your big toe from the other toes broke. I look like an idiot walking around trying to hold the strap between my big toe and second toe. I got a safety pin to somewhat secure it down.

So now I have this huge safety pin sticking out of my flip flop and it's not hard to miss.
Talk about white trash.

This is after the race. He doesn't even look tired.

Eric is about to cross the finish line!

Getting ready to transition from biking to running

Waiting in line for the swimming

MINNESOTA TRIP

This had to be my favorite trip ever! I went to Minnesota in Oct. to visit my family for two weeks. It's absolutely gorgeous there! My parents treated my like royalty! When I arrived there was a sign on the door saying 'Welcome Home Princess'. They take my bags to my room where there is another sign reading 'Princess' Room'. There's a chair in my room with a gift basket full of toiletries and goodies. My mom and dad spoiled me while I was there, and I loved every moment of it.

This is a nature trail down the street from my parent's home.

Everyday we would take Max on a walk. We decided to mix it up and go rollerblading, which we haven't done in like a decade. I wiped out twice the first day. Once, thanks to Max, and the other I was trying to be cool and jump over a curb. Of course it had to be in front of a Club House where everyone could see me. On a Saturday we went and skated in an elementary parking lot and tried to do some tricks and synchronized roller blading. It was lots of fun!

I am trying to keep my balance and not run over Max with my skates.

We liked to walk down the hills on the grass so we wouldn't fall. We are big chickens.

My brothers, Joe and Tanner, took me out to a Comedy Impov club. It was hilarious! Tanner, got to actually go up on stage and be in one of the acts. He did awesom! He was witty and funny. If it were me up there I would probably wet my pants and pass out.

Tanner, Me, and Joe

Having dinner at Biaggi's

My dad and mom took me to an orchird to do some apple picking. They took us on a hay ride to the apple orchird. We had so much fun. We took home 5 10lb. bags of apples. The apples were delicious. They were nice and crisp with a bit of tartness.

I was trying to pose like I was struggling picking an apple off from the branch. It snapped right off and I almost fell over. I am smooth.

These were both taken on our hayride over.

My folks and I took a 4 mile walk on a beautiful nature trail. It was absolutely gorgeous and I am sad that the pictures did not do it justice.

This is at the beginning of the trail. Max thinks he hears birds in the bushes so he is doing his hunting stance. I thought I' d join him.

The entire trail was like this. I wish the camera would have shown the leaves falling. Isn't is beautiful?

Since we had a crap load of apples we decided to can most of them. This was my first time canning, and I really enjoyed it. My dad and I canned apple pie filling all Sunday afternoon. We had a system down and everything. We made a good team.

My last night there my parents took everyone to Osaka, a Japenese steak house, for my birthday. My brother Tanner works there as a waitor so we got extra special treatment. They told the waitor that it was my birthday when we first sat down. I didn't think much of it; I figured I'd get sang to and get some ice cream. Towards the end of our meal someone comes up behind me and puts something over my head. It caught me off gaurd. I can see through two tiny wholes and I see a disco ball turning and I hear music playing to a pop rock kinda beat, "It's your birthday, It's your birthday..."

This is the beautiful mask they put on me.

I was so sad when my trip had to end. It was wonderful being with my family.

I had the best time being with them.