I haven't been following tennis enough to give you good updates about how everyone is doing. All I know is Djokovic and Nadal are still in, and I just found out that tomorrow, Sharapova and Serena are going at it. Honestly, if I watch anything, it'll probably be that match, or at least the highlights. Sharapova was the first big name tennis star that I knew. Sarah and I also played tennis this last memorial day. We hit the ball back and forth and she practiced on power and back hands. She's definitely getting better...which is awesome. I heard Danny Parisi is back in town, and when I heard (from Christina), I immediately wanted to invite him out, but I guess he hurt his back doing something...so, probably not. It definitely is the type of weather that is conducive to tennis playing, and Sarah's really liking it, so we'll probably go out more.
Speaking of sports, we were at the Juniper Ward Memorial Day party at Don Day park, and they played a pick up game of soccer. I decided to play and I was donning the new Flash t-shirt that Sarah got for me for my birthday. Well, I stuck to what I knew, and played defense, with an occasional burst of speed to the forward position to set something up. I played so well, the people were calling me the Flash. I was very proud in that moment, to say the least. The elders were even boasting (at my request) to Sarah about my good soccer skills. They had to tell her, because she was extremely busy getting water balloons filled. When we were finally done with the game, I came back to a soaking wife. She was happy though, because it was hot.
The food at said activity was really good. They had hotdogs and hamburgers, great chicken from Juan Pollo. Several different salads, and chips and aguas. Sister Mondragon made some cucumber agua. Everybody was thrilled for the agua. I invited Mom to come and she did. It was great having her there. It was funny, though, everyone, but most notably Hermana Vicky Garcia, told mom to try the Cucumber agua. Nahomi did too. Well, mom asked if it had sugar, and of course, it did. When Sister Garcia found out, she made it a point to be like, I'm going to taste this BAD agua. She said it all loud so that mom would notice. It was quite funny. I hope I don't ever have to experience not eating sugars because I love food so much.
Speaking of food. Sarah wanted to make me a cake for my birthday on Wednesday. She asked me what kind I wanted. Well, I asked her for a chocolate ice cream cake. Boy did she pull through on that request. We went to a grocery store in Redlands, after we went to the temple, and picked out the ingredients for an ice cream cake. Then, on my birthday, I helped Sarah make the best home-made ice cream cake I had ever had. She had to cook two layers of of cake and put the cookies n' cream ice cream in the center. Topped it off with chocolate mousse frosting. The only snag of the whole thing, is when Sarah had me do the batter, she wasn't home yet, and I was looking for a cake mix that was chocolate. I found one, but in the end it was a brownie mix. Despite the mistake, the cake turned out super great.
I went to mutual that night because they were playing volleyball (instead of doing a bike activity [which I didn't want to do]). We played two matches of volleyball, best two out of three. I really had fun. However, at the end of it I was feeling a bit anxious. Sarah came with me. She encouraged the kids and adults to sing me happy birthday. And Edward Guillen prayed that I had a good birthday. It was super sweet. Then, for a birthday dinner, we went to Chipotle. I was feeling better after sitting down and focusing on the food. The burritos were good.
For the end of my birthday celebratory week, Sarah and I went to San Diego to visit Sarah's brother and stay with his family two nights and we went to Sea World on Saturday. We didn't have to spend any money on the tickets because teachers go in for free before July 31 with a guest. I had an extremely wonderful time with Sarah. Besides all the cool shows and animals, the highlight was going on the Manta rollercoaster. I went on it three times. Sarah was feeling queasy at the sight of it, so she wanted me to go on it to try it out. I went on it, and believe me, I really had to syke myself out, but in the end, it was totally worth it. When I got off of the ride, I told her of the thrill, and told her, it was a must ride. After much trepidation, Sarah finally agreed to go on it. The first time is always the scariest. But it was sooooo fun. I wasn't feeling too good after the second time. But after watching a sea lion show, and much water drinking, we decided to try our hands at the ride one last time before the park closed. It was a super great ending to an already splendid day.
We went on other rides as well, like Atlantis, which is in itself crazy. We also went on Shipwreck Rapids and we got soaked. The only ride we couldn't convince ourselves to do was the Electric Eel, the newest ride at SeaWorld. It is definitely fun to watch though. The shows were great, too. I wanted to get a nice Killer Whale jumping picture like I did before when I was in sixth grade, but no luck. However, I did get a nice 15 or so dolphins picture in the air. It's my pride and joy picture that I'm going to share with you. The whole day was great, even with the not feeling good, and hard feelings at times.
Sarah's brother, Richard, is a really nice, funny guy. He has a lot of strong opinions, and his wife, Diana, calms him down. They let us stay in their house in the garage two nights, which was very hospitable, and Richard drove us to the entrance and picked us up so we could escape parking, which of coursed helped us out in the long run with money.
Richard has 5 boys, oldest one being 13 or so and youngest is like 3, named Lorenzo, Ricardo, Nicholas, William, and Jeremy. Each of them are so cool. They all have nice personalities, each being a bit different from the other. It was awesome just to hang out with their family the two days that we were there. Diana made us burritos the first night, and a type of nachos, the second. Super good.
I went to Sarah's work a lot this week for lunch with her. The first time was after I took mom to the airport on Tuesday. It was a surprise. The second day, we got hamburgers from a fas hamy
t food place called Galaxy Burgers, and the last day, I bought Hawaiian rolls and ham and
Anyways, I am super tired. I love you so much! I hope you are doing well. I love you!
John Gonzales
