Day 25, March 15th

So on Tuesday, I started my journey of no longer being Rivers, Rios, Miss. Rivers, S Rizzle, the Rivernator (no one called me that last one, but I always wanted them to).  Gave up my oh so easy to pronounce name for one I'll now always have to spell out, or tell people what it rhymes with.  Ryan wasn't with me on this journey, but I figured this would count since I was changing my name to his name, so this is what I took the photo of for today.  The social security office opens at 9 a.m., I thought I'd be smart and get there at 8:50 or so and beat anyone else.  My oh so clever thought was also had by 30 other people who were already in line when I arrived.  I stood in line for honestly only about 12 minutes, got to the security guy, told him I was there to change my name, and he told me to go to the door behind the building, second floor...blast! wrong line!! Maybe I was the first person to arrive then for the line I was actually supposed to be in! I scurried over to where I was supposed to be and sat patiently for only about 10 minutes! Went over to the lady, who shredded my identity before I had a chance to fight for it back and bam!! new last name!! Everyone made me think this would be an exasperating process, when it really wasn't, besides my wrong line hang up.  So by 9:30 I was on the road back to work! The rest of the day was pretty status quo, worked on curing diabetes and then headed home.  My mom and Rick were stalking our neighborhood at Gallagher's so we met them there for dinner and got my virus free laptop back after months of separation!! Lovely little Tuesday.

Day 24, March 14th

Mondays are never really that exciting.  Ryan and I sort of do the same thing on Mondays after work, come home, go to the gym, make dinner, and hang.  Have we become a predictable married couple? Perhaps...what are ya gonna do?!?!

This Monday was a bit more special as the pineapple we bought was ripe and so we could finally use our pineapple slicer.  I was super stoked because I saw the little instructions on the box and it looked amazing.  I know this is lame, but this really was the highlight of our night!! We got the pineapple and went to work.

First you cut off the top

Then twist the slicer into the pineapple

Once you go all the way through, twist the other way to get it out

Oh and what do you have? Perfect pineapple slices!!!

Our night peaked after this excitement, we ate dinner and watched some shows.  Nothing could compare with the pineapple excitement!! :)

Day 23, March 13th

Ryan had a baseball game on Sunday morning, so once he headed out, I decided to tackle the one room we had both been putting off...the guest room/office.  This is where most of my stuff has been thrown since I moved in, there is no organization, no real starting point, let's say it was a disaster.  I cleared a path to put the bookshelf together, I pride myself on putting things together, especially from Ikea, this particular bookshelf is very easy, it's mostly those little wooden things, dowels are they called?! So I thought this project would be a snap...it was, until the last step, putting the top on, I could not get it to properly screw (that's what she said) and it honestly took me probably an hour to get it right.  Once I finally got the bookshelf done, I got to putting away my books, pictures and office stuff, after 3 hours, I finally finished with the room.  Ryan came home not soon after which is a testament to how long that darn room took me.  But it looks wonderful, minus the things Tommy has yet to come pick up...Tommy, come get your ish!!

Since the weather is warming up, I decided tonight would probably be the last night I could make Tortilla Soup.  So Ryan went to the store and I finally took a shower, remember I was working hard on the room!! As I cooked we turned the tv on, which was the first time it was on since Thursday, isn't that weird how that happens?!? Anyway, Ryan let me watch Kourtney and Kim take New York since I was cooking and I got to catch up with my gals. 

We had dinner, savored soup for the last time before the Phoenix summer takes over and caught up on our favorite show Parenthood.  Lovely little Sunday.  It was even better because now that the second room is clean, the house is honestly a home, and if I can be cheesy for a moment, it feels wonderful.

Day 22, March 12th

For my birthday Ryan promised me a day of shopping, so this is what we did on Saturday.  Woke up, went to the gym then got ready and headed to the mall.  We went to H&M first, as it's my current favorite, and Ryan spent the first 20 minutes shopping for himself, which was confusing since it was my birthday gift!!! :) The very exciting part of this stop was that Ryan realized he is in fact the type of guy who shops at H&M and bought two shirts...he's so hip.  We headed to Pita Jungle for lunch to fuel up for the rest of the day and ran into Steph's stepmom and sister, Theresa and Sam, they were shopping for Sam's prom dress.  Chatted them up until our food arrived and then we went back to our shopping spree.  Went to a few more stores, I got a few more things, and then the most wonderful thing happened, Crate and Barrel called us to tell us our wine tower was in!! Best birthday gift ever!! So we finished up shopping, got the car and headed to the delivery area for C&B, which was exciting in itself. 

We took everything back to the house and immediately set up the wine tower.  It was a beauty.  Plus, now we have room to put all of our wine glasses away, we could even get more!!  My family has a weird thing about glasses, my dad, sister and I probably combined have 200 glasses, they are just so wonderful! And options are a must! Once we set up the tower, Ryan had to go buy scotch to fill our decanter, obviously.  So we set off, stopped at Ikea first to get the bookshlef for the second bedroom I have been wanting, then over to Total Wine and More to pick up some scotch.  Got home, opened up a bottle of wine and enjoyed our first night with our wine tower.

Day 21, March 11th

So Friday night Ryan hit the town with his crew to have his day away from me.  With him away, I was able to get all crazy about cleaning without having to worry that Ryan would leave me for my ways.  I cranked up the tunes and got to work.  I did a massive clean of the living room, put all my birthday presents away, cleaned the kitchen and dining room area, which isn't big so don't be too impressed and vacuumed the whole place.  My sister called during my mad clean, so I took a break and chatted with her for a bit.  We compared wild lives since we were both home on Friday night, I was cleaning, so I think I'm lamer.  I hung up with Ann and then went back to it, we seriously had so much trash which I think I've mentioned before, but you have to know...there was a lot!!  

Once the house was to my liking I poured some wine and decided to work on some thank you notes.  Such a daunting task, engagement party thank you notes I wrote the next day, in like an hour, the bridal shower thank you notes took me a couple days, but really no time at all, when I looked at the stack of cards I just knew this task would be one of my greatest.  This was also the first of many nights I debated which is more important, thank yous or the blog.  Thank yous won out, honestly mostly because of all the mess the cards were making.  So I wrote probably 10 cards before Ryan got home for the night and caught me up on all the manliness of his night.  I then serenaded him to songs by New Kids on the Block, Debbie Gibson and Boy George...in my opinion, the perfect way to end the night!!

Day 20, March 10th

So Thursday I was finally able to get a night away from Ryan (jokes) and hang out with my froomie Mary.  We originally decided to meet up at Roaring Fork after work, but got there and it was super duper packed, and the bar is first come first serve, so basically we would have been sitting there for awhile.  So we decided to head up north to Sapporo.

Obviously we are still on our bar mission, if you don't know what I'm talking about click here, so we choose our outings based on the list and where we still have to review.  Anyway, we got to Sapporo, and it too was packed, but they were able to seat us, Spring Training brings lots of people to our beautiful city, who could blame them, but it is annoying when locals have to wait to be seated...I know that made me sound like a snob. 

So Mary and I ate, and drank and talked, this is the only picture I took from the night.  When Mary and I start talking we can't concentrate on small things like photos.  I caught Mary up on my life without her and Mike, told her about the honeymoon and what it was like to live with a boy that wasn't Mike.  She caught me up on what I missed in PHX while I was gone, told me not to worry her new current roommate would never replace me, which was really my biggest fear about getting married and moving on from Southern Springs.  It was a fun night with my sweet cheeks and we reviewed a bar, which again...you can check out here!!!

Day 19, March 9th

Ash Wednesday...goodbye my sweet Diet Coke.  As every Ash Wednesday, i.e. first day without my drug, I am probably not the cheery gal you all know me to be.  But I soldier on, because that's how I roll. Anyway, I do suppose the $.86 I spend every day will add up throughout Lent and I could buy a Costco size case of diet coke on Easter Sunday with that cash!! So plus side!
Anyway...after work, Ryan and I met up at the homestead and then headed up to church to get some ashes.  We stopped at Paradise Bakery for dinner beforehand, which we did last year so it's sort of our tradition now.  I'm seriously obsessed with traditions, no joke if we don't go to Paradise Bakery next Ash Wednesday I'll probably cry and be upset that Ryan broke our tradition...haha, but seriously.  So, we went to Church, got ashes, then headed to Ulta because I was completely out of makeup and then headed home.  Another wild night for the Groggers.

I obviously didn't take a picture during the mass, could you imagine my dad's face?!! Here is the bulletin from the evening.

Day 18, March 8th

Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras for others, but either way it is always the day that I stock up on whatever I'm giving up for Lent.  Like usual, I gave up Diet Coke, my number one addiction, so I spent all day Tuesday drinking up, I seriously probably had 100 oz of Diet Coke today.  Insanity!! Anyway, so it is tradition at my church, Church of the Epiphany to have a pancake dinner on Shrove Tuesday, because it was like having a feast before the fasting of Lent starts.

So after work, Ryan and I headed up to the church for dinner.  We brought a ton of stuff with us for the church rummage sale.  The ladies at church thought that it was odd because married people usually need things, don't need to get rid of things...she was unaware of Ryan's hoarding ways obviously.  Plus I hated Ryan's hamper, so I was super happy to get rid of that thing!!!!!!!!!
After we ate pancakes, I took some to my sister who was stuck at work, I'm such a loving sister, then we headed home and probably cleaned, because seriously, that was all we did for the first couple weeks!!

Day 17, March 7th

So, as some know, my birthday is not just the 6th, and honestly I don't think that is totally because of me!! I have a spread about family, so in order to celebrate with everyone, we have to do it a few times!!  So on Monday, after work, Ryan and I went to meet my mom and Rick and my sister Ann to celebrate my birthday at Zin Burger which was yummy!!

It was a fun night, I got some clothes from my mom and Rick and my sister got me a pretty dope gift, 2 liter of Ruby Red Squirt and 4 boxes of Girl Scout cookies!!

After dinner, we walked over to Mojo for some delicious froyo and then headed home for the night.  Birthday celebration number 2 = success!!

Day 16, March 6th

Oh 27...I woke Sunday morning, feeling no different than when I went to bed, I suppose this means being a married 27 year lady doesn't automatically make me an old married lady...good to know.
Ryan left in the morning to get some pretty birthday flowers and to get me one of my gifts, new headphones since our son Max chewed through my last pair.  Could you imagine right now if you're reading this and didn't know my kids are cats? You'd think, "what a bad mom, she let her son chew on wires..."

Anyway, we had a lovely birthday breakfast, then got ready to head to one of our favorite places, Z Tejas to meet up with my friends for my birthday lunch.  I had a great afternoon spending time with my fantastic friends. I am seriously so blessed to have so many wonderful friends!!! This photo is not all of them, just the ones that stuck around for the photo. 

I was very grateful to Ryan for basically taking the reigns this year for my birthday.  I knew that not having Steph around this year for my birthday was going to hard since she, out of everyone, knows the importance of a good birthday celebration.  I wasn't much up for planning anything, and really thought that I'd skip this one and celebrate 28, but Ryan convinced me that celebration should happen and did the planning himself.  So kudos husband...you did a wonderful job planning this birthday, I can't wait to see what you do next year!!  

After lunch, we went to Crate and Barrel to exchange some duplicate gifts and to buy the wine tower we wanted and then headed home for dinner.  Ryan took me to North, we went there on our first Valentine's Day and we've gushed about the tiramisu ever since.  Well that was 2 years ago, and we don't even honestly remember it at this point yet we still rave about it, so we finally went back to try it again...yes folks, it really is that good.

Day 15, March 5th

Saturday was our gift opening. Finally, you have no idea how hard it is to wait this long to open presents for a girl who loves opening presents.  It was also the day Ryan would get his beloved Big Blue (his car) back.  We went to the gym in the morning to work on our fitness and then got pretty and headed to the north side of the valley for the gift opening extravaganza! The whole day was lovely.  It was great to see everyone again after being gone for two weeks.  We told everyone about the honeymoon, ate a magnificent lunch and then got to the reason we were all there...to open presents.  It was a tiring task to say the least, but we got through all the wonderful gifts and loved all of them.  So grateful to have so many wonderful people in our lives!!! 

After we opened all the gifts, we ate some delicious cake and said goodbye to all those that came out, and then load up the cars.  Thank you to all those that helped the day of to put on this great event.

After the gift opening, we had to go up to Troon to pick up the left over champagne and wine.  Seeing everyone the night of the wedding I was surprised there was any wine left to pick up! :) So we drove up tp Troon North, got our stuff and then headed back home.  Stopped at Ajo Al's because I think we went one day without Mexican food...seriously, we have a problem, and then got home to do the fun task of bringing all the gifts up the stairs.  After at least 5 trips we got everything up in the middle of the living room.

Then we cranked some tunes and I kid you not, put all of this away!!! Don't marry a organization freak if you can't hang!! I think it probably took us 3 hours to unpack everything and find it a home, but we did it! We plugged in the new Keurig, and brewed some coffee and went to town!  Once we finished up, or as much as we could since both trash cans were full, we went to bed...tomorrow is the best day of all the days...My birthday!!!!!!!

Day 14, March 4th

Well if I thought waking up at 6 was bad, Friday morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m. wide awake!!! So annoying!! So we again had breakfast together and made lunch for each other.  I took Ryan to work and then headed into the office myself.  This is the Friday before my birthday so normally I would have been wearing birthday buttons and counting down, but this year I didn't really do much of that.  Mostly because when I did it before the wedding, people thought it was weird like I was more excited for my birthday than my wedding, and that face of judgement is not pretty.  But then I think with all else that was happening, even I sort of was like, whoa this weekend is my birthday.  There was a small staff at the old JDRF, which is super small since we're usually only 10 anyway, but the Social Committee out did themselves with my birthday cupcakes. :)
I left work and picked up Ryan, for the last time...two days is plenty.  Finally gave him his wedding present, golf clubs, and then settled in for a Friday night.
So, I'm sort of a, I wouldn't say neat freak, but, maybe I would.  I told Ryan that maybe at least tonight we could clean our room, so that one room in our house would be clean.  Plus, tomorrow was our gift opening, so all we were going to do was clutter up the house again.  So we agreed.  Ryan started making dinner as I called my sister to tell her about the honeymoon and put away clothes.  We had dinner, which was yumtastic.  

Ryan has been obsessed with getting Quinoa and they sell it at Costco so we bought some on Wednesday. He cooked that with some chicken and peppers, and we had our first dinner at home as a married couple.
After dinner we finished cleaning up the bedroom (it looked beautiful) and then because I had promised Ryan I would make cookies on Thursday night and didn't I made them Friday night.  
As I made cookies Ryan sat on the patio with a cigar and a glass of wine.  That sounds very 1950s but that literally is what we did.   

Day 13, March 3rd

Thursday we had to go back to work, zero fun in my book.  We still weren't on a normal sleep schedule really so we both woke up at 6 a.m. without any alarm, sort of nice.  We actually sat down and ate breakfast together, Ryan made lunches, I did some laundry, very nice to have time before work.  Ryan's car was still at his parents house because of the whole his transmission died the week of the wedding fun, so I was driving him to and from work.  It was sort of nice because then I got to work early and was able to go through my emails and sort of get back into the swing of things before everyone else arrived for the day.  
So after a wonderful day at work (said for my coworkers reading this blog) I headed back downtown to pick up Ryan.  We got home later than usual, and looked at the disaster we were calling home and even though we just went to the store decided we should go out to dinner.  So, because it had been one whole day, we went to Macayo's for a quick dinner.  We talked about hunting down some girl scout cookies, then I found an app to find where girl scout cookies are being sold and got very excited to try it out over the weekend.
So yep, that was our Thursday.  Told you our real life isn't that exciting.

Day 12, March 2nd

Our first official day back in America!! Side note to readers, this will also be the point where the blog becomes less interesting as we won't be traveling every day unfortunately.  Thinking that we would sleep until at least noon, we loaded the kids with food and water, shut the blinds and prepared for a coma-esque sleep.  As my eyes opened at 6:30 a.m. and Ryan soon followed, both with enough energy to actually get up and start the day, we watched our dream of catching up on sleep shatter.  We got up, ate some food, and then dove into a day of cleaning and organizing. Our place is not big by any means, and as Ryan comes from a hoarding background and I don't have the best track record of only having a few things, our lives coming together with the addition of gifts really was quite overwhelming! We got started unpacking our suitcases and making laundry piles, I actually wrote a few thank you notes, got all our gift cards in a pile and made a list of places to go and things to do.  We seriously got so many gift cards to Bed Bath and Beyond, we were sure we could complete our entire registry! We also got the amazing gift of a Costco gift card so had to stock up!  First and foremost on our list for the day though...lunch at Aunt Chilada's  of course it was incredible. 

We sat on the patio and a duck was wandering around us, how cute I thought, then, the little bugger started biting my legs!!! I was wiggin as Ryan was like oh just give the guy a chip! Of course the duck did not once try to bite Ryan but for at least 10 minutes I was fearful of my life as I thought he'd peck my legs open and I'd bleed out.
Once I escaped the crazed duck, we went on a crazy shopping spree at Bed Bath and Beyond, then went to Whole Foods and then finally Costco.  We went home and Ryan started putting together the stuff we bought at Bed Bath and Beyond and I tried to clean out and organize the kitchen a bit.  As we were trying to create some order again in our home, our kids were per usual being adorable.  It also could have been because it had been so long since they saw us so they were trying to remind us how cute they could be.

Ryan made Mahi Mahi burgers for dinner which surprisingly I liked, not a surprise because Ryan made them, but because I'm not a fish fan usually.  We just relaxed the rest of the night,  watched some of our shows that we had missed over the weeks and prepared for Thursday...the first day back to work.

Day 11, March 1st

Tuesday, we woke up in Madrid, it's so weird how you can wake up one place and then end your day somewhere totally different.

After a pretty amazing sleep (the beds in Tenerife weren't all that great, Madrid bed was much better!) we woke up, showered and got ready for our long day of travel.  Took some pictures on our balcony to prove that we were in fact in Madrid, then took the shuttle to airport.  At the airport we had breakfast and waited for our gate to open, once we made it through security we ate again, haha I'll let you decide if we're oinkers or if the time between the two was significant.  Ryan introduced me to this word game he had on his phone so we played that while we waited to board the plane.  Once we got on the plane my joy level grew to enormous! Finally, I would be able to have a diet coke!!! Spain had coca-cola light, which no way you twist it, it's not the same thing.  I had probably 4 diet cokes and watched 3 and 3/4 movies.  Ryan and I watched the first 2 together, The Social Network and Due Date.  Both good movies, Due Date is seriously hilarious.  Then I watched Life as We Know it, I think that's what it is called, with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel, that was cute, predictable, but cute.  Then I started to watch You Again with Kristen Bell and then we landed with 30 minutes left of the movie!!! So now I still need to leave it in my netflix just so I can see the end!! Lame!
Anyway, we got to Philadelphia I think like 1 p.m. or so and I was super surprised with how easy and quick the whole customs, we just came back from an international flight thing a ma bob was.  We got through all of that, and finally I was finally reunited with facebook, so Ryan took a backseat for a few minutes, but he probably wanted time off from me anyway.  We ate some Philly cheese steaks and then went to wait for our flight to the lovely city of Phoenix.  As we waited to board the plane, there were two gentleman dressed in knee high socks and bright shirts, we thought, oh they seem fun...but they weren't.  They sat behind us on the flight and talked for freaking the entire almost 4 hour flight.  Not to mention, the f word was used every ten seconds.  I'm pretty sure I was going to snap so we bought some drinks, I was going to go to their website they kept boasting about to complain about them, but I forgot, and I guess at this point it is no longer relevant.  Dang.
Anyway, here is Ryan trying to keep his sanity. 
So, after what seemed like forever, we finally landed in Phoenix, my mom and Rick came and picked us up and took us home.  By the time we got home in was about 10 p.m., so at this point we had been for 22 hours, but our hunger prevailed and off we went to the most American place we could go to, at this time of day, Applebee's.  Had a lovely dinner, headed home and finally went to bed after a 23 hour day.  Sleeping in Phoenix, after waking up in Madrid...wild world.                                

Day 10, February 28th

Monday, our final day in Tenerife...we woke up and caught a cab to Santa Cruz, which is like the downtown for Tenerife.  Our plane took off later in the afternoon, so we had all day sort of to poke around in the town.  When we got there we walked around a bit and took photos of all the amazing landmarks.  It's crazy to me that people live in towns that I just am vacationing in.  It was Monday, so these people were working, in this beautiful place, totally amazing to me.
Anyway, we stopped at this cute cafe for lunch, had a bottle of wine and some sandwiches and enjoyed the town.  There were several musicians that came by asking for money, which as a local I think would annoy me, but a lovely lunch non the less. After lunch we decided to wander a bit more.  Santa Cruz is known to hold the second largest Carnival festival, next to Brazil, so they had a bunch of cool stuff set up for the event.  It was too bad we couldn't be there at night to see everything in action.

We probably walked around for a couple more hours, we found a glorious church and walked around there, found a little shopping area, sort of like a fancy Mill Ave for those from Tempe.  There was an H&M so that pretty much made my day! Since we had our luggage Ryan let me go in while he stood outside.  I just zoomed around, they didn't have anything different then we have, and I didn't want anyone to snatch up Ryan when I wasn't looking!! 
Once we thought we'd seen enough, and or, when we got tired of lugging our stuff around, we caught a cab to the airport.  Got a snack at the airport and then we were off to Madrid.  I don't remember much about this flight, obviously not too exciting.  We got to Madrid around 9:30 p.m., as everyone grabbed their winter coats we knew that we may not be prepared for the weather outside.  We had talked about staying up all night and going around Madrid, but after a full day of being out, and with all our bags, we decided a Madrid hotel would be a great site to see.  We were told a Holiday Inn shuttle would pick us up outside (we saw the holiday inn flying in, figured good choice for the night), well we waited...waited...watched a drunk guy get taken away by police...and then waited. We had no idea what the temperature was (about 30 degrees in case you wanted to know) but we knew it was freezing.  After about an hour, we decided, it no longer mattered where we stayed, as long as we could get into a warm something.  So finally a Hilton shuttle pulled up, I said great and we jumped in.  The guy at the hotel looked at us like we were crazy for just picking a shuttle and hoping the had a room, but alas they did, and a great room at that!! It seriously was the best room we both had ever been in.  We showered, ordered room service, and had a lovely dinner watching the news, one of the only things in English.  This was when I realized we missed the Oscars, and started to wonder if the honeymoon was worth that! :)  After dinner we hit the hay, a very nice night in Madrid if you ask me.

Day 9, February 27th

Sunday was our last real day on the island, sad and bittersweet.   We decided to head back to the crepe place again for breakfast to kick start our day.  It, of course, was delicious.  Afterwards we headed back to the hotel as they were having a Paella and Sangria making demonstration and then the chance to have both for 5.50 euro.  Ryan all week had wanted Paella, but they only sold it for two, and I wasn't about to eat it!! 
So we watched the demonstration and before the seafood I thought I would eat that at this point, then they added the prawns, and I kid you not, they basically had just taken them out of the ocean!! Heads, eyeballs, little fishy feet, not a thing cut off!! This is when Ryan decided against eating that for lunch as well.  
After the Paella demonstration we headed over to the Sangria demonstration.  More up my alley...they made 3 different types of Sangria.  Okay, it was the same type each time they just made each one a bit stronger than the last.  Completely different than the sangria we make here in America, they put more liquor in, and an odd variety in my opinion as well.  That was fun, the crowd had a good time, and we got a nice little free buzz!

For the rest of the day we decided to just relax by the pool, so we went up and changed and luckily got two great seats by the pool.  That's where we were all day, finally got some sun, and then I got some sort of creepy sun rash which was not attractive, and my arms looked very weird.  I was convinced that I wouldn't be allowed back in the states if they saw me!  For dinner we walked over to an Italian sort of place and had a very yummy dinner.  When they brought out the bill, they delivered two shots! I was very intimidated by this, and because of the movie, Taken, I was weary that this would kill me.  It did not, and although not something I'd usually drink, it was good.

We headed back to the hotel, and went up to the rooftop bar for a drink, and then, we unfortunately went back to the room to back.  We had a great time, and were so grateful to have such an amazing honeymoon.

Day 8, February 26th

One week anniversary!!!!! Yes we made it an entire week!! :)
On Saturday we planned an excursion with the hotel, we were to take a bus all around the island, mainly the north as we had been south the entire time.  We had to get up at 6:30 a.m. to get on the bus by 7:30 a.m., and we did it!! Jet lag 2, Groggers 1!! We waited for the bus, and honestly thought it wasn't coming and or we missed it, when the big red bus came flying around the corner.  We got on the bus, excited for the day.  After almost an hour of picking up other tourist, we stopped for snacks and bathroom breaks in a small village called Adeja.  
Once we were nourished and relieved, we got back on the bus...in the same seat, that was the rule, and continued on our way.  A little boy on the bus was a type 1 diabetic so I wanted to tell him I worked to help him, but didn't want him to think I was a crazy diabetes lovin' American, so I just talked to him under my breath like the creeper I am.  Anyway, so we drove for about a half hour before we got to the National Park of Mt. Teide, which is the highest peak in all of Spain.  The volcano erupted for something like 97 days straight back in the 1700s I think (I'm not the best at paying attention to these things).  Our tour guide, who by the way did the entire tour in Spanish, English and German, told us the temperature around the volcano could change 15 degrees Celsius in an hour once the sun goes down, that's like 30 degrees Fahrenheit...wild! 

 We went on a small little hike around the visitor center for the National Park of Mt. Teide, it was very pretty, and very windy. 
After Mt. Teide, we went on our way.  We drove through a small cute little town, Orotava, a small wine making town. People had grape vines right in their backyards, so lucky!


Our next official stop was in Icod de los Vinos.  This is site to the famous Dragon Tree which is said to be thousands of years old.  They call it The Dragon Tree because like dragons, the tree can not be explained.  It was pretty cool looking to say the least.  We were also able to go to La Casa del Drago and do a liquor and wine tasting.  That was pretty interesting, it was either white or red since they don't have all the variety, and then a banana liquor that seriously tasted like a banana runt.  Very strong and strange.  We spent some time in there, it was like a shop with lots of little things to buy so we bought a cookbook to bring Tenerife home with us! 
There was a church across the street so we went into there, Church of San Marcos.  It was amazingly beautiful.  After we left, we went in town a bit for lunch.  We sat on this cute little patio looking over the town.  In the stairwell of the restaurant there were photos of the waves basically consuming the little city we were in, so they put concrete blocks in the ocean to try and calm the waves.  The water was amazing.

  So after lunch we piled back into the bus and headed to Masca, I must admit I fell asleep on this ride, but thankfully, because it was a tiny road with lots of turns, I'm sure I would have been the girl throwing up in the bus, which would have only given us Americans a bad name.  Masca is the most under developed area of the island, not many live there, so it's pretty natural compared to other parts of the area that have been humanified. We stopped and had to get two beers since the bathrooms were not free and then got back on the bus to start heading back.

 Our last stop was Los Gigantes to take photos, by this time all the people from their respected countries had sort of become friends, Ryan and I being the only Americans just had each other, not a friend to find... :)
The ride back was tedious, I think it took almost 2 hours to drop everyone off, quite exhausting. 

Once we got back to the hotel we got ready for dinner.  I had wanted to go to this Dabda place we had walked by a few times, I mean honestly it was our very important one week anniversary, we had to do something nice! We hit the town and headed off to Dabda, we had to wait until 9 to eat as they had a packed house, so we sat on the patio and had some wine.  For dinner I just had tapas, as that was in the name of the place I figured it was their specialty.  Ryan had a real meal which he thought was amazing.  Ryan got coffee to try and fit in with everyone else, and we ordered tiramisu which was delicious.  The highlight of the night I think for Ryan was the roof top bar at the hotel was finally open.  We went upstairs, had a drink, and then hit the hay.  Quite an adventurous day for the Groggers!! 

Day 7, February 25th

Friday was market day, I really had no idea what this market would be like, but all week I was really excited to go!  We got up and ready and asked the front desk where the market was, he told us to go left as we exited the hotel, we had never gone left before, so this in itself was exciting! There were a couple little restaurants on the way and we thought, we've been missing out going right all this week!! 
The market was smaller than expected, but fun non-the-less, we walked around and marveled at all the trinkets, I bought a cute scarf for 5 euro which, any way you slice it, that's a good price for a scarf! Then we watched this guy demonstrate this amazing slicing, cutting, awesome making thing! I really wanted one because it was so super cool and Ryan's response was, "they sell that at bed bath and beyond."  Really Ryan, you'd rather have some lame one from America? So we kept walking...side note, we don't have the one from bed bath and beyond yet either!  So after the market we walked back to the hotel talking about what to have for breakfast, since the left side of the island was foreign to us, we continued to explore and found a couple restaurants along the beach front along with a actual beach with a small section that wasn't completely rocks.  There was a cute Crepe place so we decided to eat there, best. decision. ever.  Food was amazing and so were the views of the ocean. It really was a great time.

So after finding a beach right by us we decided that would be the agenda for the day, so we went back and changed into our suits and headed to back down to the beach.  The water was pretty chilly, there were two ladies swimming around like it was nobody's business but I was not as brave. This was our spot for the day.

After the beach we went and got ready for dinner.  There was a mexican food place over by our new found side of the island so we decided to walk that way again. Plus I think it had been two days since we had mexican food! We walked along the beach path, and of course stopped to take sunset photos with my amazing sunset option on my camera.  For those of you unaware, Ryan is quite a creative bugger when it comes to photos, he took this little number.