Fourth of July Weekend

Hey Guys,

Happy 4th of July Everybody!

Off to a good start on the 4th of July weekend! It started Thursday afternoon when I called to get us pre-approved for a home loan for a new house in Denver! I can't believe how soon we will be back. Now we're shuffling around trying to have as much fun in California as possible with the time we have left.

Thursday night we went to concert of Stevie B with Jenn and Adrian.. It was really fun and funny! If any of you are having problems remembering who this is think back to the 90s... This youtube will help:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_5CRnzZWMQ

So he's a lot older now but still a lot of energy. It was a lot of fun.

Yesterday Julie and I packed up the bikes for a ride. We first went to REI and got Keen sandles are specially designed for biking so clip into the pedals.. They are so awesome! After getting geared up we headed to Big Basin State Park. This is one of the places with enourmous Redwood trees. Beautiful park.

At the main enterance to the park they have a cross section of a redwood and they have counted the age in the tree rings and placed key historical dates at certain rings. It's amazing to think how long these trees live - 1000s of years. Most of them are burned at some point showing they've probably been through forest fires.

Julie inside a tree:Click to see map of our ride
On the drive back there was the most amazing view of the marine layer coming in over the mountains. The phot doesn't show it but you could also see the ocean in the far distance.

After all the riding we grabbed a pizza and then went to see Hancock. It's pretty entertaining.

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG

Familia,

After being a Legal Resident Alien for 33 years, I became a US Citizen on June 18, 2008.

In 1995 Mexico became part of the Dual Citizenship Act. It was then that I knew I would apply for US Citizenship, as I would be able to also retain my Mexican Citizenship.

My Swear In Ceremony took place at Teikyo Loretto Heights Univeristy in Denver, CO. There were 286 people from 51 countries being represented, from Afghanistan to Viet Nam and the rest of the alphabet in between. Mexico had the largest representation in my group. The morning swear in ceremony that same day had 350 people. An average 5,000 people a day are sworn in as US Citizens Nationwide.

The group of 286 "Almost Citizens" was devided in 3 sub-groups, Red, White & Blue, and we were seated accordingly in the lower level of the auditorium. Family memebers were seated on the second floor (balcony-like). I was in the Blue Team and was flanked by an older Asian couple on my left, and a very elegant Mexican gentleman of about 50 on my right. Behind me was a man from Nigeria, a woman from Croetia, a man from France, and a young man from Australia. In front of me were a woman from Germany, a young man from Nicaragua in US Military uniform, a woman from Venezuela and a woman from Brazil.

The ceremony lasted an hour, with a welcome speech from the head of the Colorado Homeland Security Office, a performance of the "Star-Spangled Banner" by a fantastic group of Adelides, videos of fellow residents becoming citizens in other parts of the country, images of beautiful American symbols (ie: The Flag, Mount Rushmore,Great Seal of the US, our Military Troops, etc.) to the music of "I'm Proud to be An American". The couple on my left kept wiping tears away at different times during the event. The Mexican gentleman on my right stated the "Pledge of Allegiance" with such force and pride that it got MY tear dam flowing. After we were officialy sworn, in we were asked to congratulate and welcome our fellow citizens around us, and there were smiles, tears, loud laughs and happy cheers all around us.

The Host also asked ALL military personal,active, non-active, Guard, etc., to rise and he addressed them as follows:

"On behalf of these new citizens, and on behalf of the people of the United States, I thank you for helping us preserve our freedom". That brought the house down!!!

It was Electric, Exciting, and VERY Emotional. It was an extremely important moment in my life. I am , indeed, PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

CEERTIFICATE OF NATURALIZATION



YES, I AM PROUD!


PAPI & JOSH CON LA NUEVA AMERICANA

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Not many more days in the Bay Area

We went to San Francisco today to have dinner with Reeves, Jasmine and Ella to celebrate John's birthday. Before we ate John took us to Mile Rock Beach so we could see it before leaving the Bay area. It was really nice. Only a few miles from his front door and right in the middle of San Francisco. Despite the closeness to the huge city it felt very remote and tranquil. Definitely glad we got the see the spot.

It is very sad to leave California and we will really miss days like this. At the same time we are also very excited to come back to Family and Friends in Colorado.

Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

I had the opportunity this week to go to Rio de Janeiro for work and had an incredible time.

My International Team at work - Left to Right

Marcelo - Brazilian Based in Rio

(Me)

Tom - South African Based in US

Antonio - Portuguese based in Rio

Antonio's family owns one of the best Rodizio Churrasceria grills in town. I ate more meat that day than any other week combined! Food is fantastic, people are so nice.

View of Christ from the top of Pao de Azucar - "Sugarloaf". Similar to our Statue of Liberty - this Christ was a gift from France.

The town is very active - tons of bikers, runners, soccer and volleyball on the beach.

(Rock climber at Pao de Azucar)

I stayed at Ipanema Beach. Mornings before work included waking up, deciding if I wanted to go for a morning run around the lagoon or at the beach, eating a fruit plate - and off to the office.

Morning Run at the Lagoon:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/263547

Morning Run at Ipanema Beach:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/263547

Then off to the office. Our office is the tallest building in the picture on the left - 42nd floor. Totally sweet views.

This is the view from our office - of Sugarloaf. This picture is literally taken from Marcelo's desk at work.
Alien landscape in all directions

(These little monkeys are very common. Very small - but intelligent faces!)

Amazing Race San Jose

Hello!

It has been far too long and the blog has seemed dormant! We have a really good posting to revive it!

Last weekend Julie and I participated in the San Jose "Amazing Race". It was a charity event inspired by the TV show and it was one of the most fun weekends I've had in a long time!

How did we get involved? Our good friends Jenn, Adrian, Jose and Perla knew the person who organized the event. Shauna did a kick-ass job putting this together. One day at a BBQ, Perla aske us if we were interested. Our competitive side shined through as we accepted the invitation. Next thing you know we were picking team t-shirts ("Patron" - imagine the inspiration behind that one!), picking a team name ("Perla's Playmates" - which was a triva team name Jose and Perla has used before). With that we were ready to rock!

Race Day:

We met for breakfast at Jenn at Adrian's house, the "Balzac Coffee Shop" to double check our list of race pre-requisites:

- Six fierce competitors
- 1 car to fit all
- GPS/Nav System
- Swim Suits (we didn't yet know why - just that they were required)
- Camera
- Spare Cash
- Rule and Regulations
- Lots of Attitude

From here we headed to downtown San Jose for the shotgun start.

(Perla, Jenn and Jose ready to head downtown)

From that point forward it was a seriously crazy day. I could write a book about it but I will start with the highlights:

- Burned at least 1000 calories on a city scavenger hunt. We scoured the city to find historical facts, boys traveling with 2 goats and our big time killer: the name of a stagecoach driver stamped in the concrete by the museum. We gathered these pieces of info for clues to our next location...

- Out of the way Ben Stiller - Our next location was a dodgeball tournament. We beat our team for an extra 50 points and we were all still in at the end of the game!

- Next location clue was a series of questions leading us to a crazy web url with our next location:

http://www.swingbatterbatterswing.i8.com/

We wasted so much time on this one! It was the bane of our existence that day!

- From there we were at the Flea market buying nopales in spanish, treading water in a pool with a 10 lb brick, dancing the irish jig and performing karaoke for tips, doing body shots and Irish Car Bombs, ordering lunch in swim suits, performing cartwheels, finding live lobsters, riding a scooter in a nacho libre mask and finighshing it all off with a great BBQ

It was a great time and I would love to do it next year. Here are the pics:

Racing the bartender with an Irish Car Bomb, then off to dance a jig for tips

Ladies doing kartwheels at the local firestation

Men doing kartwheels for the lovely customers at the Target Starbucks

The team on the fire truck

It was an All Star team - it was so much fun to play together for a day. We each had our own contribution to the team:

Baseball All Star: Adrian

Dodgeball Killer: Jose

Swim Champ: Joe

Persuader: Jenn (as in "Hi, you see, we're doing this race and we would like to stand in our swimsuits in your restaurant and order sandwiches", "Hi, yes we know we can't sing but we'd like you to give us tips to benefit the American Cancer Society in our race", "Hi, yes, you see, we're on a scavenger hunt and we need to take a picture holding a live lobster, yes, out of the tank.... Oh! Hi, you're his manager? I'm Jenn. You see, we are doing this charity race..." etc etc)

Team Stylist and Captain: Perla

Googler: Julie

(2nd Place Finish!)