So my good friend Danielle is in town for a visit. She just moved back to Salt Lake after living in Austalia for a while and was missing the beach. Today was supposed to be hot but I was still really suprised when I left my house this morning at 9 to head to the beach and it was already 98 degreees!!! It wasn't quite as scorching at the beach, but still hot enough that we had to get in the water often to cool off. Perfect!
After a lot of laying around, reading, napping and dipping in the ocean we rented bikes and rode around the boardwalk which is one of my favorite things to do.
While we were sitting eating frozen chocolate covered bananas (another one of my favorite things) my friend Micah rode by. He just moved to a house right on the boardwalk (lucky!) so it was good to catch up with him.
The rest of the day consisted of more of the same. Chatting, reading, dipping in the ocean. We also swam and played in the waves for quite a while. So fun to have Danielle around and enjoy the perfect beach day!
Tonight Cubby and Darci met up with some of us from San Diego in LA at a friends house party. House parties aren't typically my scene, but it was great to be with good friends. I am extrememly blessed right now with amazing friends and family.
This afternoon a big group of friends got together to play paintball. Random I know but we got this great group deal, so we thought....why not! Kate has her game face on already. 
Here is the whole paintball crew, all trying very hard to look and feel tough. I mean, how could you not feel tough in all that gear.
Here we are on one of the fields post war. The first couple of games we were playing with a team that had a couple marines on it. They were wearing full camo. When we first got there we saw them smoking in the parking lot. One guy had his shirt off and had this big angry welts on his back. They are the kind of guys that eat kids. All I wanted was to not play with them and then of course we end up playing them. So the first few games were over in about 3 minutes. Game over when everyone on your team is hit. They were like snipers! I got shot once right in the hand (which killed!) through this tiny opening between the hay bails I was behind. So finally we asked if we could just play against our own people and thankfully they let us and it was much more fun.
The Hannon Court House
Now we felt super tough. Kate got a shot in the back of the neck in friendly fire....Jenna. I took some hits from not so friendly fire....the snipers. It was really fun, but I may not be running back any time soon.
Bright and early this morning I headed down to Point Loma for my very first ever Olympic Triathlon. 1 Mile swim, 26 mile bike and finishing off with a 6 mile run. Since I have spent the last two weeks in Peru, I am feeling a little nervous about my performance. Here is my transition area. All set to go!
I put my wetsuit on right next to a 70 year old lady....awesome! Decided today that I want to be able to do a triathlon when I am 70. Goal set!
Kate was amazing and came down to cheer me on and document my progress.
The run portion was particularly difficult because after getting off my bike it took about 3 miles for my legs to stop cramping. Super painful. But considering my not so extensive training, expected.
I did it!!! It took me about 3 hours and 25 minutes, which was slower than most people, but a lot faster than I thought I could do. I really enjoyed myself. I feel like it wasn't quite as mentally difficult as some other endurance sports since it is three events in one. And more than anything I love doing races for the race day energy. It is so fun to be there with all those other athletes, like the adrenaline is tangible in the air.
Had to take this shot for Dad. He always did this pose in his triathlon gear, and still continues to do this pose pretty much whenever he gets in front of the camera:)
Fantastic support person as well! Thanks Kate!
Caught up with an old friend, Ross, after the race. I ran into him yesterday at the pre race info meeting and he gave me a lot of really great tips. He is doing the Ironman in Kona in 3 weeks. Should have gotten his autograph! His advice was really helpful though. Thanks a million!
After the race I felt fantastic! Well, my body was pretty wasted and I had pretty much just a general ache everywhere, but I was feeling that, you're on the top of the world!!! feeling. I was definitely slower than 80% of the people there, but I was just happy that I could do it. Can't wait to do another one!
After church we met up with the rest of Cecilia's family (who are not members of the church) and went to Cascais - which is a buffet lunch place with traditional Peruvian entertainment where a lot of Peruvians go to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries.
We were obviously a little out of place.....this guy wanted to take a picture with us.
How cute is Isabella!!!! The food was really tasty and it was nice because we could try a little of everything. Excellent!
After we had eaten a little bit the dancing started and they did quite a few traditional Peruvian dances.
Only catch was that after they did each dance the dancers came out into the audience and pulled in people to dance with them.....being the only white girls in the place.....we had to dance after just about every dance. It was fun at first but toward the end we were so full so it was a little hard to dance.
This dance was really fun. Each of the dancers has a little white hankie pinned to the back of their pants. Their partner has a candle and has to try to light their hankie on fire. So, the better booty shaker you are, the more you can evade their candle.
Rosey was the lucky girl that got to try out her booty shaking! She was so good that by the end she had three people trying to light her fire!!!
Here is our whole group. Cecilia's aunt and uncle and two of their kids came with us as well. They were great company.
By now Isabella has warmed up to us and we are great friends!
Then we all drove down to the Peruvian white house.
It is right on the main square in downtown Lima. All the other buildings on the square are bright yellow. 
Just a little ways from there we walked to some ancient Peruvian ruins.
After that we went to this really cool water park. It had all these really incredible lighted fountains.
A lot of them were ones we could play in. At first we thought we would just stand here and take a picture. 
Then we realized that the goal was to get all the way to the middle. We made it!!! Rosey had some casualties - water shot right up into her face. I had almost made it out when I got a shot of water right in the behind.....totally worth it!
This was a fun one to walk under as well.
They had this really incredible light show. All these water cannons danced to the music and they also showed traditional dances on a spray of water as well. Very cool. 
Once we were done there it was time to head to the airport. It felt weird leaving Peru, we had such a fantastic time! And to top it all off we saw Elder Christopherson in the airport!!! We were trying to be discrete and I was pretending to take a picture of Rosey - obviously didn't work out too well. He is there in the background though.
So this morning once again we got up really early and got ready to take off back down the river. We had to get one last group photo though. Such a fantastic group of people!
We got one last beautiful jungle sunrise as well.
The boat ride back down the river was only 3 hours since we were going with the current this time. I really loved riding on the boat and just enjoying the sounds of the jungle one last time. It's so peaceful here. I wish I could take the sounds home - and forget all the bugs that make them. 
Once we got back into Porto Maldonado we had some time to kill before we had to get to the airport so we wandered around town a little and found this fruit market.
The girl we bought this pineapple from cut it up for us right then.
We took one of these motorcycle/taxi conversion things back to the lodge to pick up our things before heading back to the airport.
It was quite an experience. It felt very South American here as we saw many families all driving on one motorcycle. I have enjoyed the jungle so much, but I am certainly glad that once we get back to Lima I won't be constantly sweating!
The pineapple was totally incredible as I have found most jungle things to be. Only problem was that while very sweet, it was also very acidic. This was also a huge pineapple. I ate until the acid actually burned a sore on the side of my mouth and my tongue was almost raw.....worth it!
The bananas in the jungle are also delicious. I think I got this whole bunch for about 25 cents. Amazing deal.....all these fruits got us through our excruciating time at the airport....so long, and so hot! 
Kerry picked us up at the airport and brought us to the home of his wife's (Cecilia) aunt's house which is near the airport. Felt great to get cleaned up and into some relatively clean clothes. Such great hosts!!! They gave us these fruits that I had never even seen before that are all filled with these little green things that have black seeds in side and look like frog eyes....very tasty.
Here we are with Cecilia - we all went out to Barranca which is one of the tourist areas of town right on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Very beautiful! We had some great South American bbq which included blood sausage - yikes! And then walked around a bit and saw some street performers. We watched a spray paint artist here in front of the church for quite a while. Pretty talented people.
We went up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and which also looks over part of the tourist area. Here is a row of really cute restaurants nestled into the side of the hill. Very picturesque.
Here I am with their little family. Kerry and Cecilia and their little girl Isabella. Isabella was not really sure about us at first, but I think she will warm up to us. She is so cute! Rosey and I were SO tired, we completely fell asleep in the taxi on the way home. We need some jungle recovery sleep.