12 Days until the wedding!

How time has flown, I can't believe it is only 12 days 'till Hugo and I are officially hitched. I almost feel like this day never was going to arrive, but before I knoew it- it is just around the corner.
All plans and projects are going accorrdingly - I only have a few more items to do: Hugo and I still have to pack for our honeymoon.

It's funny we are going from one extreme to another - meaning from very hot weather - The Galapagos Islands which is on the Equator of the world to Cold weather - Machu Picchu - Cusco, Peru.

We are so excited.......for the day to finally arrive and to just get on that plane and go!

42 Days until The Big Day!!

I can't believe the wedding is literally just around the corner! I feels like it was yesterday Hugo, my father, Pippy , Chris and myself were hiking up to Delicate Arch in Moab and Hugo proposed to me!
Now we only have 42 more days and so much going on. I have a laundry list of items still to be done, but things are getting done.

Some changes have occurred with the bridal party for the better of course and I am happy to say that Pippy and Jessica are now my maids of honor! :)

I will try as hard to post as much as possible through out the days, but I can not guarantee it.

Wedding news - getting ready for the big day!

It's been a while since I have written and well......wedding plans are in full swing. Glad to report my progress is doing well and Hugo and I are preparing ourselves for the big day. One of the main highlights of this blessed event is our honeymoon.

We have after much thought, consideration and what was more affordable - we have decided to go to the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu! We are thrilled with our decision as we both have dreamed of visiting and experiencing that part of the world. Our original plans was Europe - France, England and a third country (not sure yet). But with the economy and the rate of our dollar in Europe we will have to post-pone that trip and save it for 2009! Gives us more time to save and we will be in a better financial situation (not paying for a wedding).

I have to be completely honest though, I was nervous about going to Europe fearing we would not be able to cover all costs and all.....but I am glad to say we made the right decision in deciding to go to South America instead of Europe.

Ecuador and Peru, here we come! ;)

Happy Holidays!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! God Bless!

THE PROPOSAL!!!

As you may know Hugo and I are engaged to get married. We went to Moab & did this amazing hike up to Delicate Arch. The hike was a good one and a tough one. Finally arriving at the top, we realized it was definitely worth it. With that said, Hugo asked me to come with him to the arch, at first I did not feel up to it, but after much persuasion I did.

After taking some photos of the arch and showing Hugo one of the shots, he goes "Well, that is OK, but what do you think of this?" and presented me with a beautiful engagement ring. We were very fortunate to have one of our close and dear friends Chris there to document the moment.

After an emotional yes, we are engaged and ready to marry. Wedding date has been set for September 5, 2008.

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/ceciliamorales&hugoortegajr.

Some pics of our trip

A quick and OVERDUE post - some photos of the trip! Enjoy~

Delicate Arch

Delicate Arch at dusk.

The Windows

Monument Valley

The Jeep Jamboree

Day 1 – Jeep Jamboree – Sign up

There is more to this story that I feel like writing about , but I really want to get to the good stuff, so without further do: Ouray is a really nice town and if you ever have the opportunity to visit, I highly recommend it. It is very small and one of those towns you know everyone knows everyone…..We picked up our jeeps at Riverside Inn and headed into town with our jeeps. As we got there – 4:45 there was already a line to get registered. So we quickly parked and headed to the community center. We stood in line for a few and finally arrived at the table to register. Finally speaking to Chris, he suggested we try Imogene and Placer Gulch and Picayne Gulch. Finally registering for our trails, we headed out for a walk around Ouray and found this really cute and quaint coffee shop called “Mouse’s Chocolate and Coffee” as we walked in there was an over abundance of chocolate and plenty of coffee to go round! Being I am an ice cream junkie, I decided to have the “Old Fashion Vanilla Shake” and oh boy……what a treat! Hugo had his favorite ‘White Chocolate Mocha Cappuccino”, my father had a shot of espresso and a piece of banana bread and Pip declined on the whole thing. We all enjoyed our treats as we admired the brick wall of the shop and the atmosphere of it. We then headed back out and went back to the hotel to get ready for the first day of being on the trails.

Day 2 – Jeep Jamboree - Imogene Pass

So today is the second day of the jeep jamboree. Pip got up first (5 am) and got the ball rolling for all of us to get up and get ready for a crazy adventure we signed up for. We headed out to the Ouray Community Center to have breakfast for everyone and to my delight and surprise I ran into a colleague of mine! NANCY! Nancy and I met when I attended the Great American Photography workshop in Page, Arizona and Monument Valley, Arizona. I had seen her from across the room and thought I recognized her but was not 100% sure. She , by coincidence, sat at our table as I approached the table I knew for sure that it was here. I greeted her and immediately we started to reminisce about the workshop we had attended and how insane we were for registering for the jeep jamboree.

We all grabbed our breakfast’s and started to chow down. They also had packed lunches for us to take with us on the road while we are up in the mountains. Ok, so let’s get to the nitty gritty – our first day on the trail – we signed up for Imogene Pass – which according to a couple of the tail gunners it is one of the more “difficult” trails that we are allowed to sign up for. First to drive for that day was Pippy - who my father was riding with and Hugo and me. Hugo got to drive first half of the day. We all met up with our trail guide and tail gunners. Unfortunately day 1 we did not have CB unit to listen to the history of these trails. Either way it was a great trail, we started up the pass and immediately we had to go into 4-low. It was pretty crazy! As we climbed up this mountain on these rocky trails, it was pretty insane (oh wait I said that already, wait…did I say it WAS INSANE!!!)….anyways…..we continued to climb up the mountain on these trails that we were once traveled by people on foot, horses, mules….it would take them days to climb up 13,000 feet. One can only imagine with the harsh cold or the heat of the season what type of affect it had on them. It was so amazing to see how these people made a living as miners and what they had to go through. jThat was certainly an intense period of time. We finally made it to Tom Boy - Tom Boy was a mining town. It was now a ghost town and all we could see were the remnants of a forgotten village. Mining shafts falling, wood scattered through out the ground, creeks polluted and abandoned homes. It was kind of eerie there, but it was our half way point of the trail and lunch time.

We all were pretty hungry and it was very apparent so were other jeepers. We all savored the turkey or beef sandwiches we had selected. A couple had brought their rotweiller named “Cinabon” who was very friendly and ended up becoming friends with Pippy and Hugo. I was very happy to report my father was in complete awe of what these jeeps could do and of the land and mountains we were climbing. He wandered through the town and admired the forgotten village. I was very happy and pleased of my father’s reaction to the beginning of this adventure.

We had an hour for lunch and once that hour was done, we headed back onto the trail, this time it was my turn to drive and my father’s, but he opted to allow Pippy to complete the day of jeeping. So we started off for the other half of the trail. As we started to do these switchbacks, I managed to break the stem of my back wheel and as Hugo and I heard the air escaping out of the tire we simply looked at one another and had this look of shock and an expression of “NO WAY!!” so we immediately pulled over to the side and got out of the jeep to see the damage. At first we couldn’t see where the problem was but then Hugo found the stem leaking air. The trail gunner came over to check to see what was up and well, he was ready for action, so was the couple behind us. Hugo immediately went to the jeep to pull out the jack to lift the jeep and to his astonishment and to the tail gunner it was a small “street” jack that would be of no use on the trail. To our rescue was the couple that was behind us. He had a real jeep jack that would be our salvation. Between the tail gunner, Bill, my father and Hugo they were all able to change the tire and we were back on the road. Unfortunately we had to catch up to the rest of the group who were already in Telluride. Finally arriving in Telluride, we realize that it was a “swanky” town with people driving their Porches and Lexus’s. We had to travel a couple of miles out of Telluride and onto the highway to get to the other part of the trail. Finally turning right onto the trail we again ascended up the mountain to some beautiful vistas. Apparently we drive through Ralph Lauren’s property twice and finally arrived to the “True Grit” location. For those of you that don’t know, The True Grit is a John Wayne movie and they filmed up on Imogene pass. It was truly amazing to see this set and to think of “the Duke” walking these same roads and filming here. My father was in disbelief that he was actually on the set of the True Grit as he is a huge John Wayne fan.

Finally descending back down the mountain, we headed back into Ouray. The one thing that we all did not appreciate on the trail of Imogene was how DUSTY it was. I mean it was dusty, we were all completely covered in dust as well as all of our belongings. But what can you do, a small price to pay for such an adventure. We arrived in Ouray and went quickly to the hotel to all shower and then headed back to the community center to have dinner. We ate our dinner – pork chops and chicken with rosemary on it. We met up again with Nancy and saw Chris and Sue, Chris of course wanted to here how wee did on our first trail and we were all happy to report that we had done excellently and enjoyed it immensely , especially the True Grit stop. Once we were done with dinner, Hugo spoke to our tail gunner Bill and he said he could fix the busted tire. So Hugo went to meet up with Bill at his Hotel and Pip decided to go back to the hotel. My father and I decided we would go for a walk to burn off some of the food we had just munched on. We headed out for a walk on the streets of Ouray. After a while we decided to go back t the hotel where Hugo was with Bill who was fixing the tire for us. When we arrived they had just finished fixing the tire and Hugo was hanging out with them. They were drinking a couple of beers and Bill was kind enough to offer my father and me a beer. So we took him on it and enjoyed the conversation that was going on. It was quite amazing to here their stories on jeeping. I mean these guys are HARD CORE! They tell us stories of how they do all of these Rock Crawling, how they get themselves out of certain predicaments. It was a real treat to hear them talk about their experiences. Chris and Sue joined us and before we knew it nice little crowd had come together to hang out. Finally realizing it was getting late, we decided to call it a night and headed back to our hotel.

Day 2 – Jeep Jambore – Placer Gulch & Picayne Gulch

After realzing we did not have to get up so early, we were a little lax on what time to get up and ended up arriving around 7:30 am at the Ouray Community center for breakfast. We then had a short meeting at 8:30 and well…..the little tid bit I didn’t mention before, today our Jeep Leader is CHRIS! Yup……Chris is our trail guide on today’s adventure and from the sound of it we are in for a real treat. Finally arriving at the start off point with the other jeeps, Hugo was fortunate to find someone who had an extra CB. Unfortunately my father and Pip were out of luck.

We started our way out to the trail and Chris immediately advised us to go into 4-Low. We started our ascend into the mountains….this time it was my turn to start the trail this day and well…I was in for a challenge. As we headed up the mountain it turns out we had to do a lot of “Rock Crawling” on this trail. I was a bit nervous, but I quickly got a handle on it. My father was driving today as Pippy was the passenger. It was quite a treat to listen to Chris on the CB. It truly is amazing to hear Chris speak, he is a wealth of knowledge.

Pip felt like having a little coffee so we had another opportunity to visit “Mouse’s Chocolate and Coffee” , Pip tried the Espresso Shake, I had my favorite “Old fashion Vanilla Shake”, Papi had a regular coffee and Hugo had his “White Mocha Chocolate Coffee”. We then headed out for a little walk and found a lot of interesting shops in the town and well…it’s quite a special town.

I will be posting photos once I can covert them over for webpages....to be continued.