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Vanessa and I took our first big vacation last week together. Life has been spiraling down ever since we got back. I joke, not really. It was planned nine months in advanced, and we got a relatively good deal on most of the major expenses. This seven day escape brought us to the lands of themeparks, wizards, and tropical beaches.
We arrived in Orlando at 4PM on Tuesday and we immediately spotted Carrot Top, haha. We proceeded to check in at the Hilton Parc Soleil resort. We stayed here for the next three days due to a fabulous deal of us attending a timeshare meeting, where we met a very flamboyantly rude and talkative salesman, Andres. We were so sleepy and lazy on the first night we decided to just have pizza, wings, and wine to dine in our outrageously spacious room. We needed to save our energy for the next two days since we would exploring Universal's Studios two theme parks!
This will be my annual recap of the year Two Thousand and Thirteen.
Compared to all the other years, this one takes the cake I think. Although I have blogged significantly less, I have done exponentially more. There were a lot of "firsts" this year. Thanks to websites like Groupon/Livingsocial/Scorebig, we were able to explore places and activities that never caught our attention. I went to my first soccer game (Galaxy), and my first hockey game (Ducks). Vanessa and I attended a hot air balloon festival and took a ride in a gondola together. The best discovery from all of these was archery. We got hooked with shooting and Vanessa finally got her own recurve bow!
There were plenty of mini-vacations. There were three Vegas trips; one for the threesome birthdays, one for the couples retreat at the lake, and one for just Vanessa and I. We also made one night visits to Palm Springs and Crystal Lake, as well as an all day excursion around Malibu and Santa Monica. Big Bear was a cozy experience with a cabin of our own, and Havasupai was a gorgeous wonder that took both my breath and knees away. I went on my first Metro ride to San Clemente and my first Amtrak ride to San Diego.
I left California Psychcare and joined Proof Positive in which I have no comment about for the moment. For the first time, I was the subject alongside Vanessa in a photo shoot. I have also fallen back into photographing, thanks to Vanessa's gift. I had my first Valentine's date with a picnic and received my first Easter's basket. I was White Rabbit and she was Alice. We saw Ed Sheeran, Gregory Allan Isakov, and Vampire Weekend perform, as well as Cirque Du Soleil's "KA." We tested our stamina in Mud factor and the Electric run, and we tested our age at the L.A. Fair. From multiple Disneyland visits, I've picked up a hobby and started collecting Disney pins. Participated in my first Secret Santa with the group and fell back into the world of Pokemon.
Heisenberg was a badass, L was defeated by Kira, and the walkers have finally broken the prison. Lawrence helped with defeating Handsome Jack in Borderlands 2, Vanessa helped with escaping the cursed island in Tomb Raider, and Tuanolyn helped the three of us in defeating the Ender Dragon in Minecraft. Vanessa and I relived and beat old classics such as Donkey Kong/Yoshi/Super Mario while diving into the new-aged classics such as Isaac/Spelunky.
It was our one year anniversary, as well as the 5th annual Wongsgiving. Travis Wong came into my life as I am an uncle of five now. Two Thousand and Thirteen will be hard to beat, but I'm willing to bet on the underdog here, :).
I turned 26 last week. Time is flying by, and I need to definitely blog more. Giancarlo was gracious enough to let me use his house to host a party. And so, with the help of Vanessa and Marty, we had ourselves a successful night of celebration. Thank you all for gifts, food, drinks, and showing up. The following pictures will do a better job illustrating the night.
Apparently, I took mugshots of people at one point.
I spent Christmas Eve with the Navarro's this year. I can't remember the last time I sat down in front of a Christmas tree opening gifts one at a time. Despite giving me an awesome camera, Vanessa still wrapped up two presents for me :). I got Vanessa a Custom-fitted recurve bow with all the accessories. Pictures will come soon, I promise. The next day was at my brother's house. There a lot of different and delicious food (as always). Vanessa and I just spent time with all the kids there for the first half. The second half we joined in on some Texas Hold'em with the family. Vanessa sat alongside me, learning the game, as we came up 20 bucks at the end! The kids opened the gifts we got them and it looked like the Minecraft swords were a good choice. It was a nice Christmas this year.
This is a bit overdue (again). For the first time, I participated in a Secret Santa event. The people involved were Vanessa, Briamy, Tuanolyn, and Lawrence. It was nice way to change the original gift exchanges, with the main reason being more financially viable. With the price range at 40 to 50, everyone got pretty creative with what they were limited to. We drew names a few weeks ago at Yard House, and we met up at our favorite KBBQ spot to reunite, feast, and to exchange our gifts at Boba Time.
Brian and Tuan were each others Santas.
Vanessa and Carolyn were each others Santas.
Amy was Santa for Lawrence
I was Santa for Amy.
And Lawrence was Santa for me, bringing me back into my childhood passion.
