Everyone needed some sun, sand and of course BEER! So we all flew down to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for the week. We left yesterday morning and took the direct flight from Salt Lake City to the old Mexican town of Puerto Vallarta. I really like Puerto Vallarta better then Cancun because I feel that Puerto Vallarta still retains some of the old world feel to it compared to the tourist crazy Cancun. I have been down to Puerto Vallarta a few times now, looking back at my first blog all this craziness started on New Years Eve in Puerto Vallarta with a drunken promise to run a marathon. Lets just say I am off track right now, and this week of all-inclusive resort will not help the training schedule.

I love all-inclusive resorts. We are staying at the Vallarta Palace, part of the Palace Resorts. We have stayed at the Sun Palace in Cancun a few times now and I really enjoy not having to worry about organizing dinner or activities when there is a group of us going. Besides, I can rack up one hell of a bar tab and this way I don’t have a heart attack at the end of the trip when I get the check out bill and realize I have spent $2,259.00 on drinks. That is another story for another day. Before we were even checked in we were drinking the drink of the day. My favorite drink is Tequila. You have to know your way around the all-inclusive resort. They always have their local liqueurs spread out on the bar, they are usually the cheapest mixes, but always stashed somewhere around the bar they have the “GOOD STUFF”. We were lucky because under the bar they had Don Julio, Reposado. A very fine tasting tequila even after 10 shots. I usually follow that up with a Margarita or Tequila Sunrise. If anyone else has a great tequila drink please offer some new suggestions. They also had some great Mexican beer on tap.

Today, was all about relaxing in the pool, working on our tans and of course playing some beer pong. We bought an inflatable beer pong table from Port-a-Pong. The bar was great and would bring us 20 glasses of beer over when ever we needed to play a new game. You can’t beat service like that. Josh was not the champion this time around as is usually the case. My youngest brother, and the biggest of us all, Zack easily took home the Puerto Vallarta Beer Pong Championship of 2008. Check out the video below for some of the best Beer Pong bloopers!

Beer Pong from Matthew Peterson on Vimeo.

My evenings this week have been filled with Olympic fever. From swimming to gymnastics I am glued to the TV to watch the worlds best athletes compete for the Gold in Beijing, China. Competition can be fierce. These Olympians are the best in the world at their event, the talent level is raw and mesmerizing. However, even though they are the greatest athletes in the world, there is danger in any sport. I compiled the top 10 ways to get hurt while competing in the Olympics.

#10 - Jumping On A Springboard With Too Much Spring

#9 - Holding On To The Pole Too Long During Your Vault

#8 - Failing to Complete A Steeplechase Hurdle

#7 - Not Paying Attention To The Shot Putter

#6 - Jumping On A Springboard With No Bounce

#5 - Not Watching The Javelin Thrower

#4 - Hammer Throw During The Rain

#3 - Crashing Your Bicycle Ahead Of 50 Other Racers

#2 - Missing The 4 Inch Balance Beam

#1 - Getting In The Way Of The Chinese Government And Their Olympic Quest

One of my favorite things to do is cook food. I am not really good at it, but I enjoy trying new recipes and experimenting in the kitchen. Rick is an excellent chef and mostly cooks around our house. We are lucky that we have good friends that let us experiment our culinary skills and then kindly put up with the food. Luckily we always accompany our dinners with enough wine to make everything taste good. Rick decided he was going to make a rolled turkey breast stuffed with fresh asparagus, portobello mushrooms, and havarti cheese. He also made and incredible angel food cake that he then topped with chilled peaches that had been cooked and then chilled in Port Wine. I am not a huge fan of Port, but this was a pretty excellent dessert.

I was in charge of appetizers. I decided I would try and make some date ramaki. I took fresh dates and cut them open and filled them with a mile blue cheese and then wrapped them in bacon. I put them in the oven and in the midst of getting everything ready for dinner forgot about them. Well of course I burned the hell out of those little bacon wrapped dates. The house filled with smoke and that mean I had to start all over. I ran down to the store and bought new dates, new blue cheese and bacon and started the process all over again. Luckily this time they turned out perfect.

Stacey and Ryan along with Sharadee and Dajun were kind enough to let us experiment our latest food creations on them. We obviously enjoyed our wine during dinner because by the end of dinner we ended up singing Karaoke around the piano. It was a very impromptu Elton John Tribute performance. Stacey sure has numerous expressions and loves the jazz hands while singing, watch for her to compete on the next Singing Bee….we couldn’t find a microphone but she kindly took to the deer antler as a makeshift microphone. Sharadee provided us with an outstanding snip it from The Phantom Of The Opera. The dogs into the action and made the appearance as well. God forbid that they be left out of some important activity. Rick wants to audition for Dancing With The Stars, so he busted out a few moves through out the night. Check out the video below for some hilarious excerpts from our Crazy Karaoke Bunch.

This musical duo “The Bird and The Bee” has been making my head spin lately. I really like the jazz influenced electro pop sound they produce. They don’t have a wide range of songs yet, but what they do have is a great set. It is great to listen to while cleaning dishes up after dinner….what am I talking about…I don’t wash dishes….somehow they magically apear clean in our cupboard. It does make you want to dance around the house in a rythmic vibration while only wearing underwear, so please use caution when listening unless you are an exhibitionist like me…then no need to worry. 

T-ko is such a lady, well, ok most of the time. That is, she is a lady except when she is passing gas that clears the room. As I sit here updating pictures from our Italy Trip, T-ko is sitting over in the corner of the room looking Pretty in Pink…..she is on her new cooling gel summer bed. It wicks away her body heat due to this gels that absorbs heat, she seems to like it on these hot days. Anyway, she is sitting over there looking all pretty and elegant like the princess she is and then I hear this hissing sound. If you have a boxer you know that hissing sound. It sounds like a mix between a rapidly deflating tire and one of those automatic air fresheners in a commercial bathroom that releases a fragrance at timed intervals. The only problem with T-ko’s regularly timed release of fragrance is that the fragrance doesn’t smell like “Fresh Linen” or “Spring Rain”. What a disgusting and revolting smell that princess can make. I finally had to get up and go get the Frebreeze  “Spring Rain” and Frebreeze her ass. I was starting to get nauseous over here. The thing that gets me is that she acts just like Rick and pretends that she didn’t do anything.

I said, “T-ko your ass stinks….do you need to go outside and go to the bathroom?”

She looked over at me…..then sniffed her ass over her shoulder and looked out the window like she had no idea in hell what I was talking about.