Whoa I'm bad at this...

I used to be so good at blogging, but as it turns out, that's only because I was in Australia where I had no family and very few friends and thus WAY too much time to spend online. But I will try to be better. Though I do have family and friends in Cedar, I lack a job and school, so really I have no excuse for not writing.

Well, after spending three weeks at home I went to South America from November 19 to December 11. I traveled through Argentina, Chile (only spent about 17 hours there), and Peru with my sister who had been living in Buenos Aires for 8 months teaching English/learning Spanish. Traveling through these countries was an amazing experience that I wouldn't trade for anything, even with the hours of crappy bus rides (about 85 hours total) trying to sleep in semi-cama seats and nights spent in shady bus terminals. The trip culminated with our visit to Machu Picchu, and honestly it's not worth describing here because it was completely indescribable. If you could ever visit that place I HIGHLY recommend it, it was worth the whole three week trip.

Somewhere near Salta, Argentina. We'd been walking for a while.

Visiting the salt flats near Purmamarca, Argentina.

Walking through the creepy meat section of the markets in Tacna, Peru.

Machu Picchu! (We're at the top of Huaynapicchu here)

Even though I was sad to see my adventures end, coming home was refreshing. I'd highly missed the clean toilets, warm bed, safe food, and regular bowel movements (yep, I said it).

Next big event that happened to me was Christmas. As always, it was great. I refuse to give up on being a kid and like every year before this, I spent the night cuddled up in sleeping bags in the basement with my brothers and sisters and even got a little excited when I heard movement upstairs. I ended up getting a camera and, get this, a hamster. My mom specifically told my dad not to get me a hamster, but my dad is too awesome for that. After some deliberation we decided to name the little animal Atilla. I think he hates me though, but hopefully we can improve our relationship in the months to come.

The night before Christmas. That "bed" was actually pretty comfortable.

New Years was uneventful. My sister had a HUGE party at our place, which was "fun" but made me seriously yearn for my personal space back.

And in recent news, we've been trying to get my female chocolate lab pregnant. We brought my friend's dog, Buck, over to give it a go for a couple days and as of now it's undetermined how successful the two were. We just really hope my brother's little pug didn't get her first because I'd really rather not raise a pack of "pugadors."

Well, I think that's it for now. I'll be better at writing from now on... hopefully.