Venezuelan Independence Day!

July 5th is Venezuelan Independence day. 

Since we just celebrated USA's Independence day it's easy to just keep on celebrating.

After Cruz got home from work we went to the pool for a little while. Feels so good and refreshing.

(Which is also why I don't have any make-up on these pics. lol.)

Then decided to have a little Venezuelan flair to our dinner. We debated on driving to a Venezuelan restaurant in Vegas, but then decided not too. Maybe we should have... 

Instead we ran to the store and got a few things...

This year, we tried making our own Guasaacaca Sauce.

What is Gusaacaca Sauce?

It is this SUPER yummy avocado, cilantro, parsley sauce that is creamy and delicious. It's not like guacamole at all... (even though I love guacamole too.) In Venezuela they eat it with Arepas, empanadas, chicken etc...

This is our second attempt with a recipe I found online. Not quite right... but it was fun to try. ;) The recipe called for Worcestershire Sauce... and it kind of took over the taste. Cruz thought if we just left that out we would be right on track. 

We also made Arepas filled with chicken salad. 

I have only been to Venezuela once. We had such a fun time there. I got to meet Cruz's family and see where he is from. It's always fun to bring a little bit of Venezuela into our home in whatever way we can. I sure do love this Venezuelan man of mine!

1st half of JULY 2011

Summer is too much fun. Plus we skip our lunches at my work and go home at noon on Friday. Since I mostly blog during the lunch break hour, I haven't been updating the blog very much. :( However, I am enjoying the summer. I really don't want it to end.

Seriously, this summer has been a little GO.... Go....go! Oh, and I am loving it. We are also going to Europe in just 2 weeks.... I am getting so excited.

What have you been doing this summer?

Venezuela trip 2010 highlights

I love my family... all of them (my own and cruz's)!! It was so nice to finally meet them, and get to spend time with all of them. They are super nice, and made our trip wonderful.

The beaches were amazing. It rained a lot... and yet we still got time to go to the beach rain or shine, we went. :) Any time it was sunny we literally went to the beach.

We went snorkeling, it was a first for me. This was a HUGE star fish.

We tried to enjoy everyday we could out in the sunshine. We went to a little island off of the island Cruz's family lives on... and spent the day there. It was stunning.

Not only did his family share so many yummy meals with us (Cruz's Mom is an amazing cook) but we got to share a few traditions together as well. Cruz and I brought this gingerbread house kit for them to try. We usually make these little houses in the USA but they'd never made them before. It was fun to share a little Christmas tradition with them. 

I loved meeting Cruz's nieces, as well as his little cousins. They would talk to me in Spanish all day long... even though I had no idea what they were saying! LOL. 

The food was completely amazing, and all the yummy fruit drinks were to die for. We ate a lot! Cruz was stuffing in all the Venezuelan food he could get in before we left. 

Cruz has so many friends and such a large family. It was so nice to meet them! We wish we could have spent more time with everyone. 

I loved going to Venezuela. I loved meeting my new family. It was such a good time. In 17 days we did a lot of stuff... and had such a blast. I can't wait until we go back. I loved having 17 full days to spend with Cruz, and it was good to see where he grew up. Cruz posted most of the pics on facebook... so i only put a few here... but we took a ton. A trip I will never forget.