I celebrated my 31st birthday last Saturday with a party at my parents’ house. Lots of family and friends — several I hadn’t seen in years — came by to celebrate, eat delicious food, drink, dance, and watch the Mayweather/Ortiz fight. My guests subtly requested that I show the fight, so I added it to the entertainment budget. It was a fun night, even if I was already tired and ready to call it a night before 11:30.

One thing I regret from the party was not grabbing the DJ’s mic and thanking the guests after we cut the cake. If I had, I would have said something along these lines:

In planning and preparing for the party, I had a lot of help from my parents, siblings, extended family, close friends and Sean. My family hosts a lot of big parties (75+ people) at our house and they’ve got it down to a science. Seriously.

Mil gracias go to:

Mom
While running errands and setting up on Saturday, I kept thinking that she deserved a whole post on her master party planning and hostess skills. If my mom ever wanted to leave working with special needs kids at schools, I’m pretty sure she could start a second career out of party planning/day-of-event coordination. My mom is awesome, and I’m not saying that because I get half my DNA from her. I’ve seen her host a taquiza (taco party) without a functioning kitchen for 40+ people with just a few hours of preparation. For this party, she secured some decorations on loan from friends, cooked a delicious spread of ~200 chicken enchiladas (with homemade enchilada salsa, of course), beans, rice, salad, and chicken/beef/cheese nachos with warm and toasty tortilla chips. She didn’t have her usual expert helper (my godmother/her sister Chilo), to help her out. Instead, Sean, I and Mamá Toni filled in in when necessary. Still, my mom deserves all the credit as she did the heavy lifting.

Dad
He’s equally good at this party thing. While my mom handles most of the indoor preparation in her shiny new kitchen, dad takes care of the outdoor set-up. His job started Thursday evening when he picked up a custom-made tent from my cousin Tony (thanks, primo!). The next morning, he recruited any extra hands around the house — that morning there were a lot including Papá Chepe, Padrino José and Danny — to put up the tent. On Saturday afternoon, he put up strings of white lights around the tent and under the carport. “Charlie Services” never fail me.

Lori
My sister used her baking skills to make cupcakes topped with Lotería cards and Mexican wedding cookies. She made my favorite carrot cake cupcakes as well as a few other flavors (vanilla, funfetti, chocolate). At the same time, she was baking and decorating cupcakes for another “client.” Later in the day, Lori did my makeup and helped me get all dolled up. She was even patient when I threw a hissy fit about the eyeshadow being a little too dramatic.

Danny
My older brother helped with the set-up and take down. He does it all without complaining and with a smile on his face. Oh, and he made sure to sing Las Mañanitas extra loud. I’m glad he did. He has a great voice.

Cynthia
Danny’s girlfriend came over after work late Friday night and joined Lori’s baking team. Cynthia created the “triple threat” chocolate cake featuring chocolate ganache, Nutella and banana filling. They were up until the wee hours of the morning. Her work paid off. The cake was delicious and she received several compliments.

Sean
He got his first taste of Mosqueda party hosting and worked like a champ. He helped where ever he was needed, whether it be putting up the papel picado, setting up tables and chairs, or helping my mom to make the enchiladas. He took over my usual job of lightly frying the tortillas and burned himself on the pan. Oops. He also took over photo duty.

Tía Paty, tío Iván and Stephen
My aunt and uncle are always early to parties and ready to lend a hand. This time tía Paty called ahead and asked if my mom needed anything. All my mom needed was an extra hand and she came through as did tío Iván and my cousin Stephen. They helped set up the tables with the fruit and salsa.

Adrian
The little brother wasn’t actually at the party. Due to scheduling conflicts I had to push back my party to the 17th, the same day as Adrian’s birthday and the weekend he was planning a camping trip. His girlfriend planned a small surprise BBQ on Thursday and we pre-celebrated his birthday. He was a good sport about me stealing his birthday.

Friends/family who loaned us stuff
We borrowed tables from some friends/neighbors. We borrowed our neighbor’s actual yard. My cousin Valerie loaned me her globe lanterns. My cousin Tony loaned us the tent he custom made.

The Guests!
Of course! It was nice to celebrate my 31st birthday with many of the same people who celebrated my 21st birthday with me.

Otra vez, mil gracias!

Daisy greeted me when I stopped by my parent’s house to pick up my sister a month ago. I figured she was one of the neighbors’ dogs who had just gotten out.

“She’s been here since the morning and won’t leave,” Lori told me. “I think Chepe fed her.”

She kept hanging around and watched as we drove off. When we returned from the baby shower, she was still hanging around.

A few days later, Lori sent me a photo of my parents sitting side by side. Mom held VR, the spoiled dog we’ve had for seven years. Dad held the new girl he’d named Daisy because of her Daisy Duke-like legs.

My parents decided to take her in until a possible owner showed up. They took her to the vet to look for a chip. She had none. While there, my mom tried to encourage another man looking for a rescue to take her home, but he wasn’t interested. Later, my dad scolded her, “She’s not for giving away!”

My family registered Daisy, who we found it just seven months old. She got her shots and got fixed too. She’s legit now and she’s part of the family.

VR doesn’t seem too happy about it. She gets in his space and takes away attention from him. I really can’t see why.

Tuesday was our final day enjoying Yosemite, but we didn’t expect it to be. Everyone slept in that morning and we had a lazy breakfast before heading out around noon to Tuolumne Grove about 15 minutes away.

Tuolumne Grove is home to some of California’s famous Giant Sequoias. It’s not as famous as Yosemite’s other grove of Sequoias, Mariposa Grove. It’s also not as crowded. There were only a few other people in the grove that afternoon.

The hike down the grove (yeah, down) is only a mile. Once in the grove you can follow several paths through the grove. The paths lead you around the trees and placards with information about the Giant Sequoias. Since I’m a nerd and find the very old trees fascinating, I read all the placards. And then I quoted them to my cousins as #treefacts.

By the time we ended our tour of Tuolumne Grove, the weather had changed. It was cooler and clouds were starting to move in. We had a chilly lunch at the picnic tables and then returned to the campsite.

Dinner back at Hodgdon Meadows was simple (hot dogs cooked on skewers; s’mores) and we got things cleaned up and ready to head out to the Starry, Starry Night free program 15 minutes away. Even though it was cloudy, we hoped the clouds would clear up. I was really looking forward to this program. I did something similar with my family when we visited the Grand Canyon in the early 90s.

Sadly, we never left the campground. It started to rain around 8, a little before we originally planned to leave for the starry night program. The rain never let up. Everyone rushed in to the tents and hoped they would keep out the rain.

They didn’t. Instead, we started to pack up our clothes up in case water seeped in to the tents. Everything was placed in sleeping bags. Adrian and Alexis put away their tent (which they had abandoned the previous night when their inflatable mattress deflated for the second time; they slept in the Durango). Along with De’Shaun and Jen, they were the first ones to abandon the tents for the cars.

Lori, Sean and I (who shared a tent) listened to the heavy rain, watched the flashes of lightning and listened to the thunder. Lori kept worrying about rain seeping in and never sat down. I chilled on the air mattress even though water was already starting to drip in through the seams. We moved the mattress slightly and moved anything we didn’t want to get wet away from the edges.

Lori then went to Nancy, Vanny, Valerie and Junior’s tent to hang out with them. They had some snacks and acted scared of the rain, until they noticed that they wouldn’t be able to sleep in the tents because was water was seeping in.We heard Rene yell that there was a river running through his tent and a lot of scrambling outside.

Everyone abandoned the tents for the cars. Sean and I stayed. I knew I wouldn’t sleep in a crowded SUV. The tent was cold, and the thunder and lightning was scary, but I was still relatively dry. I even slept a little. Sean wasn’t so lucky and got dripped on a little more later in the night. My cousins joked that we were like the old couple in Titanic cuddling on their bunk as the deck flooded, resigned to their fate. At least we didn’t get washed away or had the tent collapse on us.

When we awoke the next morning, it was still raining, but the campsite was no longer full of puddles. Everything was wet, including our firewood. If we were better prepared for the rain, we may have been able to salvage the trip. A couple of umbrellas and emergency ponchos weren’t enough. Junior sadly delivered the news that we’d be packing everything up and heading home a day early.

“Besides, we won’t be able to do much today as all the trails will be wet,” he reasoned.

We worked quickly to get food, clothes and supplies packed. We placed the muddy and wet tents in Junior’s car since there was a plastic cover in the back. Everyone was freezing (it was in the 40s) when we finally checked out and began the trip home. We warmed up in the cars although some us were still in wet clothes.

Although we were all bummed about being rained out, the rain and clouds gave us some more breathtaking views as we drove home.

I’d love to return to Yosemite. There’s so much to see and do that even a 4 day trip would not have been enough. It’s easy to see why it was the first National Park and why you have to plan ahead for reservations. Next time, I’ll prepare for the rain, especially if we go early in the summer.

Several of the photos in this post and the previous Yosemite posts were taken by Sean, my sister Lori or cousin Vanessa. If you’d like to see any more of the photos, just click on any photo and it’ll take you to the Flickr set. Enjoy.

The hike to Nevada Falls was definitely the highlight of the trip even though our Lucky 13 group got split up.

The plan for Monday was to get up by 6 am and have breakfast and be ready to leave for our hike by 8 am. That didn’t happen. It takes a while to get 13 people dressed, fed and ready for a day hike. Also, bear boxes make eating and cleaning everything up a big production.

We left the campsite around 10 am in all three cars. Before the trip, we agreed we’d do a day hike to Nevada Falls. It’s a popular hike, but not nearly as popular as Half Dome. Some of the campers in our group wanted to do Half Dome, but we lagged in getting permits until they were no longer available. Half Dome is a challenging hike (18 miles roundtrip, 4,800 feet of elevation climb) and we knew not everyone in the group would want to do hike it. Nevada Falls, with its 6-mile roundtrip and 2,800 feet ascent, seemed much more manageable for a group of mixed fitness and hiking experience. The night before we agreed to take the shorter Mist Trail up to Nevada Falls (about 1 mile shorter roundtrip) rather than the John Muir Trail (JMT). I was okay with the decision, but would have preferred the switchbacks of the latter.

By the time we arrived in Yosemite Valley, parked, took the free shuttle to the trailhead at Happy Isles, stretched and all went to the bathroom it was past 11:30. I was getting antsy and annoying my fellow campers.

I just wanted to get up to Nevada Falls early. It was already warm and sunny, with highs projected to get up to the 80s. It’s great weather, but I prefer to work out when it’s cooler and darker. Thankfully, a lot of the trails were shaded.

From the beginning of the hike, I set out from the rest of the group. Sean followed close behind me as we hiked up the first leg to the Vernal Falls footbridge (~1 mile, 400 feet elevation climb). This first leg is paved, steep and quite crowded. It was a bit frustrating to walk around slower hikers, kids and tourists amazed by a dumb squirrel on a boulder. We stopped a few times to take some pictures of the Merced River and the view as we ascended.

Soon, we were ahead of the other campers except for Adrian, De’Shaun and their girlfriends. We all paused at the footbridge to take in the sights and enjoy the cool air and mist rising from the river. Just beyond the footbridge, we encountered a fork. The two trail markers showed the same destinations with slightly different mileage. Rather than wait for the rest of the campers, we chose the longer route. I later found out that if I would have led my small group to left, we would have ascended via the crowded and popular Mist Trail.

Our hike was fun an uneventful (except when I dropped our PB&J sandwiches on the trail… we ate them anyway, they were just a little grainy). Adrian said he felt we made it up to the top rather quick because I was pushing the pace. I had my Garmin watch on and tracked mileage which helped us mentally. I could tell the others, “We’ve done a mile! Only two more to go.” We stopped to catch our breath, take pictures of the sights and eat. We all had plenty of water and had no problem staying hydrated. The JMT wasn’t too crowded, but it was stinky with lots of mule droppings in the early part. We didn’t see many people but heard several languages. We joked that Yosemite was like Disneyland, an international draw (with lots of lines and crowds too!).

After about an hour and a half, we made it up to the top of Nevada Falls. We admired the scenery of the falls, Half Dome in the distance, Mt Broderick and neighboring Liberty Cap. To cool down, we dipped our legs in the cold water for the ice bath effect. We re-applied sunblock and ate more of our snacks. I’m wary of heights, so I kept my distance from the open ledges. When I did try and look down at the water crashing down over the falls from the ledge with the rails, I got dizzy. Yeah, I’m a weenie.

We waited atop Nevada Falls for an hour for the rest of the group to show. Even if they had ascended the other trail, we all had the same destination. They never showed so we began our descent via the Mist Trail. At the top of the trail, we encountered Rene and Vero.

They told us that they split from Lori, Vanny, Valerie, Nancy and Junior who took up the JMT. We chatted before continuing down the Mist trail. Unfortunately, Rene and Vero didn’t warn us that the trail was tough, steep and very technical. At least we saw another beautiful waterfall.

The Mist Trail takes you closer along the Merced River and the two falls, hence it’s name. In the early summer the river is quite full and you get drenched with mist as you hike near the falls. The Mist Trail is very crowded; one of my friends described it as the 405 at rush hour.

At several points we stopped and pulled to the side let hikers pass us on their way up. Although the trail is shorter, it’s tougher since it’s crowded, narrow, steep and rocky. There were points when each of us almost slipped on the rocks and the guys complained about knee pain. Needless to say, we took our time coming down.

We took a short break at the top of Vernal Falls, which was crowded with lots of hikers taking breaks and enjoying the sunshine. Then we continued down the wet steps and hoped we didn’t slip. There’s parts of the trail that have handrails and others where it’s just steps (of varying heights) and a ledge overlooking the rough waters of the Merced. I’m not sure we could enjoy the views since we were so busy looking down at our steps. We put our cameras away so they wouldn’t get ruined by the water.

Four hours after we began, we made it down to Yosemite Valley. In the last mile or so, some of us ran down the trail just to get it over with. We took the shuttle (which almost ran me over) back to our car where we dug in to salty snacks. It took us longer than expected to get back to Hodgdon Meadows due to Yosemite Valley gridlock. Once at the campsite we took “showers” in the woods and made cheeseburgers for dinner.

The other half of our group didn’t arrive for a few hours. They had a good time too and returned with stories to tell.

Vanny and Junior first proposed the idea of a cousins’ trip to Yosemite. We’d all been camping as a group; the previous time being in 2006. Everyone was interested. Seven of us cousins were in. Adding plus ones, the group quickly doubled.

Junior, Vanny’s boyfriend, took the lead in organizing the trip. He reserved two sites at Hodgdon Meadows campground as soon as reservations opened up. He seemed a little bummed, because he wanted to get campsites in Yosemite Valley rather than at the northwest edge of the park (a 45 minute drive away). I was happy. Our campsites were numbers 30 and 31.

By March, we were ironing out some details. At least we tried to. Discussions over food and transportation (who’s going to drive?) quickly devolved into shouting matches. It wasn’t that we were mad at each other, that’s just the way we communicate.

Up until two weeks before departure, we were still finalizing the group. A few people backed out due to work and other obligations. Soon we were down to 13 (four people are missing from the group above).

Lucky 13.

We met up in Hacienda Heights at my mom’s house early Sunday morning. Call time was 4 am, but we didn’t get cars loaded, burritos made, and cars fueled until shortly before 6. We had a long road trip and wanted to get started before it got too warm. We split up in to 3 trucks/SUVs loaded down with camping equipment and coolers filled with food:

Cholos 101 – Junior, Vanny, Lori and Valerie
Mocos 414 – Nancy, Rene, Vero, Sean and me
Pimps on a Mission – Adrian, Alexis, De’Shaun and Jen

And we were off. The road trip was uneventful. Vero, Sean and I played Scrabble as we drove through various Central Valley towns. I won. We made a couple of pit stops. As we got to Yosemite, I brought out the bacon-flavored potato chips another cousin had brought with her after her post-college graduation European tour. They were delicious.

Around 1 or 2, we arrived to Yosemite National Park. We stopped in Wawona to go to the visitor’s center. Afterward, we drove in to gridlocked Yosemite Valley, home to iconic views of El Capitan, Half Dome and Yosemite Falls. We all gasped as soon as these breathtaking monuments came in to view. I love Ansel Adams’ Yosemite landscapes, but they’re poor substitutions for the real thing. Like good tourists, Vero, Nancy and Sean snapped photos of the breathtaking granite formations. I sat in my middle seat, tired, grumpy and jealous that I could barely see much.

We hung out in Yosemite Valley for half an hour before reading the visitor’s guide and realizing we could buy ice and fire wood at the gas station in Crane Flat, only 8 miles from our campground.

We drove to Hodgdon Meadows and set up camp. As soon as the tents were up and food was unloaded we made dinner (spaghetti). It was the perfect way to carb load for our 6+ mile hike the next day to Nevada Falls.

Grandpa Bartolo, 19 years old, 1944, Salamanca, Guanajuato
My paternal grandfather passed away in 1996, but before that he left his mark through his ability to heal with his hands and his influence on his family. I was lucky to see him almost every Sunday and get to know him. He was a little strict, I think you’d have to be with a bunch of grandkids running around your house, but always kind and loving.

Papá Chepe, 25 years old, 1945, Los Angeles
I’m very close to my maternal grandfather. Since I was a kid, he’s lived with my family when in Los Angeles. I love dancing with him and hearing his stories about when he was a kid or when he first came to LA as a bracero. He’s worked hard his entire life in the fields and as a gardener. He’ll be 91 in a few weeks.

Dad, 18 years old, 1972
There’s a lot of things that I admire about my dad. One of those has always been his willingness to better himself for his own good and that of his family. At a young age, I saw him change his life and become a better father and husband (he wasn’t a bad father/husband before, but there’s always room for improvement). He’s made some big changes and been a good example of the benefits of hard work, fait and will power.

Ten things I like about this family portrait from 1986:

1. Adrian barely fits in his clothes. He was a fat baby.
2. Lori and I are wearing matching dresses. I think they were homemade. Our earrings arracadas jerezanas, match too.
3. My parents look great. No surprise there.
4. Neither Danny nor I are smiling. I’m pretty sure I was trying to hide my messed smile.
5. My color. I’m sure no one looked at me as a kid and wondered why I was such a lighter shade of brown than my siblings. (Really, people have asked me this.)
6. There’s only a slight hint of gray in my dad’s hair. I forgot what he looked like with dark hair.
7. My mom is rocking the ’80s perm and big hair.
8. Lori’s bob blends in to my dad’s jacket.
9. Danny looks like he’s up to no good. Not a big surprise, since he broke a lot of stuff in our house growing up. (Have I told you about the time he and his friend decided to have a fight with the balls from our pool table and I got caught in the cross fire? Ouch.)
10. The Olan Mills tag at the bottom. We took a lot of portraits at Olan Mills.

I think we’re still a good looking bunch.

When Danny first told me he was enrolling in culinary school, I was a bit confused. ‘Since when were you in to cooking?’ I wondered. I may have rarely seen him cook, but he had worked in the food service industry for a few years as a server at a chain restaurant. Culinary school wasn’t too far off from his interest.

Over the next 15 months, I didn’t see Danny as much as I was used to and when I did see him, it was for a few minutes. He was busy with classes every night of the week, studying and holding down a job at a restaurant. I flipped through his huge books occasionally. I ate the food he prepared. Whether a tuna melt neatly plated, spicy chilaquiles or a colorful fruit tart, it was all delicious.

A few weeks ago, he informed me that he would be graduating. We sent an invite to the family and included the photo above. I really like it.

Yesterday morning, my family gathered at Santa Anita Park to attend Danny’s graduation ceremony from Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts College-Los Angeles. Afterward we had a reception at the house. Danny cooked with help from my mom. The food was made with a lot of love.

Congratulations, Danny! The whole familia is proud of you.

Adrian and I like to say we’re my mom’s favorites. I think the above photo is proof. Plus, I know she thinks Adrian is her best looking kid. She was joking then, of course.

Happy mother’s day, Mom!

And happy mother’s day to all the other marvelous mamas out there, especially my grandmothers, great aunts, aunts, cousins and friends.

Now, off to help with the tamales!

(Note: I didn’t pose with the beer because I wasn’t drinking at the time for medical reasons. Boring. At least I was a reliable designated driver.)

I got an angry comment from my younger brother last week. He was upset and felt ignored. I can’t blame him. In an older post, I listed my family’s long term involvement at St. John Vianney. For some reason, probably just because my memory failed me, I left out Adrian’s 5 year tenure as a drummer during the youth Mass. In his words, “[he] rocked that place and woke everyone up, like it or not!” Danny was also part of the youth choir, but was usually the cantor (lead singer). I always enjoyed those Masses. It was cool to see my brother up there doing what he loved and I felt proud of him when he was complimented by the priest or other parishioners.

Adrian still has the drum kit set up in his room, but no longer plays with a band or with the youth choir. He’s much too busy working a couple of jobs. At dawn he gets up to work at UPS. In the afternoons, he heads off to his second job as the site director of an after school program at local middle school. Adrian’s been working with the after school program for a few years now, and just recently took on the responsibility of being the site director. I know the dealing with paperwork and misbehaving kids stresses him out, but I know he also enjoys teaching his kids to drum. He’s doing a great job. (Fun fact: my mom — who has worked in Hacienda Heights schools for 20 years or so — is one of the people Adrian oversees at his site.)

Adrian’s no longer rocking out on the drums at church, on the field (drum line in the band) or in local clubs with his band, but he’s still making me proud.