La Familia

So. . . I just have to post this AMAZING family photo circa 1985. It's a family favorite for several reasons:

1. We aren't the family photo kind of family, so it's one of the few surviving pictures with all of us in it.

There was a FABULOUS poster sized picture of all of us at Circus Circus from about 1983 that has mysteriously dissappeared. I blame my dad who wasn't a big fan of his hairstyle in the photo. It was last spotted when my brothers and I found it behind our mom's hope chest when I was a junior in high school. We laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and then it dissappeared. Suspicious, no?

2. It reminds us of our very special day in Tijuana when my father asked the cab driver IN SPANISH to take us to the mercado where they sell the touristy stuff. The man smiled, told us "No problemo" and dropped us off in the middle of my mother's worst nightmare. We got out of the cab right next to a shop with an enormous mound of dried shrimp, a dead cat lying in the street, and a young boy of about ten sharpening his knife on the curb as he stared at us with dark, haunted eyes.

We eventually found our way to the part of town my father had originally intended and had a pretty good day. My sister Christy got her "wooby" (a blanket she still has to this day. She insists her attachment is only because "it's a comfortable blanket" but we all know better.), we saw a velvet painting of Joseph Smith, Jr., and my dad bought me a beautiful opal ring (I lost it about 2 weeks later while swimming at a family friend's house. I can't be trusted with rings. That's why I'm not married.).

3. It's amazing that my dad took the time and actually paid to have this picture taken. He's not cheap, but doesn't go for this kind of tourist nonesense.

4. We all look like idiots in our sombreros (which I remember NOT wanting to put on my head. . . let's just say I doubted the proprietors had been vigilant as far as cleanliness goes.) but my dad's is just absolutely ridiculous. Why do you give the only adult man in the group the tiniest hat? And one that says, "Oh Boy!"? Priceless.

If you notice, I'm in the middle wearing a sombrero that pleads, "KISS ME!" Talk about desperate. Oh, Eleven Year-old Me, NEVER BEG!! Boys don't like needy girls. Learn it now, it'll save us both a lot of heartache.

5. THAT IS IN FACT A BURRO PAINTED TO LOOK LIKE A ZEBRA! It just doesn't get better than that.