Catching up

So in case you were wondering, we made it through the summer. Raul did an internship in Irvine, California. And with housing prices as they are there, we didn't go with him. (We paid more for one bedroom in a hous with roommates in California than we pay for a 2 bedroom apartment in Provo...) So he left May 31st, leaving me with the kids to pack up the majority of the apartment and move it to a storage unit. It was a big project, but I had lots of help. The kids and I went to live with my parents in Twin Falls, Idaho. We had a great time, but it was still hard being so far away from Raul. We did get to see each other a few times over those weeks. We found some great deals on plane tickets, so Raul flew to Salt Lake and we drove down for the weekend at the end of June. We had a wonderful time, and even left the kids with some friends and escaped for an overnight "2nd honeymoon" in Park City. We were sad that he had to go so soon, but we didn't have much choice. Raul really wanted to show us all the places he had been in Irvine, so we decided to go ahead and fly out there for the last week of his internship (We don't have to pay for Raulito yet...). We had a GREAT TIME! We visited a lot of malls, most of them with a carousel, ferris wheel, train, lots of fountains, or something fun for the kids to play on. (of course, each one cost $2-4 each ride...) We spent one whole afternoon at a beautiful beach. The water was a bit cold at first, but once you got used to it, it felt so good. Rakel wouldn't go in past her knees, but she loved playing in the sand. The baby...well, lets just say it's better than last time. At least he wasn't crawling around getting sand on his hands and then in his mouth...He still wasn't a big fan, (especially when I was washing the sand off of him) but it wasn't bad. And nobody got sunburned! We also visited Fashion Island (which isn't really an island, it's a huge mall...) and Balboa Island (which really is an Island). Then we drove back to Provo all together. It was a long ride, but we had bought a laptop, so we had some movies for the kids when they got extremely bored...And we stoped quite a few times along the way. So now we're back in Provo. We are pretty much readjusted to being together again, going to school, getting back into our routines, new ward, etc. Raul is starting to feel the stress of school once again, and misses his "desk job", his "taste of the real world" that he had in California. He is back at Golden Corral working as a server. I am at home with the kids. I'm back to my 6am aerobics classes. My friend suggested I start training for a half-marathon...Yeah, I don't think so. Rakel starts preschool on Monday the 22nd, so she is SO EXCITED about that. She talks about it every day and she plays school with her dolls, she is the teacher of course... Raulito (jr.) is walking without help, although he is still a pretty big mama's boy. He sleeps through the night (a big accomplishment for him) and will go to sleep in his crib without me having to rock him or feed him...(an even bigger accomplishment...)

We went to the BYU game against UCLA last Saturday. I thought it would be a better game (closer, I mean), but we had a lot of fun. Rakel really liked the cheerleaders and Cosmo, and Raulito was pretty good for a one-year-old. GO COUGARS!