Puerto Rico

About 2-3 months ago, Randy and I booked our one-way flights for Virginia. We were talking about it and I joked that we should fly to Puerto Rico to visit Nick, randy's brother, and his family. The next thing I know, Nick and Randy are talking to each other on the phone, discussing plane flights and times to come. Not a day later, we booked our flights for Puerto Rico, 5 days after we fly into VA! We figured that'd give us enough time to find a place (we already had a few in mind) and then fly to PR.

I have to say....Puerto Rico was way awesome! We loved Loved LOVED being with Nick, Maddy, and the boys! PR was very beautiful and we loved the waters. Unfortunately, A/C is very expensive over there so rarely anyone uses A/C, just fans. This includes Nick and Maddy. This made me feel for them and especially how strong they are being right now! The boys could care less most of the time. Oh the things we did! We went to the rainforest; Randy and I swung from a vine and the boys pretended to be secret agents. We all went into Old Town San Juan, walked around, and had amazing meals. I honestly miss their foods. Their butter biscuits, their meat with an amazing sauce on it (I'd really like to know how to make that), their banana meals, and then something with zuchinni, I think that was it. Anyways, we went to the beach and played around. Nick and Maddy live in a community so they have a community pool. We took advantage of that quite a bit and swam with the boys. I taught the boys how to swim a little bit and that was really funny. They can now blow their noses underwater, use their arms and legs a bit more, but best of all, I think they learned how to not depend on their life vests as much as before. Nick and Maddy, I'm counting on you two to keep that up! P.S. I have pictures on Randy's computer and he's using it right now so you'll have to wait on the pictures or click on Nick and Maddy to look at them.

When Randy and I booked our flights, we also decided to book a hotel room for 2 nights for him and I, some time alone in PR. After a while, right before our wedding, we decided to give Nick and Maddy the second night. Maddy was SO excited, it made me laugh so hard. When Randy and I got there, we had ice cream and drinks at the bar, swam at the beach and hunted for sand dollars with our snorkeling gear, and walked the beach at night. It was really nice to be with Randy and enjoy another side of Puerto Rico. The next morning, we had breakfast at the restaurant and just hung around our hotel room, ENJOYING the air conditioning that was in there. :) We came back to Maddy's house and they went later that night. Randy and I watched the boys and they were really good with us! It was nice tucking them into bed that night, listening to Owen say the night prayer, and hearing them say, "I love you." The next morning, I made them chocolate chip pancakes and around lunchtime, Randy, Owen, and Corbin went swimming. I stayed behind because it was Jaren's naptime but that time by myself was nice. I prepared sandwiches for the boys then put them into the fridge, cleaned up a bit, took a nice cold shower, and read a book.

Needless to say, Randy and I miss the whole family! We do miss you guys! And everyone else too! We've told Nick and Maddy we have an extra bedroom and they're welcome to come ANYTIME. That goes for everyone else too. Randy and I live in a 2-bedroom apartment right accross from Exxon, his work, which is nice. P.S. I love our laundry room. I had a job interview at a dental office last week but he never called me back, which was pretty tacky, so I called him, leaving a message. He hired another girl who came from a training program he recognized, which is understandable, so I applied at a few other dental offices as well as the hospital next door to us for phlebotomy. Randy starts this Wednesday at Exxon and starting tomorrow for the next couple weeks, I'll be helping out his aunt with her kids while she's at girls camp and at work. So I'm looking forward to that. We're loving Virginia here. It's so beautiful and green. Everyone we've met so far has been friendly and our ward is INCREDIBLY welcoming. We're loving our place. We focused on it the first few days we moved in; we wanted to get everything done right away. There's still a few things but very minor things. We had a bottle of sparking cider and toasted to each other when we finished. I've been practicing my piano every day. Today, we took the subway into DC to visit the White House, the Holocaust museum, and have a dinner in DC. It was fun and nice! A long trip but I wanted to ride it instead of drive. For the 4th of July, it was AMAZING! I will post a video on that later. Whoo- we had never seen fireworks that incredible. We laid on the lawn of the Department of the Interior South. Randy's uncle works in that building and he gave us some tickets. So far, we've visited the washington monument, the lincoln memorial, vietnam and korea war memorial, and the arlington cemetery. I had already seen some of these places before but I was in 7th grade and wasn't very aspired to take in the feelings I took in now. Plus, Randy had never been to these places before. New York City is only 3.5-4 hours from us so I think that'll be our big trip. I'd love to go to Gettysburg- that's on our list. I'd also love to go to Vermont in the fall or Philly. Alabama is only about 10 hours away (Randy served there) so we've considered taking a trip down there. My grandpa and mostly everyone on my dad's side live in Illinois and that's also about 10 hours. My cousin whom I haven't seen in over 10 years lives in Virginia beach which is 3 hours from us so that's another place too. Oh the possibilities!

Hope y'all are doing great. I'll put pictures up soon and of our apartment too. Continue to update your blogs so we can all stay in touch and let each other know what's going on. We love you guys!