El Paso Texas

I arrived in Portland, Oregon after first flying to San Francisco and I had been on a red eye flight so please ignore the tired look.  Luckily I was able to hang out with both of my parents for a while before it was time for my mom and I to board our next flight to Vegas!! Don't get to excited, Vegas was just our lay over until we continued on to El Paso.  Our flight was a little bit delayed but we were ok with that, we found something to pass the time.

Eventually we were able to board our flight and head on to El Paso but Laura got stuck in Atlanta over night. She had a little bit of a rough start to get to Texas but she made it eventually!!

We were greeted by my sister and one munchkin when we landed, little Rafi already went to bed but we did get in pretty late that night.  We made the quick drive back to her house and visited for a little bit before we hit the hay.  We were going to get up early to go back to the airport the next morning to get Laura!! She FINALLY made it to El Paso BUT her bag didn't, like I said, a rough start.  We got everything worked out eventually. We decided to have a lazy day and let everyone get caught up and adjusted so we went shopping at Walmart and Costco and helped Michael get his swimming pool ready so he could swim around. I tried to teach him how to blow bubbles in the water but I think the concept was lost on him.  Now he drinks the pool water.....oooooops, I didn't do it!!! I also tried to teach Michael how to float, that transformed into him sticking his ear in the water, strange child.  Michael entertained us with his drumming skills on Rockband too.

I wouldn't be a very good Aunt if I didn't spoil these little boys when I saw them so I HAD to bring them new outfits to wear.  These were ones that they could only get from their favorite Aunt that lives in Hawaii!! I think they are the cutest things ever.

We helped my sister feed them breakfast in the mornings and get them dressed and up and moving.  I think we all had diaper duty at least once.  We left the stinky ones for my mom and sister but if they were wet it wasn't so bad to change them.  I warned them though, if they peed on me they were going to be in trouble!!  Rafi really liked Laura, this made my mom call him a traitor.  As soon as he saw her he would be off crawling for her.  She could outrun him but he was persistent, eventually he would catch her and convince her to hold him.

Babies woke us up every single morning!!!!!!

They said a heat wave was hitting the south but I really believed it once I got to Texas!! Every day it was over one hundred degrees! It honestly wasn't too bad, the only thing we noticed was that there weren't a lot of people out during the day.  Im guessing it is because of the heat and we saw more people come out in the late evenings, it was almost like they were hibernating during the day.  El Paso is also really dry, we couldn't believe that no one had grass!!! We didn't even see any green trees.

We went to the Zoo one day and that was a lot of fun.  Both the boys were really good in their strollers and I had fun pushing them around.  My sister gave me the defective stroller with Michael so sometimes we were all over the place but he took it like a champ.  I didn't run him into anything to serious, we just went off roading sometimes.  Michael really likes the sea lions and watches them swim.

Wearing a skirt and sitting like that really doesn't work out very well.

We also made it to the Border Patrol Museum, that was a really neat place to go. They told us about various ways people try to sneak across the border and different methods they use to hide there tracks.  Some of it was really clever, like putting horse shoes on the bottom of your shoes to make it look like a horse walked through.  They also put things like brushes or boards on the bottom of there feet so instead of foot prints the sand would just be moved around.  People were very creative when trying to come over the border undetected.  They made their own motorcycles, planes, boats, and they even made their own weapons.  We also learned about the border patrol dogs and how much they help stop drug trafficking coming over the border.

We had one hiding in the back!!!

They Caught Him!!!!

I really liked pushing them around in their strollers and they usually fell asleep, if they didn't sleep in the stroller then they would sleep in the car on the way home.  My mom wanted to try some cupcakes that had filling in the middle but you bake them yourself.  They turned out really good, we liked the chocolate ones better than the vanilla but Michael didn't care.  Whatever you were eating he wanted it too.  He would come up to you and say mine and open his mouth.  Eventually you shared whatever you had with him but that wasn't a bad thing.  He would eat fruit with me in the mornings and have snacks with us and we would feed him cupcakes when mom wasn't looking!!!

Rafi is a little cuddle bug and doesn't like to be put down.  If you hold him for a while and put him down he is ok but if he doesn't think you held him long enough he will cry and crawl after you until you pick him up again.  Sometimes I felt bad for him because by the time he reached you, you'd be moving back the way you came and if he would have stayed put then he wouldn't be chasing you! He likes sitting in his bouncer while he eats and then he plays with the toys that are on it.  Sometimes Michael likes to 'help' by pushing him around in it.  Rafi usually goes straight into the walls or couch but he doesn't seem to mind and Michael thinks its funny.

 We found out that Michael HATES baths but he is ok once he is out of the water. Im not quite sure how he knows the difference between the swimming pool, playing in the kitchen sink, and the bath tub.  He likes playing in the faucets and being in the water.  Sometimes I can't figure that kid out.  He is definitely mischievous though and the second you laugh at him your in trouble because he will never stop doing what he thinks you find funny.  They are both good little boys though and we had a lot of fun playing with them for the week and trying to keep them out of their mama's hair. I think he looks like me and could be mine, he just acts like his mom!!

 After playing with kids all week I guess you could say we went off the deep end a little bit. Oh well, we had fun!! We also found a really neat bathroom that had chalkboards for walls so of course we had to write on them.

These are the bracelets I gave everyone, they have been very
supportive while Tony has been gone and I appreciate
everything that each of them has done for me. By supporting
me they are supporting him and I couldn't do it without
you guys!!