Paul was recognized for his work by Beckman Coulter at an awards banquet in Laguna Beach. Wednesday morning I flew out of MIA to meet up with Paul who already in California since Monday. From the airport we went to Seal Beach to have lunch at O’Malley’s. We decided to take the scenic route down to Laguna by driving on the Pacific Coast Highway, and arrived at the Surf and Sand Resort early in the afternoon. We had a beautiful room with a gorgeous view of the Pacific Ocean. That afternoon, we took a walk down to the city center, and then strolled back along the ocean. The houses along the beach are absolutely gorgeous. For dinner we ate at the hotel beachside restaurant, the food and view amazing.

Thursday, we lounged by the pool and took a dip in the cold Pacific Ocean. Actually Paul did. I just went in to about my waist. Thursday evening was the awards banquet at the Montage Resort. The place was beautiful and the food was delicious. Paul and his team got to go up on stage to receive their awards.

Friday was our last day, because Paul had to go to class Saturday morning in Orlando. We had signed up to go on an excursion called Dolphin Safari. At Dana Point, we boarded a catamaran along with 8 other couples. The day was perfect, a flat ocean, and not one cloud in the sky. We were able to see Pacific white sided dolphins, common dolphins, seals and a Minke whale from far away. Friday evening, there was a delicious dinner buffet up on the terrace of the hotel. Unfortunately, Paul and I weren't able to stay long because we had a red eye flight to catch. I got on a flight to Miami and Paul flew to Orlando for his weekend class.

Since it’s been awhile since I have updated the site, I will try to catch you up on what has been going on.

Alexa has been very busy with school and extra curricular activities. We are still going to Gymboree, and music classes on Saturdays with Angelina and Matias. School is going very well for Alexa. It has been full of fun activities for her to participate in. The firefighters have visited as well as the police and a dentist. She has dressed up for rodeo day (a cowgirl), storybook day (Snow White) and career day (a Gator doctor).

Paul Andrew is growing daily. At his latest doctors appointment he was weighing 19lbs 5oz and measuring 30 in long. He is now eating pureed meats but is dying to eat regular food, and with his 8 teeth he should be able to do that soon. He is crawling at super speed, babbling, and standing up using any piece of furniture he can find.

For Halloween, Angelina had her annual Halloween Party, although this year though it was at a warehouse full of bounce houses. Alexa dressed up as a flamenco dancer and Paul Andrew was Larry Csonka from the Miami Dolphins. Alexa had a great time jumping in all the bounce houses and Paul Andrew loved watching his sister.

Alexa’s first day of school was delayed 2 days because of Tropical Storm Fay, so she started Gateway on Wednesday, August 20. I have had the pleasure of taking her to school every morning because Gloria has to be at work before me. For the first week, she cried every morning, but by the next week, she adjusted and now gives hugs and waves bye-bye.

As mentioned above, Gloria is back to work at Winston Park. I am sure she is thrilled to be back to work.

I have started the Master’s Engineering Management and MBA program at UF. The program is oriented towards working professionals, so they have some mercy on the school work. However, it’s been awhile since I have had homework, and I never had to get up at 5:30 AM to do it!

Paul Andrew, not to be left out, has started Gymboree. At 7 months, he’s growing, giggling, eating, and watching his sister. He just started crawling, and is wasting no time learning how to get up on two legs (looks like another toe walker). He recently popped out two front teeth, and I think he is starting on the next ones. Baby food has been fun, and I know by the look on his face, he wants what we are eating.

Two weeks after we returned from California, we once again boarded a plane back to Los Angeles. This time though we took the kids, Paul’s parents and Dan. Paul went for work, the rest of us for pleasure. We left Miami early Friday morning. Thanks to Paul we all got to hang out in the Admirals Club before our plane took off. Paul Andrew behaved great for his first flight, sleeping most of the time. Alexa also behaved pretty good, watching her movies and playing with her seat in business class.

Saturday morning we decided to drive down to San Diego to go to the zoo. The drive form Brea to San Diego was just under 2 hours. Not too bad. The zoo was amazing and huge. We saw all sorts of animals: panda’s, polar bears, giraffes, elephants, monkeys, the list just goes on and on. Since the zoo is so large they have a double-decker bus that takes you to see most of the animals. We decided to ride the bus rather than try to walk the entire zoo. We also took a sky tram to visit the polar bears. Alexa and Paul Andrew enjoyed being so high up. By the end of the day we were exhausted.

Sunday, was our day in the city. We woke up early and went to the La Brea Tar pits. Alexa loved seeing all the bones of the animals that had gotten trapped in the tar pits. From there we went to The Grove to have some lunch in the Farmers Market and walk around and do some window-shopping. While Alexa and Paul Andrew were sleeping in the car, we did some sightseeing. We drove down Sunset Boulevard, Rodeo Drive, the streets of Beverly Hills, and then drove The Pacific Coast Highway up to Malibu. Our day ended with a visit to Shannon and her family in Santa Monica. We had a great barbeque lunch and Alexa had a blast playing in the sandbox.

Monday was back to work for Paul. The rest of us met up with Annjanette, Ashley, Ana Maria and Billy at Irvine Regional Park. We had a picnic, rode a train and saw some horses. We were going to go for a pony ride but they are closed on Mondays.

Tuesday was Alexa’s day. We went to the Disneyland Hotel to have Breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen. Alexa got to see Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip, Dale and Prince Charming. Paul Andrew loved looking at the characters. He would smile and try to touch them every time they got near him.

By Wednesday we were pretty exhausted. The kids and I stayed at the hotel while Tina and Dan went to ride the rollercoasters at Knott’s Berry Farm. Thursday we visited the Discovery Science Center. It was a nice place, but way too crowded with summer camps.

Friday, Paul was able to work a half-day. In the afternoon we all went to the Long Beach Aquarium. It’s a very nice aquarium. Alexa loved looking at all the tanks and sticking her hands in all the touch tanks. Paul Andrew was happy as usual. He loved looking at all the people and checking out all the tanks.

Our Flight home was early Saturday morning with a layover in Dallas. Our flight was delayed leaving Dallas. Alexa loved spending the extra layover time playing in the McDonalds play area in the terminal. About 2 hours later we were able to board the plane and head home. The kids once again behaved excellent on the airplane. We had a great trip!

On the 4th of July weekend we took a family trip to Sarasota. Alexa had an even busier week because right before Sarasota she spent a few days with her abuelos in Orlando. She had a fun time playing in the pools, walking around Downtown Disney and going to the Magic Kingdom. Yoyi, Arturo and Alexa met up with us on Wednesday at the Seashell condominiums in Siesta Key. In the next days, Cristy, David, Dan, Tina and Gene joined us.

We all had a great time. A huge group of our friends along with their kids and parents were also spending the 4th of July there. Alexa and Paul Andrew had fun playing in the sand and swimming in the beach. We also got to see the fireworks show.

On July 15, Paul and I left Alexa and Paul Andrew with my parents and went on a romantic getaway to California. It wasn't all fun and romance, Paul had to work the first 2 days in LA and then the fun began. Our drive up the coast started early Thursday morning. Our final destination that day was Monterrey. We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway making stops at the Reagan National Library, Santa Barbara, Andersen's restaurant in Buellton for split pea soup (Abu's recommendation) and Solvang to see the Dutch village. It was a beautiful, but long drive down the coast. The road was high and very winding. We drove most of the way with the top of the Mustang down, but the weather got too cold, so we had to put the top up towards the end of the drive. That day we were on the road for 12 hours! We arrived at Monterrey at about 7, and headed to the wharf for dinner, and finally went home to rest. We were pretty tired.

The next morning began with a beautiful 18-mile drive around Pebble Beach. The day was a bit misty and foggy but it cleared up as the morning wore on. After the drive, we walked around downtown Carmel and it was beautiful. Next, we stopped by the Monterrey Aquarium, on Cannery Row. After the aquarium we continued our drive up the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping in Santa Cruz. We enjoyed lunch at the boardwalk. The boardwalk is right on the beach and is an amusement park filled with rollercoasters, merry-go-rounds, carnival games and carnival food. Our next stop was Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. We walked the mile trail seeing the huge redwood trees. From the redwood forest we drove to Silicon Valley. We, of course, made a stop in Cupertino, Apple’s headquarters. Our final destination that day was Napa Valley.

We visited 4 vineyards the next day. We started out in Napa Valley where we visited the Rubicon vineyards, formerly know as the Coppola vineyards, and St Supery. The wines were so good that we bought 2 at Rubicon and 4 at St Supery. We stopped to have lunch at Mustards Grill, which was delicious. We then drove over to Sonoma to visit some more vineyards, St Francis and Ledson. In Sonoma we bought 4 more bottles. That evening we drove to San Francisco for the last 2 nights of our vacation.

While in San Francisco, we visited the Golden Gate Bridge, walked along Fisherman’s Wharf, ate some delicious clam chowder in a breadbowl, and visited Alcatraz. In order to get tickets to Alcatraz we had to make a line at 7 in the morning and the tickets went on sale at 9. It was very cold but we finally got our tickets. Alcatraz Island was pretty impressive. The jail was built high up on the hill and you got to see all the cells, the mess hall, and the officers living area. It was a short time in San Francisco, but we saw everything we wanted. Before we knew it, it was Sunday and we had to fly home to see the kids whom we missed a lot.

Summer has been real busy for us. Paul has been traveling all over the United States. In the past month he has been to California, New York and Indiana. Down in Miami, the rest of us have been keeping busy as well. Alexa's schedule is full of activities, art, music, gymboree and school twice a week for 2 hours. She also loves going in the pool. She starts swimming classes in 2 weeks. Let see how that goes. Paul Andrew is growing every day. He is now flipping over from has belly to his back and then back to his belly. He started eating baby food last week. So far he loves pears, apple sauce and bananas. He does not like the peaches.

Last week Paul Andrew went to the doctor for his 4th month visit. He is now weighing 15lbs 3 oz and is 26 3/4 inches long. Sunday he starting eating solids. He loves his applesauce. Paul Andrew is a very happy baby constantly smiling and laughing. He is very aware of his surroundings always looking around and checking people out. He is getting stronger on his belly but still hasn't flipped over.

On May 31, Paul Andrew was baptized at St. Thomas the Apostle by Father Kubala. His Godparents are my sister Cristina and Paul's brother Daniel. We celebrated his baptism with a lunch at Trattoria Luna. The food was delicious and we had a great time seeing all of our family and friends

On May 1 we picked up Paul at the airport and drove to Disney to meet the Csonka family to celebrate Alexa's birthday. We had to leave Paul Andrew at home because he is still to little to go to Disney. We celebrated Alexa's birthday in Downtown Disney at the Rainforest Cafe.

Friday morning, we all went to Disney's Hollywood Studios. They just opened a new attraction with the characters from Playhouse Disney. Alexa got see the gang from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Handy Manny and My friends Tigger and Pooh. She loved it so much we saw it twice. While the rest of the Csonka family was riding the "big people" rides, Alexa and mom took pictures with the characters, played in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground and walked around. We all enjoyed the parade together. There were lots of people jumping and dancing. By the end of the day we were all beat and went back to our hotel, Port Orleans Riverside.
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Saturday morning was our character breakfast at the Beach Club Resort. We had breakfast with Goofy, Minnie, Chip and Dale. The food was good but Alexa kept telling the characters "no" and "done." Early in the afternoon we said goodbye to Tina, Gene, Dave and Daniel. We then drove home to pick up Paul Andrew who we all missed.