Yes, the Joneses are still alive! It’s been a really long week, but we finally made it to San Diego and Tyler started his internship.

Thank you to everyone who helped us move into our storage unit last week! We literally couldn’t have done it without you! Our storage unit looks like a game of tetris, but thanks to the insane packing skills of our friends, it miraculously all fit. We should have a blast getting it all out…

We left on Tuesday (about three hours later than we wanted to, but that’s a different story…) and drove from Provo to Las Vegas. We had already planned to stay here a night so I could “see the sights”. I’d never stopped here before, and now I know why. The “pirate” show I was so excited about turned to be distasteful and we left it early. (However, props to the fake fire – that was amazing!) I was disappointed with most everything, but I did enjoy having a real bed and walking through the indoor (Venetian?) mall. It had a beautiful canal and the people were much higher class – we enjoyed the fact that no smoking was allowed. :) We left the next morning well rested and ready to be in California. We stopped for an hour at the Primm outlets and got some really classy clothes for baby Jack Jack and some tennis shorts for Tyler. We found that some places had major clearances (overalls for $5 at The Children’s Place! What a steal – we bought two pair!)  but others were just so-so. We made it to Oceanside in pretty good time (around 3pm) and settled in for the night.

Tyler started his KPMG internship the next day. Man, they spoil him there! He eats really well there (who doesn’t like free food?), and I think he really enjoys the people he works with. Right now he is in Atlanta, Georgia at a leadership conference. He left Sunday morning and gets back late Thursday night. It’s the longest we’ve ever been apart, but at least he is keeping busy and I have my family to keep me company. He visited the Coca-Cola factory this morning and said it was really neat.

We also accompanied my parents at a BBQ competition this past weekend. It was a lot of hard work, but we had tons of fun! We all enjoy the interaction with people. I made a 3-ingredient peach cobbler to hand out to people and it was a HUGE hit. One man told us it was “better than [his] grandmother’s cobbler” and wanted Mom and Dad to cater cobbler for him at an event! It was hilarious and rewarding to see the long line that formed in front of our booth for my Dad’s (and our friend Thom’s) bbq and my cobbler. People raved about it. Dad and Thom competed together and won big too! They got 12th place overall (out of 57 teams – WOW). Dad won 4th place Ribs (!!!!!!) and Thom won 8th place Brisket (!!). To even place and get to walk up is HUGE! Mom even did well – she won 2nd place for Best Booth and we got 1st place for Most Creative People’s Choice. We all went home really happy this weekend and I’m really proud of them!
Things have been busy here. I thought they would slow down, but life here at the Ginos home is fast-paced! I have been helping my sister babysit a couple boys down the street, and between that and trying to schedule doctor’s appointments for Tyler and I, it’s been hectic. The missionaries are coming over for dinner tonight and I was going to make Rootbeer Cookies (sooooo good!) but the funny thing is, I can’t find rootbeer extract ANYWHERE! We’ve checked four grocery stores so far. It’s pretty easy to find in Utah, but now that I know you can’t find it here, I’m going to have to stock up! I also got my hair cut right before we left – when it’s straight, it’s at my shoulders. It’s pretty dang cute straight (and easy too) but I can’t seem to figure out how to wear it curly. Any suggestions? Sometime in the next couple of weeks we are going to try to use our free Disneyland tickets and/or go to a Dodger’s game. Anyone want to come with us??