Day 3 am: Silvia's Wedding

      It was an unexpected wedding, but I was glad I attended. My cousin Silvia got married on Saturday morning in the Japanese Garden at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center. I was informed I got invited via email but the invitation was sent to the wrong one. Bu thanks to Facebook, my cousin messaged me all the details and I attended her wedding. 

        Silvia and I used to play a lot when we were younger, and during our teen years, we went to school dances and to an NSYNC concert. It was so special to see her get married to her fiaance Josh. It was also nice to see my uncles and dad.

My uncle Hector, Silvia, and my dad

Melany with grandpa Carlos

Day 2: Girl's Night out/Dinner with my bffs

I got together with a great group of gals: Athena, Josefina, Missy and Mandy. Two of them are Marriage and Family Therapists and one is a fabulous teacher. I admire their kindness, resilience and hard working attitude. Spending time with these gals made my vacation so awesome. I miss them so much! They know all my struggles, joys and are my confidants. We ate, laughed much, and took these fun pictures to capture the moment. 

I loved this shot I took of the lighthouse

The restaurant we ate at

Another picture I took overlooking the Queen Mary

Day 2 morning: Sprinkles and USC

    In the late morning, Melany, Emily and I headed to LA to visit 2 places. We first went to Sprinkles cupcake store. We all had one cupcake each and took one to give to my friend. The cupcake was delicious! Melany loves cupcakes, so much that she ate hers and asked Aunt Emily for some of hers.
     I wanted to buy some stuff to put in my office at work so we headed to USC's bookstore. I loved walking the school grounds. It was so fun to have Melany there since she pretty much completed 1 year of grad school while she was in my womb. In my office, I now have the USC mug I use for my herbal teas and a pin that says "I love USC." And that pretty much summarizes how I feel about USC.I learned and grew so much in the mind stimulating lectures and environment.

With Tommy Trojan

LA Vacation Day 1: Emily's J.H. Hull graduation

       "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."   Eleanor Roosevelt

    On December of last year, I promised Emily if she did well in school, I would attend her graduation. Well I like to keep my promises so I flew to LA this past  week. I arrived on Wednesday night on 6/19/13 and went to Emily's graduation on Thursday. It was surreal to see my baby sister graduate on the same field I graduated from 13 years before in 2000. Emily was presented with 3 awards by her middle school, JH Hull. The President's office gave Emily 2 awards for receiving a GPA higher than a 3.5. She also graduated with Honors by being a part of the California Junior Scholastic Federation (CJSF). 

     We are so proud of Emily!  She works so hard and has achieved a lot despite of everything. Emily, here's to continued success and happiness in high school. Cheers!

Aunts, cousins and uncles

Mom and her 3 kids:)

Sibling love

Life updates

Life here in San Antonio has been better than we expected. The Lord is blessing our family so much. We see His hands in our lives and are so eternally grateful for it.  Overall, we are excited because we are working towards buying a house. Once the details are confirmed, we will be more than happy to share it.  But, here's an individual update on our familia.

Enoch
Enoch is still training for his job, and enjoys it. He is making good friends there and feels that is where God wanted him to be. He loves that his supervisor also served a mission in Brazil just like he did. Enoch and I are nursery leaders for our ward and are learning even more patience.

Melany
Melany is almost 2! She is 23 months old, and is a very silly, happy baby with a lot of curiosity. Poor Melany did not have very good luck with some of the day cares we've taken her to. For some reason or another, we didn't feel they were a good fit, either because of distance, or quality of the day care. But she now attends a day care where her teacher is a member of the church(by coincidence/God) and she is in a Learning Academy where education is highly regarded. She's really blossoming and getting brighter than ever. She learns about country's like Italy, and other cultures from around the world. One of the best parts is we can see her through the internet at any time of the day since the school has cameras and a special password for parents to watch.

Sonia
I am enjoying going to all the family friendly places in San Antonio with Enoch and Melany. I really like my job and feel privileged to be invited to a person's life during therapy sessions. My job is not easy but it is the best job I've ever had. I am also working on my body and health overall. I usually wake up at 4:30am to work out before my job. I am training to run a marathon and eating as healthy as possible. I am not the fastest runner but I do stick to it as best I can. I run about 15 miles a week which will increase as the marathon gets closer. I also strength train to build strong muscles. It feels so GOOD to eat healthy and exercise. It is the BEST coping skill for my job and life in general. And I am so thrilled to see my family and friends tomorrow. I can't wait!!

Enoch and Melany on father's day

Silly as can be!

Marriage Retreat at Flying L Guest Ranch

        We just got back from a marriage retreat sponsored by the Air Force. Enoch heard about this retreat through an email the chaplain sends out to the unit he's in. The chaplain planned for several married couples to discuss how we can have a happier marriage. What appealed to us about it was the cost,which we couldn't believe!!It was completely paid for by the Air Force! But also, we would have child care and spend time with Melany.
        The retreat was held at the Flying L Guest Ranch in the city of Bandera. We drove about an hour away and arrived there on Friday night. On Saturday all the couples had some marriage information sessions and then we had the rest of the day to have fun at the Ranch. We spent most of our day at the Water Park. Enoch and I had some hours to lounge in the River part of the Park, play water volleyball, and swim some laps on the pool. We later picked up Melany and took her to the Water Park. Of course Melany loved the park and had a blast. In the evening we took a wagon ride to a "Ghost Town" to be treated to a BBQ dinner, musical entertainment and western activities. We had breakfast today and ended our day by doing a last marriage session and attend a spiritual session.
      Overall, it was such a great experience. We loved the horses, the views, and overall peaceful atmosphere of the Ranch. We learned some things about each other through the 5 love languages concept. It was nice to learn about new ways to make each other happy. This mini vacation was a great way to end the month and begin the month of June.

The Trefflich's trying on some Western clothes.

The Water Park

Walking around one of the trails

Ponies!

At the Ghost Town Dinner

Baaah! 

I love horses!!

Our view from the wagon on our way back from dinner

Melany getting her first tattoo:)