Vacation!!! Part 7 (Fun Times)

So... vacation (you know the one 2 months ago, haha!) started to wind down...

But we had to get in a playdate!

and even Daddy came!

a fun day was had by all

New parks are fun...

but old parks are too!! 

Mommy played on this playground many times 

while growing up!

Kinda cool to see the girls playing on it now :)

Way off in the distance...

Gordon was working out 

(doing sit-ups on the picnic table)

The girls liked "the big cheese" too

AND, what vacation could be complete without

a trip in to the donut shop?

There is just nothing like a hometown shop :)

Other donuts just aren't the same

Addison made this bed for Aunt Ronda.

Aunt Ronda never did sleep in it... strange.

Little more fun in the sun...

And a little more time with Grammy

Public Service Announcement

I will interrupt this ridiculously long overdue series to announce that we may or may not be moving HOME almost a full year early.

This caught both of us by surprise but Gordon just "happened" to be talking to the detailer (guy in charge of who moves where) asking him about making a dream sheet for next transfer season. I guess he just had some questions since it is our first time doing this and he mentioned that we really want to be stationed in Corpus Christi. The detailer said, "Well if it's Corpus you want, you can move there now! All you need is command approval." NO WAY.

I must say I have run through the entire gamut of emotions.  At first this just sounded insane and I could have easily said no. I mean, hello, we own our house!!! Will it sell in a reasonable amount of time? My parents have oh so graciously said we can live with them pretty much as long as we need to but still. Plus, I kinda feel like this is stealing our last 10 months away from our friends here. I mean, it will be hard no matter when we move but still. Plus, this house has lots of memories... ok that one's not as big of a deal. I walked in knowing that we would not live here forever but for a couple seconds it made me sad ;) Most of all, this was not part of my plan!! I'm not so good with sudden changes. You could approach me and say we won a billion dollars and my first reaction would be to call you crazy, say that's not possible, and a million other negative thoughts all because you interrupted my safe little bubble. LOL

BUT, the more I think about it and the more time that passes, this would be perfect in SOO many ways.
1. This would guarantee we get to move home. If we wait for next summer we may or may not get it.
2. We would not have to try to live here while showing our house. (yikes!!)
3. My mom is still not working so we will be able to really live that up.
4. If we get pregnant, I will get to be at home for the whole pregnancy and the grandparents will get to experience that more.
5. If we then have another baby, the grandparents won't miss long periods of time in between visits.
6. We will be home for the holidays!!! We were not planning on driving home this year because we have used up so much leave lately.
7. We would also be home for both the girls' birthdays :)
8. We may even get there when its still warm enough to swim.
9. The girls can ride their bike endlessly on my parents' driveway.
10. This will guarantee we move to somewhere where we have friends, hehe.

Those are the big reasons I guess... I'm getting pretty excited but still feeling very cautious until its completely sure and we get those orders ;)  I'm sure I will be a basket case as I start thinking about saying goodbye to our friends here but I'm trying to not think of that part. Would you pray with us that God will open and close the doors according to His will?  We haven't told the girls either, waiting for that time where there is no reasonable doubt. Addison is going to be SOO excited but when the realization comes that she will be far from her friends it is going to hit her HARD. Trying not to think about that part either...

Vacation!!! Part 5 (Many Firsts)

It seems like vacations are always filled with many firsts for the girls.

This time was no exception.

Kaitlyn got to paint for the first time!!

She was VERY happy with herself ;)

I apologize for the lack of good pictures.

It was a spur of the moment decision to let her 

and it was slightly stressful for Mommy ;)

By the time I thought to grab the camera, 

the moment was pretty much over. O well.

While we were swimming one day, I told Addison about how her friends Rileigh and Logan had just learned to swim with no floaties and they loved it. I encouraged her to try it but, not surprisingly, she quickly declined that offer. A little while later she all of a sudden wanted to take her floaties off so I went with it. She did great!!! Her Daddy had run inside and before he came back she had mastered underwater swimming! (well, she couldn't actually propel herself but she tried to swim and wasn't the least bit fearful underwater so that is quite the accomplishment!!) Here is a sneak peak at the following family style swim lessons:

Don't you love our technique? We should patent it I'm sure.

I am still amazed at how quickly she caught on!!

Kaitlyn had loads of fun in the pool too!

She really did NOT want to be in a floaty.
A good part of her is convinced she can swim all by herself.
Kinda scary.

She may be swimming all over next year :)


I know these aren't "firsts" but they are too cute to ignore

One last "first"

Kaitlyn had herself pretty much completely potty trained
by the end of vacation!!! I had very little to do with it.
I was loving every minute of it though! She was keeping
her diaper dry ALL DAY! It ended just before our vacation though :(

This was her "I'm pretending to try to poop" face LOL

Thanks for bearing with me through this super long blog post!!

Vacation!!! Part 4 (Grown Up Time)

I absolutely LOVE my girls and I LOVE being a Mommy.

That being said, I think that every Mommy and Daddy need some time

 to be grown ups and maybe even be called by their first names ;)

Just so happens that we were able to get together with some of our favorite 

people who we have adopted as part of our family :)

Gordon and Colby catching up

Just chillin

We love Ted and Gail's new pool :)

And their HOT TUB!

Sadly, this is the only picture I have from our trip to Schlitterbahn.
We had an absolute BLAST. Soo fun!! 

A big thanks to Tammy for keeping the girls for us!!!

Vacation!!! Part 3 (Sweet Summer Days)

Where do I begin?

This is why I love going home!

Lots of relaxing, tons of family time, and in the summer, plenty of pool time!!

I love the way Addison is looking at Kaitlyn in this picture. So sweet!

Cutest picture of them ever.

Addison, Avery and Gordon were having fun battling it out in the pool

Chillaxin'

Proof that I was there ;)

LOVE

Round and round...

and round and round...

Avery's turn!

And away she went!

Addison wanted to stand on Daddy's shoulders just like Avery did :)

Her face says it all :)

Show off much? hehe

Painting time with Nanny!!

Vacation!!! Part 2 (Baseball)

Last year, right after baseball season was over, Addison decided she LOVED baseball.

She had gone to games before but didn't remember and wasn't old enough to understand the game at all.

My parents have season tickets so I really wanted to go to a game while we were home.

We got there way too early because there was a giveaway... 

they had plenty of the prizes and not many fans. oops ;) 

It was actually fairly interesting watching them set up the field :)

 Just in case you are wondering, yes I do realize how completely gross it is that

she had her face in there. I either didn't notice at the time ??? or maybe the picture makes it look worse than it was. HA!

Our little baseball fan patiently waiting for the game to start. 

I thought she looked SO cute :) 

"binoculars" 

 

This is why there aren't as many pictures of Kaitlyn. 

We took turns letting her walk/ run up and down, up and down until the game started.

I paced and paced with her until she eventually fell asleep.

I promise I took quite a few pictures of her but they all look essentially the same :)

Addison and her "two friends". 

This trip she really turned that corner from looking up to them 

to thinking she is one of them. O boy.

As always, Kaitlyn needed to be doing everything the big girls were doing. 

Resting with Papa after the game while 

Mommy and Daddy worked toward getting them in bed. 

I just love making memories like this... except that in hindsight I'm pretty sure this was when we lost the cash :/ Gordon told me to just think of it as giving to the poor, being confident that God directed it into the hands of someone who needed it...