Beach Babies

Is anyone still reading my blog?  I'm not too sure after this long absence, but then I never really thought anyone read it anyway so what's the difference?  :)  We've been so transient these past two months and without our computer for a while so I wasn't able to put together any posts.  I have a bunch of pictures but I figured I'd just start up again with this post and then work backwards.  :)

We are currently raising three beach bums!  The boys are just absolutely loving all the beach time we're getting.  We are currently living in a furnished condo on the beach (thankfully we moved during the off-season so we could actually afford it) for the next four months, and we've been going down to the beach almost every day.

These pics are from when we first got to the base after our cross-country trip.  We went out to the beach for the first time our second evening there.

And then a few evenings later we went out to Mexico Beach after dinner...

Jackson surprised us so much because the last time we were at the beach (last year) he was pretty afraid of the waves and didn't go very far into the water, but now we can't keep him out of there.  Loves it!

 Excited face!!

It is so beautiful on the beach in the evenings... perfect temperature and gorgeous sunsets.

And here are some shots from the 10th floor condo we are staying in.

We had a big storm the first night we were there... then the next day after the storm passed the water was so super calm and there were dolphins everywhere!

After-dinner popsicles on the balcony...

I asked for bigger smiles and this is what I got...

We've also been going out in the mornings on the weekends before the sun gets too intense.  It's so nice that the gulf is so shallow at the shore... it's like a big baby pool for Reid and the big boys can wade out deeper with Phil.

Running races on the beach...

Can't believe how big J is getting!  And still so skinny!  :)  I couldn't get him to stand still and look at the camera for very long...

The condo has this great wash area right after you walk down from the beach... hoses for feet and showers for bodies.  And Reid loves turning the hoses on and off.  :)

We always leave our shoes here before we get to the sand...

It's been fun so far!  And it's great to be able to come home to the relaxing sounds of the sea after all the driving Phil and I are doing lately (but that's another post).  Although I did make the mistake of watching a show on Discovery the other night called "Mermaids: The Body Found" about a group of scientists who claim that a few mermaids have washed up on shore and the Navy is hiding it.  But these mermaids didn't have beautiful flowing hair and voluptuous bodies... they had big bug eyes and scales and looked like aliens with fins.  And they supposedly make shivs out of stingray barbs!  I was totally freaked out... and even more so when Phil teased and put the vision in my head of a mermaid out in the gulf poking out of the water and watching us in our condo with his big bug eyes!  AAGGHH!

We Made It! (Part One)

Here we are at the state line a few days ago.  Some of us were a bit less excited about the photo op than I was.  :)

But let's back up a bit.  The trip was actually much, much better than we had expected.  I credit that to the power of prayer. :)  I truly felt like I had a guardian angel driving with me the whole time.  I am so thankful that God protected us and kept me from running off the road while switching out DVDs or handing out snacks or falling asleep through the boring states like Nevada, Wyoming, and Nebraska!  Phil took the lead in the truck pulling our camper, and I held up the rear in the minivan.  Jackson and Reid usually rode with Phil and I had Emmett with me.

The movers took forever to finish packing and loading (Phil started helping them load late the last night which hurried things along a bit), so we weren't able to leave in the morning like we had hoped and had to adjust our schedule a little.  Here are J and E the night before we left.  They thought this was the coolest thing...

The next morning (and into the afternoon) Phil and I scoured the house and packed up the cars, and then we pulled out of our driveway around 2:30 P.M.  Goodbye, house!  Thanks for 4 great years!

Goodbye, landscaping that I worked so hard on!  Please don't die!

Goodbye, Klamath Falls!  Thank you for the memories and take good care of all of our wonderful friends there! Gosh, it was hard to say goodbye to everyone... :(

This was our first state to pass through, which we hit pretty quickly since KF is almost on the border between OR and CA...

Here's Emmett dealing with the stress of moving.  He said several times those first two days that he wanted to go home.  This move has been hardest on him for sure.

Our first stop that night was Reno, NV.  I had planned on taking pictures of all of the state signs as we passed through each one, but I missed Nevada since it was really small and came up really fast.  So I took a pic of Reno as we came into town.  Our camper was such a blessing on this trip.  We stayed at an RV park every night and were able to just pull into our spot, hook up the water and electricity, turn on the AC, and "relax" since the beds were already set up and our suitcases and supplies were already in there.  And the boys could ride bikes and play at playgrounds for a little bit before bed.  It was great.

The next two days we did pretty much nothing else except drive.  Our next stop was Salt Lake City...

And then the next night we spent in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  No pics of those places for some reason!  I guess I was too worn out.

But then we decided to start taking it slower and let the boys have some fun along the way.  We stopped halfway through Nebraska in North Platte for lunch and let the boys swim at a public pool.  That was a big hit and a much-needed break from driving.  We spent that night right outside of Lincoln, NE.

 

And then for dinner and breakfast we ate at the same Cracker Barrel!  Ha!!

That next day we made St. Louis our goal.  Here's one for you, Becky...

Things finally started looking green once we hit Missouri.  Well, I guess Nebraska was a little bit green, too.

I was so excited when we finally started going south!!

Here are the boys relaxing for a bit at a Starbucks en route to St. Louis...

And then soon we saw the famous arch!  Phil had to search for RV parks just on his phone and sometimes he had a hard time finding good ones in the places we had planned to stop.  The only good one he could find near St. Louis was actually part of a casino and right downtown.  It had gotten good reviews so we decided to try it.

Then we had our one little mishap of the trip.  Phil turned down a cobblestone street (following the GPS) and eventually dead-ended at a bridge that only had 8 feet of clearance! Luckily there wasn't much traffic on the street and Phil was able to back up (with the help of a nice passerby who guided him and then jumped in the truck to show Phil the way to the RV park, which was right nearby).  I was really proud of my hubs because it was quite a sticky situation and he really kept his cool and got out of there pretty uneventfully.

The RV park was actually the nicest one that we went to the whole trip.  Paved roads, patrolled by casino security, a great playground, and a gorgeous view of downtown and the arch!  If I had been able to have a glass of wine it would have been totally perfect!

To be continued... (I've been working on this post a little at a time for about a week so I guess I'll go ahead and post this much and add the rest later!)

Calm Before the Storm

I'm trying to get in one last blog post before the PCS craziness happens.  The movers just called and they are now coming tomorrow instead of Wednesday (as originally planned), which has us freaking out a little but was kind of what I needed to get my rear in gear.  Anyway, here are some things we have been up to...

J and E found sprinkles in the pantry the other day and asked to make cookies, so I found a recipe for soft sugar cookies (which turned out to be amazing... recipe here) and we baked them together.  Here's Reid checking on them (and yes, his pants are all wet from sitting in a toy car outside that had water in it).  :)

YUM!!

The boys are again obsessed with playing with their Thomas trains and tracks.  Especially Emmett.  He loves to have people "play trains" with him, but is very particular about what trains can carry what freight cars and in what order they should go.  I really love to hear they boys playing because they make up the best stories to go along with what the trains are doing.  And I often hear them saying phrases that they've heard on the Thomas TV shows... "and he puffed slowly away," and "Then there was trouble!" and "Edward helped Thomas up the steep hill, " and "Gordon is delivering his freight car of coal to the transfer yard," and "Toby coupled up to James," and "Thomas is shunting yogurt cars and flatbeds," etc.  Just tonight I heard Emmett saying in his cute little 3-year-old lispy voice (as he was pushing his trains along the track), "Sir Topham Hatt said... Ferdinand, I have a special for you.  You must carry flatbeds to the wharf.  Yes, sir!  Ferdinand said."  :)  When we get to Florida I have got to find them some more trains and freight cars.  They just love them.

In preparation for our move I finally got around to organizing the boys' clothes.  Turns out we have 14 plastic bins of clothes from 0-3 months to 5T.  And that's not counting what's in their two big dressers right now.  Yikes!  I guess it's good that we didn't have a girl... can you imagine how many more clothes there would be??

And I also got ruthless with the toys in the playroom.  Of course, as soon as I would set things aside to give away the boys would start playing with them and then I would move them back into the closet!  :) I did make a little progress, though.

*Sigh*... I still have a problem keeping all of our books organized.  I also have a bit of an "ordering from Scholastic book club" problem.  I've had this problem since I taught school.  But what can I say?  I love books!  :)  I finally decided for now to keep the hard cover books in this bookcase and put the soft covered ones in plastic bins under the bunk beds.  And I finally taught Jackson how to put them away correctly on the bookshelves so that they don't look like this anymore...

Then the other day after I got out of the shower I went to check on the boys because it was so quiet.  I found them on the floor of their room just quietly looking at books together and my Scholastic obsession didn't seem so bad anymore.  :)

Jackson, Emmett, and I went to get our teeth cleaned the other morning.  It was Emmett's first time and he did so great!  I was very relieved.  J was really good, too, although he is still terrified of the spit sucker thing!  Maybe next time.  ;)

When I was in Florida a few weeks ago my dad gave me money to take the boys out to McDonald's for breakfast (one of their favorite things).  Since they were so good at the dentist we stopped at McD right afterwards.

Well, that's all for now!  I guess I need to get up and keep working now.  The movers hope to have the truck loaded up by Friday, and we are hoping to pull out of town ourselves on Saturday!  Please pray for us as we make our way across the USA!  :)