The next chapter...

****I feel the need to put a disclaimer on this, and the rest of our road trip blogs.****

It's probably not the most exciting reading.

That's okay with me, but I do want to document the trip.

I am not a scrapper. As much as I would like to be, and try to be, I'm just not. But blogging is a way to scrapbook, with pictures, things that we do everyday. Things that I really want to remember. And it's a great family history. There are so many things that I've thought,

"Man, I wish I had had the blog back then and would have blogged about that so I could remember it better!"

Some people (Amy!) have asked why I need a blog, facebook, and myspace* -

*which I use only to check Kirstens cute pictures!*

It's not that I think I'm so important, or so interesting, it's just a way to document important events for our family.

Okay, now that's been taken care of I can go on. :)

Leaving Fallbrook, California - April 6

There's not a lot to see between Fallbrook, California and El Paso, Texas, so we decided to power through to EP.

The one cool thing we did want to see was

Tombstone, Arizona.

Unfortunatly however, we didn't realize how far it was, and by the time we got there everything was closed. :(

It was still cool to walk around and now we have something cool to do next time!

We rolled up into El Paso around 1:30 am, poor planning on our parts and we lost an hour switching time zones.

We had a fun visit with my mom and my brother Joe's fam, Sara, Taylor, and baby Joseph.

Of course we took a million cute baby pictures! I totally want to upload all of them, but I'll spare ya.

Addie was in a really weird mood when we went to his house. She kinda seemed like she didn't feel good... or I don't know, but for a good long time she just sat on the floor clinging to a toy. And even when Joseph came up to her to play, she just sat there. Normally if a baby tries to take a toy from her she'll fight back, but not this time. He even (in his innocent investigating way) knocked her over and she still didn't crawl to get away from him!

(notice the red mark under her right eye, it turned into a bruise!)

Addie says "Revenge is sweet!"

More of this epic drama to come...

Hooray for pictures!

We decided to check out of our military apartment for the weekend. Mostly because Matt has his Navy weekend in Washington DC, but also because on the weekends our usually sleepily quiet apartment complex gets ridiculously roudy! Soooo not okay for two old fogeys like us that need our sleep!

Soooo that means that we can get internet with our laptop! Hooray! I can finally post pictures! 

Just as soon as I download the 578 that are on our camera.

Looking back at our pictures I think the best thing to do is start at the beginning.

Penn Valley, California - April 3

Because I am an awesomely cool mom 

(and maybe felt just a tad bit guilty about the 3 different schools my poor kids have gone to this year)

I made a deal with Alexis. 

If she promised not to bring up how very sucky the whole moving situation was, I would let her have a co-ed party. Yes, you heard right, co-ed.

aaaaahhhhhh!!!!

Here's what that day was like for me. 

Wake up. Let movers in. Struggle to keep Addie occupied while our whole world was being loaded onto a moving truck. Clean. Clean. Clean. Pick up kids. Swallow my pride and let my absolutely saintly friends from church come help with windows, mopping, dinner... did I mention how much I totally appreciate them?! Visit with other awesome church friends. Struggle some more with Addie. Take Christian to baseball. Pick up pizza. Host a party with 20 tweens.

 I cringe even remembering that day!

It was so horrible!

So loud!

So many tears!

At one point everyone of those tweens was crying. 

You could hardly breathe through the thick cloud of drama that hung over our basement family room 

(they were confined to that one, very empty room).

So horrible. 

But totally worth it for my own sweet little tweeny.

I hate posting pic's of other peoples kids but I feel the need to at least document with one photo my awesome awesomenss. 

Or stupidity. 

You choose.

The next day was spent getting up early for opening day of Little League. I tried really hard to keep things as normal for as long as possible for the kids. After that I dropped them at the park to hang out with their friends. Addison was really an angel waiting patiently as I finished tying up loose cleaning ends all day. Did I mention that that house was 4000 square feet? Yeah, that wasn't very fun. The good thing was that I had just done a pre-move scrub before we left Clovis so I was pretty efficient with my planning and cleaning.  

That evening I made the long hour and a half drive down to the Sacramento Airport for the last time to pick up my sister Amy. I was so relieved to know we were finally gonna be leaving!

You know, sometimes it's best not to have too much time to plan! Since we first learned we were probably moving in December we had so much time to plan and think and plan and stress.... It was just such a relief to finally be on our way! Anyways... on to the trip.

Leaving Penn Valley! Sunday, April 5

I wanted to get a pic of the 5 of us in front of our house but I guess we'll just have to photo shop Matt in. :)

Finally on our way!!!!!!!!!!!

We got up super early and powered through to Fallbrook to see our Grandma! She's getting ready for her 94th birthday in May, she's amazing!

My Aunt Jerri let us stay at her house (which was sooo nice!) and my cousin Tracy brought one of her kiddos over to see us. We had a very good, albeit quick visit.

I'll miss being so close to them!

Not to go off on too much of a tangent, but....

I'm really kind of missing being close to any of our family! 

New Mexico and California were both at least on the same side of the country as 

Washington and Texas!

Hopefully we'll get lots of visitors!

To be continued...

Smoked out!

Last night after enjoying a nice dinner, we returned home to this...

Fire at Solomon's NRC - New Firefighting Photos - Southern Maryland News, Charles County, Calvert County and St. Mary's County News

That's about a 5 minute walk from where we're staying! So Matt and I ran upstairs through the smoke, (we left the kids in the car, windows up, air conditioner on full blast trying to keep the smoke out!) packed an overnight bag, and got out of there as fast as we could! 

The only problem is that now everything we have with us smells like it's been out camping for a month...

Thankfuls

Just a few things I'm thankful for right now.

A 1 1/2 hour nap for Addie.

A chance to nap myself for 1 hour.

(why does it seem like I am absolutely exhausted right up until everyone's asleep and then I get a sudden burst of energy?! Or is it just a desire to enjoy the silence?)

Sunny 75 degree weather.

Play groups.

Ice cream.

Libraries.

And... some things I am not lovin' on.

The 3 hour time difference to most of the peeps I talk to. I miss my phone buddies!

Slow home builders.

Maryland at last...

We're here!

We had a super fun road trip but were so glad to be here finally! For the time being we are staying at a Navy Recreation Center in a 4 bedroom apartment. Matt did such a good job finding an alternative to hotel living! It is sooo much easier to live with three children here than when we were all couped up in a hotel!

I had our arrival in Maryland timed perfectly so that the kids could start school asap and we would have just enough days in a hotel before the house was finished. Then they pushed the home completion date back. Then they pushed it back again. Ugh.

My blogging has been and will be very limited because our apartment doesn't come with wi-fi. So I'm using Matt's work computer which is only available when he comes home from work. I don't dare upload pictures or change backgrounds, so it looks like I'll be Easter festive till we move in to our house. :) That's okay, we love Easter.

I will be blogging about all of our road trip fun later when I can post pics and all. I will say that on Saturday we went to Washington DC for a few hours. At the WW2 Memorial we ran into Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jamie Kennedy! And just fyi "running into" means I spotted them, freaked out a little as I told my family who they were, and then took a picture as they posed with other fans. You know "ran into."

And then we saw Sasha and Malia out on the White House lawn playing with Bo! We were in front of the White House taking pics (and when I say "in front" I mean past the lawn, huge fence, two-way private street, another huge fence, and guards.) when we saw the doors open, a black dog and 2 kids run out, along with a small group of adults. As soon as that happened the guards starting yelling that the area of lawn we were standing on was closed. They sent 3 more guards out to shoo us back even further. We were all pretty convinced that we just caught a distant glimpse of the first family. Very cool!

In other news, the kids started school on Monday. I know they'll be okay, even though one of them doesn't feel like she will be. Tough for a mama to see her baby struggling, but I know she'll be stronger for the trials. Everyday when I pick her up she says her day was a little bit better than the last. And she was actually texting a Marylander... Marylandite... Marylandian... hmmm, what do you call someone that lives in Maryland?! Anyways, she made enough of a friend to text. Hooray!

Christian loves school. He came home the first day and told me that he'd made lots of friends and had a really great day. He couldn't tell me any of his friends names... but I think that might just be a boy thing.

Addie is officially sleep deprived. And so am I. That poor baby hasn't had a decent nap in over a month! There was one day this week that she actually slept for 2 1/2 hours (as opposed to 5 minutes in the car here or there) and only woke up once that night! I thought (hoped, prayed, begged!) that we might be on the road back to sleep normalcy, but alas, no. I spent hours this morning trying to get here to sleep, to no avail. Poor girls got bags under her eyes but she just won't sleep! UGH!

Matt is loving his job. He's able to use his pilot training to fly his unmanned airplanes but then he's also able to fly actualy manned airplanes too. Such a fun job for a perpetual kid! A lot of hard work but a lot of fun too.

That's all from this side of the country. We're still waiting for our house to be finished. Pleeeeeaaaasssseeee hurry and finish our house!!!

Happy 40th Birthday Matt!!!

Today my husbad turned 40! No one can quite believe it! That age seems so old, but Matt doesn't seem so old, you know?!

I really wanted to have a big party for him, but with our living arrangements... that didn't work out. Soooo, we enjoyed a nice romantic Seafood dinner, bowling, and a tour around the bay. It was nice and low-key, just what we needed right now! We came home to a house decorated with black balloons and crepe paper and a delicous ice cream cake (and a sleeping baby!). It's all about the little things!

I feel soooo very blessed to have my Matt. He is a wonderful father and husband. He is generous and talented and amazing. I love him soooo very much!

Happy Birthday Babe!

10 Whole Months - By Addison

Another busy, busy month around here. My mom wasn't great about getting out the camera, but here are a few memorable moments. Here's me crawling around and standing up on everything. I like to keep my legs wide so I can get to things easier. I've got some strong thighs!

I love playing piano! Sometimes my family will let me sit on their laps to play, but sometimes I have to do it on my own.
Alexis and Christian are so funny! And I love to be carried around so it works out perfect!


I've learned how to give kisses! Open mouthed wet ones! Everyone loves my kisses!

My Grandpa Ray came to see me again. I went to him right away and put my head on his shoulder. So comfy! And I still love when he sings to me.

I'm still helping my mom a lot. I learned how to do the filing and paper work. I'm building quite the resume!

I'm a big girl now! And I love playing in my crib!

Not big enough to drive without my baby car seat, but I'm getting there! My big brothers so cool!


Okay, I really need to go help my mom with some packing. She always loves my help! Next month when I write this I'll be an east-coast girl!

Movin' right along

Addie and I are sitting here reading blogs while the 3 nice men are packing up all of our worldly possessions. This is the way to move!