Moving (Yet again) Adventures!

Ok so here is the deal.  We have had lots of adventures since I posted last and I keep putting off posting since I am soooo far behind it will take a marathon posting to catch up!  However I finally just decided to give an update for what is happening now and then hopefully catch up on all the other stuff from the last six or so months another day.

So....current update is that we are moving again!  Literally. . right now we are living out of hotel rooms driving our way across the country.  That is kind of the theme of our life it seems.  I guess really it is the theme of most any military family's life, but having lived my first 18 years on the same farm with the same address this lifestyle still catches me by surprise sometimes!  Our little BB is not growing up like I did in that respect as he is headed to his third home in his short life and is currently on his second cross country coast to coast road trip.  He continues to impress me with his resilience but there have (and I am sure will continue to be) some rough moments as he tries to grasp what exactly is happening!


Here he is checking out the piles of boxes in our basement all prepped to go on the moving truck.  He kept saying "Open it? Open it?". Sorry Buddy.....we can't open them until we get to the new house. :(

Speaking of boxes . . we had so many they just barely fit on the truck.  Here are the movers debating how to get the final things crammed into the truck.  The final solution included cramming the mattress boxes right in at the very end and slamming the door shut.  I'm afraid the poor guy on the other end that opens them is going to get a Jack in the Box mattress surprise!   Of course it was pouring down rain in this picture and pretty much the entire 10 plus hours they were loading. . .we are praying everything doesn't show up sopping wet and moldy, ha!!

Here is BB in our empty rental watching a show on the Ipad to give me enough time to finish scrubbing and cleaning it.  Such a sad picture as he had no toys left to play with or even anything to sit on!!  

But now on to hotel life and our little guy is turning into a pro!  His first order of business in each one is to find the elevator and press all the buttons.  He also is a big fan of hotel pools and riding on these luggage carts with our suitcases,

Car trips are still not his favorite thing (which is part of the reason we are only traveling a small amount each day) and he has a very hard time falling asleep in the car.  This is a shot of a rare catnap in the car in between his many "road trip activities".

The most important thing to happen in the midst of all this moving business though is that Hubs graduated from his program here at the Naval War College!  He now holds a Masters in National Security and Strategic Studies in addition to being incredibly good looking in his uniform . ;)  I'm so so proud of him and all his hard work this year!  Now off to the next job!

Thanksgiving Adventures

Over the past 10 years (can that be possible?!?!) of Army life, Hubs and I have never lived very close to any family.  We do try our best to make it back to one of our respective homes for at least one holiday a year but it doesn't always happen.  That being said, one of the many exciting things about living in Rhode Island for a year is that we are reasonably close to some family!  Hubs'  Uncle P and Aunt T live on this side of the country as well as a couple of my cousins (who we hope to visit with during the second half of our year here!).

You may remember that Uncle P and Aunt T visited us a few months ago.  Well they were also gracious enough to suggest that we spend Thanksgiving with them!  We were so excited to spend a holiday with family and also thought the short flight to Maryland would be a great "trial run" for traveling with our little guy in preparation for a longer one at Christmas time.

So. . our visit in a nutshell. . these people need to open up some sort of hospitality business!  They are absolutely incredible hosts in ever aspect from their beautiful home to their delicious food.  I can't imagine feeling more comfortable and well taken care of.  It sort of felt like we had escaped to a luxury, all inclusive resort...except it was better than that because they let us bring our toddler and actually LIKED our toddler and played with him.

Speaking of the toddler, he got to see/play in his first real snow fall on this trip!

 Such a great time!  These pictures are a perfect explanation for why he asked for "Pe" (Uncle P) and the "daw" (dogs) literally ever day for weeks after the trip! 

We thought he would be most excited about the younger, little dog, Copper.  But as it turns out he desperately wanted to be best friends with their older, big dog, Jenna.  She was a good sport and put up with him tripping over her and intruding on her personal space.  I'm sure she was very relieved thought when the miniature human finally left! :)  

BB isn't a really big eater yet but the delicious smoked Thanksgiving turkey won him over!

Aunt T also won him over!  For starters, she let him play endlessly in her pantry.  All these jars and cans to shake?  That is BB's idea of a good time!! 

 Excuse the low quality cell phone pictures, but check out this dimple!  We often got told that BB is "very serious", which he can be.  But make no mistake there are some great smiles hidden under his stern look that he pulls out for very special people only.  Obviously Aunt T is in that category! 

Thanks so much for all your hospitality and the wonderful, relaxing weekend.  It was such a pleasure spending Thanksgiving with you!  Should we go ahead and book our flight for next year? ;)

BB's Newport Adventures

Our little guy is at such a fun age.  He is very busy and everyday he surprises us with something new that he has learned or is trying to do/say.  Here is a peek/ photo dump of some of his everyday life here in Newport over the past few months.

We live within a 10 min walk of three parks (part of the reason we chose the house we did!) so that is a standard activity almost every morning.

Currently sticks are of utmost interest and one must be in hand at all times when outdoors.

When the tourist season is over here in September the cruise ship season starts up.   BB thinks is is funny that all these people have to ride that big ship to get to his favorite little park and he just has to ride in the stroller for a few minutes.

Books are currently his favorite thing.  I never thought I would complain about this trait in a child of mine.. but well. . lets just say I have every book he owns memorized and I may or may not dream in rhymes at this point.  It is a good thing we live only a few block from the library for a frequent change of reading material.  Fortunately a few books hold his attention for a bit without a reader. .particular these fabulous ones from Great Aunt K and Uncle S. . .SERIOUSLY had no idea what a life saver they would be back when you sent them.  Thank you SO much! :)

He even likes to work his core while reading.

Next to reading, and playing outside BB's favorite activities include:

Running the local mafia,

helping cook (this is the aftermath of him "helping" to prepare a bunch of mustard greens for dinner.  Notice the icecream scoop as his tool of choice. . ),

 posing as a super hero,

operating construction equipment (still working on that. . the direction thing is tricky),

helping Mommy work out (maybe second generation personal trainer in his future?!?! :))

and mastering the art of duel toothbrushes.

He is one busy boy!!

And we are two very blessed (and tired!) parents! :)

Visitor Adventures

We are so excited to already have already had three sets of visitors to our new home! 

Grandma and Grandpa A. made it out for a few days shortly after we moved in and were a huge help with some of the heavy lifting of trying to find a spot for everything in a new place.  They also were very helpful entertaining a certain little toddler so we could unpack and organize without everything being immediately "unorganized".

Unfortunately we must have been in full move in/stressed out mode during their visit as it appears they got the short end of the picture stick this time!  The only picture I could find from that visit is Grandma A reading to BB.  (Hint for any future visitors:  it has been proven three times now that this is the one sure fire way for a visitor to win their way into BB's heart!)  This does give a good starting view of our undecorated living room and the pictures from the follow on visitors show it becoming a little more "homey" and "cozy" as time goes along!

Our next visitors were Hubs' Uncle P and Aunt T.  This was SUCH a fun treat!!   They are perhaps the most easy to have house guests ever, not to mention I can't imagine anyone being a bigger hit with BB!  They also took/shared some great pictures while they were here. . including the family ones from my last post!

Do you see the look of suspicious concern on BB's face?  This is him realizing his new buddies are saying "bye bye" and he is just stuck with boring old Mom for the rest of the day!  We so appreciate them taking the time and making the effort to drive out and spend time with us.   Moving so often and living so far away from most of our families makes fun little visits like this mean so very very much to us!

And lastly, Grandpa and Grandma H also made it out for a few days!  They were even game for helping us take BB out for his first time apple picking.

He didn't really contribute too much but the apple picker was a bit hit!

And of course, lots of books were read during this time as well!  Grandpa H may have actually lost his voice on one occasion due to about 500 consecutive (very enthusiastic) readings of a new favorite book. . . .

Thanks to all of you for visiting and we hope you enjoyed your little taste of Newport!  And on that note, it has been a whole month since our last visitors so. . . who is next? :)  Only requirements are you must be interested in exploring a seriously cute little town full of shops, mansions, and beautiful views.  Also. . our only charge for room and board is being willing to read to BB at least 3 straight hours every day. :)

Newport Adventures Part I

So. . let me just say we are LOVING our new home for the next year!  We are about as excited as this little boy is about a giant tree stump and a little stick.

For those of you who don't know, we are currently living in Newport, Rhode Island.  RI has been such refreshing change for us after two years of isolated desert.  First of all, we are just a 10 min walk away from water, there are trees everywhere, and we are living right downtown and are in walking distance to all sorts of shops, restaurants, and parks.

Additionally, we are here so Hubs can take classes at the Navy War College which means a pretty predictable academic schedule and the opportunity for much more family time that the hectic Army lifestyle sometimes allows.

Newport is literally on an island and is a tourist town during the summer but is also very quaint and historical and has a cozy comfortable vibe.  During the summer in particular there is always something going on; live music at the park or beach, various festivals, firework displays,etc.

Summer has already turned into fall here but I wanted to show you a little glimpse of what it was like!

We thought it would be fun to take BB to the Kite Festival one weekend.

It WAS fun and he loved looking at all the kites.

However most of our time was spent trying to keep him from running and grabbing all the various kite strings and crashing people's kites as well as grabbing things from people's picnic lunches.  We appear to be in the "running and grabbing" toddler stage. . maybe that is the whole toddler stage?  This is a fairly descriptive shot of what the afternoon was like.

We also have enjoyed several trips to the beach.  BB is absolutely in love with the ocean and goes crazy pointing and yelling at it every time we drive by it.  He loves to find a pack of older boys on the beach and latch on to them and try and join in whatever game they are playing (usually involves either digging a big hole or filling in a big hole with water or sand).  They usually are good sports about letting him grab their shovels and try to be involved.  He is a little too fearless around the water for my liking.  He literally will just charge in and keep going until we stop him.

"Well hello Ladies.  Yes, I do work out."

These were taking at a park overlooking an harbor just a short walk from us by some of our recent visitors (see next post!:))

On the Road Again Adventures

I was actually surprised to log in and see it had ONLY been a little over three months since the last post.  So much has changed since then I could have swore it had been almost a year!  Since the last post we have moved 3170 miles to the literal other side of the country.  Moves are always stressful but this one was our first with a toddler which of course brought unique challenges.  I also was right in the middle of yet other grad school semester which was pretty tricky.  Thank goodness for hotel business centers! 

As you may remember from previous posts our BB isn't a huge fan of car travel so this road trip was quite the endeavor.  We took things very slowly with lots of stops and although it was long and exhausting it was a fun to do our first move as a family of three and make tons of fun memories!  We have a new appreciation for rest stops.  BB loved to run around at a new one every few hours especially as the scenery changed from brown to green.

"Umm. . is this what they call a jungle?"

We also got the chance for three stops to visit some family on our cross country trek which was such a treat!

First- a stop at the family farm to see Grandma and Grandpa A. and assorted siblings/nephews/and nieces (including a brand new 2 week old one!!).  It was a VERY quick stop over.  But fortunately there was just enough time for Grandpa A. and BB to get some good "playing in the dirt" time.

And to do some reading with Grandma A.

And play with all these cousins!!  He really wishes he lived closer so he got to see all these fun kids more often!

Second- Grandma and Grandpa H. met up with us for a day in Indiana.  They helped us take BB on his first trip to a zoo and he loved it!  The animals were actually secondary though to how much he enjoyed running up to the other kids there and trying to make friends.  Unfortunately we did a horrible job of taking pictures on this get together/outing (we will have to take double the pictures next time we are together!).  The only one I have to share is this one of Grandma H. showing BB a sleepy leopard.

Third- We stopped over at Hub's sister and brother in laws place for a day to see their super cute house for the first time.  They were GREAT hosts and BB was completely smitten!

"See this is how you do it. . ."

"Oh you are a great teacher Uncle K!  I think I"m a natural at this!"

 "Whatcha drawing over there Auntie L?"

So nice to have these familiar faces and great hospitality during a transition period and all that comes with it!

First Birthday Adventures!!

Our little BB turned 1!  It is still so hard for me to believe. I can remember the day he was born like it was yesterday.  The next 12 months not so much.. .they are more of an exhausted, sleepless, showerless blur in my mind.  Ok. . I'm exaggerating again.  I did get to take a few showers. :)

BB loves hanging out with his parents but isn't super excited about most other people yet.  So we decided rather than a birthday party he would probably enjoy a weekend with just his parents way more.  His birthday happened to fall on one of Hub's long weekends so we took the chance for one more trip to Big Bear to celebrate!

"What do you mean it is my birthday?"

We rented a cabin with a big back yard and lots of grass. . something we don't have in the desert and we knew he would love!

He is really into books right now and thought his birthday cards were little books and brought them right over to be read to him.  They are still in his stack of books at home and he still regularly chooses them in his book rotation!

Thoroughly enjoying his new loot!

We also took him to a little petting zoo to check out some goats and chickens!  He tends to be a little slow to warm up to new situations like this but once he does it is full steam ahead!

It has been an incredible year.  Both harder and better than Hubs or I ever thought possible.  We are very very thankful for this amazing little one God entrusted us with and look forward to celebrating many more happy birthdays with him!