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!  

Traveling as Three Adventures (Throw Back Thursday!)

So. . apparently there is a social media "thing" called Throw Back Thursday where one posts an old "throw back" picture of themselves.  Well. . I am quickly becoming an outdated fuddy duddy in the world of social networking ( I don't understand the point of Twitter?!?!) BUT I thought embracing this trend would be a good excuse to post a blog I started months ago  and never posted.  (BB is about 2-3 months at the time)   So. . . here you are. :)

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As you probably know if you read this blog very much, Hubs and I really like to travel.  However it turns out that (at least for the time being) Baby Boy is not a big fan of riding in the car.  Pretty much 40 minutes is his limit.  Unfortunately for us the shortest distance to most things off base is around an hour and 15 minutes.  Usually the last half of those trips aren't very pleasant.

Needless to say we were very concerned how this would translate into future travels.  Turns out that Baby Boy does great with most other modes of transportation however.  We are thinking it is just the car seat/not being held that is the problem which does give us some hope for the future.

We also have had to come to terms with all the STUFF we have to take along for this tiny little person.  So much for the carry on only days I guess!  After eight plus years of traveling together we have developed pretty good systems for things (packing, carrying bags, who does what, etc).  We are finding those have to be adjusted as well.  The new standard operating procedure is:

 I carry Baby Boy and a bag with his immediate need stuff,

and Hubs carries. . .well everything else.

" Hmmm cabin services huh?  This is the way to travel . ."

"Box" Adventures

So. . . about those New Year Resolutions. . . .errrrmm. . . don't say I didn't warn you!! :)

Anyway, as we are nearing the two year mark here in California I wanted to explain a little bit more about what Hubs has been doing here.  He works as a trainer for military units rotating through one month at a time.  Since we are in such a remote and desert area it is a great location to simulate the Middle East and/or to just have lot of wide open space for tanks to battle.

Back five or so years ago when I was till in the Army, Hubs and I both went through here doing training prep for one of our deployments.  We both remember it as one of the top 5 worse months of our Army career!! I came to the conclusion that the real purpose behind the training is to put units and individuals under such ridiculous amount of stress that they bond and become a more effective team.  Sounds crazy but it is actually really works!

Everyone "affectionately" refers to the huge training area as "the box" (kind of like the big sand box/sweat box).  The phrases "I don't know if my husband will be out of the box for dinner or not" and "My daddy is in the box this week" are very commonly heard around post every training rotation.  I have heard a few people express the confusion this causes for their toddlers as they don't understand why Daddy or Mommy keeps getting put in a box and why they just cant get out, haha!!

Here are a few pictures from "the box" that he has taken over the past few years.

He does have an office here on post that he works from occasionally but during rotations he spends almost every day out "in the box".  Sometimes he flies a helicopter around shadowing the training unit's helicopters and sometimes he drives around in a HUMVEE.

It can get COLD out in the desert!

Portable cookout in the back of his HUMVEE.

I spy a bird...

I spy a soldier. . .

He comes across all sorts all sort of desert critters on a regular basis.  The donkeys and coyotes are harder to get pictures of but this "little" guy was more than happy to pose for a picture.

Sometimes when I ask him what he did at work today he responds "I watched a really big battle" or "I watched a big recovery operation".  Kind of sounds like every little boy's dream job, huh?

Springtime in the desert!