We're getting ready to leave this morning to head first to Indianapolis to visit my brother, and then to St Louis to visit my parents, sister, and neice and nephew. James hasn't seen them since Christmas 2006 so I think he's really looking forward to it all (except the drive). The girls are most looking forward to fishing with my brother (that's something they don't get anywhere else as I am NOT a fishing kind of gal) and playing with their cousins (the only 2 they have).
On a side note, I was back to teaching on Wed and Thurs after having been off for about 2 weeks. It felt SOOO good to be back at it! On the cruise I did work out, and we stuck to our pact to not use the elevators which was a tremendous help, I'm sure, in keeping the weight relatively down. I know I gained something but I'm hoping it wasn't too bad. Anyway, I really missed teaching while I was gone and feel bad that I only returned for 2 days before taking off again. I'm anxious to get back to a routine where I'm back for good. I miss the ladies, the workouts, and the predictability.
Oh, and I HAVE to get into a marathon training groove when we get home. Due to my aching feet (plantar fascitis) and a bum knee I am having to reformulate my approach to tackling the marathon. Instead of jogging it like I'd planned I'm going to go wit a training plan that has me walking it. Not what I wanted but based on my injuries it's obviously what my body is telling me I need. Sometimes we finally have to listen to what our bodies are saying or risk further injury.
So, come July 7th when we return, it is GAME ON with the training schedule!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
A few photos to share
Time is short as we're only home for a couple days before heading out for some more vacationing. We're going to the Midwest to visit family~~fun in its own right, but it certainly doesn't compare to the Caribbean!!!
Anyway, here are just a few photos from our trip. More will be coming later.
Beginning our trip in Tampa, where we went to Busch Gardens. Hooray for the Hero Salute promotion that let's us into the park for free! Love that! Let's hope the Dutch don't buy out Anheiser-Busch because I doubt the Dutch would continue supporting our troops with free theme park tickets if they acquired all the parks that A/B owns.
Our family in Trunk Bay on St. John Island in the US Virgin Islands. This is by far the most beautiful place we've ever seen. The island is a US National Park which has kept it very well cared for and extremely pristine. We could definitely see ourselves returning here for a future visit. It was gorgeous. Sure didn't hurt that this day was our anniversary. What better way to celebrate 14 years together than on a gorgeous beach like this?!
Here is me, doing exactly what I'd said I'd be doing, soaking up some sun!
After leaving St. John via ferry to head back to our port island, St Thomas, we stopped to take this picture with our ship in the background. We were on the Carnival Valor.
Back on the ship, we relaxed and savored the view of St. Thomas in the background. This turned out to be my favorite night of the cruise. Every other night we spent time getting ready for a formal dinner, two hours or more eating the dinner, and missed every sunset. This particular night, our anniversary, we decided to forego the fancy-schmancy dining room and just eat casually from the buffet, me still in my swim attire! As we ate we watched the sun disappear behind the mountains of the island, and then were in awe of all the twinkling lights of the city. It was breath-taking and the most perfect way to toast 14 years together.
Anyway, here are just a few photos from our trip. More will be coming later.
Beginning our trip in Tampa, where we went to Busch Gardens. Hooray for the Hero Salute promotion that let's us into the park for free! Love that! Let's hope the Dutch don't buy out Anheiser-Busch because I doubt the Dutch would continue supporting our troops with free theme park tickets if they acquired all the parks that A/B owns.
Our family in Trunk Bay on St. John Island in the US Virgin Islands. This is by far the most beautiful place we've ever seen. The island is a US National Park which has kept it very well cared for and extremely pristine. We could definitely see ourselves returning here for a future visit. It was gorgeous. Sure didn't hurt that this day was our anniversary. What better way to celebrate 14 years together than on a gorgeous beach like this?!
Here is me, doing exactly what I'd said I'd be doing, soaking up some sun!
After leaving St. John via ferry to head back to our port island, St Thomas, we stopped to take this picture with our ship in the background. We were on the Carnival Valor.
Back on the ship, we relaxed and savored the view of St. Thomas in the background. This turned out to be my favorite night of the cruise. Every other night we spent time getting ready for a formal dinner, two hours or more eating the dinner, and missed every sunset. This particular night, our anniversary, we decided to forego the fancy-schmancy dining room and just eat casually from the buffet, me still in my swim attire! As we ate we watched the sun disappear behind the mountains of the island, and then were in awe of all the twinkling lights of the city. It was breath-taking and the most perfect way to toast 14 years together.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
I'm Gonna Soak up the Sun
I've got Shreyl Crow's voice ringing in my ears now, letting me know that my vacation is about to start. Like the song says, I'm gonna soak up the sun, and boy, will I love it!
We're leaving in the morning for our long awaited family vacation--a true reminder that this deployment has ended, our family time has arrived, and the rest of the world will still be waiting for us when we get home.
We're heading to Tampa for a couple days to see Busch Gardens. After that we'll drive to Miami to board the Carnival Valor for our 7 night cruise. We can't wait to set sail (with Captain Morgan, lol) and watch the excitement on the girls' faces as the experience their first cruise. We'll get to spend our 14th anniversary in a tropical paradise. Does it get much better than that? When the cruise ends we'll head to Orlando to spend a day at one of Disney's waterparks to finish off our water and sun-filled vacation.
We'll arrive home for a couple days, just long enough to do some laundry, before taking off for the midwest to visit my brother and his wife, and then on to St. Louis to visit my parents, sister, nephew and neice.
We've got a lot planned over the next few weeks, and our gas bills will prove it, I'm sure! But I'll not think of that right now. I'll just focus on getting a good night's sleep and welcome the morning with a cheery face and an eager anticipation for all the fun that's in store.
Vacation, HERE WE COME!!!
We're leaving in the morning for our long awaited family vacation--a true reminder that this deployment has ended, our family time has arrived, and the rest of the world will still be waiting for us when we get home.
We're heading to Tampa for a couple days to see Busch Gardens. After that we'll drive to Miami to board the Carnival Valor for our 7 night cruise. We can't wait to set sail (with Captain Morgan, lol) and watch the excitement on the girls' faces as the experience their first cruise. We'll get to spend our 14th anniversary in a tropical paradise. Does it get much better than that? When the cruise ends we'll head to Orlando to spend a day at one of Disney's waterparks to finish off our water and sun-filled vacation.
We'll arrive home for a couple days, just long enough to do some laundry, before taking off for the midwest to visit my brother and his wife, and then on to St. Louis to visit my parents, sister, nephew and neice.
We've got a lot planned over the next few weeks, and our gas bills will prove it, I'm sure! But I'll not think of that right now. I'll just focus on getting a good night's sleep and welcome the morning with a cheery face and an eager anticipation for all the fun that's in store.
Vacation, HERE WE COME!!!
Monday, June 09, 2008
Beach-Lovin' Family
For Memorial Weekend our family journeyed down to Panama City Beach, Florida for some sun and fun. This trip was spur-of-the-moment, sort of. To me spur-of-the-moment usually means less than a week or two of planning. In actuality, we made our reservations on a Wednesday and headed down there on Saturday morning. Not as much planning time as I like but still enough to pull together what needed done.
We elected to keep the trip a secret from the girls so they didn't know anything was up. Saturday morning I taught my usual class then came home to clean up. When that was done we told the girls to get in the van because we had some things to do. They obeyed and off we went. After a while they began asking where we were going and we just said we had some friends we were off to visit and left it at that. After about three hours Morgan finally began complaining about why we had to drive so far to see friends. We were within about 10 miles of the beach when she finally put it together and it made for the best surprise we could've asked for! The girls were thrilled to get to go to the beach and have all weekend to enjoy it!
During OIF 1 I got to know the wife and children of James' platoon sergeant fairly well. They moved away from here back in November 2003 in favor of returning to their hometown~~Panama City. Whenever we head down there we try to look them up for a quick visit to keep in touch. James and Freddie have a great time remembering "old times" and Darlus and I enjoy chatting while the four girls we have between us all play well together. It makes for some terrific memories.
This visit was different, however, in that Freddie and Darlus had just purchased their own boat a few weeks before and invited us to join them on it. They picked us up (in their boat) at the lagoon by our hotel and off we went across the gulf waters. We were on the lookout for dolphins the whole time but they stayed out of sight until later that night when one lonely dolphin jumped in front of our boat, giving Morgan a thrill!
Freddie drove us out to Shell Island which is only accessible by boats. It's uninhabited and beautiful. The water threat level was at two red flags which meant no one should be in the water swimming due to the waves and danger so we didn't stay long. Mostly we just held onto the kids and let some waves knock them over a few times and then allowed them to dig in the sand as the sun set behind us. We then hopped back on the boat and Freddie drove us across the bay back to our hotel.
The next day we headed to St. Andrews State Park for some simple beach time in some very shallow water. Darlus and her girls met us there for an hour or so which gave the kids more time to play together. After a few hours of swimming and sand-castle building we heard thunder rolling and decided (along with the throngs of other beach-goers) that it was time to pack up and leave before the storm was on top of us. We went back to the hotel to clean up and rest a bit before going out to dinner.
Dinner was delicious--how can you go wrong with fresh seafood??? I thoroughly enjoyed my crab leg feast while James devoured his shrimp. The girls ate whatever it was they ordered and then kept occupied watching for dolphins again as we were eating outdoors right on the water. It was a yummy meal!
Our last morning we headed to a bakery that we've always wanted to try but had never seen open before. This time it was open, and BUSY, so we popped in to grab some pastries before heading back to the beach for a final hour or so of water time before cleaning up and heading home. Or so we thought.
Breakfast was peaceful and relaxing sitting by the water. The girls found several hermit crabs after they'd eaten and decided to have a hermit crab race with them. They gave them names and rooted for their favorites. I'm pretty sure it's a memory we'll all carry with us for quite some time.
The plan was to clean up now, grab a quick bite on the way out of town (even though we weren't hungry yet) and hit the road for the 3 1/2 hour drive home. However, because we weren't hungry yet but we couldn't see leaving town without one more seafood meal, we decided to kill a little time with another tourist-y attraction. We took in the Ripley's Believe it or Not! museum. Morgan has always wanted to go to one of these as she gets such a kick out of stuff like that so we obliged. It was interesting to say the least.
After the museum we were ready for lunch so we drove around looking for something that would meet our needs and after a while we found what we wanted. After a final seafood meal we were ready to hit the road home. Everyone was tanned (and then some!), fed, happy, and exhausted.
One of my favorite memories will be discovering what Morgan had written in the sand while she was off by herself. It says, "I love my Momma."
We had had a great Memorial Weekend that came only one week after James returned home. We found ourselves frequently saying how interesting it was that he had still been in Iraq barely 8 days before and suddenly, here he was, sitting on the beach, watching for dolphins, hanging in a boat with his old buddy, watching his daughters race hermit crabs, and so on. Quite a culture shock. And yet, so very right and real and restful.
How happy and complete we feel to have Daddy home. It doesn't get much better.
We elected to keep the trip a secret from the girls so they didn't know anything was up. Saturday morning I taught my usual class then came home to clean up. When that was done we told the girls to get in the van because we had some things to do. They obeyed and off we went. After a while they began asking where we were going and we just said we had some friends we were off to visit and left it at that. After about three hours Morgan finally began complaining about why we had to drive so far to see friends. We were within about 10 miles of the beach when she finally put it together and it made for the best surprise we could've asked for! The girls were thrilled to get to go to the beach and have all weekend to enjoy it!
During OIF 1 I got to know the wife and children of James' platoon sergeant fairly well. They moved away from here back in November 2003 in favor of returning to their hometown~~Panama City. Whenever we head down there we try to look them up for a quick visit to keep in touch. James and Freddie have a great time remembering "old times" and Darlus and I enjoy chatting while the four girls we have between us all play well together. It makes for some terrific memories.
This visit was different, however, in that Freddie and Darlus had just purchased their own boat a few weeks before and invited us to join them on it. They picked us up (in their boat) at the lagoon by our hotel and off we went across the gulf waters. We were on the lookout for dolphins the whole time but they stayed out of sight until later that night when one lonely dolphin jumped in front of our boat, giving Morgan a thrill!
Freddie drove us out to Shell Island which is only accessible by boats. It's uninhabited and beautiful. The water threat level was at two red flags which meant no one should be in the water swimming due to the waves and danger so we didn't stay long. Mostly we just held onto the kids and let some waves knock them over a few times and then allowed them to dig in the sand as the sun set behind us. We then hopped back on the boat and Freddie drove us across the bay back to our hotel.
The next day we headed to St. Andrews State Park for some simple beach time in some very shallow water. Darlus and her girls met us there for an hour or so which gave the kids more time to play together. After a few hours of swimming and sand-castle building we heard thunder rolling and decided (along with the throngs of other beach-goers) that it was time to pack up and leave before the storm was on top of us. We went back to the hotel to clean up and rest a bit before going out to dinner.
Dinner was delicious--how can you go wrong with fresh seafood??? I thoroughly enjoyed my crab leg feast while James devoured his shrimp. The girls ate whatever it was they ordered and then kept occupied watching for dolphins again as we were eating outdoors right on the water. It was a yummy meal!
Our last morning we headed to a bakery that we've always wanted to try but had never seen open before. This time it was open, and BUSY, so we popped in to grab some pastries before heading back to the beach for a final hour or so of water time before cleaning up and heading home. Or so we thought.
Breakfast was peaceful and relaxing sitting by the water. The girls found several hermit crabs after they'd eaten and decided to have a hermit crab race with them. They gave them names and rooted for their favorites. I'm pretty sure it's a memory we'll all carry with us for quite some time.
The plan was to clean up now, grab a quick bite on the way out of town (even though we weren't hungry yet) and hit the road for the 3 1/2 hour drive home. However, because we weren't hungry yet but we couldn't see leaving town without one more seafood meal, we decided to kill a little time with another tourist-y attraction. We took in the Ripley's Believe it or Not! museum. Morgan has always wanted to go to one of these as she gets such a kick out of stuff like that so we obliged. It was interesting to say the least.
After the museum we were ready for lunch so we drove around looking for something that would meet our needs and after a while we found what we wanted. After a final seafood meal we were ready to hit the road home. Everyone was tanned (and then some!), fed, happy, and exhausted.
One of my favorite memories will be discovering what Morgan had written in the sand while she was off by herself. It says, "I love my Momma."
We had had a great Memorial Weekend that came only one week after James returned home. We found ourselves frequently saying how interesting it was that he had still been in Iraq barely 8 days before and suddenly, here he was, sitting on the beach, watching for dolphins, hanging in a boat with his old buddy, watching his daughters race hermit crabs, and so on. Quite a culture shock. And yet, so very right and real and restful.
How happy and complete we feel to have Daddy home. It doesn't get much better.
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