Decade

CONGRATULATIONS to my hard-working hubby who celebrates 10 years working for the Navy on August 1st! We love you and appreciate all you do to provide for our family!

Jason received the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award at the Pentagon in June before we moved. It was a big honor!

got grapes?

This week seemed kind of slow after spending mega hours pulling weeds and unpacking last week. We've gotten things done, but the days seem slower lately. (The 100+-degree heat probably has a little something to do with it, too.) I'm not complaining, though--school starts in just over 2 weeks here, so we need to take advantage of lazy summer days while we can!

This week:
--we visited some old friends
--some old friends visited us
--the waterfall/fountain stopped working and hasn't been on for two days (the fish are okay still, but we need to get it fixed asap)
--Daddy came home for lunch one day (this was SUPER nice after two years of that NOT happening!) The day after that we met him at Pizza Hut. Happiness!
--more swimming
--Pulled a few more weeds and vacuumed really good at the 706 house
--Howard and Sandi came over for dinner
--I finally got trip pictures off the camera and onto the computer, close to 600 of them!!!
--went to the library (note: Death by Dickens, edited by Anne Perry is REALLY good so far!)
--cleaned up the front yard here (there are lots of fallen leaves and pine needles to stay on top of; still need to weed a bit, too)
--registered the kids for school
--oh, and I finally took care of the grapevine...



Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what to do with them except eat them or try to dry them...

Next week the kids will take some swimming lessons and we'll try to see a movie. Should I take them to G-Force or HP? I'm voting for HP, but the kids want to see the guinea pigs...

Fun with Family in July!

I felt like my heart was being squeezed, in a good way, when I was getting these pictures ready this morning. After being in D.C. for two years, it had been about that long or longer, since we'd seen some of our extended family. I'm so grateful we could see them and hope that "next time" we can stay longer.

Love to you all!

Our Yellowstone experience

Old Faithful and other geysers/hot springs were major highlights for us. It was crazy to see the steam and boiling water! On the way out we saw a mother elk (?, at least that's what we think it was) and her hours-old baby, too. Enjoy the pics!

Our new home

Well, I've got two full camera disks of trip/family pictures, but a few people specifically asked for new house pics, so here you go. We moved in last week and are slowly unpacking/quickly learning to appreciate and enjoy this place. We're renting it for now and will buy it when our other home sells (aka "706 is still for SALE! Tell your friends! Tell the world! :))

Enjoy the pictures--I have to pinch myself after looking at these! Oh, you can click generally on the slideshow and it'll open it up so the pictures are bigger, if you want to do that... Let us know what you think!

Back to the grindstone, sort of

Well, after 2 weeks of absolutely non-stop vacation awesomeness, we drove into Ridgecrest last Tuesday afternoon and have been going going going ever since. It'll take a while to get caught up on blogging--I just wanted to let everyone know that we're alive and have the stories to show it. :)

After Rushmore we stayed a day or so in Yellowstone. The two-room hotel suite was SWEET, and seeing Old Faithful go off twice was even sweeter. Saw bison and elk and deer up close in the park, and then wolves and giant grizzlies at a neat Grizzly Discovery Center.

Then we spent a day and a half with my Grandma Sue and Uncle Max--it had been years since we'd seen them, and it was great to sit back and relax with them!

We were in Salt Lake City for 5 days. Got together with Jason's high school buddies on Thursday night. Had a Sheen day on Friday and went to Discovery Children's Museum and Sugarhouse Park with my brothers Derrick and Jordan and their families--way fun! And then we celebrated the 4th of July and our niece Lilly's baby blessing with our Cushing family. We loved seeing everyone there and also stopped by to see Grandma Lola, who is recovering from major surgery. Our love to you all for making our stay so fun and memorable!!!

Here in Ridgecrest we've enjoyed more "family" hospitality with Howard and Sandi. They're letting us take over their house until we can get settled in our new house. Yes, we're still trying to sell our old house on 706 Randall, but we are moving into 908 Randall. The owners are letting us rent it until our sells, and then we'll buy theirs. Around the neighborhood the new house is known as the "waterfall" house. I could write pages about this house, but I'll wrap it up with a list of what happened yesterday:

1) Wade fell into the fish pond twice.
2) While I moved loads of boxes into the house yesterday, Rhiannon and Wade either ate grapes from the grapevines, picked roses from the rosebushes, played hide and seek inside, climbed all over the rocks in the front yard, or tried to count fish in the fish pond (hence Wade's slipping).
3) Wade got lost in the house more than once, and I have to admit I made a few wrong turns, too.
4) We stayed plenty cool inside the house with just a few fans going and a small window swamp cooler running. I was really surprised by that!
5) At the end of the day the kids were rewarded with a short foot soak in the pool--today we hope to jump into it! :)

All is well--I'll get pictures up...eventually. :)