Friday, January 28, 2011

NJ Fun

Brad left on the Thursday night before MLK weekend. I decided instead of spending the long weekend at home being sad we would go to NJ and visit friends and distract ourselves.

There was more snow in NJ than VA so the girls were excited to go sledding...

Brooke and our friend, Lila...
Morgan didn't mind watching but wasn't really in the mood to participate...
Mckenna and our friend, Emma...

We had a great weekend being spoiled and loved on by wonderful friends...it was a great way to spend the first few days of the next 6 month!

D Day

These are the last few pictures I took of Brad and the girls as we headed to the airport on his deployment day. My friend came to the airport and took some beautiful pictures that I'll soon post...

Nap time...she is tired and confused.
Picking the girls up early from school to go to the airport...

Everyone is smiling despite how we were all feeling...troopers.

Her First Meet

Things have been so hectic since Brad deployed that I'm just now getting around to posting pictures of Mckenna's first gymnastics meet. She just joined the team in December so she has been catching up with the rest of the girls who have been learning the routines since September.

Lining up for "parade" prior to the start of the meet and the National Anthem...
Her floor routine...very serious and focused and intense.
On the beam...her mount.
Waiting for the green flag for the vault...this was her best event.
On the podium...so happy and proud.
With Daddy...she was so happy to have one meet before he left so he could watch her progress.

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Great Wolf Lodge

We pulled the girls out of school for 24 hours to go to Williamsburg and play hooky at the Great Wolf Lodge....considering Daddy is leaving for 6 months in a few days we felt justified in this fun filled family time.

The place was EMPTY so we had a blast enjoying all the pools and slides essentially to ourselves! Morgan started off a little timid of all the water and noise but eventually relaxed and had a lot of fun. Brooke modeling for the camera...she is starting to look so mature.

Dancing to the beat of her own drummer...literally!
Baileigh and Mckenna getting dumped on by the huge bucket of water...
My chronic goofball...
Flowrider was a favorite ride of Baileigh, Mckenna and Daddy...this thing was powerful and we witnessed a few people loose their suits! The girls were exhausted that evening because this thing is a lot of work, but they loved it and started to get really good at being able to control themselves and move around.

At 8:00 every night they encourage kids to come to the lobby in their pjs for storytime...
A picture with their mascot...forgot his name.
In the morning the girls were spoiled with donuts in their kids cabin!
We enjoyed a few more hours of fun in the waterpark on day 2 before we hit the road and headed home. This trip was sort of a last minute idea and we're so thankful we did it...it was a nice distraction from the 24/7 focus on the deployment and a great family time.
Morgan kept up with her big sisters like a trooper...she didn't get a nap for 2 days but survived and even slept in a big girl bed at the hotel! Our baby days are limited!

Saturday, January 01, 2011

13 Years Later...

8 moves, 4 kids, 2 dogs, lots of TDY, soon to be 2 deployments...and 1,000 things to note in between. Its never been boring . Here is to the next 13 years!