One last cute picture

The boys at Cam & Mary's townhouse when we stopped for naps on the last day of our visit.

There were so many other people whom (?) we saw and forgot to snap a picture of, and it makes this little record feel incomplete, but at least we have some wonderful memories. We forgot to take a picture of our friends who are newlyweds, Tim & Jada (thanks for letting us stay with you), and Cam & Mary (thanks for letting us nap at your place while you were at the beach). We also got the chance to have breakfast with Dick and Verna, and lunch with Ian and Rachel and their daughter Audrey. Oh yeah, at the last minute we got to see some missionary friends of ours from Tab, Carton and Shannon and their son, Parker. They serve over in Brussels and happened to be home for a visit. Our trips overlapped by one day! On our day in Annapolis, Will ran into the plebe we sponsored when he was up here in RI at NAPS. His name is Tyller. I'll have to post a plebe pic of him now that he's at the Academy.

There were others that we had plans to see, but things fell through at the last minute because the boys needed to nap and I needed them to get sleep since we were pushing them hard with a crazy schedule. They took some 3 and 4 hour naps! I felt bad because both boys came home and got a small cold, but I think that was because of the night that we drove through on our way home and it kept them up a lot. They're getting over it quickly though and haven't missed a beat.

One good thing lately though, is that Charley hasn't been getting up as early as he was before we left. I don't know if he's still catching up on sleep, or if he's just changing his schedule. If he had kept getting up that early, I decided to just let him (or make him) stay in bed and let him know that it's not time to get up yet. A short conversation with Verna helped convince me of this. But I think that if I hadn't tried adjusting his schedule in other ways, and realizing that he still needed sleep, I wouldn't feel comfortable making him stay in bed. Fortunately, I had tried everything, to no avail, and now realize that it's a training/discipline issue. He hasn't gotten up before 6:30 or 7 yet though, so I'm not too worried. We'll see what happens though :)

I'm just glad we'll have a long time before our next trip. We'll drive to TX in December, if all goes well, and take a long vacation through January when Will has more time off. We're planning on going skiing and on going to the Caribbean somewhere. We haven't firmed up plans or dates yet. That will be an incredible and long trip! Stay posted :)

People we saw in Norfolk

We really enjoyed our time last week in Norfolk. We tried to remember to get pics of everyone, but I know we missed a few so apologies to those folks. Here are a bunch of pics of people and kids we saw. We can't wait to see you all again.

Navy friends Tommy & Amy w/ daughter Anna

Amy & new baby girl, Sabrina "Izzy" (born the day before Ben). Thanks so much Tommy & Amy for letting us call you up at a moments notice to come crash and eat or hang out at your house. You were life savers. Thanks for being so flexible with your time and open with your home.

Charley (2 yrs old) & Lydia (3 yrs old) watching Veggie Tales. Thanks so much, Barry & Jenn, for letting us stay with you while we were there. I hope everything goes well for you in the move to D.C and with the birth of baby #3 "Baby Boy" in December. They also have another daughter, Katie, who is 16 mo. old. Our prayers are with you Jenn and Barry and your handful of arrows :)


My younger cousin, Alicia (13 yrs old) and me and my Aunt Teressa holding Ben and Will in front. Most of the inspiration for coming to Norfolk in the first place was to watch Alicia pole vault in the Junior Olympics. She did a great job and it was amazing to watch her jump. The heat index that day was well over 100, I think it was maybe 115 or so (no joke). They got to go hang out at the beach while they were in town and we really enjoyed spending time with them since we don't see them often in Rockwall, TX (near Dallas) where they live.



I got to catch up with my old high school friend, Daniel, while we were there. He's a SeeBee in the Navy now and is stationed at Oceana in Virginia Beach. He's doing great since he moved back to the states from Japan. Of course, he and Will talked Navy the whole time, but that was fine because you can only talk about people from high school for so long. : ) He enjoyed holding Ben and did a great job, probably from all the experience he's had from visitin Dana & Dave and holding their brood :) Thanks Dana for the current e-mail address. It was so good to see him.



Here we all are at Outback Steakhouse with Art & Anna . Anna is due with their first baby in January! Yay! Thanks guys for letting us stay with you our last night, and swim in your pool and watch your big screen . . . :)

On a side note, (for those of you who don't know) Anna was present (in the delivery room) for Charley's birth, since we didn't expect him 2 weeks early and my mom couldn't be there. She just came to visit us this past April just 2 weeks before Ben was born so we thought she might be there for him too, but he was 5 days late. This is the friend I always talk about meeting at the dog park just before I got pregnant with Charley. She's become a great friend since then and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding last July. I can't wait to see their beautiful little baby. We're not sure if it's a boy or girl yet. I'll keep ya posted!



We visited with some good friends from our Sunday School class at Tab Church in Norfolk, where we used to go. From L to R is Evelyn (17 mo.), Christianne, me, and Christy holding Ben (3 mo.). We were also all in a small group together. We had a lot of fun hanging out and watching our husbands play X-box :) By the way Christy, I have to say you have a gift . . . Ben looks nice and comfy.

And here are our husbands . . . playing X-box. From L to R are Will (my hubby), Will, and Dave.

This is Dave holding Owen. I couldn't leave out Christy & Will's new baby, Owen (9 mo.). He's probably saying, "Hey, you're not my daddy." He's super cute and it was the first time we had the chance to see him since we moved away from Norfolk before he was born.

One more just for fun . . . the two redheads wrestling and turning . . . redder :)

WHAT A FUN & BLESSED TIME!!

only young once!

Hi All! We made it back safely to RI at around 10 Sunday morning. We ended up driving through the night from Norfolk when we left at 9 PM. It's exhausting, I don't recommend it. It was nice that we didn't have much traffic, but the kids weren't sleeping that well in their carseats and I don't sleep well in cars either. We might have stopped around midnight, but we hit an area on the Eastern seaboard peninsula that was booked for miles. When we finally hit Wilmington, DE, it was already 1 or 2 and so we kept going. It was such a long night. We drove through NYC at around 5 in the morning and still hit about 20 min. of stand still traffic, which was funny because we thought we'd miss all traffic coming through that early and not even on a work day, but New York is New York I guess :) We stopped for breakfast in Mystic, CT and took our time there; that was nice.

All in all, it was a great trip and we really enjoyed catching up with old friends and seeing my cousin pole vault. It was amazing to watch! I think she placed 4th which is awesome considering this is her very first year to pole vault, ever! We had a heat index in the 110-120 range just about the entire time we were there so we stayed inside a lot! Fortunately, everyone's A/C was working. Many thanks to everyone who made time to hang out with us and made meals for us, and especially those who gave us a place to stay at night or crash during the day when plans fell through or the kids needed a break. I'm sorry to those we weren't able to catch up with for lack of time or because the kids needed a break. Charley ended up taking 3 & 4 hour naps most days because we weren't able to keep them on a schedule. He did great for all that we put him through though. Hopefully, it will just make them both more flexible :)

We really love and appreciate all our friends and we miss you so much. It made us think about all the other friends we weren't able to see who live all over the country and how we hope we'll be able to catch up with you all again soon too. Until then, this is the best way I know to keep in touch so keep reading :) Love to all!

leaving soon and tired already

Well, it's been another long day (from 5:30 AM). You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but NOPE! Anyway, we've been working all day to get ready to leave and I haven't packed a bit of clothing! :) I've mostly been working on getting things in order, like getting the house cleaned, running last minute errands, finally finishing baby announcements! I've got food and stuff ready to pack tomorrow morning, but I figure, it's not too hard throwing clothes in a bag, especially when you have and especially early start and a long morning. I always make a point to clean before we leave so we can relax when we come home to a somewhat picked-up house instead of to a whirlwind of mess that we left behind while we were running to leave in a hurry WHEW!

We're not planning on leaving until 9 or 10 so we should be good. I just hope the boys do well in the car. We're trying to time things around nap time for Charley. We decided to take the suburban at the last minute so I'll have room now to sit back with the boys and read and entertain them if I need to. I'm resisting buying the portable DVD player for now, although I know it's a nice way to keep them occupied. We'll see how long we can hold out. Well, my fingers are tired and I have to at least get started packing tonight, toys, books, clothes, etc. Please pray for our safety. I'll post pics when we get back. Love to All!!

Can't wait!

So, I'm getting really excited about these next few weeks. Will is done with the SSG and will have some time off before starting back at the War College, and also, we're going on a mini-vacation down to Norfolk. My cousin, Alicia, made the Junior Olympics in pole vaulting and the national competition is being held in Norfolk (the year we're not living there, figures) :) Anyway, we're so excited that we'll get to see so many old friend from when we lived there (last year). I can't wait to see how everyone's kids have gotten bigger, and to see all the new babies that have been born! How fun! I'll have to post pics for everyone when we get back. I hope the kids do well with the long drive and crazy schedule, but most of the people we're visiting have kids so I think they'll have a lot of fun together. Plus, they can still nap in the car at their age so I think it'll work out. We leave this Sunday for about a week. See you all soon!