Family Fun Day!!!

Have I mentioned that I am in my LAST CLASS for my Masters???  Yes, I am. Yes, I am! And it now feels like the elephant has been removed from my shoulders.  Of course, I have another elephant in its place (the whole husband deployed thing) but we're coping.  Day 166...  *sigh. 

After Girl Scout camp and our Spring Break fun, it seemed like we were having a bit of a drag around here this week. Lucky for me, Emily came up for the weekend and gave me some much needed company Friday night.  But still...  we needed to have a bit of fun. 

Enter family fun day with a twist - I set it up Geocache style.  I arranged my Google calendar to text me coordinates and clues for when and where the girls and I needed to go. 

The first cache - Pedicures!!!!  Did you know Holly owns her own nail salon?  Right here in Lacey?  Yep, she does - Holly's Nails on the corner of Pacific and College.  LOL!

 
The second clue came in as we were finishing up...   it sent us to Panera for lunch.  Have you tried the Spinach Power salad - YUM!!!

Cache 3 sent us back home for trampoline time (and to pick up Emily)....   Cache 4 came in and it was time to pack in the car and head for theater to see The Croods!  Cache 5 sent us for some more food -- this time our favorite Mexican restaurant. 

Last but certainly not least, cache 6 sent us for our favorite fro-yo and toppings place, Limeberry!  YUM!  While it wasn't geocaching in the traditional sense, I think a fun time was had by all! 

An Encamporee Adventure!

We had a fantastic weekend last weekend!   You see, we FINALLY got to go camping with the Girl Scouts!  Our Service Unit held an encamporee as part of some work towards a Silver and Gold Award for the older girls.  Basically, the older girls put on a weekend for the younger girls to teach them different aspects of camping.  And boy was it a fun filled one!

We headed out on a drizzly Friday afternoon, packing as many girls as I could in my car.  Finally, we got to camp, got settled in, and headed for the evening program in the lodge.  Evening program = snacks and a sing-a-long. 

 

Saturday morning brought more drizzle, but we were prepared.  Cause you can't go camping in the PNW without drizzle.  Especially in the spring!   We spent our morning in the lodge making different crafts.  Once we were done, we headed outside for some games and more songs until lunch.  To our surprise, the sun was peeking out.  By the way, Girl Scout camp is all about games and songs.  I even got to dust off my Girl Scout song skills a bit ;)  

After lunch we headed to one of the most anticipated events of the encamporee - the dragon boats!  These boats are so cool.  The girls were not able to take them out on the water (it was too windy), but they did practice getting in and out as well as good rowing form.  And best of all, all that wind was pushing the clouds back and we had full sun while out on the dock.

 

 

The rest of the day we spent at other stations -- we learned to make a box oven, did a service project, and practiced our whittling.  After supper, we headed back to our cabin and the girls had fun telling ghost stories.

Sunday morning brought more sun and games.  All too soon, it was time to head back home.  The girls sang and giggled all the way home.  But the best part was, the girls were asking when we could go camping again. 

Spring Break Refill

This post is going to start off with some whining...  Only because to understand what we did and why, you have to understand what we didn't do. 

Usually when military members are deployed over 250+ days, they get a few weeks break around the halfway point.  That is, unless you are with an Army unit...  then you are subject to their rules.  Meaning, the R&R that we thought we would have with Ronnie would not come to fruition.  Luckily, we found out about this change in policy and dealt with it as a family before he left.  Still, I couldn't hide my disappointment and frustration anytime the halfway point was brought up, knowing that we were being denied something we should have had. I had even planned an AWESOME trip for us. 

Being the ever supportive husband, Ronnie suggested we do something fun, just for us girls.  After the I don't want to do anything fun because it won't be with you temper tantrum I threw, he quietly suggested a trip to see friends.  I listened... and quickly decided on Texas as our destination.  Because if I wasn't going to have my husband home, I needed my "family" around me to help fill the void. 

We spent a full week in Texas visiting our "family."  First up, a visit to the Milks in San Antonio!  Oh, how I love this family!!!   And miss them greatly.  We spent four days with them and went to Sea World for a day, hung around the house, but best of all, we spent Easter Sunday with them.  There is nothing like having family around for a holiday.  And best of all, they helped fill a hole in my heart. 

All too soon, it was time to say goodbye to the Milks, but it was time to head north.  Next stop, Wichita Falls.   There was just something about landing in Dallas and then driving north on 287 that just felt like home.  I had travelled this road many times when we lived in Wichita Falls, but it still felt like I was getting closer and closer to where I was/am supposed to be.   And we drove straight into the arms of more "family."  

We were so lucky that the Genewicks agreed to host us -- they have grown their family by two since we left the Falls for Korea.  Just spending time with Mike, Tonya, and those boys of theirs filled that hole in my heart too. 

Then we went to Coca-Cola to catch up with my friends there and took Ms. Sue out to lunch.  Oh, how I LOVE that woman!!!!   And it was so good to see the guys at Coke.  It pained me to tell them I was only in town for a quick visit and not moving back to the area.  Again, another fill up. 

We also took a day and drove north to Oklahoma City to see another friend of ours from Korea, the Davises.  Karen is expecting and I just had to pat that belly!  Spending the day with her and Charlotte and seeing Jason quickly over lunch...  I miss this family so much and needed that sweet family to help with my refill.  We even graced the pages of her blog (here) -- take a moment to read and look in her Etsy shop.  She is an absolutely amazing and gifted person! 

We took a lot of time to visit with friends those few days in Wichita Falls.  Fill up after fill up  Looking back now, I still didn't see everyone I initially intended to... guess that means I have even more of a reason to go back again (and again and again).  One day, we'll be able to take that trip I planned for us to take with Ronnie on his R&R... but this was exactly the sort of trip we needed.  

 

   

Horsing Around

A girl and her horse...  

Holly got a month's worth of horseback riding lessons for Christmas.  We just finished them up and she absolutely loves it!  She's learned how to groom, tack up, and ride horses.  According to her teachers, she has impeccable posture and learns the different commands easily.  I just enjoyed watching her go round in the ring and do some little jumps.  Of course, the smile on her face while riding made my heart happy too.  

Now we'll just have to figure out how to continue....  

Comparing Apples and Oranges

Last month, a note came home...  again.  It's science project time!!!!   If you can't tell, we love science project time around our house.  I mean really, how much fun is it to discover more about science?!?

This year, Holly decided she wanted to do a partner project with her best friend, Abigail.  Then it was time to pick a topic.  We scoured books, read science and nature magazines, and watched different Discover Channel/PBS/National Geographic shows.  Out of thin air, and while watching a cartoon, Holly asked if you could really make a clock from a potato.  I said of course you can.  She declared her project would be making fruit batteries. 

We had more conversations in the following weeks about different fruits and vegetables and if it would power a clock.  I started to explain the process to her and realized we had a project - comparing the electrical potential of different fruits.  I started laughing and explained the idiom about comparing apples and oranges. 

Over a series of Saturdays, we experimented and learned.  Abigail and her mom joined us -- I promptly told Kristen her job was to keep me in check and at grade level.  She quickly discovered that was a tall order; I have a lot of knowledge on this particular topic and can go quite deep in explaining things.  But we had a lot of fun and I think the girls discovered a lot about how batteries work. 

Magical Moments

Oh, Disney...  Do you even know how you make the world a little more bright?  

A few months back, I registered to run the Princess Half Marathon, figuring that a trip to Florida would be right up our ally about 3 months in to Ronnie's deployment.  It's also been a year since my brother-in-law passed, so visiting Grammy and Papa would be a welcome diversion for them as well.

We left the PNW for sunny Florida last week.  When we landed, my best partner in crime, Kim, greeted us at the airport and shuttled us to her house for the night.  We spent all day Friday with Kim and her littlest, Ashley.  The girls had so much fun playing with their new friend, while I had a much needed catch up session with Kim.  We wound up at Downtown Disney after we checked into our hotel so we could play and get some supper.  Eventually, Erica and my nieces and Darren, Kim's hubby, and Sydney joined us for some pizza and playtime.  Can I just say it was so nice to eat outdoors and it not be cold and rainy out.  Eventually we said our goodbyes and the girls and I headed back to our hotel. 

Hey, how'd they get a mini-me in there?

Bright and early Saturday morning, Grammy and Papa arrived!  I gave them instructions to not knock on our door until 9 am -- being that it would be 6 am in our West coast brains.  Once they got in and the girls properly greeted Papa, we headed over to the Expo to pick up my stuff.  Soon, I got a text from some friends of mine that were in town for the race too.  And lucky for me, we all met up at the Expo!!!  And yay for Grammy and Papa being in town, I got to go to lunch with them :)  While I was at lunch, my mom made it to town.  It was an early night for me because Sunday was going to be an early morning. 

Sunday was spent running and celebrating!!!  I did a post about that... 

Monday morning we got up bright and early and headed to the Magic Kingdom.  My sister, brother in law, and my two oldest nieces joined us for the day. 

We had a great time bumming around the park and showing Grammy and Papa all the fun to be had with little girls at the Magic Kingdom. We went on rides.  Sarah even decided to give Space Mountain another try -- it's a hesitant good and she didn't cry this time. That's progress, right?

Early in the afternoon, we headed back to our hotel for some rest and pool time. After dinner, we headed back to the park for fireworks.  This time we took the ferry over.  Our lollygagging cost us a good spot for fireworks, but it was so pretty. 

Rather than closing the park down, we went back to the room to relax for the next day.  And I had some writing to do for my Thesis.  Yes, have Master's program, will travel... 

Tuesday brought some rain but more fun.  We started our day hanging out with the princesses and fairies.  And my FAVORITE fairy was out. Seriously, how cool is Vidia?!?

We dodged more thunderstorms by hanging out at the Tiki Room and Pirates.  

Eventually, we just needed to go for it and ride some rides.  After all, Sarah thought she maybe might wanted to ride another roller coaster and Big Thunder Mountain was up and running!  I think she had a good time...  what do you think?

 

We spent the rest of our day riding more rides...  but eventually it was time to leave.  And say goodbye to Grammy and Papa and get packing for our trip home.