Rehearsal, Dinner and Day… in Photos

(I started writing this post over a week ago. We were on the road and I had limited Internet. I am finally back up on the world wide web and have lots to blog about. Please enjoy this last post on the wedding weekend and I will try to condense the road trip into one post later)

I am tired. I will admit that this 46 year old body doesn’t travel as well as it used to. We are putting miles on ourselves, the car and our poor dogs. I’m too tired to post a real blog tonight. I owe you all photos of what I have left of the wedding weekend. This post is all about photos. You will be able to tell by the clothes we’re wearing if it’s wedding rehearsal, the dinner afterwards or the actual wedding. I don’t have many of the wedding. Like I said before, the batteries in my camera died during the wedding. Duh. How stupid is it to NOT have back up batteries on one of the most important days ever?
Anyway, here they are. Enjoy!

Nick and me with the groom.

Callie and Zach at the church.

The bride and her bridesmaids

Practicing!

Me with two of my girls at the rehearsal dinner

Pre-wedding photos. Isn’t the bride absolutely beautiful?

The groom getting ready with his boys.

One of JD’s childhood friends. I’ve always loved this kid.

Callie hanging out waiting to get things started

Wedding Weekend, Day 1

As I mentioned before, we arrived in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area on Thursday to check into our wedding hotel and gear up for our fun filled weekend.  That night, JD and Meghan had made arrangements for us all to have dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Uncle Julio’s, which was right in the same area as our hotel. We walked over and met JD, Meghan, Meghan’s parents, Callie and Zach, Shalynne and James (my daughter and son-in-law from Hawaii), my in-laws and Alex. Yes, we had all five kids with us! Here is a photo of just the kids.

There is nothing more thrilling for me than to have all my chicks with me. I was in heaven.

Here I am with the bride and groom.

Meghan’s mom, Meghan and me.

Nick, JD, and Meghan’s Dad.

Callie and Zach.

Shalynne and James.

Nick with the other Callie (oy!)

Alex with is big brother, the groom.
Last but not least…

Me with my boy.
I can’t tell you how pride I am of this kid and how happy I am for him and Meghan.  I was thrilled to have this time with them and share in their special weekend.
More to come….

Niagara Falls

As I mentioned previously, our first day on the road took us to Niagara Falls, NY.  Neither the kids nor I had ever been and it wasn’t too far out of the way, so Nick decided that would be a good place to stop for the night.

I had people tell me that the Canadian side was the place to be as far as hotels and restaurants, but alas, we didn’t pack our passports (and the kids didn’t have any) so we were limited to the US side. I have to admit, I felt like our side was a little seedy. It was very touristy and a little yucky.  In spite of that, we had a good stay.
We checked into our hotel, settled the dogs in and started the walk over to the falls. I was amazed at the magnificence and power of that much rushing water. It was truly awesome. I could have stayed and watched for hours with the spray hitting me.

After the hiking around the falls area, we were a little hot, tired, thirsty and hungry. We headed over to the Hard Rock Café for an adult beverage and dinner. Later, after we got back to our hotel, Callie decided that Zach would like a Hard Rock t-shirt so she and I headed back over to pick one up. As we made our way back to the hotel, we saw this and decided we needed ice cream.

I couldn’t believe the flavors this place had. It was a simple little ice cream shop with a walk up window. They had stuff like red velvet cake, yellow cake with chocolate frosting swirls, and all kinds of stuff.  They were delicious. I didn’t get a photo of us eating them because they were melting so fast we had it all over!
It was a good first day on the road and we enjoyed Niagara so much. Next stop… Green Bay, WI. Now THAT was a long drive!

Saying Good-bye

After 11 short months, we are packed up and leaving beautiful Rhode Island. It really seems like we just arrived.
Our last week in Newport was very busy.  On Friday, June 10, Nick graduated from the Naval War College. 

That day was the last day I was with both the two women I’ve become so close to over the last year.  It was definitely bittersweet.

Cindy and Debra have definitely come to be two of my very best friends. We have spent many days chatting, shopping, lunching and having coffee.  We shared stories about the Army, our kids, our husbands and solved problems of the world. I will miss these two ladies so much!
That night we hit our favorite watering hole, Pour Judgment with Deb and her husband, Jim for one of our last orders of their delicious house fries. (they have a smoked gouda cheese sauce…YUM)

Deb and Jim left town early the next morning and we started the chore of getting ready for the packers/movers to start a few days later.
Our packers and movers were fantastic. I don’t have photos, but they very quickly and professionally packed and loaded all our worldly possessions into a big truck.  As I type (and ride as a passenger on our road trip) that truck is on it’s way to the Ft. Lewis, Washington area. We will meet up with it in a few weeks.
We are currently on our second day of driving across country. We will take a few days detour to Texas to get JD married off to Meghan on Saturday. I’m very excited about the wedding and seeing all our family. While we’re there, we’ll move Callie into her very first apartment and do a whirlwind visit with some old friends. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
So far, we’ve had 5 days in two different hotels with a teenage boy, a 20 year old girl and two dogs. A trip that has the potential of becoming a logistical nightmare is going very smoothly, mostly because I’m married to an uber organized Soldier who has everything mapped and planned out for every day. It sure makes my life easy!
I will continue to write about our cross country adventures! I’m so excited to see the Pacific northwest. It’s an area I’ve never even visited and I’m anxious to see experience it!

What’s Going on in the ‘Hood

I am trying to think of reasons (not excuses) for my lack of blogging. It really comes down to laziness. I’m busy doing other things and when I think about the blog, I put it off. So, this morning as I try to catch up on my routine, I am going to sit down and show, in photos, what’s been going on around here.
Callie is here and I’m afraid I’ve let her visit distract me from every day chores. My house needs a good cleaning, I’m behind on laundry, and I haven’t cleaned out a single closet to prepare for our move.
I’ve been stressed on the whole move because, until yesterday, I didn’t have confirmation on when the movers would show up to pack my house. We are three weeks out, people! I’m stressed!!  I got the call yesterday. Our move is scheduled and confirmed. We pack out on the 13th and 14th of June, load the truck on 15 and 16 June. Finally!  One MAJOR thing off my list.
This morning Callie is sleeping in, my boys are off to their schools, and I’m catching up on laundry and cleaning. (and blogging)
The last few weeks have found me calling our housing office to complain about the lack of lawn care. Seriously…look at this:

Twice now, the grass has grown this tall and we’ve waited over two weeks to get it mowed. Of course, having this kind of grass mowed results in this:

Oy!  It’s a good thing Nick has his fancy schmancy blower that he likes to play with on the weekends. He made short work of that hay field.

This beautiful tree sits in my back yard. I have enjoyed watching it bud, bloom and be beautiful. However, I now compare it to snow. It’s beautiful for a minute, then it’s gross and I wish it would go away.
This phase is beautiful.

This phase, not so much:

Those pink petals all over the ground get tracked into the house and stick on all our shoes. This picture was taken several days ago. Today the petals are brown and rotting and are a hot mess. It’s like the beautiful white snow after it’s been compacted and muddied. Yuck.

Saturday was Nick’s birthday. Callie and I made him a Red Velvet Cake and I found these cool candles at the Christmas Tree Shop. I have some for Alex too. His birthday is next week, a mere ten days after his dad. Looks like we’ll be baking again.
We are looking forward to the long weekend. I have tickets for tomorrow night’s minor league baseball game that’s just up the road. It’s the one thing Nick wanted to do for his birthday but they weren’t playing at home last weekend. Sunday, we’re hosting a lobster boil at our house. We have the two other Army families in the neighborhood joining us and bringing side dishes. I’m going to make homemade ice cream to finish it off…. maybe crank up the fire pit and make s’mores after dark. I think it’s the perfect “welcome to summer” weekend.  If only Mother Nature cooperates!!

Post Vacation Update

It’s Sunday evening and almost 7:00 PM.  I am home from our spring break trip and doing all those things one must do upon returning from vacation. In a word..WORK!  I have unpacked, gone through the mail, checked email, Facebook (oh so important things), started laundry and made frozen pizzas for dinner.  I still have to finish laundry and make my list for the coming week. Between getting caught up on chores and shopping, trying to coordinate our move with a wedding in the middle of that time, and planning for the Army ball coming up in two weeks, I’m exhausted thinking about even making my list.
We had a fantastic trip. We left Tuesday morning and went to New York City. I have been there a few times but neither Nick nor Alex had ever been. Our intentions were to catch a show on Broadway, see the Statue of Liberty and whatever else we could squeeze in.  However, since it was spring break for a lot more people than just us, the shows we wanted to see were sold out and the tours to the Statue of Liberty had painfully long lines. So, we walked around Times Square, ate some amazing New York style pizza, walked and walked and walked some more (ouch my still healing foot)  We rode the subway, saw the Museum of Natural History, and ate even more food.
Thursday morning we loaded up the car and headed to the Washington D.C. area. (Did anyone else just have a flashback of the Beverly Hillbillies theme song here?)  Nick’s sister and her family live in the DC area as well as his first cousin that’s like a brother. We had a fabulous visit with our family.  I got my fill of playing with little kids and catching up with my wonderful sister-in-law. I’m so blessed with my in-laws, I really couldn’t ask for any better.
I will try to write, in more detail, about our trip this week.  Right now there is a pile of laundry screaming at me and a grocery list that needs to be made. I have promised myself (or threatened?) that I will most definitely start my healthy lifestyle, however temporary it may be, this week. Tomorrow starts a much lower calorie diet and exercise program. Like I mentioned already, I have the Army Ball in two weeks that I must attend and that requires squeezing my ample bottom that has hibernating all winter into a ball gown. I refuse to buy a bigger one. I also have the wedding coming up and I want to buy a fab dress for that. Not to mention the fact that we’re moving this summer and I’d love a new start with a healthier body…I think I said that last year as we were preparing for a move  
Between laundry loads, I’m going to catch up on blog reading. I’ve missed all my bloggy friends!
Here are a couple of photos from our trip.

“The Sphere” displayed in Battery Park, NYC. This sculpture once sat in the center of the plaza of the World Trade Center.

A beautiful flowering tree in Battery Park, NYC.

The sun shining through a row of flags on a building in Washington D.C.

A House Divided

It's almost Super Bowl Sunday. This one may go down in history here at our house, because of this.

And this

We have already laid down the law around here. Nick grew up in Green Bay. He was a Packer fan LONG before Alex was even thought of. Alex may have to watch the game upstairs in his room. I won't get in the middle of these two. I'm a Packer fan. I will always support my husband's team. Unless they are playing the Cowboys. After all, I am a Texas girl. It could get ugly around here. Prayers may be needed. (for a Packer win, of course!)