one day in maine

I'm so fast at blog updating.  Like lightening.  :)
Daddy came home, and we have just enjoyed being together.  Oh, and I homeschool.  And occasionally try to clean my home.  For some reason, life just doesn't stand still...and it couldn't be my outstanding time management skills.  Because, well, they are nonexistent outstanding these days.
Okay, enough with the excuses.  Here are the pictures of our very first day in Maine.
I wish we could go back already.  It was AMAZING!

We drove into Boothbay, and this was our first stop... 

Waited in line for 30-45 minutes, so we were hoping for the best.

It was good...the Bobby Flay "Throwdown" Crab Cakes were our favorite here.

 We (of course) also had a lobster roll--our first one of the trip!  :)

Oh, how I love lobster.

Love.

We are UPtown kinda people.

Beks thought this was cool.

Here was the view outside our lovely room at Ocean Point Inn.

There was a pool, a duck pond, all sorts of wonderful views.

Our first meal at the hotel.

No reservations on a holiday weekend.

That's how we roll!

They stuck us at a table they (thankfully) had in the back...we still managed to have amazing views.

Mommy chose the best meal.

Lobster Stew.  Yum.

Here's to the first installment of Maine...let's hope it doesn't take me another 3 weeks to get to the next bit!

soccer girl?

So...

our little monkey has started soccer.

Beks has been waiting for a whole year;

she wanted to play last year when Abby moaned the whole season

returned to the soccer field after a two-year sabbatical during the time we were in Korea.

Doesn't she look tough?

Here's her game face...

um, let's just say she wasn't feeling herself for the first practice.

And second practice.

Oh, and the first game, but we can look forward to another post on that one!

This is pretty much her team spirit up to this point...she is actually closer to her team here than she is most of the time!

And here we are finishing up for the day...

no worries, there is more to come.

The season lasts until November.

Awesome.

field trip...

Last week, we decided to take Daddy on a little trip to explore something else in D.C.

On the agenda for the day...Union Station & the National Postal Museum!

Here we are in the food court at Union Station.

We all picked what we wanted!

The girlies (of course!) picked Chinese!

All smiles with their daddy!

Posing at the National Postal Museum...

One of our favorite parts of the museum...

OWNEY!

We now have a book about him & 20 stamps!  :)

{he looks a little too real in this picture!!}

One more cute one with Daddy...

We walked by a cupcake place when we first got there-
Do you think the girls forgot about it?  :)
We heard about it for most of the day, so on our way out, Daddy got the girlies some treats.
{Mommy got one too...I got a coffee!}

Abby ordered a Cosmo cupcake...

Until next time...

guess who's home?!

{Small note...blogger is driving me CRAZY.  I lost the ENTIRE first post I wrote.  This does not make me want to update.  It makes me want to drink wine.}

Well, he has actually been home for almost a week!

You'll have to forgive me for my laziness...

our family is back together again!

We have been busy just spending time together & working on getting Brad's sleep back on track.

So, last Tuesday night, we headed to Baltimore-Washington International airport to pick up Daddy!

Finally!

The extra fun part was that we got to have company...

our friends, Anastassia, Athena & Elias went with us!

I didn't want Anasstasia to have to take the kiddos to the airport,

but she said she could go & take a video for us.

I've never had a video.  It sounded pretty wonderful!

{oh, and blogger won't load my video.  seriously?}

I'm not sure I've even had a picture to prove I go to pick him up!

Thankfully, they live 15 minutes from the airport, so I didn't feel quite as bad!

Here we are waiting.

There is a group who helps you at the airport, Operation Welcome Home Maryland.

To me, what they do is very special.

They thank every person coming off the plane & 

they have cowbells.

The cowbells kept Elias pretty entertained while he waited in his stroller!  :)

They told us where to wait & updated us to the best of their abilities.

When the military is involved, sometimes there is not definitive information involved.  I'm just sayin'.

Do you see the girl on the left side of the picture?

She is a young gal.  With a hubby on Brad's plane.

She texts & he texts=updated information on what is going on.

{Please don't text me.  I don't text!  We're so 2003.} 

And the gal in the white dress...on the right side of the photo.

She came from Little Rock to surprise her hubby.

That made me get teary.  Okay, what didn't?!

She & I also figured out we were both prior service, personnel officers, came off active duty in 2003 & knew some of the same people!

Crazy.  Well, okay.  It's not really that crazy in the Air Force.

Small world.

 More waiting...thank goodness someone was taking pictures!  :)  

My mind was on other things!

Abby said,

"It has been over 10 minutes.  I know it has been longer.  How long have we been waiting?  Why did that lady say 10 minutes?"

HAHAHA.

All things I thought myself...

More cuteness while waiting

Here is the special picture Abby made for Daddy  :)

As a mom & wife, I always worry about the reaction when Brad is gone & he comes home.

You want the girls to run to Daddy like he's been gone 7 months, but not freaked out because he has been gone for 7 months.  I don't know why I even gave it a second thought...it was perfect! 

They ran right to him & couldn't get enough!

LOVE this one!  

Now we have a cute little family picture...

thanks, Anastassia!  :)

Off to do all the fun things we have planned...

swimming, snuggling, road trip 2011, and all sorts of other adventures!

little ballerinas...

Here are the long-awaited ballet pictures...

okay, only the grandparents & daddy were getting a little bitter!

{and maybe an aunt or 2!}

Ballerina #1...

Beks has been waiting for this day.

For 3 years.  :)

Here is some sort of dance move/pose...

The bun...

or as Abby has informed me, a twist!

{this is as good as it gets...can't see me googling how to do it correctly any time soon!}

So cute!

Not a bit nervous...

she ran into the class on the first day & said,

"See you in a little bit, Mommy."

Can you believe all the pink cuteness?!

And the MOST important part of dance...

the dance stamps you get at the end of class!

The big girls' dance class.

There is something I haven't told you yet...

can you see who Abby is holding hands with?

Look closely.

It's Ella!

The Davis family has moved to Virginia!

{more on that later!}

Ms. Linda was wonderful!

How we feel about waiting during Abby's dance class!

More cute posing for me...

enjoy it, because she is moving on to bigger & better things.

She has chosen ice skating for her activity this year...and swimming.

These two are so precious together...

what a relationship.

From Korea to the states--wouldn't know we missed a whole year in there!

That's a wrap on summer dance!

Beks originally wanted dance to be her activity for the year...

not any more!

She has chosen SOCCER ONLY!

Be still her daddy's heart.

{stay tuned for some exciting stories!}

a nap

For a girl who isn't interested in naps anymore, she sure needs them!  LOTS of whining & moaning going on, so today, Beks took a swimming-induced nap.  Have I mentioned the glorious bit that swimming and the delightfully high temperatures cause my girls to sleep quite well?

Ballerina princesses {in full tutu ensemble!} DO nap.

I should write a book.

After this wonderful nap, I even took the girls to the pool before bed!

It's all part of my evil sleep plan.

And it is working.  :)

I was reading here today...and the topic of patience (or lack thereof) always resonates with me!  It's something that as a mom, I feel like is my biggest hinderance.  Truly, some days, I can't believe how much I am like a child--how I let myself become frustrated & irritated by a 6-year-old and 3-year-old.  I can feel it when it's happening, but it's something I have to work on every day.

This is just a piece of what Ann Voskamp wrote on her blog today:

“And he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me…” ~Mt. 10:38

Take up a cross… Be willing to suffer… this — these are the marks of a follower of Christ.

Perhaps our greatest daily temptation is to be impatient — to refuse to suffer.

Perhaps my greatest daily sin is to refuse to suffer — to refuse to take up the cross of Christ.

Perhaps my greatest sin is refusing to wait on God’s ways — but to want my own will done — now.

Patience is a surrendering to suffering — a willingness to wait — a carrying of the Cross.

I whisper the heart-known words, what the heart now beats out because now the Words are in the veins and the genes: “And he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.”

Today — there is always that possibility — to carry the cross, surrender to suffering, be willing to wait…

I’m hushed and gently turned around, the soul creases smoothed out, the heart dust brushed off.

A Long Time Coming...

Can I get a HALLELUJAH?!
Finally.

It's still supposed to be a secret...she wants to tell everyone herself.
So, this is for Daddy.  She has already broken the news to him...

Abby is swimming.

If I could tell you the excitement that brings me...

I even got a little teary today. 

{Shocking, I know!  HA!)

We had been doing lessons from January until we left for our 49-day road trip.

Which is an entirely different story, but the important part is that we had FIVE MONTHS {5!!!!} of lessons.  Abby had done pretty well at the beginning.  Then, one of her little friends in class threw up in the pool.  Let's just call that the beginning of the end.  Can you say anxiety?  And Mommy stress?  So, we changed locations & teachers.  The new teacher let her play with toys in water so shallow she could sit down in it.  This is when I began to call these the "happy feel good swim lessons."  I explained to Abby that she could play in the bath tub with toys, and we wouldn't be spending $75 on swim lessons anymore.  Fast forward...about 2 weeks ago, we started back up.  My friend Robin had 3 semi-private lessons left with a teacher she wanted me to meet.  New pool...new teacher.  Round 3.  First lesson: Abby left telling me that she didn't know about Coach Mary.  She said, "Coach makes me do everything.  I'm not supposed to tell her no."  Goodness, Mommy likes Coach Mary already!  :)  Buh-bye happy feel good lessons.  Hello actual teacher.  She has 30 years experience, and 6 kids.  I'm sold.  SO, I signed my girls up for semi-private lessons with her.

And Abby is swimming.

Because Mary won't let her tell her no.  She is the teacher...Abby can tell her why she doesn't want to do something, but she can't say no.  :)  Someone is a little stubborn, so she just does what Mary says so she doesn't have to tell her why she doesn't want to do it!

I'll get some cute pictures tomorrow morning!  Aren't you proud of your big girl, Daddy?  :)