Tonight we had a date. Phil was going to call about 6 o'clock so I could open the gifts he had ordered before he left while on the phone with him. That didn't exactly work out. We talked for maybe a few minutes and were disconnected probably a half dozen times. Not our idea of a good time.
So Phil decided to bite the bullet and pay for his own internet connection. So what happens then? Skype. That's what! We got to video "chat" with Phil. I use these "" because we did most of the talking. Phil had the other guys who were asleep in his tent to consider.
This picture makes me really really happy.
The end.
Yesterday morning we woke up to find an email from Daddy for all three of us! The boys both took some time to write Daddy back.
Then today I found the best thing ever! Long long ago Phil had this cross he wore just about every single day. One would be hard pressed to find a picture of Phil in his teenage years without this cross on. I just happened across it in the kitchen today. Odd, I know. I don't know why our house is organized the way it is. I blame it on elves.
Either way, I found that necklace and another that Phil had when we first got engaged... or shortly thereafter. Sometime around in that time frame. I let each boy wear one of Daddy's necklaces today.
I have to tell you, I got a little choked up. The boys have this really fun remedy for moments like this.
They fight.
So while I'm taking my very cute pictures of my boys wearing Daddy's old necklaces, they fight over who is going to be in the front of the picture. It wasn't necessarily on purpose. They're brothers. These things happen. I fixed it though. Here's Jeremiah's moment:
(try not to notice the top left corner... or the red shirt that is trying to quickly insert itself into this picture... It's not really there. It's only your imagination.)
And because I guess we're into equal opportunity humiliation in the Pickle home these days, Josh took a few pictures of Mommy. Had to help him out a bit with this one, but here you go:
Today it was 90 degrees here so we went to the beach.
We had frozen yogurt afterward too. It was a win-win.
The boys had a blast running around, getting wet and sandy. I got a few minutes to not have to get onto them about anything.
The beach is one of our favorite parts of living here. Now if the sand would just stay at the beach instead of getting all over my car on the way home....
I apologize in advance. Because of being separated for this deployment we decided to keep Daddy in the loop for the things that go on around here using the blog. As a result of that you will be seeing more updates than normal and they will probably be about more day-to-day occurrences. We hope it's not a bother. No? You like hearing about every minute detail of our lives?? Good! Now here we go!
We made a box to send to Daddy today (who accidentally left behind his entire toiletry bag). Since there was a little space left in the box we filled it with a few fun things. We'd tell you what all we put in, but that would kind of ruin the surprise. I will tell you one special thing that we put in. Jeremiah wrote his name for the very first time today!
He's been hinting at wanting to learn how to write letters. We got him a little writing book for Easter. He finally decided to pick it up today. When I asked him to write his name at the bottom this is what he did! We sent it to Daddy.
Tonight was a musical program at Joshua's school. A word from the now wiser, 5th grade strings... not so good for those who have any sort of appreciation for pitch. Yowsa! The Kindergarten music part was cute! They incorporated drums and motions. This is the best picture I got of Joshua.
Here is the 2nd song his class did:
A few weeks ago Phil's command had a picnic for the families. It was a lot of fun!
We even got to go out and ride on one of Daddy's boats!
The weather was perfect for it.
We had the CO's (Commanding Officer's) family on the boat ride with us which was a lot of fun. His wife, Amanda, took this picture of us. I particularly like the boys' expressions. We had some helmet issues with Joshua. Can you tell?
We all got sprayed a little with some of the turns they took. Honestly, I'm kind of jealous now that Phil gets to have so much fun so often. I'd ride on these boats again any day!
This is more for Daddy but we thought you all might want to see it. The boys have taken to wearing Phil's old t-shirts to bed. They even still smell like Daddy!
This is the boys in our bed this morning. Seems to be their favorite place to be since Daddy left. We read bedtime stories here and they come in and curl up here for a few minutes before breakfast in the morning.
We miss you, Daddy!
While my parents were visiting Phil was on his pre-deployment leave (time off). We decided to take a little trip during that time. We were able to get out of Virginia Beach and headed toward the Blue Ridge Mountains and spent a few days in Shenandoah Valley. It was beautiful!
Phil and I headed up a day ahead of my folks and the boys. We had dinner out, drove the scenic byway and hiked a little bit. It was so relaxing and beautiful!
The one downside to being so far out? NO cell reception for us at all! Made it a little difficult to coordinate meeting up with my parents. It all worked out eventually, of course.
We relaxed and breathed some clean air. We also visited this cool place (yes, I just said "cool" and I know that totally dates me) called Luray Caverns.
We are now the proud owners of boys who know the difference between stalactites and stalagmites!
The roads out there seem to all be twisty and turny. Nice for a vacation but not sure I'd like to drive it all the time.
When we finally headed home we got to bring home with us a 30 year old Daddy!
Arthur was pretty glad to get to tag along as well!
