Now time for some catching up...
My folks came out to visit. Our visits with Nana and Papa are some of the highlights of the boys' year. Can't blame them, really. They do a lot of fun stuff when Nana and Papa are around!
Papa doing stories before bed.
Goofing around with Nana...
Going to the Zoo
Going to Chuck E Cheese...
Decorating cookies... (and eating them...)
Even napping is more fun when Nana and Papa are here!
We did so much more. We took a trip up to Shenandoah Valley (I'll blog about that later), celebrated Daddy's birthday, even visited a bouncy house! We're so glad they were able to come and visit.
We're only kind of counting down.
It's hard to actually count down... when you don't actually know when he's going to leave. We know time is short, though, so we're trying to do our best to enjoy our time together.
Yesterday we finished up our touring of the historic triangle not too far away. We've visited Williamsburg a few times, visited Yorktown a while back and now we can add Jamestown to our list. Actually we visited Jamestowne, if you notice the difference.
The boys weren't crazy about the tour but Phil and I found it really interesting. They did find ways of entertaining themselves, though. Good thing it was a really nice day!
One of the neat things is we came during a time when they actually have a live archeological dig going. Again, much more interesting to Phil and I, I think. Josh did get it, though. He was more intrigued by trying to figure out how long the lead architect had been digging then on what they had found. He's definitely our numbers guy.
Here are the boys with Pocahontas (wearing the wrong attire for the area she was from, but it was made in 1922 so you have to cut the guy a little slack about it).
It was a really nice day out yesterday. We stopped by Bass Pro on the way home and got a few more things to help Phil prepare for his time away. We even got ice cream before bedtime. Jeremiah woke up this morning and one of the first things he said was, "Thank you for taking me to that ice cream place last night." Must have made some sort of impression!
Yes, we've been preoccupied lately... to put it lightly. We probably will be for a bit longer. We're counting down the last few days until Phil deploys and we're trying to enjoy our time with him as much as possible as well as get things taken care of so we'll be prepared for him to go. We've had family visit, taken a little trip, bought a new car, done loads of housework and accomplished a huge list of projects around the house. I'll do my best to put up pictures of all these little adventures later but for now, here's a little one of the boys to tickle your funny bone (brought to you courtesy of our local dollar store).
Sometimes I forget how much the boys have grown. Then I put in my memory card and pull up pictures like these:
Several people have commented to me about the boys height lately. I'm seeing it too, just not quite as much as everyone else, I'm sure.
Every now and then there's a moment where I look at them and realize that even though it's so easy to get wrapped up in the day in/day out details and frustrations of raising these two boys, they're growing up.
Pardon me while I go cry for a while...
Phil is gone on his last training trip before the deployment. Honestly, we're trying to not think too much about that part. We're really missing him this time so we're doing our best to keep busy and distracted.
We headed out to take advantage of the military free days at the Virginia Air and Space Center. We dragged our friend, Adri, along as well.
It was just what the doctor ordered.
I'm thinking Josh's days as a pilot are far ahead of him. That area off to the left... that is the ground.
We had a pretty good time distracting ourselves overall and learning a little bit along the way.
We also stopped by and caught a new movie that we fell in love with! Go see "How to Train Your Dragon." It's great!
This is Dan the Dragon who came out before our movie started to entertain the kiddos. I think Adri and I thought he was a lot funnier than the boys did. The guy in the suit was having a rough time. I hope he gets a bonus for walking around in this thing!
Sorry I've been slow to update about us since Joshua's birthday but between several bouts of illness running through the house and realizing over and over the shortness of time we have before the deployment coming up the few free days we've had we've been trying to just enjoy our time together.
I was looking through pictures since I posted last and found this fun little excursion the boys and I took earlier this month. I was dying to go to the beach even though it was still pretty cold.
Since then it's warmed up considerably. Maybe another trip to the beach is in order!
We were here for sunset this day and a little late for dinner, honestly, but I think it was worth it.
Joshua just turned 6 last week. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the celebration. This is Josh with his breakfast in bed. It is one of our traditions. The candle was added a couple years ago and now it's the most memorable part!
Of course, the other brother enjoys this tradition as well... even if the candle isn't for him on this particular day.
They always get to pick a few special things to do on their birthday. Every time it's Chuck E Cheese. I'm not a big fan of the place but the boys are, so 2 times a year I give in. They have a BLAST!
Then off to the Skinny Dip (our new favorite local frozen yogurt place) for a treat before heading home to play Mario Kart and wait for Saturday.
Saturday was Joshua's Mario-themed birthday party. Here are our friends Jim and Laura looking a lot like Mario and Luigi...
We had fun with some balloons and played a couple games.
He had a great time! He even was able to have his Aunt, some cousins and Grammy here for his party.
As far as presents go, he made out like a bandit! So many great toys! We still have some to open. I think it's a little more fun that way. His favorite? He got a DS this year and he is still really excited about it!
Happy birthday, Big Boy!! We love you in ridiculous amounts!
