4th of July 2014!

After teaching all morning, I came home exhausted!  But, no rest for the weary - it was time to get ready for our BBQ.  We invited a couple of the luteniants over for swimming and dinner.  It was such a gorgeous day, nice and cool!  Everyone had fun in the pool.  Then we had a delicious BBQ.  The Jones' have a smoker and always bring the most delicious smoked meats - I want one really bad!  The Jones' have been here longer than us and are leaving in just a few weeks for Japan.  Jess, another wife and myself always got together Wednesday mornings for tea and talking.  Jess had Alexandria a couple months before I had Bristol, and it was fun to be pregnant together and have our little babies together.  Bristol is having her first little NAVY brat experience of having her first little friend leave - and she doesn't even know it!  We will really miss them.

 Bristol and Alexandria

 Adam, Jess & Alexandria

 The kids and Tj set up the tent and had a sleep out.  I opted to sleep inside in our bed since I was teaching BodyPump in the morning.

 We had a fire and 'smores before it got dark.

 After everyone left - and the kids were running around with friends somewhere else in the neighborhood - it was nice to just hang out with Tj at the fire.

And the sparklers!  Happy 4th of July!!  We had such a great holiday!

LesMills Launch!

Every quarter LesMills comes out with new releases.  We always have a big launch party to debut the new releases.  We decided to do this one on July 4th.  It was awesome!  We had so many people.  What a great way to get the 4th started - getting our sweat on!  BodyCombat 60 was up first!

Then BodyPump 90!

4th of July

Happy 4th of July!  We didn't go to our ward pancake breakfast and bike parade because I didn't want to miss my gym class - I only have a few precious classes left and I didn't want to miss one!  So we loaded everyone up in the morning and headed to the gym.  That night we went down to St. Augustine to see their firework display.  It was very impressive!  But, way too crowded for me.  We did fireworks in the driveway the next night because everyone was way too tired after coming home from the firework display in St. Augustine.  It's so sad to think this is the last holiday in our home!

Colorado Camping Trip

 We flew to Colorado for a summer vacation this year.  The kids and I hadn't been back for over a year and TJ hadn't been back in over 2 years - so it was time!  We went camping over the July 4th holiday.  My entire family went.  We had a blast.  It was so much fun to sit and play cards with my sisters, watch the boys fish and shoot guns, and watch the girls play in the dirt until they were black.  The only downside: no showers - for 4 days!  We were pretty ripe when we finally made it home!

I love the mountains - nice and cool and so incredibly beautiful.  I really, really miss those mountains.

 Papa and Tyler played a lot of chess - Tyler loves playing chess with Papa.  My dad was always playing chess with us when we were younger.  He's carried that tradition on with the grand kids - well Tyler anyways!

We ate really well up there!  My brother-in-law Pat did a lot of the dinners and desserts and they were fabulous!  We had a good time eating :)

 The three little girls who were always very, very dirty!

 The boys shot - a lot.

 All the boys shot...a lot!

Some of the gorgeous scenery - the pictures just don't do it justice.

 The lake was freezing, but it was pretty warm in the middle of the afternoon - so some of us decided to swim...

not Kayleigh though - she's not too fond of water - but Bella (the dog) is!

 Silly Samuel - he was a little cold after his dip in the lake.

 We were camping on the 4th of July so the kids did some sparklers.  Tyler was too tired to stay up for that, so he went and put himself to bed in the tent.

 What a great time we had!

July 4th

To celebrate the 4th of July, we had our annual pancake breakfast and bike parade at the church.

TJ kidnapped someones baby :)

Brenalee getting her after parade sucker.

Tyler riding in the parade - I'm such a lame-o mom - I totally forgot to decorate their bikes.

My adorable boy who wanted a mohawk!

My baby girl and me.

I love this Country! Thanks to all who serve and their strong families who support them! :P

4th of July

The kids had a wonderful 4th of July. I have been sick all week. So, TJ took them to the church party on the 4th. They had horses for the kids to ride! Brena came home so excited to tell me what they had done. They also had a bike parade for the kids. When it finally got dark we enjoyed some sparklers in the backyard and were treated to a display of fireworks from all the neighbors. It was a good night! Hopefully I'll feel better soon!

Jacksonville & 4th of July

Eating popsicles at the pool - yummy!

Robert & Robyn's pool was very refreshing and a great way to get the kids tired for bed!!

Pancake breakfast at the Carr's ward - blueberry pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream!! Robert & Jack Daddy's girl
Brena didn't know any of the kids at church, nor did she have a bike for the parade, but that didn't stop her from strutting her stuff! Tyler was too busy taking a walk around the building to be in the parade. We went to a State Park over there to do a little bit of fishing and swim at the beach, the sand was all of these shells, millions of shells all over, at least there was sand closer to the water, it would have hurt to keep walking on these shells!

TJ caught 3 fish, he said he would have been prouder if they had been bigger :)

Brenalee liked to throw the fish back in the ocean.

The trip to Jacksonville was a success, I think. We were supposed to leave early Wednesday morning to get over there, but at the last minute TJ found out he couldn't leave Wednesday as planned, even though he had signed papers saying he could. There was a change of command that was mandatory for everyone to be at. So that was a little disappointing to have to leave Thursday morning instead, ah the life of the NAVY family! So then we got in Thursday late afternoon and of course got stuck in LOTS of traffic. So we didn't get anything accomplished Thursday. Friday was 4th of July of course and no one was answering any calls on properties we did manage to find. So Saturday we finally did get into see a couple of houses, not what we were looking for. So we left with nothing. But, on the upside, we did find the area we want to be in, and we definitely know our way around the area pretty well, we can look at house locations and see if they are where we are wanting to be. I have found more online now that we have been home and I feel much better, not like we will be homeless - like I was feeling for the first couple of days!! We had a great time catching up with old friends we lived near in San Diego and they were very kind and generous with the use of their home, pool, ward, and friends! Thanks Carrs!!