Waaaah-wheeeee!!! (Water)

"Waah-whee"

We took our first dip in our pool on sunday. The temperature was 80 degrees, which sounds warm, but is still a little on the chilly side for swimming. Brian made several attempts to get in (and out and in and out). He wanted to get in so badly, but thought the water just a tad chilly. He finally made the leap after he had what appeared to be some intense feelings of jealousy watching Daddy swim around carefree in the water. And once he was in, he didn't want out. Mommy finally put her foot down after 20 minutes and made him get out when his lips turned purple and he started to shiver violently every time he spoke. But it was fun!!! He's asked to go in the "waaah-wheee" or "poooooooool" every day since but we are going to wait til it warms up just a little more to jump in again. But don't pity our swim-less child too much, he started swimming lessons yesterday in a heated pool at our community clubhouse. He liked the lessons but still refuses to blow bubbles in the water and is more interested in playing on the "steps" in and out of the pool than doing any actual swimming.

Taking a rest on "beer rock"--the spot where Steve plans on setting his beer while swimming

Thomas the Train

Two weekends ago, Brian and I loaded up the Honda and headed to CA for the weekend (How nice it is to just do that on a whim, no plane tickets required). Steve stayed home since he's in the instructor pilot upgrade right now and can't really take any time off. I think he enjoyed his weekend of peace and quiet and used it to study for his upgrade. The purpose of our trip to CA was to see the beloved Thomas the Train who was making an expensive appearance in Fillmore at the Western Railway. Brian and I were joined by his Grandma and Grandpa Harris, Aunt Laura and her boyfriend Allan, Great-Grandma Mires and Great-Aunt Cathy. He got his picture taken with Thomas, got a Harold the Helocopter temporary tattoo on his hand, and played with the many train tables. And of course, we got a 30 minute ride on Thomas himself. Brian loved the whole thing and his favorite part was going through the tunnel, he signed for more tunnel! He loved jumping around from lap to lap during the ride to get different views and snuggle. After the ride, we all went out for some Mexican food for lunch. We enjoyed our 5 day visit and Brian loves Aunt Laura's cats ("meeews" he calls them). We also got to visit Great-Grandpa Lefty and Brian played slots with his Great-Aunt Claudia at G-G-Ma and G-G-Pa's house . I got to visit my Grandma Bunny in the hospital while my dad and Brian played in the hospital courtyard, Brian is just a little too hyper for a hospital visit yet. We are looking forward to another trip to CA in June for my Debutante Reunion. Here are the pics:

It doesn't look like it, but Brian was having tons of fun with Great-Aunt Claudia

Best sign ever, on the train in the food car

Brian showing off his "tattoo" to anyone who would look

Great-Grandma, Great-Aunt Cathy, Grandpa and Grandma

Easter

Here are some pictures from our Easter. My sister Laura and her boyfriend Allan were visiting us for one night and we had our cousins Noelia and Jake, and friends Katie, Mark, and Mason over for dinner and an egg hunt. The Easter bunny left lots of goodies in Brian's basket and lots of eggs full of candy in our back yard.

Laura and I made these deformed bunny cake pops, they were ugly but very tasty

Mason, Jake and Brian after the hunt

Brian and his eggs take a tumble!

Mason searching hard for eggs

Let's open it now!

Jake sees one up high

Aunt Laura helping Brian and Jake and Noelia

Mason, Katie and Mark

Brian during the hunt

Brian loved these window stickies the easter bunny left

Pacy-free Zone!

Last night was the first night ever that Brian has slept without a pacifier. He had a pacifier in his mouth within his first hour of life (Steve and the nurses in the nursery got him hooked while I was recovering unknowingly in my postpardom room). But the pacys have provided him with many nights and naps of sucking comfort, until recently when the pacys would fall out of his big boy bed at night and Mommy would end up in Brian's room in the middle of the night on her hands and knees searching for the lost pacys so that the screaching child would go back to sleep! I decided a few weeks ago that the end of the pacy era was near (mostly so that I could get some sleep again and also because it would be rather embarassing if Brian asked for his pacy during naptime in kindergarten). I was just waiting for the perfect night to come and last night it did since Steve (aka the "nice" parent) was working late and would not be there to run the pacys back into Brian's room at the first sound of distress. I was prepared for an all out war at bedtime but it never came. Brian and I just discussed how pacys are for babies and he's a big boy now and that his pacys were broken (his chews them up) and that he wouldn't need them anymore. To my shock, he went to bed without a peep and slept until 8am within a sound! Yippee! Of course the broken pacys are hidden in my sock drawer, just in case, but hopefully we won't need them again!!!

Bunnies and Eggs

Friday night we took Brian to the Easter event on base. He got his picture with the Easter Bunny. He didn't fight sitting in the Easter Bunny's lap, but instead just kinda went wet noodle and froze with the egg in front of his face. This was the best picture. This particular Easter Bunny freaks me out a little, I think it's the eyes. The next afternoon we went over to our friends, Katie and Mark's, so Brian and their son Mason could dye eggs together and have an Easter egg hunt too. It was fun, Brian sat for about half the eggs, liked putting them in the pots of dye and stirring. He got bored fast and headed into the backyard to explore all of Mason's "bebeeps" (ride on cars).


Mommies and boys dyeing eggs

Someone must have said something intriguing

The finished product--egg salad sandwiches for everyone, three times a day, all week long!

Big Boy Bed and New Haircut

Brian is now officially in a "big boy bed!" We turned his crib into a toddler bed on our first night in the new house and he loves it. He goes right to sleep in it and my nightmares of a little guy swinging from the chandeliers in the middle of the night have not come true yet. Once he's up for the day though, he happily explores his dark bedroom calling "mommydaddy" (yes, it's one word) until someone comes to let him out. Next up, getting rid of the pacys for good!

Big Boy Brian in his Big Boy Bed

Also new this month, a new do for Brian. I was sick of the "bangs" or whatever it's called when boys have hair hanging in their eyes. Everyone (Steve especially) kept telling me it's so cute that way but I just thought he looked silly, so Steve finally lost the battle of the haircut and Brian got it cut high and tight, just like Daddy! I also think this will be a better cut for the upcoming super hot weather. Brian doesn't seem to care one way or another about his new cut.

Twins?!

On the Road

We pulled out of Shaw Air Force Base mid-morning on March 3rd to hit the road on our cross country move to AZ. First stop, some much needed R&R at Grandma and Granddad Hurt's in VA. We spent a little over a week there visiting Steve's family, some pictures are below. On March 12th, we hooked the trailer once again to the Pilot and started heading west. We drove about 7 hours total the first day (yeah I know, 7 hours isn't much, but I dare you to drive farther with a 2-year-old kicking the back of your seat and screaming the whole way) and spent the night just east of Nashville after enduring freezing rain most of the day. More rain the next day and more kicking and screaming found us another 7 hours along the route with a stop for sleep in Texarkana, Arkansas. The next day we finally made it to Dallas mid-day to stop and visit Steve's Uncle, Aunt and Cousins there and take a little break from driving. We enjoyed our stay very much with Steve's cousin David and his wife Diem and it was great to spend some time with his extended family. Monday morning we were back on the road to conquer the second half of our drive. We made it to Midland, Texas that night which was only about 6 hours of driving because if you go any farther into west Texas, you would be sleeping in your car, there is nothing out there! On tuesday, we sucked it up and decided to get all the way to Tucson, AZ. So, 9 hours of driving and two time zone changes later, we stopped for the night just southeast of Tucson. On Wednesday, we reached Phoenix by lunchtime and checked into temporary lodging at Luke Air Force Base. A few days later, wasting no time at all, my parents drove our other car from CA (my dad had driven it from SC to CA in January to spare us the pain of taking both cars) and our dog Bailey who'd been at my parents' since Christmas to meet us in Phoenix. They had two dead batteries along the way, lovely. But they did make it to Luke in time for the Luke AFB Air Show and also got to see our new house. On monday, March 23rd, I drove my parent's to the airport and a gigantic rock hit the hood of the Pilot and bounced onto the windshied creating a hole the size of a nickel! And we had just been saying how uneventful our trip across the country had been, but since a cracked windsheild was our only worry, we consider ourselves lucky. We are now somewhat settled into our new house in Goodyear and love the area! Steve is back to work as of this week. We can't wait for our pool to be warm enough to swim in which should be soon since the air temperature is already into the 80s and we've had nothing but sun since we arrived. Ahhhhh, home sweet home! I'll try to post some pictures of the house as soon as it is somewhat presentable.

Visting Great-granddad's horses

Hey Dad, I see some Papparazzi taking my picture!!

Brian and Great-granddad Hurt

Hilarious--the signs on Great-granddad Hurt's barn, put there by Steve's Uncle Billy--"Slow Down, You!"

Dining Out

Our last weekend in Sumter and the last weekend of February was our squadron's Dining Out to celebrate the squadrons' safe return home and to farewell the outgoing squadron commander. It was our last event with the Shooters before we left SC for good a few days later. So we got all gussied up (a Dining Out is a black tie event, service members wear their Mess Dress, the military equivalent of a tuxedo) and left Brian at home with a sitter (and by home, I mean temporary lodging on base, our home for several weeks) for a last hurrah with our friends.

Me and Dana

Me and Kim and Dana

Going back a few months...

It's been a while since I've posted but it's finally time to update the blog! Our new house is livable at this point, although the unpacking is by no means over, but I at least cleared the boxes this week in the office so I have no excuse not to post to our blog. So, back to where we left off. It was late February in a cold and dreary place called Sumter, SC. We were packing out our house (and by "we", I mean "me") and Steve was running around at work like a chicken with his head cut off to accomplish a checkride, a fini flight, and outprocess the base all in his first two weeks back to work since returning from the deployment. Brian and I did manage to escape the house packing for an hour to make it to Steve's final flight with the Shooters (called a fini flight). Here are some pictures from the event, and to set the scene, it was about 30 degrees that day in the sun and was super windy.

The tradition of the fini flight is after the jets all land, lieutenants descend upon the pilot whose last flight was just flown for the squadron and try to tie him to the ladder or the wing or some other part of the jet with duct tape so they can spray him down with water and champagne. Steve's theory on this is that if he has to get wet, so will everyone else. He puts up a good fight every time and they've never managed to tie him to anything and usually just give up and start spraying the whole pile of pilots.

See how the capturers scatter when the water works start!?!

Brian didn't really enjoy seeing his daddy get attacked and had a little anxiety about the whole thing but was very happy to see daddy after he emerged from his fight soaking wet and bleeding. At about this point, my hands were numb because it was so cold out and since I was dry, I can only imagine how cold Steve was. At least it wasn't snowing like it was the day of Steve's fini flight in Germany!