Just wanted to tell you about the past couple of months since our last update...
We took our trip to Big Sur, CA over Easter weekend and it turned out to be one of our best trips ever. It was more relaxed than many of our trips in the past have been. We spent four days seeing the flower fields in Carlsbad, hiking and touring the old Mission in Santa Barbara, going to the lighthouse and aquarium in Monterey, and hiking in Big Sur where there are redwoods, turquoise beaches, waterfalls, cliffs, and creeks all within a couple miles of each other. If you ever get a chance to come out to California, I would highly recommend Big Sur! I think it's my second favorite place I've ever been to. One interesting thing that happened on that trip was that a bus ran into the side of the Monterey Bay Aquarium shortly before we got there. I think there were more people taking pictures of that than of the animals in the aquarium! Gotta love how us humans can't help but gawk at accidents of any kind!
The first weekend in April we headed up to Carlsbad again so that I could take a ride on a biplane that was built in 1939. I got to wear the funny hat and sit in the open air cockpit while the pilot did some stunt maneuvers during our flight. I really enjoyed it, but now I want to take a flight in a warbird plane. That is the true stunt plane that can fly upside down, do rollovers, and other crazy tricks the biplane can't. As we were approaching for our landing, another small plane pilot got on the radio to call in for an emergency landing. We landed just before him and the emergency vehicles were ready and waiting. Everything turned out ok, but it definitely spiced our ride up even more!
A couple weeks ago I got to go sailing with a friend of ours in his sailboat that he is now living on. We spent a few hours out on San Diego Bay tacking the sails (switching the position of the sails so that the wind hits them on the opposite side and the boat changes direction). It was a very relaxing day up until the boat got slammed up against the neighboring boat at the docks when we were trying to bring it in. The wind was out of control that day (which is good for sailing, but not so good for docking)! I am starting to think that maybe accidents are following me like a black cloud...yikes!
Last weekend Paul and I took a trapeze lesson (yes, I said trapeze) with some friends of ours from church. It sounds a little strange, I know, but we had so much fun! We are definitely going to be doing it again in the next couple of months. Got some great videos of the tricks we learned (see the videos dated 4/19 on our dropshots site), but boy did our muscles ache the next couple of days! Fortunately no accidents that day!
Last Sunday we had the awesome opportunity to baptize another couple from our church small group. Although my parents had me baptized as an infant, Paul and I don't really believe in infant baptism (mostly because it's not mentioned anywhere in the bible). Instead we believe in water baptism as a public display of a person's personal acceptance of Christ as their Savior. I was baptized as an adult the day before our wedding and it was life changing for me. Because of that, I love to witness and be a part of other people's baptisms. It brings tears to my eyes every time! This is the fourth couple from our small group to get baptized since we started it, and the second couple that I have had the honor of being the one to baptize them. It was really nice to be able to do this one with my husband, since we lead our couple's small group together. I just can't express how blessed we are by this group and how good of friends we all have become. Whenever we have any kind of need they are there for us without hesitation, and we love being able to help them out in return. It's going to be really hard to leave here when our time in the Navy is done, but it was hard to leave our friends in IA and VA too. We have faith that God will continue to lead us to where we are supposed to be and bless us with good churches and friendships along the way.
Another thing Paul and I were able to do as a couple was to put our recent dance lessons to good use. Twice in the last two months we got a babysitter for the kids and headed out to dance clubs (one country bar and one salsa club) with some of our friends. It's been really nice to have some time to focus on us as a couple rather than just us as parents. It's definitely been a long time coming. We'll get some more practice this weekend at a semi-formal dinner/dance we are going to for Paul's work, and we also hope to get to a club that plays swing music in the next month or two.
The kids are doing great as usual. They had several colds in a row this winter, but that's nothing out of the ordinary. Kade's new favorite toy is a spray bottle that I bought for a whopping 98 cents! He will spend hours at a time walking around outside spraying this and that. Gotta love San Diego where kids can play outside pretty much any day of the year! He also loves to say "hi" to everyone that walks by, and is also a big fan of his sand box and his leapfrog leap pad (an electronic, interactive book).
Jacey is finally crawling! Not on her hands and knees, but rather army crawling on her belly. We think she's just too fat to get herself off the ground! :) She also just started signing and saying "more please" (actually she says ba ba, but to her that's more please). She also will wave "hi", say mama and dada if we ask her too, and come when she's called. She doesn't listen at all though when it comes to not throwing her sippy cup on the floor or chewing on shoes. That's definitely getting old!
Paul is starting to think about his upcoming residency. He has been working on his CV (resume) and will soon have to start completing his residency application (oh joy). We are definitely not looking forward to that process since we've been there, done that already! I say "we" because I always end up helping him with these kinds of things. There are times when it feels like I am the one working my way through a medical career!
As for me, I'm still just figuring out what this stay at home mom thing is all about. There are days I hate it, but most of the time I can't imagine doing anything else. God is definitely using it to shape and refine me as a person, which isn't always pleasant but I am thankful for it nonetheless. I feel blessed to be able to see my kids grow up a little more every day, and to be a part of that process. I decided to cancel my gym membership and get into the personal training business again, only this time I'm not getting paid. A few of my gal pals come over to our house a couple nights a week after the kids are in bed and I lead them through a "garage workout". It's fun and motivating and good for us all at the same time!
We took our trip to Big Sur, CA over Easter weekend and it turned out to be one of our best trips ever. It was more relaxed than many of our trips in the past have been. We spent four days seeing the flower fields in Carlsbad, hiking and touring the old Mission in Santa Barbara, going to the lighthouse and aquarium in Monterey, and hiking in Big Sur where there are redwoods, turquoise beaches, waterfalls, cliffs, and creeks all within a couple miles of each other. If you ever get a chance to come out to California, I would highly recommend Big Sur! I think it's my second favorite place I've ever been to. One interesting thing that happened on that trip was that a bus ran into the side of the Monterey Bay Aquarium shortly before we got there. I think there were more people taking pictures of that than of the animals in the aquarium! Gotta love how us humans can't help but gawk at accidents of any kind!
The first weekend in April we headed up to Carlsbad again so that I could take a ride on a biplane that was built in 1939. I got to wear the funny hat and sit in the open air cockpit while the pilot did some stunt maneuvers during our flight. I really enjoyed it, but now I want to take a flight in a warbird plane. That is the true stunt plane that can fly upside down, do rollovers, and other crazy tricks the biplane can't. As we were approaching for our landing, another small plane pilot got on the radio to call in for an emergency landing. We landed just before him and the emergency vehicles were ready and waiting. Everything turned out ok, but it definitely spiced our ride up even more!
A couple weeks ago I got to go sailing with a friend of ours in his sailboat that he is now living on. We spent a few hours out on San Diego Bay tacking the sails (switching the position of the sails so that the wind hits them on the opposite side and the boat changes direction). It was a very relaxing day up until the boat got slammed up against the neighboring boat at the docks when we were trying to bring it in. The wind was out of control that day (which is good for sailing, but not so good for docking)! I am starting to think that maybe accidents are following me like a black cloud...yikes!
Last weekend Paul and I took a trapeze lesson (yes, I said trapeze) with some friends of ours from church. It sounds a little strange, I know, but we had so much fun! We are definitely going to be doing it again in the next couple of months. Got some great videos of the tricks we learned (see the videos dated 4/19 on our dropshots site), but boy did our muscles ache the next couple of days! Fortunately no accidents that day!
Last Sunday we had the awesome opportunity to baptize another couple from our church small group. Although my parents had me baptized as an infant, Paul and I don't really believe in infant baptism (mostly because it's not mentioned anywhere in the bible). Instead we believe in water baptism as a public display of a person's personal acceptance of Christ as their Savior. I was baptized as an adult the day before our wedding and it was life changing for me. Because of that, I love to witness and be a part of other people's baptisms. It brings tears to my eyes every time! This is the fourth couple from our small group to get baptized since we started it, and the second couple that I have had the honor of being the one to baptize them. It was really nice to be able to do this one with my husband, since we lead our couple's small group together. I just can't express how blessed we are by this group and how good of friends we all have become. Whenever we have any kind of need they are there for us without hesitation, and we love being able to help them out in return. It's going to be really hard to leave here when our time in the Navy is done, but it was hard to leave our friends in IA and VA too. We have faith that God will continue to lead us to where we are supposed to be and bless us with good churches and friendships along the way.
Another thing Paul and I were able to do as a couple was to put our recent dance lessons to good use. Twice in the last two months we got a babysitter for the kids and headed out to dance clubs (one country bar and one salsa club) with some of our friends. It's been really nice to have some time to focus on us as a couple rather than just us as parents. It's definitely been a long time coming. We'll get some more practice this weekend at a semi-formal dinner/dance we are going to for Paul's work, and we also hope to get to a club that plays swing music in the next month or two.
The kids are doing great as usual. They had several colds in a row this winter, but that's nothing out of the ordinary. Kade's new favorite toy is a spray bottle that I bought for a whopping 98 cents! He will spend hours at a time walking around outside spraying this and that. Gotta love San Diego where kids can play outside pretty much any day of the year! He also loves to say "hi" to everyone that walks by, and is also a big fan of his sand box and his leapfrog leap pad (an electronic, interactive book).
Jacey is finally crawling! Not on her hands and knees, but rather army crawling on her belly. We think she's just too fat to get herself off the ground! :) She also just started signing and saying "more please" (actually she says ba ba, but to her that's more please). She also will wave "hi", say mama and dada if we ask her too, and come when she's called. She doesn't listen at all though when it comes to not throwing her sippy cup on the floor or chewing on shoes. That's definitely getting old!
Paul is starting to think about his upcoming residency. He has been working on his CV (resume) and will soon have to start completing his residency application (oh joy). We are definitely not looking forward to that process since we've been there, done that already! I say "we" because I always end up helping him with these kinds of things. There are times when it feels like I am the one working my way through a medical career!
As for me, I'm still just figuring out what this stay at home mom thing is all about. There are days I hate it, but most of the time I can't imagine doing anything else. God is definitely using it to shape and refine me as a person, which isn't always pleasant but I am thankful for it nonetheless. I feel blessed to be able to see my kids grow up a little more every day, and to be a part of that process. I decided to cancel my gym membership and get into the personal training business again, only this time I'm not getting paid. A few of my gal pals come over to our house a couple nights a week after the kids are in bed and I lead them through a "garage workout". It's fun and motivating and good for us all at the same time!
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