Family Time

Week 15: I love a short week as much as anyone, but I just don't recover from holiday weekends like I used to! We all wanted to be back at the lake! Once we got back in the swing of things, the kids were excited to be back in their routines - both kids had a great week at school...for John Bay that meant that he went into his class without crying! It was a typical week for us - painting burlap, playing with friends, school and riding horses! And on Saturday...there was football! The kids proudly wore their orange and blue! We were a little out of place among all of the purple and gold at the playground, but they wouldn't have had it any other way!

On Sunday, again we proudly wore our orange and blue. I think they were a little surprised to see our Auburn gear at church, but they will learn! After a Sunday of remembrance of September 11, we decided the best thing to do was to have some family time. We walked around the Botanic Gardens through the Crape Myrtles - so pretty - and the kids posed for a few pictures! They actually let me get a few good ones!

And to add to our family time, of course there was a trip to Bass Pro Shop...where better to spend family time. They were having some fun activities for the kids, so we made visors, played with the race cars, played a bean bag toss, and tire roll! I think Ed had more fun with the toy remote control cars than the kids did!

We topped the day off with cupcakes and ice cream!

We also are working on potty training and riding a bike without training wheels - I just didn't think that you would want to see pictures of that...both are a little messy!

We can't wait for next week - We have our first Girl Scouts meeting, our fall fundraiser for school, Mary Virginia is the star student of the week, and I get to have lunch with MV on Thursday! I can't wait to share!

(Looking out towards the Hudson River from the stadium at West Point)

Just as a side note - I know that I quickly passed over the September 11 talk, but it is still hard to talk about or write about without getting emotional. Ed and I talked a lot about what we remembered from that day and we watched as many of the programs as we could handle Sunday night. As most of you, I know exactly where I was sitting the moment I heard the news. We had only been married for 2 weeks...I was a new military wife in a new town and I had no clue what to expect. I was sitting on the floor in our living room watching CNN and writing thank you notes as I had done every morning for the past week when I saw the news. A little later I got a phone call from Ed saying they had locked down the base and he wasn't sure when he was coming home. Knowing no one in town, I just sat there and watched the day unfold. For some unknown reason, I went outside to walk around our neighborhood and to get some air and I ran into some neighbors that were just moving in - Michelle and Mike - how funny now that these are now some of our best friends! I don't know that they knew the calming effect they had on me that day...Mike was able to explain what was happening on post and what was probably going to happen, and Michelle was there as always just to be my friend! Oh, how our lives have changed because of that day - I don't really remember how things were before 9/11 - especially married life. We know so many people that were affected by the events of that day and I am so grateful for all of our military friends and what they do on a daily basis to protect our country. We are truly blessed to have each and everyone of you in our lives.