Frolicking at the Fun Forest

Karianne and I took the boys to a new park while we happened to already be down in Chesapeake.  It's a huge park, tons of slides, climbing features, tunnels, hiding spots, and swings all under the cover of tall trees.  James and Julian had a blast running around being wild men.  Jules is wearing his "papa hat".  I scooped up a mini version at Target for him because he is always desperate to wear Pete's even though it's too big to stay on.  Now he grins the cheesiest grin when he and Papa both wear their hats.

Zooing it with Friends

James, Ellen, Stella and Jules had a blast running around at the zoo together today.  Jules is especially in love with all things monkeys and giraffes. 

Diggers were also popular.  They are building a new Tiger enclosure and it was incredibly difficult to drag the toddlers away from the construction site.  We probably could have spent the entire afternoon watching that instead of the animals if the babies were in charge!

Finally Jules and Stella are evenly matched. 

Just When Life is Looking Up

Just when things were starting to look up, go more smoothly, be better - wham!  Our brand new car, to us, was completely totaled in an accident barely 2 months after we bought it.  That through a major wrench in life as we have been managing all the insurance woes, as well as figuring out how to get a new car that would be just as awesome as the first one.  Sadly, the blue Matrix was 1 of 2,500 made so we had to settle a bit, but overall we found a comparable replacement.  We should be able to pick it up on Saturday so that is good.  

We also had some major house hunting to do.  We've been really unhappy in our current place for awhile.  There has been a lot of turnover in the building since we moved in 3 years ago, and the more students that move in the more noise and annoyance we are experiencing.  Luckily we found a duplex just two blocks away, in our price range, and with WAY more storage space and square footage.  We are going to be able to get in the new place starting April 7th, and we are SUPER psyched!  

I'm doing well actually, the move has given me a lot of positive energy.  I'm packing and donating and trashing like crazy.  This move is going to bring us such a welcome fresh start as a family, with more room for Baby Jules to run and play and a porch to relax in the evenings on.  The quality of our daily life is going to go WAY up and I think that is going to be very good for my mental health as well. 

I have a bunch of stuff to get posted, I'm behind again because of all the dramatic events, but slowly but surely they'll be posted:)

Spring is Here!

We took advantage of a beautiful day and met Laura and her daughter Ryan at a nearby park.  Laura rides a bike with Ryan for their local trips when weather is good, and Pete decided to take Jules for a spin to see how he liked it.  Answer:  He didn't want to get down!  Pete came back 2 or 3 times to play but Jules kept insisting he keep riding. The kids loved it.  Since I have no business being on a bike, that is going to be Pete's arena.  We've got a friend in the area who is going to pass down a seat for us, and Pete is going to start looking around for a cheap bike option so they can have some fun riding around the neighborhood together.

Ryan and Jules had a blast having the park to themselves, and you can see the well documented love between the two of them - lots of hugs and squeezes between the two of them.  Ryan will always be his first love!

First Family Trip to the Zoo

We took our first family trip to the Zoo with our new membership with Papa. Jules is in love with all things animals, especially monkeys, chickens, birds and giraffes. Military membership for a year was only $45 for a family, and we'll easily make it worth the money just over the summer. It's only about a 5 minute drive from where we live so we are looking forward spending a lot of time there with our baby friends as well.

Zoo Videos