The Great Wolf Lodge

We celebrated Ethan's birthday a week early, on February 26th, by taking him to the Wolf Lodge in Kansas City, KS. We had actually been planning this trip since last summer with the Jones'. They have two boys who were born in February, so I made a cake to celebrate all of their birthdays. 

 The boys spent most of their time going down the water slides. Jacob was tall enough to ride all of them, but Ethan and Alex were a couple inches shy of being able to ride one, which was a bit frustrating for them. At least there were two slides they could go down.

Unfortunately, Audrey wasn't feeling well, so I spent most of the time with her in the hot tub.

Ethan is always doing something funny. He is definitely the comedian of the family.

                     Story Time at the lodge!!

 Time for cake and presents!

 Audrey and baby Jacob

Christmas 2011

We opened presents at home on Friday, December 22nd!

Jacob and Ethan got the entire collection of baseball cards for 2011!

Jacob looks like he is the happiest one in this picture, but Ethan loves them just as much and is constantly making different lists of his favorite teams and players.

Audrey got her first American Girl doll and named her Audrey! So cute!

Road Trip

It took us 16 hours to drive from St. Louis to New Jersey, but the only thing uncomfortable about the trip is Doug didn't put the bubble on the top of the car so we were packed in like sardines.

Since we would be gone for a whole week, we didn't want to leave our guinea pig, Bucky, at home. The kids have become very attached to him and he is definitely part of the family. He also proved to be a very good traveler like the kids. When we stayed the night in a hotel, we put him in this small cage, but we had a bigger cage for him in the car.

These Yankee sweatshirts were a big hit with the boys! 

Pop Pop and Ethan

Vivi and Audrey

After we spent Christmas at Dan and Kim's we headed to Milford, PA to spend a few days with Doug's parents. Earl had a chance to take the kids to his work and one of his favorite diners in town. Doug also has great memories of going to his office and the diner as a kid. So, it was great for the kids to learn about that part of their lives.

The big gift for the year was from Pop Pop and Vivi. After the kids studied Astronomy last year they developed a love for the solar system, so their grandparents decided to invest in an amazing telescope for them. We were all extremely grateful, and it will be something we will use for many, many years. 

Thanks Pop Pop and Vivi!!

Ops Group Christmas Party

We plan two parties a year with all the other squadrons in the Ops Group at Scott. 

Since the Ops Group Commander's spouse does not live here, the planning falls on the shoulders of the Commanders' spouses. Unfortunately, no one was stepping up to organize the event, so I reluctantly volunteered because I was the only one asking questions. However, it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened because now I don't have to plan another Ops Group event for the rest of Doug's command. 

One of the Commander's spouses came up with a game where the kids decorate all the Squadron Commanders as Christmas trees. Our kids we're very excited to wrap Doug up and it definitely provided great humor for everyone watching.

 

 The most exciting part for the kids was seeing Santa fly in on a C-21.

All of the parents brought wrapped books for their kids that Santa handed out.

It turned out really well and I'm not sure if any kids figured out that their parents had 

bought the books!

Thanksgiving

We were lucky to have our very good friend, Danny, the Jones', and Doug's sister, Jeanne, spend Thanksgiving with us. 

Danny has a been a close friend since Spokane and we have seen him at various places where we've lived, like Lacey and now here. It's always great when Air Force friends cross paths because it's usually unexpected or last minute. Danny drove from Kansas to be with us and we were so happy to have him with us for the holiday. 

The only unfortunate part about Thanksgiving is that I wasn't very good about taking pictures so this is the only one I took. I really need to get better about that!!

Miss Audrey looking so sophisticated in Jeanne's glasses. 

Each year The National Shrine of our Lady of Snows has a tour of lights called "Way of Lights" which tells about Christ's birth. Surprisingly, we live only 15 minutes from the shrine, so we have gone every year to see it and this year we took Jeanne.  In addition to driving through the lights, Fontanini comes to sign his nativity pieces the weekend after Thanksgiving. We met him last year when I bought my nativity set and had him sign it, so this year Jeanne got to meet him and have a picture taken with him. 

We had a great visit with Jeanne and it's always tough to say goodbye, but we are so happy to have the memories of spending time together.

Wow! Has it really been that long?

I can't believe I haven't posted since Halloween. Sorry everyone. I'll try to get on top of catching everyone up with the big stuff soon. I guess the lack of blogging speaks for itself. Life is ridiculously busy for Doug and I right now. I just keep telling myself only 15 more months, only 15 more months...that is until his command is over. We actually love what we are doing and there are so many great rewards from it. I just hope we have the stamina to keep going at this pace because there is no way to turn off the valve.