Greenleaf State Park Camping Trip

We went to Greenleaf State Park in eastern Oklahoma for Memorial Day weekend. It was by far the best camping trip that we've ever taken. It helps that I'm not pregnant and that all of the kids are out of diapers and walking. Babies really kill the outdoorsman adventurer in me! 

We had perfect weather, met some great people, and thoroughly enjoyed our time outdoors.  I can't wait to go back! We camped from Friday afternoon until Monday afternoon.

 Here we are the first afternoon looking for firewood near our campsite. It's nice that the kids are useful for camping chores now.

 

 Saturday we rented a paddle boat for the day, but after an hour the kids were tired and Luke even fell asleep. The dock attendant was kind enough to switch it out for a motor boat for 1 hour so that we got our money's worth. The motor boat was much better because we were all able to go on it together.

  Enjoying some quiet time before we hit the lake later that afternoon.

 The lake was so fun. It brought back a lot of memories on the lake with my Dad. He was an avid fisherman.

 

 With enough cropping, an 8 year old can take a decent picture!

On Sunday afternoon I went kayaking by myself for an hour. It was wonderful! I couldn't take my camera since it's not waterproof, but I loved every minute I was out on the water. I really look forward to more family trips like this (weather, schedule, and money permitting).

  

 We really wanted to hike to this bridge, but we were unable to. We attempted it on Monday afternoon, but the kids couldn't last that long.  The trail was too long for the little kids, maybe next time.

 

 At the "beach" swimming.

 

My favorite picture!

Just too cute to not share.

 Making sand creations.

Just relaxing!

I went out and swam with them a lot. Normally I don't care to swim in lakes, but this was very pleasant. We spent some time at the pool, but the lake was so much nicer (and free).

  Our very kind camp neighbors (a widower and his two little girls, ages 4 and 6) had a Jr 4 wheeler. The 6 year old drove Luke around very carefully. It was so cute. All of the kids got a turn, but Luke was the only one who didn't drive himself.

On Monday morning Howard and Howie went out with the guys to ride on the large 4 wheeler. I stayed back with the kids and took them to the little park near our campsite.

 This is Trinity. They're going to get married when they are older. At least that's what Jack tells us. I think Trinity would like that. Trinity's family came to camp on Sunday and I think it was love at first sight for Jack. He was pretty sad we left her.

 

 Monday morning I found them cuddling in the hammock. Seriously too cute. If he was any older I would have separated them, but there's something about their innocence that makes it incredibly sweet.

Luke decided that he was going to "read" the map. He kept telling us where to go.

This was the beginning of our attempt to reach the swinging bridge, but we learned very quickly that the kids weren't going to make it, so we turned around after 15-20 minutes. We thought the bridge was close, but after studying the map and traveling a little ways, it would have been at least a half day hike, and we were not prepared.

Awards

School will be out for the summer on Wednesday. 

Monday and Tuesday were awards ceremonies for the kids.

I'm so proud of their hard work! 

It was a tough year academically, especially for Erin. We definitely need a break for summer.

 Erin received the "Silver Award" for all As and Bs.

She also received a medal for reading.

Howie received the "Silver Award" and reading medal also. In addition to that, he was awarded a trophy for working 2 grade levels ahead in Math.  We also received a letter from his teacher last week because he scored high enough on his State Standardized test to be considered for the Gifted Program at school.  He took the placement test the other day. I'm not sure when we will find out if he made it in the program or not, but it really doesn't matter. I'm just happy that he tested for it.  

 My sister and I are still puzzled why we were never in that type of program growing up. We received straight A and always sat at the "smart" table. Wish I could ask my Mom about that one. :/  Oh well...

I forgot to mention that Howie is in a cast. He broke his left arm while standing on the playground at recess. A kid kicked a ball and it hit him hard enough to break it. The funny thing was, Howie wasn't even playing. He was just standing around. He should get it off this Friday, just in time for camping.

I couldn't get a close up of Howie because of all the parents and he sat near the front. I got lucky with Erin, she had to walk past me to return to her seat. I wasn't as fortunate with Howie.

Spring Re-cap

WOW! It's been so long since I last posted that blogger changed its format. 

Anyway - Here's a little re-cap of the past couple of months.

Spring Break

Spring break was spent on "staycation". We did a lot of activities around town (library, rollerskating, movies) and we also took a little trip down to Texas. It was a good excuse to get a hotel room - the kids LOVE hotels!

 

Along the river at Dinosaur State Park

  We even enjoyed some authentic Texan BBQ.

 Chillin' in the hotel room.

School and Hair

 

 I've been having more fun with my hair lately. Recently I started finding gray hairs (just a few), and decided that it was time to start coloring. I haven't done anything drastic, all natural colors - just enough to hide any gray.  I currently have a slight A-line bob. 

I also just finished the spring semester in college. I'm a Sophomore.  This year I had a 4.0 both semesters. I'm really proud of myself and I am so happy that I am back in school after a 12 year break. I'm currently at the local community college, waiting for PCS orders so that I can apply to a four year university at our next duty station. I've really worked hard this year and I have learned so much. I'm much better off because of it, unfortunately my house is not. I've been using my break time to catch up on chores around the house, but I would much rather be doing school work.

Soccer

 All the kids have been in soccer since March. Fortunately, we only have practice on 2 nights a week for all of the kids and all the games are on Saturday mornings. Many times we've had overlapping games times, so we've had to split up to watch the games. Good thing Howard didn't deploy this year like we had planned.  I've decided that I'm not a very good "soccer mom" and prefer other activities over sports. Some of the kids have decided they don't like sports either, but we made them finish out the season since they were on a team and needed to fulfill their commitment. Overall, I'm very proud of their sportsmanship. 

A Visit from Paul

Paul is our super special friend that we hadn't seen since 2005. He was passing through Oklahoma and stopped for a short visit. We had a great time. Paul introduced Howard and I in January 2000. We actually met in Paul's apartment, so we can thank him for our marriage. :)

 At the Myriad Botanical Gardens Children's Park

 Having some fun with Daddy.

 

 Paul had recently purchased a gun and was anxious to try it out. We got a sitter for you little boys and went shooting. I was surprised at how much fun I had and how fast the time went by. Before we knew it, the shooting range was closing for the night. The only bad thing that happened was a bullet casing popped up and fell down the front of my shirt, burning me. I now have a scar on my chest from it. Ugh!

 I was impressed with the kids, they were very mature and were very responsible handling the gun. Of course we were hovering over them like white on rice, but they still did a good job.

Random

 Howard recently snapped some snuggle time on a Sunday morning. There's usually not a morning that I don't wake up with an extra body in bed with me.

Luke and I have the mornings to ourselves while Jack is at pre-school. Normally it is spent at the gym, but sometimes I stay home to catch up on house work. Luke was so excited to show off his "work". I'm happy we finally have a rug in our living room. We haven't had anything since we put down the flooring last spring. It's nice and cozy now.

I can't guarantee that I'll update this blog very much anymore. I'll try, but life is keeping me too busy to carry a camera around wherever I go. 

Big News

 About a month ago we found a lost Dachshund named Louie and took care of him until we located his owners. We were so sad to see him go, but happy that he was reunited with his family. Ever since then we've been wanting another dog for Dash, but we hadn't done anything about it. Yesterday I received a text from Louie's owner asking us if we wanted to keep him. After a quick 5 minute family discussion we decided to take him. He was dropped off at 10am this morning and the dogs are best friends.  It turns out the Louie is older than Dash by 13 days.

The only reason why we had to think about taking him, even for 5 minutes, was because we received some big news on Tuesday from Howard's work. His unit, known as the 3rd Herd, will be shut down at Tinker AFB. That means we will be moving, likely within the year. We're going to try our hardest to go back overseas.  We will miss Oklahoma City very much. We had no idea we would grow to love this city as much as we have. We love being an Air Force family, but each move seems to be harder emotionally since we leave a piece of our heart wherever we go. 

 Louie - age 2

 

 

Erin's Garden Room

We redecorated Erin's bedroom this past week. She named it "The Garden Room".  I'm really happy how it turned out because it will grow with her. It's not too babyish and not too old. Just right for an 8 year old!

Sorry that some of the pictures are redundant, but some offer better angles than others. Her room isn't very big and it's difficult to get a good picture, especially with the poor lighting (it was raining when I took the pictures).  Erin and I had so much fun redecorating. We've been planning on doing it for a long time, but we were waiting until she got a sister through adoption. Things didn't work out as planned and if you want to know about us not adopting please feel free to email me about it.

Anyway - enjoy the pictures!

My favorite thing about her room is her lamp and accent pillows. The pillows were on clearance at JC Penny for $7 total. It's hard to see, but they are a deep plum color.  The color of her walls is "Foxgloves" by Behr paint. It's a grayish lavender. There are still a few little details that I need to work on, but for the most part this is it. I'm also happy that we stayed under budget.

I would like to get her nice drapes eventually, but she didn't want them. She kept her butterfly valence that she's had in her room since she was born. It matches, so I'm okay with it for now. Overall, Erin did a great job selecting her items. I just had to guide her with what coordinated and what didn't.

Happy Birthday Lucas!

Lucas turned 3 on February 10th and it was a birthday party year!

I consulted YouTube to learn how to make the tissue paper poms and I am posting them at the request of my sister. Decorations were sparse, but they generally always are. I like parties that don't leave me all stressed out before they even begin!

Early Friday morning, before Howard went to work, Luke opened his presents. His favorite presents were the clearance toys I bought a few weeks ago. The toys that he was least interested in where the one's I paid full price for - how ironic!

 

 Friday afternoon Luke helped me decorate his cupcakes. He originally wanted a Diego party, but since we couldn't find a cake topper, or even toys to put on it, we scraped that plan. Luke was in charge of picking things out, so we had sports themed plates/cups, and Spiderman cupcakes. He was happy!

 

I forgot to write out the invitations for his nursery classmates, and since I wasn't very motivated to have ten 3 year olds over, we had one family come. We had a nice time and were not overwhelmed.  Our 4 kids and their 3 kids made a nice amount of people for a party atmosphere.

 The day before his party he wanted to pose for the camera. This is his new favorite pose.

January (and a little bit of February)

Howie had a birthday and was crazy excited about his present, a boy's dream - a B.B. gun.

 This was not a b-day party year, so we went out to dinner of Howie's choosing (Red Lobster) and had cake (Angel food). The weather has been great and we've been able to go out into the wooded area behind our house to shoot. It's been fun.

 

 Howard got off of work early yesterday (he's been working long hours lately). We've also had incredible weather, so the boys got some energy out before dinner.

 Just a little while ago I heard a rustling in my bedroom. It's laundry day, so for the few hours the laundry sorter was empty and Dash managed to get stuck. This was a first for him - and too funny not to take a picture. He was truly stuck!

 

 A few days ago Erin wanted me to take some pictures of her and Dash, so I thought I would share those too. We curled her hair in sponge curlers the night before and she felt like a princess with the ringlets all day. Her hair was curly like this naturally when she was little, but now it's straight like mine.