Long time no blog!

I guess I'll come back from my blogging hiatus. Oops, I didn't mean to be gone this long. It's been almost 6 months and a LOT has happened. So here is what we've been up to in the past 6 months.

I guess the biggest change is that Will is deployed.
He's been gone for 2 1/2 months and we miss him very much,

and can't wait for him to get home in November!
Things were a little crazy for a few months before he left.
He was supposed to leave on a short notice deployment to Lybia back in

March and they never ended up going.
(don't get me started on that! I could go on and on...)
He ended up leaving in April for training in Germany,

and then again in May for his deployment to Kuwait.
We get to talk on the phone, skype, and even text regularly.

(yes that's right, can you believe technology!? We are so grateful!)
Will says that when you walk outside in Kuwait

it feels like someone is holding a hair dryer to your face that's blowing sand.

Right now the average temperature is about 120 degrees.
It is fully light at 5am and fully dark at 6pm.
Will is lucky enough to be working indoors most of the time, which is a great blessing to him.

He works with several Kuwaiti civilians and tells me funny stories about it all the time.

Prior to Will leaving, my little big Hunterman turned 8!

Hunter got a basketball hoop.
After he solved his scavenger hunt clues, he walked out to the garage to see his hoop.

I seriously love this picture, it is genuine happiness.

The rest of February consisted of...

Exploring Charleston

Lots of boats in Charleston Harbor

Amazing trees

Spanish moss

Trees that bloom everywhere you go

Old mansions on East Bay street

Horse drawn carriage tours

Old buildings, cobble stone roads, and history all over down town

The Battery

Battery Park is known for many things including the hanging of pirates in the 1700's and it was an artillery site during the civil war.

East battery

USS Yorktown
Navel ship used in WWII

Awesome shopping downtown on King St.

Children's Museum

The beach

And this is what happens after the beach

The beginning of TEMPER TANTRUMS!

But still being cute

Playing Basketball

Hunter is really good friends with our next door neighbor, Mason.
They play almost every day together.

Maci likes walks around the block, she usually just takes off walking without me.

March

Bags,

Bags,

and more bags.
March consisted of a lot of packing and bags.
Remember that deployment to Lybia Will was supposed to go on?
Well these bags are those bags, the Kuwait deployment bags were in April.
I stopped taking pictures at that point.

March was a high-stress time with the deployment.
It was really hard on the kids.
At one point we actually said good-bye and dropped Will off at his squadron to deploy, only to pick him up 20 minutes later.

Hunter had an impormptu baptism.
We had it scheduled for the Saturday after Will left was supposed to leave.
We ended up doing it last minute on Wednesday because Hunter wanted Dad to do it, we didn't want to wait until he got back, and we weren't sure how long he would be gone.

We still tried to pack some fun things in.
Nanny and Pop came to visit for Hunter's baptism.
(and to spoil the kids)

New clothes from Great Grandma

Obessivley wearing snow boots

April

By the time April came we knew Will wouldn't be leaving to Lybia. Instead, he was assigned the deployment to Kuwait. He was gone for the last 3 weeks in April for training.

Easter!

The kids had their fair share of Easter egg hunts. I think they did 3 or 4. These pictures are from the sqadron Easter egg hunt.

This was another easter egg hunt on base...that was interesting trying to watch all three of my kids hunt for eggs in 3 different fields at the same time.

I have NO idea why they did it like that.

I definitely wasn't the only one in that situation.

Bugs.

LOTS of playing outside

Our first big outing without Daddy was to the Angel Oak tree (a 1500+ year old tree in Charleston) and to the beach.

We had a good time...but I think everyone was looking at me crazy.

I even had a few people ask if I brought "3 kids..........to the beach.........by myself." Hehe! We have a good time, but I do have to say that I am SO happy to be home when we get back. It is a lot of work.

The kids were quite entertained by the dead jelly fish scattered on the beach.

This is the Morris Island lighthouse off of Folly Beach

Tons of sea shells at low tide

Angel Oak tree. It's huge and amazing.

Another fun thing we did in April was the Kids Deployment Line.
The kids get a very condnesed version of a deployment.
It's really great for teaching about why Daddy has to leave, what he does to get ready to leave, and what he does while he's away. We spend the day on a mock deployment to Monoco, getting breifings, touring a C-17, and eating MRE's.

The kids had to wear ear plugs on the C-17


May

Will got back from training and aside from work and packing more gear, it was spent relaxing and having fun as a family.

Of course we went to the beach :)

Lots of good sea shells this trip

Body boarding

June

A few weeks after Will left and Hunter was out of school we spent some time in Washington.
It was nice not being across the country from everyone I know.
We had SO much fun, and of course the time went by way too fast.

We...
Saw Cars 2!

Celebrated Austin's birthday
Wow, what a horrible Mom I am..I didn't even mention it in May's section.

I don't have any pictures from his actual birthday...but I'm sure I have video? (fingers crossed)

had lots of bubble baths

Played with whatever they can get their hands on

Loved Vancouver weather

(in June at least ;)

Showed Grandma their true colors

Ice blocked
(If you look at the picture of Austin, he isn't actually on an ice block, he was too scared so he was just pretending)

Played out side every day

look at my little dare devil...you should see her swim (she thinks she CAN swim)

Brooke and Richard came up for the 4th of July. It was so good to see them and I enjoyed every minute with them

The boys really took to Richard, but Maci was Brookes.

July

We've I've been wanting a new table for...well for 8 1/2 years.
I finally got one :)
I realized after I got the picture loaded to my computer that Austin is picking his wedgie. Lovely.

While I was mowing the lawn I found this...looks like someone planted my cherry pits.

The last week in July Bill and Shelley came to visit.
We were so excited to have them, and we had so much fun while they were here.

Aquarium

Battery Park

H.L. Hunley Submarine and USS Yorktown

Wow, that was a long post. I swear I'll blog more just as soon as I'm done finding the secret to making more time.