Catching up.....continued

Ok, I'm going to start today where I left off yesterday. I had thought about putting up some more pictures from our travels, and I really really wanted to post some of all my friends that allowed us to come into their homes and stay with them as we traveled from Mississippi to Virginia. Sadly I realized that most of those pictures were on my phone that Zetta drowned in the dog water a couple of months ago. If I am ever able to salvage the pictures from their watery tomb then I will edit the post and add them.

We are so incredibly lucky to have friends that would welcome us in on a moments notice...even after years of not seeing one another, even though they had busy schedules of their own. We will always always be thankful for their open doors to me, my children, and even my dog....we love you all: Adam and Minina, Deborah and Jacob, Danielle and Nic (even though I missed Nic while he was on a sweet vacation to Africa ;) ), and Tiffany and Matt.

Ok, back to the pictures.

November 2014

Well, it turns out that there were lots of pictures on my phone...including all of November. Basically all that happened that month was soccer and Thanksgiving. I'll have to see if my inlaws have any photos they can send me of my very first, practically all on my own, Thanksgiving meal.

December 2014

Mostly soccer days

A sweet tea party with sweet friends!

There were also a few park days in there.

January 2015

I don't have a lot of photos from this month, but these are the highlight of the month anyways.

Pure joy :D

A big thank you to Meredith for snapping these candid shots of our homecoming :)


February 2015

 We celebrated Steven's birthday a little late. Despite some hiccups in our plans for awesome light sabers for everyone and some other party favors, I think all the young jedi had fun.

And, of course, I had to add a picture of the baby just being the baby!

During this month we also started packing up to move from Mississippi to Texas. It was such a hectic and stressful time there is really not much that I can remember from this month....which is why I wish that I had kept up with our blog better. Well, that or not had my phone broken...either way would have worked I guess.

March 2015

We loved this coach, this team, the parents, the girls...it was a one in a million find and was one of the few reasons I would go back to Gulfport voluntarily. I cannot tell you how much we will miss this.

This tree is the bane of my existence and I am only including it so that I can look back and remember exactly why I don't ever ever EVER want a sweet gum tree anywhere near me.

Last few days in the house...

Our move involved multiple trips to Texas and rather than driving it all in one day, we decided that we could camp one night and continue on the next day. We also picked up a new puppy just before moving out...and it was his and Zetta's first camping trip! You've never seen two creatures that love to dig in the dirt and eat sticks more than those two right there.

Lots of trips to grandparent's and the chance to play with their cousins

More camping on the way back. Although it was a bit more trouble than finding a hotel that allows two dogs, or any dogs for that matter, it was worth the extra effort for moments like these.

April 2015

Moved into an RV again. We spent the time we had left in Mississippi on base in our new RV. It was actually a really nice park, but they didn't really approve of kids walking around anywhere by themselves...which is ridiculous since I could see them from the RV, but whatever. 

The Easter bunny clearly received his change of address card in the mail. I'm not sure how true this is, but I heard that the Easter bunny overslept on this particular Easter and almost forgot to leave the eggs....can you believe that?! It's just hearsay though, we'll never know for sure ;)

Check out that morning hair. She was content with her one egg and a chocolate bar.

I'm going to have to end it here for now. I'll finish up the rest soon. I'm hoping this weekend I will charge my old broken phone and it will magically work, or that we'll be able to save some of the pictures off of it. 

Hope you all have a safe and happy Labor day weekend!

-Katie

Playing catch up...

It seems as though I will never be able to keep up with this blog, or any other, so I'll just embrace it and continue my haphazard and random postings. This particular post is going to be a catch up...for me and you! I love to look back on what all we have done, and there was so much going on in the last year and we didn't post any of it!

May 2014

Our beautiful baby Zetta made her appearance:

June 2014

We welcomed family

Got tatooed

Said goodbye

July 2014

Spent time with dear friends, checked out the New Orleans aquarium, and went to a new-to-us beach

August 2014

Visit from Grandma and Pop and a trip to the Children's Museum

September 2014

October 2014

This was a huge month for us! It probably deserves a post all it's own, but since I'm on a roll today, I'm just going to include snippets from our Spanish adventure.

It started with a trip to the east coast. We stopped and stayed with friends along the way, and it was so great catching up with everyone! We arrived in Virginia and had a birthday party with friends for Adelyn's birthday. Matt made an amazing power ranger cake and all of our family sent presents to their house so she would have lots of fun stuff to open on  her big day :) 

Then the kids and I loaded up our stuff, and drove to see if we could catch a military flight to Rota, Spain to visit Steve. I was so nervous we wouldn't get on. Roll call was around 5pm, which we were right on time. We didn't eat dinner because I honestly just didn't have time and I figured there would be something on the flight...I was wrong, they announced there was no food. They finally called our names at 9pm, just as I was stuffing my dollar bills into the snack machine. Turns out, there were box lunches...go figure. So our crappy $2 cold sandwiches mostly went to waste.

When we arrived in Spain I was completely exhausted. The kids slept for the entire flight, so they were ok. I slept a few minutes here and there and I was far from ok. We landed and I contacted Steve, only to find out he was still at work and couldn't leave. We went into a nursery they have at the airport and I rested while the big kids played and the baby slept. We were probably there for 2 hours or so before he was able to come see us. I was so happy to see his face....he had been gone for 4 months at this point. My joy was short-lived though...he told me he had a van, but he couldn't take us in it (gov't rules), the bus I was expecting to use was out of service because of construction around the airport, and so we would have to walk to the exchange to find food. He took our bags and the kids and I walked to the NEX. I was cranky, tired, and hungry. Subway wasn't quite the first meal I was hoping to have in Spain, but it was enough to get us through. Steve bought and set up a phone for me...only catch is it didn't have a working language option, so it had to stay in Spanish. (Le sigh) This was only the beginning of challenges for the day. Steve handed me a folder with a map, a handful of euros, and reminded me of a few basic Spanish words to get me to the apartment we were renting for the week. I was not planning to go alone, and you can imagine my frustration as I hopped into a cab with a man I couldn't communicate with to a place I didn't know the location of, and I was supposed to meet two people I didn't know, but Steve programmed their number into my Spanish phone.....oh boy. Luckily, all went well. I met the people in front of the correct apartment complex, they showed me around, gave me the keys, and then I took a nap. I could have slept for a day, but Steve showed up to make sure I was awake and ready to go to dinner. The next day was much better, I enjoyed my sleep, and was feeling much more excited to explore. 

Here is a picture of our favorite cafe. We went in the mornings for a breakfast sandwich, cafe con leche, and pastries. 

Here is a picture of the kitchen in the apartment. Thousands of miles from home, and still stuck doing dishes....at least the view was nice ;)

On a walk we found a fun playground with it's own zipline, and a crazy tall climbing rope thing. The kids loved it. All the Spanish playgrounds seemed to make Steve nervous....which is funny since he is the adventurous spirit in our family.

Picture of the beach from downtown Rota. Steve and I enjoyed some time with Zetta and our pitcher of sangria while the big kids played in the sand. 

Even in October there was some warm sun and beach time....and very cold water. 

We took a double decker bus tour of Cadiz. The kids had a blast. The parents were mainly concerned with not having enough time to see the sights and get back before the last ferry left for Rota. 

Castle in downtown Rota

Indian food in Rota. It was delicious!!

We took a bus to Sevilla for one of  the days. I only regret not staying there multiple days. There was so much to see, one day was just not enough.

Tapas!!! Sardines for Steven, calamari, and I can't remember what else we ordered....and sangria of course :)

So much architecture to take in. It was so breathtaking. Every single building was a work of art.  

Castles, cathedrals, courtyards, oh my!

More tapas, and this time Zetta gets a snack too.

Back in Rota for dinner at Steve's favorite restaurant. 

Next adventure was a drive to Gibraltar. We took a scenic route, following the coastline. It was amazingly beautiful. We made one random stop in a surf town. It seemed like every street had a surf shop. We went in for a snack and restroom break, had some coffee and watch three old me eat sardines and drink beer at 10 am....I feel like this is my kind of place ;)

Gibraltar was really cool. It's a British colony with tons of cute shops, they used the pound, we ate fish and chips, and bought the kids some cute clothes. This was another place that we could have used more time. We did have one very unfortunate accident while there. Zetta pooped as much as a grown man, and of course I was not prepared with extra clothes,...or an extra stroller, or a costco size box of wipes.  I didn't have anywhere to change her, and there are not changing stations anywhere. As a matter of fact, one lady who had just cleaned the restroom I was going to use told me to go somewhere else...she had just cleaned it. Hahaha good times! So we went to a cafe and bought drinks so we could use their restroom, and I did my best to get everything cleaned up. Next stop was new clothes for the baby. 

There are so many pictures....it takes so long to upload them, so this is all you get. I'll continue with the rest of the year tomorrow maybe. 

-Katie