Greetings,
السَّلامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ الله وَبَرَكاتُهُ
Peace be upon you and the blessings of God...blah, blah, blah.
Hey, We're enjoying the first really nice, really warm day of the year! Of course we spent most of it running errands, studying Arabic, and cleaning the house, but it was still a welcome sight...a sign of spring? And spring comes right before our departure! We're all excited to get to GA for the wedding, and excited to finish up Arabic strong, hopefully pass my end of course tests (and get paid for this pain and misery---I mean cultural education), and return to the Fleet, Inshaallah. On that front, I actually established communication with my future CO this past week. As much as one can tell over email, he seemed very genuine and nice, so that's a good sign. We're praying for a great CO. It makes a HUGE difference in not only the performance of the ship and crew, but her (ship) whole attitude. No where does the trickle down effect manifest itself like the military.
Anyway, I'd like to take credit for this set up below, but apparently there's a smart ass who beat me to the punch. We found this little scene adjacent to the bike trail in Monterey on one of our afternoon power walks...The burial detail had already left, but apparently this squirrel was veteran. I realize it's a little sick to post it, but it's also a LOT funny...
In other news, Aiden is riding his bike like a champ. Here he is on a 3 mile bike ride, circling the water fountain in down town Monterey, Portola Plaza. He did this for about 15 minutes...
And around.... and around.... And....
"One more time...Daddy, One more time!"
Aiden was disappointed I didn't let him climb up to the bear, but was content to settle for a cute picture in the seat...
Riding over the bridge toward downtown...look at that big shot...I'm afraid he's outgrown his bike, too...his knees are practically slamming the handle bars.
Here we are trying to rectify our slackness with Kid #2 and do some reading with Emma. Aiden is "helping" her learn to read.
What can I say? these are precious moments.
Emma consults Aiden for his interpretation of that verse of Cicero...
And that's what a full day of hiking looks like. Lights out for this cutie pie.
Ad-da and Emma G "nap" with Boof and Little Boof, respectively
Monkey see, monkey do. She worships the ground he walks on. To a great extent, he lives up to the billing; he's an exceptional big brother.
Of course now he's making her go to sleep, which she wasn't a huge fan of...
Ahhh, nice to have a picture in which the fatness is gone. I must say, Joy and I are enjoying some welcome success in trimming down to our nominal body weights...We decided to use NutriSystem just until Edward's wedding, and in 3 weeks we've lost 22 lbs and 15 lbs. I don't have any "now" pictures of Joy, but she's looking awesome. You'll see at the wedding. Very Hot. Oh, yeah, Aiden is looking at his new Star Wars Beginner reading book...I just skip over the pictures and pages from the 3 new Star Wars movies....Principles, you know.
Emma wants to play and Aiden is trying to be serious...
Aiden and Mama making Valentine's cupcakes...Delicious!
Quality control. Aiden seizes the moment with Mama out of the room with Emma for a second...
If you didn't already know, Emma is on the move...crawling like crazy...she's standing and holding herself really well, too. We expect the transition to walking to be rather short based off her present indications...
Aiden and his best friend Carter take a bath with their siblings, Carter and Emma. This was during our San Diego Farewell Tour recently.
Aiden has been asking to go on the whale watching tour in Monterey. Since were in San Diego for the week, I decided the $3.00 round trip ferry fare from Coronado to downtown San Diego beat the $42 per person whale watching tour in Monterey Bay. Aiden loved it. It was a good investment. Joy and I used to often steal away for a date or Friday night drinks in the Gas Lamp discount via the ferry...and then there were kids....
Aiden and Daddy pose in front of downtown San Diego.
Hmmm...well our San Diego Farewell tour was...difficult, but fun. We got to see our best friends, but every single one of us, and the Zegleys methodically came down with a vicious stomach flu...juxtaposed with torrential rains and arctic cold weather we never saw in 4 years living in SD, it was challenging...We tried to make the best of it, but often were curled up here in front of Chris and Melissa's fire. You don't know for sure who your friends are until they're cleaning up your kids puke with you at 3 in the morning. Thanks, guys! We love you and will miss your family in Florida.
Emma chillin' in Carter's play thing.
That's all from our camera. Here are some pics from Joy's camera phone. Expectedly, the quality isn't always as high, but sometimes the candor of the moments overcomes this...some of these are precious. Here Aiden is caught sacked out from a day of activity in GA over Christmas...
Pursuant to our nutritional, aesthetic goals for Eddie's wedding, we've cultivated our affinity for hiking of late. Every Saturday we hike for about 2 hours on these great trails in Carmel Valley at Garland Ranch State Park. During one our recent hikes, I found this hilarious sign. See if you can catch the error:
Honey, maybe we should turn back. I don't know if I have forest insurance with USAA. Now, I looked it up, and technically, insure and ensure are interchangable, but en- gives emphasis to making sure something is done to protect something, or guard it and in- emphasizes legally protecting something, etc...Either way, I don't think the person who wrote this sign was using in- insure because they knew they were synonyms. Despite what Webster says, as I'm learning in Arabic every day, it doesn't matter what the textbook says...language is alive, and it matters what people say and write. ENSURE is more appropriate here! Agree? In my defense in first making fun of this sign, my father in law, the Phd. in Literature, didn't know they were synonyms either! Again, though,today in our favorite Chinese spot... Above the urinal reads: "Marina (the town) rock's" . Huh? Really? Are people that stupid.
Here we are taking a break on another hike up to a "waterfall." Even after weeks of rain, it was a trickle at best.
Aiden took a nasty spill which gushed blood on one of our recent long walks. The Hoss is heavy these days. Heavy. Sore shoulders....
Aiden displays part of his Star Wars Fleet including his prized Advanced Tie Fighter lego set that was a gift (card) from Auntie. Thanks, Auntie!
Aiden being a ham on a Saturday hike. Garland Ranch lies in the background. He is tellling Mama he loves her "this much." (from Guess How much i love you (to the moon and back)).
Emma acquired a new penguin during her 1st trip to Sea World. He was dubbed, "McP".
Aiden gobbles up the best ice cream in the world at Moo Time. It was our last trip to our favorite little shop for those warm Coronado days...so, pretty much the opposite of every day here in Monterey.
A PROUD big bro.
Back at Moo Time, Aiden tries to milk the cow out front...repeatedly.
"Ad-da, Ad-da, Ad-da...GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!"
Aiden, the faithful big brother, always there to lend a hand. Here he pushes his sister at the park.
Silly boy. No idea. Joy took it?
I thought this photo was becoming of Joy's relationship with Herschel. It's latent, hidden. She holds this obstensive posture in public or in speaking of him, but here we are, late at night...I come back from the bedroom to find her in the dark snuggling with "H" on the couch. They love each other (Shhh)
I dont know. He's silly. Very silly. All the time.
Aiden and Emma provide us with too many precious moments like this. It melts your heart. Well, at least it does to the parents. For a 3 year old, I think he is very responsive to her needs, very responsible, and very affectionate. He dotes on her and she thinks he walks on water.
Last but not least, Joy would be angry if I didn't show off her new pride and joy, the pink edition of the Kitchen Aid series of mixers.
Joy apparently figured out the night function on her camera phone. still cute.
Ok, the videos are short and fairly self-explanatory. First one on the left, Aiden is running on the Wii Fit, aiden and emma at the park, etc.
That's it for now. I think Joy might say a few words here. so, with that...spring training is under way, Go Braves! And...tomorrow, SPRING PRACTICE STARTS!!! GO DAWGS!!!! Almost football season. Remember, this St. Patrick's Day, drink responsibly. And by responsibly, I mean you better be drinking SmithwicShow allk's, or something authentic... wa shukran lekum...here's Joy.
Well, it seems that Daniel has pretty much covered it all. My days are full with taking care of the kiddos and working out (like crazy). I'm enjoying getting out with one of my girlfriends once or twice a month for calamari and a couple of beers. Mind mind is full of all the preparations I have to make to get us ready for our move. It's going to be a somewhat chaotic year with moves and such but I'm looking forward to the summer in GA and hoping for a house overlooking the water in Newport. (A girl can dream right?) Again, we'll try to do a better job in keeping this updated. We should have lots to share with the upcoming move!
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