In which I explain myself...

So you may have noticed that I have not posted anything since April. That is because I had something crazy going on in the RL world and I was actually afraid that posting on here would put my family in danger. Enough time has passed now that I am relatively certain the crazy has been handled and I can safely come back to the blog I love so much and have missed so very much!

You ready to do a very VERY fast catch up?

The week after my last post I turned 29. We also got our own house on post.
Then it was Easter, Which this year fell on Mikaela's birthday! We worked very hard to separate the two activities and make it fun for her.



She turned 4.
The next weekend we celebrated Liam's 2nd birthday.



Then it was May.

In May Alexanders class did a special mothers day tea and poetry reading. The kids wrote the poetry! They also made us moms these cute little magnetic flowers!



Have I mentioned that Alexander has entered the "I dont like to have my picture taken and if you are going to insist on pointing that thing at me I am going to make a yucky face" stage of his life. Please dear God let him outgrow this phase quickly! I love taking his picture!

On the 10th Alexander went on his first real school field trip. He begged me to go... so I did. The downside was that it was at a nature center and most of the trip was a hike around looking at different environments and it rained/hailed the whole time. Thank goodness for warm handknits. I was the only adult that wasnt cold!



That is not his whole class. This is just the small group we hiked around with!

School got out for the summer on May 23rd. My sister also turned 17 that day.... but I digress. His teacher hosted a breakfast for the whole class and their families. Owen's chain of command actually let him have the morning to come too!

On the 28th I got to go to Denver and meet some of the locals from the HPKCHC. This was my second house cup meet up and it was fun! It was just the 4 of us and I really feel like we all got to know each other!



Next thing we knew it was June.

On the 4th we went to a birthday party up in Denver. I met Ila and her family in El Paso and now they live here too! So she invited us to her son's party and we went! I ended up as the unofficial photographer of the event (I offered.) and took a ton of pictures.



It has finally warmed up here and my body is not tolerating the heat in the thinner air. This means that we have spent a lot of time indoors this summer... which is the total opposite of what I wanted... but it is what it is.

The good thing about lots of time inside is moments like this:



On the 11th I got to go to the Estes Park Wool Market. It was amazing. I wish I had had some money to spend... Maybe next year!



For the record I look like crap in that picture! I think I had the worst posture in that picture ever!

Owen decided he wanted to go to the zoo this year for his fathers day activity. We have a zoo membership so it was free...



All of these pictures were taken on a tree at the zoo.







I had the shakes bad that day so none of those is perfectly in focus... but I have a feeling that when I get to California my MIL will still want to copy and frame those for her house!

And that is pretty much it! I have also been crafting a lot lately and will post a big update of that soon!

Garden of the Gods

The weather here is slowly warming up. Some days it is kinda warm... in the 70's. Then the next morning we wake up to a dusting of snow and a day that never warms up over 45. So when we get a warm day paired up with a weekend we have a tendancy to use that to go do something fun! Yesterday we decided to go hiking/rock climbing at Garden of the Gods.

We had to go to the Visitor's Center to get permits to be allowed on the rocks, so while we were there I took some pictures from the balcony of the park.



This rock is called Kissing Camels.



Can you see it? If not, don't feel bad. It took me a while to see it too.

Once we had our permits we went into the park, parked our van and had a little picnic. When we were done eating we headed for the rocks.



The kids and Owen had a great time climbing around on the rock formations. I didn't climb much cause by the time I took pictures they were moving on to the next place. Such is the life of the family photographer.





After climbing around on the rocks we started our hike. We walked from Turn off 11 to the Trading Post in the park. Along the way we walked through and around some beautiful scenery.







A few times Liam decided he was done walking and would just sit down or lay down in the middle of the path.





For the most part though the kids did great and had a lot of fun! There are more pictures that I can reasonably share on here, but if you want you can click through to the set from the day and check out the rest of the pictures of our adventure! http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaclynbailey/sets/72157626470058360/with/5607289274/

So much for that...

So I was thinking to myself "I will post more in Colorado cause it will be a new adventure for our family." And then our entire house got the plague. Ok, not the plague... but still. First it was the flu for everyone. (with the notable exception of Owen and myself.) Now a stomach virus is sweeping through the kids. 4 of the 6 have already had it/have it now. We are pretty sure that at least half if not more of the four adults have had it but that we didn't puke... we went the other direction if you catch my drift.

You guys know that I prefer to focus on happier things here though so I wanted to share something great with you.

As you may know I am a photo junkie and I had a really sweet camera. A Canon EOS 40D. Well the kids assassinated it right before we left Washington and as soon as we got here to Colorado I took it in to the Geek Squad to let them work their magic. Well they took one good look at it and decided to junk it. So since I have the UBER extended warranty (I am not dumb. I have crazy kids. That warranty is worth every penny!) they told me to come in and get a new camera. The camera they gave me is a Canon EOS 60D! It has all kinds of new cool features and is even a little bit lighter than my old camera. Pretty much as soon as I had the battery charged I started snapping pictures.

I thought you guys might like to see some of the awesome pictures I have taken with my new camera.











In order that is Aeddon, Liam, Alexander, Aryn (one of Anna's kids), Gypsy (our cat), Owen and Riley (our dog), Morgie (one of the Moore's cats), Mikaela and finally Spaz (another one of the Moore's cats)

Not to shabby for a camera on point and shoot setting! lol!

Hopefully there is more to come!

We Moved.

The Army decided it was time for us to live in a new place.

So we packed up our stuff and loaded it all into a uhaul truck and drove from Washington to Colorado. We went the long way since the long way is safer and is less likely to have pass closures.

As we left the Pacific Northwest the sky itself seemed to bid us a farewell.



Along the road there where many beautiful things to see.

In California I was reminded of why California is so beautiful year round:



As we left California I was smitten with the colors of the sunset. I had to pull over and take a picture. (with my phones camera no less!)



We passed through Nevada in the northern part of the state. We spent the night in Reno and drove through the state on I80. I was amazed to see the sky so blue. I had only ever really been in Vegas and there is smog there so.... yeah.



We drove through the state until night fell. As we came to the end of our travels for the day I was excited to see the colors of sunset through a winter storm forming over the mountains.



Our "hotel" stay in West Wendover (just inside the Nevada border)was horrific to say the least. In the morning when I was checking under things to be sure nothing was lost I found a used condom under the bed. EWWWWWWWW.

When we left Nevada the following morning it was snowing and overcast. Even before the sign I knew when we had passed into Utah. Look at the sky! So beautiful!



When we drove through Utah we swung by to see the LDS Temple in Salt Lake. I had heard that it was a beautiful structure and I am a sucker for beautiful architecture. It was an interesting building but I was unable to snap any pictures of it as it was rush hour traffic in downtown Salt Lake by the time we found it. We continued on through Utah and found a scenic viewpoint pull off right as the sun finally dropped below the mountains. I snapped a few pictures with my phone because the saturated purples of nightfall in the mountains is just so beautiful!







Shortly after passing out of Utah into Wyoming we stopped at a Mc Donalds with a playplace. It was the first time in days the kids had gotten a chance to really run around and play. When we stopped it was only 1 degree outside so we left the van running and locked so our pets didn't freeze to death. It worked pretty well actually!

After dinner we continued on to Rawlings. It was super icy there. In the morning we continued on. We were going to make it to Colorado Springs if it killed us!

It was so cold in Wyoming that we felt like it almost did kill us.







I was very glad to be a knitter as I had very warm accessories.



Owen seemed unphazed. Crazy person.



As we drove into Colorado we saw Bison! (sorry for the picture quality. I was doing 60mph and didnt wanna focus on the picture!



Just as we were running out of steam a small miracle occurred.



Oh Hi Denver! We knew we were close and managed to press on to Colorado Springs. As soon as we got here we were warmly greeted and fed tasty food. I am very glad we already knew people in Colorado Springs! We have been staying in their house while we try (pretty much entirely in vain) to find a house or apartment that is big enough for us but can be entirely paid for with BAH.

I have to admit being able to stay with them has been super fun and a serious blessing. As I type this Owen and Jessie are moving our "nonessentials" into a storage unit.

That is all I have for now! More later on our adventures in our new home!

A day at the Seattle Aquarium

So we are moving. We have known for a while now that we were probably getting moved... but it wasn't really FINAL until about two weeks ago.

Of course shortly before we found out we were probably moving we bought a year pass to the Seattle Aquarium. We figured that in three trips it would completely pay for itself. What we do is this:

1. Drive to Bus Depot. Leave van in parking structure.
2. Put 4 kids on back of bus. Sit in the row in front of them to give them room to be kids without pissing off other passengers.
3. Get off bus with sanity barely intact.
4. Cut through Pikes Market to get to Aquarium, which is located on a pier.
5. Enjoy day at Aquarium. Loose at least one kid for at least 2 minutes at least twice.
6. Drag (sometimes literally) 4 exhausted children back to bus stop. Listen to them whine about having to take the much-less-expensive-than-driving-and-having-to-pay-to-park-the-van bus.
7. Count to 100. By then at least 2 if not more of kids (and possibly husband) will be asleep on bus. Read fairytale to whoever is still awake, including other bus passengers who will pretend they are not listening.
8. Wake up kids at bus station
9. Drag (sometimes literally) 4 tired kids to van as they complain about the bus not just taking them all the way home like Aeddon's school bus.
10. Go home and go about evening like we weren't just out all darned day.

So that is an Aquarium trip for us. Now for the pictures (which are all from my cell phone since Liam pulled my camera off my desk and broke it again and I dont have time to get it fixed again before we move....)


























I am gonna miss the Aquarium when we move...

New Years Resolutions, Part One.

This time of year most people make resolutions. I am very rarely most people.... but this year I felt compelled to make several resolutions of my own.

My first resolution this year is that I plan to read one classic literature novel (that I have not read before) a month.

For my first book I have chosen Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I don't know why I have never read this book before... but there you go! I started the book last night and I am already on chapter 15!

I do not know what next months classic novel will be yet. Please share your suggestions!

Testing...