DC Natiopnal Memorial Day Parade 2014

The DC National Memorial Day Parade went really well! The horses did great! It was crazy but fun crazy!!!

The day started with getting the horses out into the pen and warming them up. The guys put them thru their paces and got all their wiggles out.

Next it was grooming time....I think the horses like this....

Ryan loves horses! He was always found close to the horses. As they were loaded up into the trailer he climbed up and petted them and chit chatted with them until we left. The horses love him.

Than it was time to follow them to the staging area for the parade.

Next stage of grooming...getting their hoofs all shiny black, brushing out their tails....good thing The Dude On A Horse had practice doing Vicki's hair!!! Than saddling up and having a little chit chat.

Once the guys were changed into their blues and the horses were all saddled people just appeared out of nowhere! Everyone wanted to take pictures with them and with the horses and ask a ton of questions. Ty and Ryan held the flags while the guys were getting everything ready.

I followed the Gunny to go park my car and the trailer. I ran a TON of red lights but I wasn't loosing him for anything!!!

And than I was in the back of a golf cart bouncing along by the White House and State Capitol, and the National Monument heading to our spot on the parade route.

Before the parade started I looked over and saw this going on...The Dude On A Horse said it is called Honor To Colors. In the midst of the chaos the Marines stopped to do this before starting. So much respect for our countries flag....made my eyes water to see this happening in the middle of the hustle and bustle and see that nobody even knew it was happening. The Marines called out the commands quietly and were quick and efficient as they followed flag protocol.

I got a couple quick pictures before the parade started....

Our waiting spot for the parade was at this museum and so we were able to go and look around in here and use the restrooms! There were some beautiful paintings and art work!

This was also on the parade route. The White House was too but with all the people it was hard to get a good picture with that behind the horses.

It was a beautiful parade route!!! It was HOT too!!!

But it was a gorgeous day for a parade and a perfect place for a Memorial Day parade!

8th Grade Formal

Ty had his 8th Grade Formal tonight. Vicki and i had better clothes picked out for him, but he was set on what he had picked out. He is a simple guy and knows how he likes to dress. He isn't one to dress to impress, just to be comfortable and simple. That is Ty. He didn't even want to go to begin with. There was much drama leading up to this big night. First there were girls speculating on who he was going to ask to the dance. Than there were crushed hearts when he said he wasn't going to ask anyone because he thought that was ridiculous for Middle School kids and he wasn't going to be doing things like that until he could atleast drive. Soooo, than the drama shifted to arguments over which girl was going to ask Ty. This ended with Ty announcing that he was not going to go because the behavior of everyone arguing and being so hostile was just ruining it for everyone. Well, this resulted in tears. Yes, girls were saddened that he was not going to be there. He finally said he would go on the condition that he was not going with anyone but as everyones friend. He did not want a girldfriend until he was atleast old enough to drive, until than girls are friends, all equal friends to just talk and be nice and have fun. No drama and being ridiculous....he had an alright time and even danced some. He said it was fun just hanging out but the dancing was not fun and slow dancing was horrible and he never wants to do that again!!!!! When i picked him up he said, "lets get out of here, NOW!!!"  I laughed and told him that I'm sure he will change his mind down the road. He laughed and said to shoot him if he did. But than Vicki has never wanted to go to any dances here in NC so maybe he won't change his mind...or maybe it is just here....When we got home Ryan wanted to know all about the dance. It was so cute listening to them talking about 'the dance'.  I will miss these days.....

 

It's a Milkshake Kinda Day!

It was a gorgeous day today! I got a yummy milkshake on my way home from work today! I am LOVING this warm weather!!!!

Reading After School

The boys know that their free time after school is from when they get off the bus until i get home from work. That is when they have their after school snack and than just do whatever they want. Once i get home from work than we dive into homework. for ryan that means we start with his 30 minutes of reading everyday. We read together so i make sure he reads and help him along the way. He used to get all his numbers and letters all backwards and upside down. It's been a long and painful journey but we have been working on this everyday for YEARS and he has improved in leaps and bounds! He didn't want to be in todays after school picture to The Dude in Cammies, so he hid behind his book. We are reading the sequel to A Boy No More that we finished reading about a week ago. This book will be the last one he reads for 7th grade and he will use this book for his project for the Literacy Fair.

The Dude in Baseball Pants

The Dude in Cammies seems to be wearing more than cammies these these days!!! today he wears a Marine baseball jersey and plays ball! He loves baseball so he is VERY happy today. His team won, so he is extra happy!

April 25th, The Perfect Date

I LOVE this movie and since today is April 25th and a Friday it would be the perfect Date Night! But my Date Night guy isn't here, so i will just post this funny picture for my Friday night instead.....

Roller Coaster Fun!

Ryan after Shock Wave and Ed, Vicki, and I on Volcano

We rode just about every roller coaster at Kings Dominion today! We have had our adrenalin rush!!! We started the day on The Dominator, well, all of us but Ty. Ty HATES roller coasters!!! We only got him to ride one ride the entire day, The Drop Tower. He got off that and gave me the biggest hug and told me that now he is officially scared of heights. It was just tooo cute! Ed and Ryan rode Shockwave and said it was pretty fun. Ryan and I were the only ones to ride The Intimidator though, the scariest ride at the park! Hmmmmm, the youngest and oldest were the only ones to ride….Ryan almost bailed on me but I kept talking him into staying in line with me by pointing out the younger kids, especially the girls that were in line!!! The Volcano was too fun and the blast off outta there was totally unexpected! The Anaconda was just way tooooooo shaky and banged my head all over the place, will never ride that one again, bleh! Ryan’s head was still hurting when we were in line for Volcano and that was why he bailed on that ride, his head was still hurting from Anaconda! I have no idea what the indoor space ride was, but that was pretty fun and it blasted off really fast before hitting the tracks in the dark. Kinda like Space Mountain at Disneyland. We had a total blast! Vicki’s boyfriend, Drew was there and they rode The Dominator together, that was all she wanted, to ride one roller coaster with him………….ahhhhhhh true love……hahahahaha But, it was a totally fun day on Spring Break getting our adrenaline rush on riding roller coasters……we hadn’t done that for awhile…..well, The Dude in Cammies gets adrenaline rushes all the time with his job the rest of us have to pay money to get them!   

Lions, Tigers, & Wait A Minute....

We went to Barefoot Landing today.  I took the kids last year when The Dude in Cammies was in Afghanistan, so this year Vicki and I took him to see the tiger cubs. We were totally surprised to find that they had LIGERS there today!!! I remember wondering if ligers were really real when the Napoleon Dynamite movie came out when we were stationed on Okinawa. Ty wrote a poem about them and confirmed to me that they were in fact real not too long after seeing the movie. Today we got to hold 2 of them! Vicki is holding a one month old liger that doesn't have any teeth yet, but VERY sharp claws, that is why she is holding that cute little fur ball sooooo far away from her!!! I would have had her cuddled up under my chin not caring about her lil daggers!!! I'm holding the 3 month old liger cub that had LOTS of teeth and who happened to be VERY hungry at the moment and VERY content with his bottle!!! He was HEAVY! His fur was sooooo soft!!! I just wanted to cuddle up with him!!! Ed has my new boyfriend. It was love at first sight.....the next post will explain......but it was definitely totally fun interacting with these sweet animals before we posed for this picture with them! Wish we lived closer, i would totally volunteer to work at this place and help care for these animals!!!    

The monkey being all cute with Vicki....

The monkey trying to get Ed's attention....

The baby liger cub was just tooo cute!!!

This monkey totally loved me.....and i loved him....

Skype Date March 16 2014

Just having a Skype Date with The Dude in Cammies.....but he isn't in cammies....but i can see his cammies hanging on the door...it's funny, he is still in the desert and the weather gets bad there with the wind storms and we still get the same screen of poor connection and lose our visual just like we do when he is in the desert in a combat zone.....yep, just like old time Skyping today :)

I Was His 100th Like!

Mid March Weekend

Just things happening the middle weekend of March 2014....

The weather is getting nicer!!! Jasper is always begging someone to play soccer with him. Ty usually always goes out to play with him. Leah is the ref. Jasper soon becomes a ball hog and runs off with his ball and refuses to play anymore. Game over.

Funny Friday Morning pictures sent to The Dude in Cammies from my work. I'm 3 hours ahead of him so they will be his wake up pictures....

With warm weather comes easier hunting for Leah! She wanted me to rub her tummy on this kill she was soooo VERY proud of!

Mine and Vicki's fortunes. Yes, we laughed at mine. Epic fail.

Doughnuts, hash brown casserole copy cat from Cracker Barrel my fishies all puckered up from my lemon water and sitting out in the warm sun made for an AWESOME Saturday!!!

Jasper is NOT allowed on the couch.....i think he thought if he was curled up all small and cute looking i would look the other way....i took a picture and than looked the other way....i think he was dreaming of his Eddie Spaghetti....

Goodnight #38

It is now March....tonight is the 38th Goodnight by phone.....keep smiling.....keep staying happy.....one foot in front of the other.....I feel like I just did this for a year.....oh yeah, I did, just to start all over again, smile, stay happy, one foot in front of the other.....repeat....maybe for 2 years this time....and try to be sympathetic to the wife who is complaining about her husband who works nights......or whose husband is going to be gone for 3 whole days this week, how will she ever manage, or the wife who thinks she is loosing it because her husband has a 6 week school to go to or the wife who is saying they are getting out if their bonus isn't as big as last time and he's never even deployed where he has to carry a gun and shoot people.....the list is endless of complaining wives......geeez, I would just like to live on the same coast as my husband. That is what we were hoping for. We knew the gun club would move him, we were just hoping it would be SC or VA where we could see each other atleast every other weekend or so, not the whole opposite side of the US of A!!!!! Oh well.....smile, be happy, one foot in front of the other.....

The Legend of Hercules

The boys and I went to the movies tonight to FINALLY see The Legend of Hercules. They have wanted to see it for awhile and it finally played on a night and time that worked for us! Yep, my eyes were closed for a chunk of it! It was definitely a movie to be seen with The Dude in Cammies!!!! He loves those movies too!!! He is always missed, but just a little bit more than normal tonight while I had my eyes buried in my scarf for all the fighting scenes.....Than we came home and I sent him funny pictures while I waited for Jasper to finish eating, Leah to bark to let me know she was ready to come in from out back, and Tank to meow at the front door to let me know he was ready to come in. He sent me back a picture of Nolan making dinner. Looks good!!!!!

Meet Chue

This is Chue, The Dude in Cammies practice horse for now.  A chunk of the horses are gone right now on color guard in Texas and than heading to New Orleans before coming back to base, so The Dude in Cammies is practicing with the Trainer on Chue. Chue reminds him of Jasper. I think he looks like Jasper too, even his eyes!  They did some fast riding today and when Ed came back the Trainer told him to get off the horse. Ed asked why.  The Trainer told him he had done perfect and to get off before something went wrong.  So, he got off and took Chue into the stables to brush him and do the rest of the things he does after he finishes up with his daily training.  He really likes being out at the stables and working with the horses......i think i would like to be doing that too.....  

Snow And Sun Roof

We had a 2 hour delay this morning due to all the snow last night...

I had to use the ice scraper to find my wind shield this morning and now I have my sun roof open driving home from work!!!!

Crazy weather this place in the South is giving us these days!!!