The Culvers of Clearwater

Zion National Park

2008-10-25T00:39:00.004-04:00

What a beautiful place! I was excited to visit as I'd heard so much about it!

Jack enjoyed posing beside the water on our walk back to the Narrows in Zion National Park. This was a special place for Jesse to take us to as his family has been here a number of times and he has great memories of camping with his Dad here as a youth!

Sitting down by the side of the river before lunch

Jack is never to one to leave sticks by the side of the trail (so if you go walking with us expect him to pick up each and every stick and use it as a gun!

I love this picture as it reminds me of the family campout at Clearwater Community when Jack (Pastor Jack, not ours ;-P ) had us put together a monument of rememberance just like Joshua did at the Jordan River:

4) So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Isrealites, one from each tribe,
5) and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according the the number of the tribes of the Isrealites,
6) to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'what do these stones mean?'
7) tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."
Joshua 4:4-7

We really miss the solid teaching and faithful preaching of our church in Clearwater but how peaceful it is to know that we are exactly where God wants us to be!

2008-09-15T00:47:00.002-04:00

From the Grand Canyon we drove quite a few hours North to Cedar City, Utah where we spent 4 days exploring Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. Here are our pictures from Bryce Canyon ... It was absolutely breathtaking. The pictures don't do the colors justice at all!

Jack had fallen asleep on Jesse's back. Yes. He IS standing on the edge. I'm obviously the one taking the picture...notice how far back from the edge I am ;-)

You all look funny with your heads turned sideways! I have no idea why this picture turned out this way but it did!

I can't wait to go back again ... even though it was frightening (the drop offs) they had a hugely wide path for us scaredy cats and the colors were AMAZING!

For those that were wondering how our cats did on the journey... They fared quite well! Here's a picture of Tarquin "helping" Jesse drive!

Yes. I realize it's been 3.5 months since I updated! We've been in Kodiak for almost 3! I'm FINALLY getting it done!!! I can hear the round of applause from here!

The Grand Canyon, or, where Abbie will not go again....

2008-06-18T02:29:00.007-04:00

Okay. Maybe that's a bit harsh. Let me explain:

We decided to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (somewhere that I've always wanted to go)

I'm just ever so slightly afraid of heights (read: petrified to death of them) and the park rangers (and Jesse) in their infinate wisdom forgot to mention that the path that we were heading down didn't have any type of bannister/bars on the edge (just a complete and utter drop off into the canyon) - not to mention the fact that the pathway itself was only 4 feet across... Lets just say that it was not pretty. If you were one of the nice people that passed me on the pathway I do have to apologize for the histrionics that you witnessed... I'm not proud of the fact that I had a full blown panic attack (along with tears and the fact that I couldn't move from the path) BUT at least I learned that I really DO NOT like heights!!!!

Poor Jesse - he had to go down the rest of the pathway with Jack while I hightailed it to the lodge to recover! Here are the shots that he got on the way!

Here are the pictures that I got safely from the top:

Jack was VERY excited about his Camelbak and his new hat! He actually kept both of them on!

If you ladies are laughing at my choice in hat wear I must show you the hat that I almost purchased:

Ha Ha Ha....

Albuquerque

2008-06-18T02:22:00.004-04:00

We were very excited that our trip ran through Albuquerque because one of my good friends from high school (and one of the bridesmaids in our wedding) lives there (well... until she moves to Wisconsin later this year!)

We got to meet up with Chelsea and her husband Daniel and they took us out for awesome New Mexican food! Jack really warmed up to Daniel and wouldn't leave his side!

On a sidenote to Mary - SEE we both have chacos you need to get some now too! (Can I wear mine to your wedding in October? They're an appley color!)

Continuation of Trip:

2008-06-18T02:11:00.004-04:00

After hitting Mobile we drove through Mississippi and Louisiana on route to our next stop (just north of Dallas, TX). We made a detour in Longview, TX to visit Jesse's Alma Mater: Letourneau University.

This is apparently the Dorm where Jesse lived out his college years - a place that I've heard much about ;-P

I DO have to say that Jesse made fun of me because I was SO excited to drive into Texas. In fact I had my camera ready and squealed with delight when we crossed to border. Jesse, who has driven through Texas MANY times, just rolled his eyes and said that we'd be in Texas for a while so I should get used to it! (how right he was...seemed like we were in Texas FOREVER!)

The next day we drove up to Canyon, TX - just south of Amarillo (where we couldn't stop singing "Is this the way to Amarillo...?" http://www.lyricsdownload.com/tony-christie-show-me-the-way-to-amarillo-lyrics.html Thanks for that one Daddy, we couldn't get that song out of our heads!!!!!

Okay...

2008-06-18T02:09:00.002-04:00

So... I've been neglecting the blog (99% of the time it's because of horrible internet connections, 1% of the time because we've gotten in really late and I've been tired!)

ANYWAY - we're in Anchorage now (until the 21st) and since we have a few days here I'm going to try to update the blog as much as possible!!!!

Here goes!

Problems...

2008-06-03T22:46:00.002-04:00

My humble apologies for not updating the blog sooner - we've been having issues with the internet at our last 2 hotels (and this one is very finicky!)

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we're ok! We are now in Cedar City, Utah (in between Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks) having gone through Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona....

I have lots of pictures to upload but will try and do that at the next hotel! Hope everyone is doing well!

Pensacola and Mobile

2008-05-27T20:31:00.012-04:00

We drove from Orlando through Pensacola - stopped at Milton to have dinner with a friend from Coastie Chicks (Brenna) and her hubby (Christian) - he's just starting flight school and had some questions about Naval Aviation - hopefully they'll be joining the 60 community soon!

We ended up in Mobile and used that as a jumping off point for a few of the things that we wanted to do: IE: the Naval Aviation Museum and visiting with another friend from Coastie Chicks (Amber!)

Jack really enjoyed climbing into the Blue Angels' cockpit and playing with all of the dials!

Piloting his own aircraft!

This is how we kept Jack from running all over the store! Worked quite well! (I'm only kidding!)

Here's a special picture for all of our Kindred Spirit friends! Can you spot the odd man out? We've named him Clyde and he really is enjoying all of the different stops on the trip! Miss you guys!

For dinner we went over to Amber's house (a friend from Coastie Chicks) It was great to meet up with her (she put on a wonderful spread with a yummy yummy strawberry dessert!) Jack really enjoyed playing on the Wii with Chase (and chasing Logan!)

Here's me and Amber. I'm hoping that she'll get stationed in Kodiak next! What a sweet chick!

Hanging out with Mary

2008-05-27T20:24:00.003-04:00

I was very excited that we were able to stay in Orlando for a couple of nights before heading off on our long journey. This meant that I was able to spend a little more time with my BFF Mary! We've been friends for a long time (went to the same high school) and I'll be sad to be leaving her behind (BUT - she's getting married in October so I'll be flying into Orlando then for the wedding! YAY!)

Here's Mary and her soon-to-be Hubby Chris! We went out to eat at the only Indonesian restaurant in the Central Florida area (Asia Bagus http://www.asiabagusresto.com/menu.html )LOVED the food (but loved the company more!) - You guys will HAVE to come visit in Kodiak (Keep on Chris about it Mar!)

Our trip begins!

2008-05-27T20:05:00.002-04:00

Well the movers have come and gone and we have left our home in Clearwater (I'm writing this a little late - we left the 23rd- but this is the first time I've had to sit down and get it on paper!)

We almost had to stay in Orlando until today (Tuesday) but thankfully we were able to get off on time...

Jesse and I drove seperate cars up to Orlando as we planned to ship his car (the CG pays for one car to be shipped if you're travelling out of the Continental US).

As Jack, the cats (yes, we're bringing our 2 cats!) and I were making our way up to Orlando I got a frantic phonecall from Jesse to say that when he'd cleaned out his car for the movers he'd had them pack his registration as well (which, obviously, he needed to be able to ship the vehicle!) The only option was for him to drive into town to go to the tax/tag/title place and wait in line for a copy of his registration! (If you've never been to the Orlando tag office then you have no idea what a hassle it can be!) There were 80 people in front of him in line (he arrived there at 12:30 and the car shipping place closed at 3.) 2:45 rolled around with no end in sight and so he called the shipping company who agreed to stay open late for him (until 3:30). One of the guys in line with Jesse switched his number so Jesse got bumped up a little in line. He finally got out of the tag office at 3:10 and raced to the shipping yard (he got there at 3:25).

Had that gentleman not exchanged his number with Jesse I don't know if we'd have been able to ship the car! It was Memorial weekend this past weekend and we knew that nothing opened until Tuesday! BUT we got it in! Yay! Needless to say that it was a nerve wracking experience and such a relief when we got it where it needed to be!

Our camping trip

2008-03-05T12:32:00.018-05:00

We went on a camping trip with our church a couple of weeks ago -it was a lot of fun! We ended up camping with friends of ours that had preschoolers so it was designated the preschool camping area/nursery!!!!

Here is a picture of our tent, I think that we may have won the award for the smallest tent - we just used the one that Jesse's parents left us (I think it's a backpacking tent!)

Jack had a lot of fun with Daddy, I don't think I've ever seen him so dirty!

Hanging out by the campfire: L to R: Doug, Martie, Christy, Ed, Dena, George (baby) and Jesse

The kids had fun running about with each other! L to R: Tyler, Valerie, Matthew, Ellie and Jack

Here's Doug and Christy Doll. They're two of our closest friends here (we learned all about child training through them! Thanks Dolls!) They are also moving with us up to Kodiak with their two (soon to be three) kids - we are SO excited!

Me and Christy - please don't mind the wild woman hair!

Jack in his "pensive" mood

"I LOVE dirt Mummy!"

Jesse and Jack racing - I think that Jack may have won!

Jack and Tyler holding hands, I'm glad that they'll get to grow up even more together!

My strong lumberjack husband! We (by we I mean the men and Dina, not me :-P ) chopped our own firewood. Look at the muscles on this guy!!!!

Anson, our associate pastor chopping wood. Who knew that he and his wife Dina were such good lumberjacks?! Not me!

You can't have a camping trip without smores - or so I've been told!!!! They were very yummy and Jesse regaled us all with a great way to make smores!

"I LOVE these smores Daddy!"

"It wasn't me that ate that last smore, I promise, I didn't do it!!!"

YUM! Jack had his first smore experience - I think he liked them, don't you?!

It's official... well sort of...

2008-02-26T08:16:00.002-05:00

Jesse got the official word today (though no orders to prove it...) that we are headed to Kodiak, Alaska for our next duty station.

We are VERY excited to reunite with our good friends Beth and Zach (and meet their two kiddo's - when they were stationed in Clearwater with us they didn't have any! http://kodiakkoehlers.blogspot.com if you want to read about them and see what life will be like in AK!) We are also very happy to report that 2 of our best friends from this station will also be relocating to Kodiak - their son and daughter (Tyler and McKalee) are Jack's best friends! (Jack and Tyler had their first playdate when Jack was 1 month old and Tyler was 7 months old!)

We have a LOT of planning to do but we're going through a busy time also! A lot of trips in the next month!

For those that don't know where Kodiak is here is the mapquest site!
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&formtype=address&popflag=0&latitude=&longitude=&name=&phone=&level=&cat=&address=&city=Kodiak&state=ak&zipcode=

http://www.kodiak.org/
http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/

Visiting with Jesse's parents

2008-02-26T07:36:00.009-05:00

Jesse's parents flew into Orlando to speak at a supporting church (Pinecastle - the church where Jesse and I met!) We drove up to pick them up and got to have lunch with two of their dear friends (Frank and Chris Garland) --- I think Jesse's dad was just happy to be able to go to Panera again!
Jon got this shot right after we woke up one morning (can you tell we hadn't had our coffee yet?!)

Jack really enjoyed spending time with Nana and Papa

I think Jesse enjoyed spending time with his mom also (though from this picture it doesn't look like it!)

We took them to Honeymoon Island (the state park/beach) by our house for dinner one night. Took a little picnic and watched the sun go down - it was a lot of fun!

Christmas Day

2007-12-30T19:58:00.001-05:00

Here is a Picture of Jesse and Jack after our Christmas Eve candlelight service at our Church. We've definately been blessed with an amazing church to go to - Jack has made many little friends in the nursery!

What a lucky little boy Jack was! Santa brought him some cups/plates, books and a computer game system. Mummy and Daddy were the big heroes and got him a wooden train set!

We were very lucky to have been invited around to Jesse's Aunt and Uncle's (his Mom's sister) for lunch on Christmas Day. Aunt Adell, Uncle Savas, Luca and Alicia live in Bradenton (about an hours drive from us) but we're all usually so busy that we rarely get to visit. It was a special treat as well because Jesse's other Aunt and Uncle (Aunt Linda and Uncle David) were visiting from Atlanta.

Here is a picture of their dog Joey. He is such a sweet dog and has quite a funny hairstyle!

Christmas Party

2007-12-30T19:48:00.000-05:00

We had a Christmas party at work - it was a lot of fun! I work with some CRAZY people (what can I say, we're massage therapists!) but I really had a blast. I'm so blessed to have been able to find a place that I really enjoy going to - the people really make it! Here I am with Nicole and Luis, 2 of the funniest people on the planet!

Here's a pic of me and my boss Craig. I'm thinking about nominating him for the next season of "The Bachelor!" - He's a great person to work for!!!!

Our trip to South Carolina...

2007-11-27T12:30:00.001-05:00

We drove up to South Carolina in early November for Josh and Rachel's wedding. I went to high school with Josh and over the years he's become one of my best friends so it was really a pleasure to be invited to his destination wedding! Jesse was part of the bridal party.

It was a beautiful wedding (from what I could see ... Jack threw quite a tantrum so I watched most of it from the side of the hotel building!) and we really enjoyed seeing friends who we hadn't seen in years!

It was a special treat to be able to see Adam and his wife Rebecca and their baby Noah!

The wedding was definately not complete without seeing Jose! He is the life of the party and we really enjoyed hanging out with him - he made us all laugh every minute we were there!

Jack Loved hanging out (literally!) with "Nanny LeAnn" - he an LeAnn got on VERY well! I miss all of our friends!!!

Thanks Josh and Rachael for letting us join in on your special day!!! May you have many happy years together!

Don't have a heart attack...

2007-11-27T12:16:00.000-05:00

But there's a new blog up!!! Can you believe it?! (neither can I!)

Here's a recent picture of Jesse and Jack from one of our trips over to Disney. We bought annual passes this year (for Jack's birthday) and have been getting quite a lot of use out of them!!! The above picture if of Jack and I outside the "Finding Nemo" ride (yes, I'm wearing a Disney lanyard; Yes, I am a dork.)

Jack is now 32 months old (or, as I say, 2 1/2!) and definately a little boy. He loves trains/planes/helicopters/cars...and guns (or as he calls them - piu piu's! Must be all of that gaming that Daddy likes to do!)

We've really been trying to take advantage of seeing the area around here as it's our last one in Clearwater. We are sad but very excited about what the future is bringing! (more sad at the friends that we'll have to say goodbye to - we really have formed some wonderful friendships down here!).

For those that don't know (though I have no idea how you couldn't :-P ) we have only a few places that we could end up: Kodiak, AK (we have a group of friends hoping we get that one!); Astoria, OR (close to Jesse's family and some other friends of ours); Cape Cod, MA or Elizabeth City, NC (there are a few more but Jesse didn't put those on his list, hopefully we won't get those!)

Recent Pictures

2007-07-30T12:46:00.000-04:00

We recently went out to Portland, Oregon to the "Culver Family Reunion!" We really enjoyed meeting everyone from Jesse's extended family and our side trip over to Astoria was very relaxing!

Jesse also got the chance to meet his best friend from childhood Stephen. We both

had not seen Stephen since our wedding (he was Jesse's best man) so that was a very exciting lunch for us!

2007-05-20T09:43:00.000-04:00

We took a quick trip to MGM this Saturday - Jesse had never been and I hadn't been in years! It was so much fun! Our favorite part was when we caught the characters coming into the park - Dale (of Chip and Dale fame) took a liking to Jack and took his hand and walked around part of the park with him and then introduced him to Chip. It was so very cute! Jack couldn't stop giving them hugs and kisses (It's been my experience that C and D at all of the parks seem to be the nicest characters and are slowly becoming my favorite!) We also got to see Minnie and Goofy and watched the parade.

Another Baseball game!

2007-05-18T20:50:00.000-04:00

We went to see the Clearwater Threshers (feeder team for the Phillies) and the Vero Beach Devil Rays (feeder team for the Devil Rays - how original!) play at Brighthouse field. It was a lot of fun as we got together with a few families from the Airstation with whom we've become very good friends with. Jack really enjoyed throwing the ball around with all of the little boys there.

Start them young, I say...

2007-05-18T20:46:00.000-04:00

Jack LOVES to help his Daddy vacuum around the house - he gets very excited when he gets to play with his own little vacuum!

2007-05-08T13:12:00.000-04:00

We went to a baseball game on Sunday - the Tampa Bay Devil Rays vs. The Oakland A's. The Devil Rays lost but we had a good time anyway! Jack and Tyler wore matching outfits and they had fun hanging out in the aisle!

Jack loves his kitties!

2007-05-06T09:41:00.000-04:00

Mostly just for Mummy, here are some pictures of Jack and his two favorite kitties - Mandy and Tarquin

Our day at a State Park

2007-05-06T09:34:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we went with a friend and her two kids down to Myakka River State Park (by Sarasota). It was so much fun! Jack and his friend Tyler rode their vehicles around the birdwalk and we took a very short nature hike on one of the trails (where it promptly started to thunder and threaten rain!)

2007-05-01T20:27:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture of Jack from outside the condo

And not to be outdone!

2007-05-01T19:55:00.000-04:00

Heeeeeeeeeeeere's Jesse! (and Jack of course!)

Some more pictures

2007-05-01T19:52:00.000-04:00

I recently got my hair cut - much nicer, feel's lighter for summer!

I'm a posting fool!!!!

2007-05-01T19:37:00.000-04:00

Here's an update for those that want to know what's going on with the Culvers...

I have now finished school and have passed my boards and am now a Licensed Massage Therapist

Jesse is still flying th HH-60 Jayhawk and we are still stationed in Clearwater, FL - we're due to PCS (military slang for move...Permanent Change of Station) out next summer, don't know where we're going but it should be one of 6 places...

Jack is 25 months old and has TONS of teeth (that he'll gladly show you if you ask!) He enjoys : Going to the mall with his Mummy and riding around in the mall provided strollers because they're shaped like cars and he's got a fascination with "beep beep's."; Going to the spouses association playgroups; Shooting anything with whatever he can get his hands on while making the noise "pchoo pchoo"; "bafs (baths)"; chasing kitties; Anything Bob the Builder or Jay Jay the Jetplane; Going to visit Daddy at the Airstation and looking at the "gop-gop's"; anything to do with planes or puppies

2007-05-01T19:33:00.000-04:00

Here's a mischevious Jack at the mall playground... It's hard to believe that he's now 25 months old!

2007-05-01T19:24:00.000-04:00

Jesse and Jack got me an early birthday present - a Nikon D40 DSLR camera! I've been playing around with it and took Jack out around our condo complex yesterday to shoot some pictures.

Okay, let's try this again...

2007-05-01T19:17:00.000-04:00

I had one of these a while ago and never kept up with it - hopefully this one won't end up the same way!

I figured that this would be the easiest way for family/friends to view pictures and keep up with what's going on in our lives...

Here goes nothin'!