Our camping trip

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...

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

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

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

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...

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...

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!)