Hiking

We finally went hiking! We were all so excited especially Joli!

Here we go with the giant yet very comfortable backpack!
Here's Robyn, Tessa, and Nikki!

The plan was to pass Joli around so no one person was in major pain. After about a half mile up Robyn took over for me.

Here we all are about halfway up. From left is Joli, Robyn, Me, Tessa, Leanh, and Nikki!

Then here we are at the top!!

It was a little rocky but we let Joli get out and walk around a bit. This is Robyn showing Joli the pretty view.

Nikki helped Joli walk around on the rocks a bit so she didn't wack her head.

Then Leanh took over and helped Joli suck out of the Camelbak.

Then we got all geared up to go back down, and Nikki took over with the backpack.

There goes Tessa, Leanh, and Robyn flying down the hill.

About halfway down Joli started to get tired of being in the backpack and got really whiny. Once we got to the bottom she cuddled with Mommy.

It only took moments for hum of the car to kick in.

We had a great time even though our buns are all much tighter today! We decided we're going to make it a bi-weekly event!

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Go back to the mall!! Still feeling somewhat down this morning, Joli and I went back to the mall and bought some things to make it all better! Joli got this adorable little shirt while we were at Target and I just love it! Then while we were in Wet Seal she decided to add some accessories!
Is she not the cutest little fashionista ever!?!?!

I think the hat really completes the outfit! Oh Joli was just so adorable trying on high heels and saying "It's cute mommy?"!

One of the things I bought was a cute little sundress. I thought I was being bad and paying full price for it, but when I got home I discovered that it was actually half off and since I have a Wet Seal card I saved another 20%. I guess I just know a good deal when I see one! I thought for going out it would be sexy like this.
Then if I want to wear it to a BBQ or something just add leggings!

Here is the shirt I bought and actually paid full price for! I loved it and decided that the whole point was to buy something I wanted regarless of need or whether or not it's a good deal. I like it!

This shirt I actually bought a few weeks ago on sale and just haven't had a chance to show it off, so here it is!

This is another shirt I bought a few weeks ago and wore to dinner a few nights ago but I wasn't sure if there had been any pictures of it.

Now this outfit is a mixture of things. I'm wearing the dress that Robyn gave me that I wore out a few weeks ago, with the belt from the shirt I bought today and my new boots!! I'm so excited! I love these boots! They're totally comfortable, I can wear them out or just regularly, and they would go great with any Faerie costume!! I'm so totally stoked and I bought them at full price! It's the first time I've bought shoes over $20 in well... I never have!! Retail therapy complete!!!

Now that I'm back to being normal me again I must get some sleep before we get up to go hiking tomorrow!

Sunshine Cures All!

After we completed our retail therapy, I decided that I needed a tan to really get feeling good about myself. So Joli and I spent the afternoon at the beach and it was wonderful!
I apologize now as I took a TON of pictures and this was the best I could narrow them down. Joli just looks so cute on the beach!

Here she is eating her lunch that I packed for us.

It was very sunny and a nice eighty degrees out, so I convinced Joli to relax under her blankie with me for a bit.

Then she wanetd me to take more pictures of her. It was rediculous trying to convince her to let me scrub all that sand off once we got home!

When Joli seemed to be getting bored with just sand, I went down to the water and filled her bucket for her. It's amazing what adding water can do for you! It's not that she's afraid to go in the water or anything, she just doesn't like to go by herself and I don't blame her. The water wasn't too cold but cold enough!

It actually felt pretty good up on our little hill. We were positioned just right so the wind was blocked some which made for a nice warm outing.

In one of Joli's Little Bear books it talks about Father Bear bringing home Sea Shells from while he was gone on his trip, so today when I found some close to the water Joli was thrilled. Here she is washing them.

Then she got the brilliant idea to get the bucket. I guess it was a little shocking.

But not enough to warrant getting out.

This was about as close as she got to the water the whole time we were there. It was very cute.

Once I finally got Joli to believe that wearing glasses would help her see better she was very excited to wear hers.

After almost three hours I noticed Joli coming close to falling asleep in the sand with her apple. This was about the time I thought we should probably go home and take a bath!

It was a nice afternoon and I actually got a little color!!

I've Had It!!!

Today was one of those days where I could have taken a large portion of Belgium's chocolate supply and laid in bed watching reruns of Gilmore Girls all day, and it probably would have been a much better day. Of course I should have known it would be that kind of day when the sun hadn't even come up and I was already wishing that I could sleep another twelve hours. But since I have a child and a dog that need to eat, and in the child's case, get her diaper changed, I decided to get up (at the crack of noon) and go do some retail therapy with the girls.

My intent was to get some wine glasses as I have broken two in the past week and they have become an important part of the dinners with the girls. I also wanted to be somewhat irresponsible and buy things that I wanted but did not necessarily need. First we went to Target. I ended up with two tank tops in colors that I'd actually been looking for and on sale, a toddler cup for Joli that I'd also been looking for, baby shampoo and bubble bath for Joli, and the big money item, toilet paper. I need to practice my rebeling. Next we went to World Market to look for wine glasses. I found exactly what I was looking for. Stemless wine glasses in four different beautiful colors and on sale for $1.50 each. I decided I would not let the retail world defeat me and I frivolously bought eight (even though there have been a few dinners in past few months in which I would need that many). Then just to show how much I could "let loose", I bought a bottle of wine and some heart shaped pasta to go with the glasses. Boy am I a wild one! (Said in the most sarcastic tone!)

After the "huge shopping trip" we headed over to the farmers market to look for potatoes, which they did not have, and then Joli decided she just couldn't wait any longer.

Joe called to talk to her earlier today and she was so happy! She talked about him most of the day and insisted that we bring her daddy doll with us everywhere. I think that picture expresses just how much Joli loves her daddy.

After Joli's little rest time Kacie came over for dinner and we hung out until we here all tired (at 8:00pm). Then Kacie went home and I let Joli test out her new bubble bath. She had a great time until she was getting out and even though I was holding her hand, she still managed to slip and whack her head on the cabinet.

I let Kota in after Kacie left as he had been outside most of the day. Here I was thinking he was being so good while I gave Joli her bath until I came out and discovered this!

I wouldn't have been so upset if I hadn't bought this for Joli as her souvenir from the Faerie Festival! I didn't yell or hit him though, I just opened to back door and kept his head low as he walked out. I decided then that it was time to take a shower and get in bed myself. Although I seriously considered making Kota stay outside all night, in the end I decided that he would either figure out how to get out of the yard causing me a bunch of trouble, or whine and cry all night also causing me a bunch of trouble.

So we're all tucked in and most everyone is sleeping, and now I finally get to lay in bed and watch Gilmore Girls with a bar of chocolate!

Swings and Swim Lessons!

Since Kacie has been home I've been doing my best to make sure she and her pregnant belly are all taken care of. Joli and I have been over there just about every other day to take care of anything she needs and just to hang out. Joli's been enjoying her movie time at Kacie's. We have about 24 movies in a cd case and she gets so excited picking out which one she wants. Then she just hangs out and watches movies and colors.
One of the things that Kacie needed help with was putting together the baby swing. I've put together just about everything in our house so I have no problem putting together anything she needs help with. Joli likes to help to.

Unfortunately the swing was diffective and I spent hours stuggling with it until Kacie and I finally agreed that there was something wrong with it. Then Kacie swapped out the part that didn't work and it took me less than twenty minutes! Joli was all excited to try out the swing.

Yesterday we went to the park with Nikki and the little boy she babysits. It was somewhat early for us and apparently for others as well, as we were the only ones at the park when we arrived!

Sliding is always fun!

Swinging is too! Joli wanted to swing and swing and swing all day!

This was right after Joli discovered that she could slide down head first. Luckily she stopped before she hit the bottom.

Today we had a little bit of dress up before we started our activities for the day. Joli decided to make me breakfast.

She also decided she wanted a night out I guess. She said "I'm beautiful mommy, take my picture!"

One of the fun things about Wenesday is swim lessons! Kacie has yet to witness it so she decided to come with us today. Here we are about to get in the pool.

Joli loves to swim but the last few lessons she's clung to me like a little monkey. She kicks and swims all over as long as she has her arms around my neck!

Here I am getting some baby kisses!

Joli's instructor is wonderful! She's started doing more advanced stuff with Joli to get her ready for the next level. Joli's one of the oldest in the class and can pretty much move up at anytime.

She acts all sweet like she loves to have me in the pool but she wants her daddy so much. She remembers the one lesson he did with her before he left and now every time we talk about swim lessons she says she wants daddy to come home and go to swim lessons with her.

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For those that don't have spouses in the military the hard part of deployment isn't as simple as doing it all alone. The hard parts are even harder when you see your spouse hurting because they want to see their child and because they're missing so much of their baby's little life. It gets harder still when your child is old enough to understand that daddy's not here and hasn't been for awhile, and are able to express the simple fact that they miss their daddy and they don't want to do anything unless it's with him, even though you do every thing for them, you're still nothing compared to daddy. Add that to the fact that they still can't grasp how long it will be until he'll be home. You come to a point when you can't be sad because you've spent your whole day trying to convince a toddler that it will be okay and that daddy will be home soon, and you have to do every thing you can to make sure you believe it too because toddlers are stealthy like that and always know if you're lying. Then when you finally do get to talk to your husband you want to enjoy it and reconnect in less than five minutes with a 10-20 second delay, so anything that's been wrong is no longer important. You spend all your time worrying about making sure your husband knows how much your daughter loves and misses him, and making sure your daughter knows that daddy will be home soon and she doesn't to cry... again.

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Take all of that and stir it in a big pot with the broken bathroom window, the hole in the kitchen floor, the dog peeing on the rug, the baby peeing on the carpet, washing blankie and 1:00am because she also peed on that. Add a few dashes of dishes in the sink, laundry piling up, and a dirty bathtub. Let it simmer for anywhere from two months to two years, and welcome to the military!