Updates

In February, I had the opportunity to attend the Gilbert, AZ temple open house with the youth from ward. It was an awesome experience.

 In April, this little one turned 6. She wanted a carnival birthday, so we had tons of games and carnival food for the kiddos. NiNi also made a surprise visit. Addy loved every minute of it.

 We visited the Easter bunny at Wal-Mart. This was the first year that Addy was excited for it.

 At the end of the school year, Addy's class had a couple of field trips. They visited the Big Water BLM visitor center and learned all about the dinosaurs that have been discovered in our area. Addy was totally interested in the whole experience.

 The last week of school, they had field day. The kids loved it. Their teacher made them each a t-shirt to wear on their field trips and at field day.

 Addy received several awards on the last day of school. She received two math awards and a reading award. She also got the "sweet heart" award for always being friendly with her classmates.

 In anticipation of visiting Jamey, I worked out super hard and lost 10 pounds! I have about 10 to go to get to my goal, but I am well on my way!

 In May, we finally got to visit Jamey. He graduated from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center on the 23rd. He was there for 17 weeks doing all sorts of training including firearms training, driving, defensive tactics, arrest techniques, physical fitness and hours and hours of classroom instruction on federal laws and regulations. It was a very intensive program, and is a great accomplishment to complete it!

 We are so proud of his accomplishment!

 He was fortunate to attend the training with another ranger from our park.

 We stayed with my parents in Jacksonville and travelled up to Georgia for the ceremony.

 Addy loved swimming everyday in my parents pool!

 We visited the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. We rented a small boat and toured the swamp. It was fun but really unsettling to know there were alligators that we couldn't see under the surface of the water.

 On the 26th, Jamey had to leave to head to field training at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. He will be in Kentucky for the next 11 weeks. He will field train at Mammoth Cave, Big South Fork, and Cumberland Gap. He is very excited to get back into the field and put his new training to use.

On the 27th, Addy and I went to the zoo with my dad and brother. Jacksonville has a great zoo. We were able to pet sting rays, feed lorikeets, and see tons of awesome animals.

We are excited for many more adventures this summer. There will be plenty of time spent swimming in our pool and at the lake and playing with friends!

New Year, New Pictures

As I mentioned in the last post, we are preparing for Jamey to leave for training for the next 8 months. We have known that this time was coming for the last two years, but as the time quickly approaches, I am realizing how unprepared I am to have him gone. We've put together a list of all the things that have been pushed to the back burner but need to be done before he leaves. He's been quite busy for the last week trying to tie up all of the loose ends.

 

As Addy and I were discussing his impending departure, she mentioned the fun photo shoot that we did a couple of years ago before he left for 4 months to work in southern Arizona. She really wanted a new photo of her and her dad "to hang in my room, so I can look at it when I miss him". It was very difficult to get her and Sig to cooperate at the same time, but I'm glad that some of the photos turned out okay.

 

We are used to Jamey being gone 5 days a week during the summer, so I tried to convince myself that it wouldn't be so hard when he left, but as the time grows nearer, I'm realizing how unprepared I am for him to leave. We will travel to Georgia in May to attend his graduation from FLETC and to visit my parents who recently moved to Florida. Then, Jamey will go to field training at one of a few field training parks throughout the country. We are praying that he will be selected for field training at one of the parks in the western US, so he'll be closer to us. He will finally be home at the end of September.

 

of course, when I got Sig to pay attention, Addy blinked!



2013 in review

We have a pretty busy 2013. We travelled quite a bit in the first half of the year. We spent most of January recovering from our two week Colorado trip in December and planning for our vacation for Florida in February.

 

In February, we travelled with my family to Florida. We visited my Grandma, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins in Jacksonville. While we were there, we also took at vacation within vacation to Orlando for a few days.

In Orlando, we went to Disneyworld. We visited the Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom. Addy absolutely loved it.

We also visited the Orlando Temple.

We took Addy to the beach in St. Augustine. The weather was a little cold for me!

In March, our friend Levi visited us from Colorado.

In April, I turned 29 and Addy turned 5. Our birthdays are only 4 days apart, so we have a week long celebration.

In May, this little one graduated from preschool. We also travelled to LA to attend my little  brother-in-law's wedding.

In June, I had the opportunity to travel to Glacier National Park for training through my job. It was awesome to spend a week hiking and rafting (and sitting in a classroom during the day) and actually get paid to be there!

In July, we spent three days with Jamey at Dangling Rope.

In August, the little one started kindergarten!

In September, Sig got super ill from a black widow bite on his neck. Thankfully, he has fully recovered!

The wedding photos seem to want to be out of order. These are from Jamey's brothers wedding in May. We are really excited for Corey and Lacey. Addy was excited to get a new aunt.

In September, we travelled to Utah for our niece's baptism. It was great to spend time with Jamey's parents and two brothers and their families. We also ran a 5K that was held in honor of one of the victims of a fatal boat accident that Jamey investigated this summer (Jamey had a pretty busy summer investigating 5 fatalities).

In October, we were finally done with travelling and hung out at home enjoying the awesome Arizona fall weather.

In December, we spent Christmas at home with just our little family. It was really nice to get to spend time together without much chaos.

2013 was very good to us. We were able to see our families a lot more than usual. 2014 has begun with lots of projects as we prepare for Jamey to leave for training in Georgia. He will be gone for 8 months, so there are lots of things to get done before he goes. I am certainly thankful that he is so handy around the house and with vehicles, as it has saved us lots of money!