last blog from FL

Well, it seems life has thrown us another curve ball- one that we taking in a totally positive way! The Enlisted Review Board has decided that Clay is no longer needed in his job, so we are getting out of the Navy! After 10 years, many moves, meeting many friends, having 2 babies, a million unexpected adventures and too many days apart we are able to say that we are at peace with the news. It came as a huge surprise, especially after getting orders, having them changed and moving early, it was 8 days after checking in to the new ship, that we got the news. Clay got the highest review possible the past cycle, getting new quilfications, but missing his advancement by 2.5 points it was time for us to be done. Clay will still be active till the end of June, but not sure where. With the blessing in disguise of the sellers pulling the house off the market while under contract we don't have a place to live in FL and aren't going to go searching now that we know this isn't home. We are planning to undertake the very long cross country drive to WA very soon, as in we will be home before Christmas! Looking forward to this new adventure!

1st blog from FL

Well we made it to Jacksonville! Our trip has been quite unplanned and full of changes. We left VB on a good note, spending the night at a nice hotel with our room facing nothing but Ocean (although it was very windy and rainy.) Clay really wanted to stop and see Myrtle Beach, SC. I made reservations, but we are both geographically challenged so we didn't know it would take us an hour and a half off the free way to get there- and we are talking way back roads the route our GPS took us. We eventually got to our hotel, had a swim in the fun pool and dinner out. We really didn't do much in Myrtle Beach, E and I started the morning off by enjoying a chilly sunrise on the balcony, and then a walk to Starbucks where he got cocoa and I had coffee! After breakfast we went to the Ripley's Believe it or Not Aquarium. It was fun, and the 75% off they gave us for active duty military really was awesome!

my handsome morning date!

Our hotel had outdoor checkers, and we built towers with them!

CRASH!

G really loves to pose, E would rather not be apart of it most of the time! Yes, he wears ball shorts allllll the time!

We eventually made it to JAX, late one evening at checked into our too ritzy hotel the Sawgrass (where the PGA The Players Championship is played.) You know it's not your style (although it was great, and the beds were so plush) when you can't take anything out of the mini bar to make room for your chocolate milk and yogurt, because it electronically gets put on your credit card instantly! oh and you can't find regular parking for the first day so you have to do valet- with two cars full of all the junk you are moving with (front seat with a laundry basket for me, Clay had his backseat taken over by the vacuum, swiffer, bathroom scale, etc!)

Superman was spotted on the Jacksonville Beach!

cool kids. really the sunglasses were practical, the sand was blowing everywhere and wearing glasses was the only way to keep it from blowing in your eyes.

So Strong! he insisted he was too warm- at 67* with wind.

this pelican sat on the pier just posing for pictures.

We are new members of Jax zoo, it is big and there was a ton to see. This was the favorite of the day, you buy a cup of "nector" to feed the lorikeets. Don't pet, they will bite you, and hold on to your cup or they will take it.
The birds were smart, drink from the kids cups but don't climb on their arms (even tho both kids really wanted a bird to land on them, the birds knew it wasn't a good idea!)

at one point he had 4 birds on him, and just barely missed getting pooped on by fly by.

lizards, they make me squeal. they make the kids cry- because we make them let them go after they both caught them out in the sunroom.

monkey, she is a total monkey bar pro! it came out of nowhere, but she does them at all the parks now, by herself! today she also did the rings! how is she big enough to do that?
We took a trip down to St Augustine's Alligator farm. It was pretty neat. We will have to go back so Clay can pay $65 to pull a big Gator out of the water and take a picture with one.

We pet the little one, for free. It had it's mouth taped shut too.

So we are starting to settle in, well as much as you can when you are living temporarily in an unfurnished rental house! The house we were under contract to buy, well as we sat outside of it waiting for our realtor so I could see it- the seller pulled it off the market. That means the house we have paid hundreds on an inspection, planned to make our home and move into at the end of this month is no longer going to happen! shock. Things work out, and there was a back up plan in motion even before any of us knew it. We are working on getting a different house now, and it seems they actually want us to buy it! Bright news is we got internet today, some fancy little thing as big as my cell phone is all we need. no wires, nothing else. love it, amazing technology. I really missed not being able to do anything online for almost 2 weeks, especially in a place where I don't know where anything is. We are all ready to get back to normal, which means having places we go for fun and activities planned, not just watching DVD's, riding around in the car and shopping for the appliances we hopefully can have soon! do you know how awful it is to not have a washer and dryer, what a hassle. I attempted to do the first laundromat trip, it didn't work out. The crazy homeless man flipping me off and yelling "pow POW" at me scared me. We just found the one on base, and it is cheaper too! Off to bed, we have plans to meet up with a friend I haven't seen since before Gabby was born- but who threw my baby shower in Japan!