October Events

I am still playing catch up but I am getting closer. October was another busy month. With Lee very involved in his final project for his Masters Degree as well as in, as Lee puts it, "The hardest technical school in the Army," we have still managed to have an activity almost every weekend. This has been a hard semester because Lee has spent so much time in schools, both day and night so most of Saturday was spent with the girls.

We started out the month with going to a County Emergency Preparedness Fair. We were able to gain a lot of helpful and good information to prepare ourselves for emergencies. We do have our 72 hour kits and food storage, but it is still nice to learn more that we can do. The girls had fun looking at all the fire trucks and emergency response vehicles.

Emma did not want her picture taken but the girls looked too cute not to take pictures of them. These are shirts that they got as gifts at Lee's Change of Command Ceremony in September.

I really love Sofi's smile. She is growing up to be a cute little girl, no more toddler in her at all.

We then went to the local air show, it was a small one but it was still fun. This was definitely Emma's favorite. She has always loved airplanes and had a great time there watching them fly. It was pretty windy that day and the sun was bright. Unfortunately I didn't get good pictures of the girls. Sofi had a hard time with the noise and the people but I think that she enjoyed herself. It was good experience for her.




The third weekend in October we went to Steed's Dairy Farm which is a local farm with a corn maze and play areas for the girls. They both had a great time. Sofi's favorite part was the corn pit. Instead of a sand box they had boxes filled with dry corn and she enjoyed the sensory stimulation. They also have a huge tube slide and the girls loved going down that. They went on a pony ride, the zip line and saw the animals on the farm.
Emma in her airplane!!
Sofi discovering cotton.
Sofi jumping off the big pillow instead of on top of it.
Emma being a jumping bean.

Corn Box that the girls loved.

Sofi did really like the zip line you just couldn't see it on her face.
Tower Slide.

Of course we had trick-or-treating on the military installation on Friday as well as trunk-or-treat at church then trick-or-treat around the neighborhood on Monday. The girls got more than enough candy to last several months.
The "Charming Witch and the Good Witch"


It has been a busy month but we added in a lot of family fun as well.

Columbia, SC Zoo in September

One of the girls favorite things to do is go to the Zoo. Before Lee started his crazy class schedule (doing his final class for his Masters Degree and going to the hardest technical school in the Army) we decided to take the girls to the zoo. This one isn't very big but the girls had a fun day trip out of it.

Both girls wanted to ride the baby elephant.

Emma did not want her picture taken on the Tiger

Sofi wouldn't let go!!!

Sofi was trying to feed the goat but was scared her finger would get eaten too.

I just thought this picture was cute of Sofi posing.

The girls loved getting close to the giraffe but I didn't get a good picture of them feeding them. They were both having a great time.

Williamsburg VA Trip

It has been so long since I have posted but we have kept very busy and active. To finish the month of August up we went to Williamsburg, VA for a little last minute vacation before Lee started school. It was an interesting experience. We ended up leaving to head up north the day after hurricane Irene hit the cost. It was very interesting to see some of the damage that a storm like that can do. What was even stranger was to see so many places without power and rest areas closed due to no power (which isn't always good with 3 year olds who don't understand that they can't use the potty there). Once we got to our hotel the power had just barely turned on but most of the town was still without power. We had to find a place that was open to eat. Then because of the storm the old town was closed so we just walked around to see some of the sites.

This is just one example of the trees that we saw all around town.

The girls had to have their leaves on our little walk and they were not in short supply. Everywhere you turned there were limbs and leaves down on the ground.



The girls having a break after their walk around Williamsburg. We were able to walk to the historic area from our hotel and they wanted to run. I can't blame them after our 8 hour drive there.

Then they had to get back in the stroller because they were tired.


The next day we tried to go to Yorktown and Jamestown. Yorktown only had 1 museum open but the town was pretty much deserted still and without power. Jamestown we couldn't even get to due to the trees still being in the middle of the road. We just took some scenic drives where we could and enjoyed being together. That night we went to find someplace to eat and because everyone was starting to come home and many places still without power the restaurants that were open were packed it was a 2-3 hour wait. So we went to a drug store to find some food to microwave and they were all wiped out on the shelves. All I could get was raman noodles to mac and cheese to heat up and eat. It was a quite an experience.


Tuesday Busch Gardens was fully operational and we were excited about that. They have Sesame Street area for the kids and Sofi was in heaven. She loved all the rides, Emma didn't like it as much. In each area there were little kids rides and once Emma started to see that Sofi was having fun she joined in and had a blast. We did take them on the log flume ride and neither one of the girls were up to that one they were both mad at us after that. I was surprised at how long they lasted and then they slept for about 4 hours as we headed back home.


Sofi looks like she is scared but she is actually having fun. It is an Elmo ride that goes up and down just for the little ones.


The was the first ride that Emma actually wanted to go on but she had to do it with Sofi. They were both so excited and Sofi was being the little mom telling Emma it was ok and they had a great time from that point on.

This was Emma's favorite ride but I couldn't get a good picture of her.

July and August Update

July was a very busy month. We ended up driving over 5000 miles across country to see our family. It was a very quick trip and a lot of driving. I know that we weren't able to see all those that we wanted too and we apologize for that. We just have too many people that we wanted to see and not enough time to see them.

We started our trip driving 17 hours to Kansas to see Lee's brother Dennis and his family for a couple of days. Even got to see Uncle Dennis's helicopter. The girls love it and now every helicopter that they see they think it is Uncle Dennis. We also went to a gymnastics facility where they had an open gym. At 104 degrees outside the activities were limited.

All the kids outside in pajamas waiting for Uncle Dennis.


Uncle Dennis flying by. YEAH!!!


This is Emma in the "Pit of Foam" at the gym.


This is Sofi swinging on the bar, we couldn't get her off it.

Then off to our friends Susanna and Aaron in Colorado (only for one night) then to Salt Lake City. We stayed with Jaynee's Grandma and did all of our running around that area. We haven't been back for about 2 years so it was really good. None of our extended family or friends had seen Sofi yet so it was fun to show off both the girls.

We spent a lot of time at parks and the girls also spent a lot of time throwing dirt on each other, especially after a day of traveling and visiting.

We had so much fun visiting with all the family and friends that we could squeeze in but the best is spending time with the grandparents and great grandparents. Jaynee even got a 4 generation picture with her grandma and mother.

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Stewart


Jaynee, Great Grandma Andersen and Grandma Goold


Then off to Albuquerque for Jaynee's family reunion. It was so much fun we had all 4 families plus grandma and grandpa staying at Jaynee's brother's house. A house with 11 children with a majority of them between the ages of 5 and 11 months was crazy but it was really fun. Everyone got along great and had a blast. We did so many activities together and took so many pictures it is hard to pick just a couple but these are a couple of my favorite.


Emma at the children's garden in a giant egg.


Sofi at the children's museum


We then drove to Lee's parents house Missouri and back home. A lot of driving and crazy times but well worth it. Although we don't think that we are going to make that trip anytime soon.

August has been spent getting back into a routine. Sofi is back into therapy. She is now in swim therapy and doing great. They are working with getting her to put her head under water because that is a big sensory problem with many children with sensory processing disorder. Jaynee is doing preschool at home with the girls. They have school everyday learning letters, numbers, and some other fun things like animals. They always do a fun activity and have a snack that goes along with that days theme. Lee has been working with his replacement and preparing for his change of command in September. It will be nice to have that phase of his career over. It has been good but we are glad it is finished.

Update for May and June

I can't believe June is almost over. It has been crazy around here and we have stayed very busy. It seems like every weekend we have been busy doing something. May 14-15 we went up to Great Wolfe Lodge in North Carolina. It is a very expensive resort and has an indoor water park. The was a Marriage Retreat sponsored by the military so all we had to pay for was to get up there and 3 meals. We got lodging and 3 meals paid for. I think that is the only way that we could go up there. It was fun. Sofi was scared of the water. This was the first time that we had taken her to a water park and she didn't like it too much she would rather sit and watch what the people. The girls were just excited to be staying in a hotel. They had child care for the girls while we were in our classes during the day then the evenings we were able to play in the water park. They also had a story time and clock that had puppets and music. It was a great program and the girls really liked that.

This is at the enterance of the Lodge and Emma is showing us the Bear!

Sofi having her new wolf give the bear loves, and Emma just being grumpy for pictures.

Sofi's turn to give bear loves!

Two Friends not wanting to smile standing in front of the clock tower, they were so tired from the swimming they had done earlier we were trying to keep them awake for the story time that was starting a little later.

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May 20th was Combat Spouse Day where I (Jaynee) got to play soldier. I participated last year as well. It is a lot of fun. I get to learn how to clear a building, learn about the equipment the communications soldiers use, get rolled over in a simulated Humvee, play a simulated turkey shoot with the M4, and do a liter carry. I forgot to mention I had on Lee's uniform plus the vest (without plates) and kevlar helmet. They paid for child care for the kids and lunch for us. It was really hot hotside especially with all the equipment on, I don't know how they do it in Iraq. It was fun to learn and play with the equipment. If I screwed up I didn't have to do push-ups, just got laughed at by the instructors. I think that they had more fun watching a bunch of women trying to be soldiers.