A Wild ONE!

On Thursday, July 13, our sweet August Michael turned ONE!  It never ceases to amaze me just how quickly time flies.  It seems like only yesterday we were waiting for his (or her-since gender was a surprise) arrival.  This past year has FLOWN by!  Maybe it was because we were only in Missouri for a year or maybe that's just the way things go.  The older you get, the faster time moves.  

This year was great.  Andrew has been such a great big brother and we've loved watching Aubrey take on her role as big sister.  She's such a little "mama" and takes excellent care of her little brother.  The love between the three of them is so precious, it makes my heart want to explode!  The Lord has been good to us, that's for sure!  

August started his birthday with pancakes.  And even though he looks less than thrilled, he enjoyed them (as he does all food, if you can't tell).

 Andrew and Aubrey helped him blow out the candle after singing "Happy Birthday."

Later that day, Aubrey had a big appointment...

Granna wanted a photo shoot with all her grands!  She has such great vision when it comes to these photo sessions.  She set everything up and Erica Amos worked her magic to get some great shots!

(Doesn't my baby look all grown up with her haircut!)

 And since we had the photographer there, we might as well get in a smash cake session!

 Gracie did a good job helping to decorate the smash cake!

 Sweet baby thought that the yellow polka dots must have been the yogurt bites he's used to, so he kept trying to pick up just the yellow spots.  

On to the party~

In honor of our month long AMAZING adventure, we went with the camping/woodland animal theme:  August is turning a WILD ONE! (My amazing mother did all the decorations! She's talented like that!). If it hadn't been for her, we would've had a cake and sang "Happy Birthday."  LOL So thanks, Mom, for making out boy's day really special!

 I feel like my kids always get the short end of the stick when it comes to my cakes.  I'm always so busy getting everything else together, that the cake is always rushed and I never get to do "exactly" what I had planned.  Oh well.  It was still cute!  (And thanks to my Sister for saving me a couple of hours by doing the tee-pees.  

 Speaking of my sister, look how cute her fruit owl was!

 Jack and August with Grumps

 (I love that he wore the hat!)

 "Who me? You're all singing for ME?!"

 You know how hard it is to get a good picture of all of us?

 He takes eating very seriously!

 Though he was happy to share with Uncle Adam!

 I hardly took any pictures, really.  The majority of these were taken by other folks.  I was trying to enjoy the moment!  It was such a special day.  We had family and friends with us to celebrate our boy.  It was so nice having everyone together.  With us living so far from family, that hardly ever happens.  We missed all the ball players in my family who were off at different tournaments.  Thanks to everyone who came out to make his day special.  

Andrew and Maggie have been friends since they were babies.  Since her Momma is my BFF, it's only natural that they get along so well.  Just like with me and Erin, they picked right up where they left off and had a great time together. 

 Water fun!

August wasn't the only one that had a birthday while we were home.  My sister turned 33 on the 15th!  Drew and I were able to spend some time with her and Jefforey without the kiddos. (Thanks Mom and Dad). We went to dinner on Friday night and then on Sunday night we got to play some games at their house.  Good times were had by all!  I sure do miss my sister!  Living so far away starts to wear on you after a while and spending some quality time with her was good for my soul.  I always count down the days until we can do it again!  Love you Sis!

And just like that, our trip was over.  Next stop...VIRGINIA!

Made It To VA!

Day 34: Our epic road trip comes to a close as we pull in to the RV park in Virginia Beach.  We'll be staying here until we find our new home.  The following days are full of walks to the playground, trip to the beach, a few library trips, and plenty of rainy days spent INSIDE.  The RV feels really small on rainy days!  

 July and August were VERY rainy!

 Andrew got his first military ID card!

 It's gonna be so hard to get him back to his own bed after being in ours all summer!

Day 25-27: To Alabama By Way of Lots of Friends

We stopped in Holdrege, NE to spend the night and have breakfast with Drew's cousin, Joey and his wife Artie.  The city of Holdrege has this neat little overnight RV park.  It was literally a parking lot on the side of a building, with about 10 spots that had water and electrical.  There was a drop box where you could fill out a registration card and drop $10 in the box and you were good to go!  More cities should offer spots like this!


We got up early and met Joey and Artie at "Home Cooking."  Talk about a yummy breakfast!  It was great to see them and visit for a bit.  We hadn't seen them since they moved to NE about 2 years ago.  We couldn't stay too long because they had to get to work and we had to get back on the road, but we were grateful for a visit!


After NE, we ended up driving right back through Kansas City, so we stopped in the neighborhood to say goodbye to our neighbors.  We really didn't get a proper goodbye before, due to the movers and the stomach bug!  Plus Aubrey was very excited to see Jeanelle again!

We all waved until we were out of sight.  Leaving is always tough, especially when you don't know if and when you'll get to see them again.  These folks made this past year a lot easier! We'll miss you!

We stopped for the night on the west side of St. Louis in a very nice park.  The only bad thing about these one night stops is that we usually get there in the dark...at bedtime and leave as soon as we wake up.  Most times we'll just spend the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot or rest stop.  But every once in a while, we like to have full hookups. And with the way our water pump has been acting up, you can never trust we'll have water without city hookups.  

Our next stop: Nashville!  

We drove to the Rees' house in Nashville and parked in their driveway for the next day/night.  The Rees family band, Linda Lough and the Lucky 4,  played at our wedding.  Drew met them in flight school down in Pensacola and they became friends.  Now, half of the lucky 4 are married and have kids, but the younger generation has kept the family band alive as Pelican212.  (You may know them from Steve Harvey's Little Big Shots, America's Got Talent, or Jimmy Fallon.  Or perhaps you saw them play at the Inaugural Ball.).  They're currently on tour with Darci Lynne, last season's winner of America's Got Talent.   We reconnected with them at their show in Kansas City last February.  The kids loved hanging out with their kiddos and have been asking nonstop when we could see them again.  They were kind enough to let us hang out at their house for the day.  We had such a good time catching up while the kids played.  They were nice enough to do a little band practice before we hit the road.  So fun!  They are such a great family!  We're looking forward to seeing them again this fall at a show near us!

The kids hung out in the RV and played games. August tried to learn poker. 

 He might have learned a little piano too!

 Daddy got an accordion lesson.

 And August got into the Jamaican spirit. 

After breakfast and a sing-a-long, we said our goodbyes and hit the road for the next to the last leg of our journey...SWEET HOME ALABAMA!