Family Fun!

I'm a little behind on posting these, but better late than never, right? :)

Joey went through a major obsession with lemonade stands (thanks Max & Ruby). He made his own from a box he found. He drew a picture of a lemonade pitcher on it and a glass of lemonade. At first, he kept 3 empty cups on it and had us pretend to get lemonade from him (no charge). Then he talked Earl into taking him to the store one day and getting real lemonade. So then we let him pour us real cups. Then he remembered to charge. First it was a nickel, but he quickly changed it to a quarter when he found a quarter laying around some where.

After having one for a few days, he found another box and made another one. He kept one in the playroom or living room, and the second one he kept in the hallway that led to the bedrooms and bathroom. No one would be able to get by without stopping at the stand. Ha ha. He's so smart.

He is finally over that obsession (although it wasn't too dreadful for us. I don't think I'll need pink lemonade again for a long time, though.)

Joey loved opening his birthday cards, especially the ones with money.

He got armor for his birthday too. That was his new obsession. He was making his own armor out of random wierd toys and things laying around (half of a hamster ball for a hat, etc).

Angie came up on the weekend and gave him some more presents.

He quickly roped her in for some more pretend games. They had to make space helmets.

Joey made this one for Angie.

The things an Aunt has to do for her sweet nephew.

She also learned that if you get Joey games to play with, you must play with him. Over and over and over. He loves his new Hot Potato game. He especially loves with the hot potato begs "Again! Again!"

There is no way the pictures could really capture how hilarious this was. Tanner fell asleep clutching his pacifier holder. His fingers were actually stuck on it and could not slide down. The holder was holding his arm up like this. It looks like his arm is holding the ribbon, but it's the other way around.

While Angie was here, we took a day to go to Water Country USA. It was a lot of fun.

Joey's favorite was Hubba Hubba Highway, which is like a lazy river. It has a current that carries you around. He got very proficient in doing it alone, with no one holding him.

Earl would go get us refills while we were playing in the water sometimes. I caught a picture of him passing us by (I used my zoom, he's actually much farther away).

And then turning around and passing us again. He he. He finally found us.

Joey fell flat on his face coming off one slide. He didn't cry long, don't worry.

We took turns hanging out with Tanner (who slept most of the time).

Joey loved getting his chance to squirt the people going down Hubba Hubba Highway.

Joey went for his 4 year checkup the other day. He's 3 ft 3 in tall (in the 19th percentile) and 30 lbs (4th percentile). He had a hard time with the immunizations (probably because of the recent visit to the ER with that abscess. He's all registered for Pre-K, and starts Sept 7th. He's also trying Soccer again this year.

Captain Angie Comes Home!

We were blessed enough to be able to be there for Angie when she stepped off the plane after her long journey home from Iraq. This was her second deployment to Iraq and we're hoping she won't be going back!! I'm a little late putting these pictures up, but I'm hoping to get back into updating the blog more regularly. Too much happens and if I don't write about it, I'll forget it!

We started off in the...well, it's not a hangar I don't think, but it's a big open building where the plane pulls up to. Not sure what it's called.

We decided to wait inside instead of outside where the plane comes in, but we could catch a little glimpse of outside through the doors.

Joey started off pretty awake. But it was so miserably hot and late in the afternoon, and we (me, him and Tanner) had driven in from Camp Lejeune where we were spending time with our friends on the beach. Earl drove Angie's car down from VA and met us there.

After just a few minutes, Joey started nodding off. On Earl's head!

Because of all the sweat on Earl's head, Joey kept slipping. Ha ha.

We didn't have to wait too long (we had gotten there late anyway). Angie's unit marched in and luckily, she was almost right in front of us.

This is just some of the troops.

There she is! She saw us before we saw her, I think.

Poor Angie...all sweaty and hot and tired, and still smiling at us. :)

Reunion time! Hope we didn't squish Tanner with our hugs!

Joey trying on Angie's beret.

Aunt Angie and her smallest nephew getting reaquainted.

Tanner had some smiles for his aunt.

Then we went to her work building so she could get her gear. Joey waved the flag so she could find him (there was NO ONE else around where we were, the rest of the crowd was down the street).

Tanner and Daddy hanging out. This was Earl's first experience welcoming someone else in. He's always the one coming in from a deployment. He claimes he much prefers this part. I tried to explain that all of his returns have been much more difficult. We are usually waiting hours and hours in the sun with kids for his unit to come in.

Joey insisted on helping Angie find her bags.

Bingo!

The rest of the night is the big adventure, and I don't have pictures. We tried to find a hotel as Angie was finishing up at work, and everything was booked. We ended up a seedy, shady, scary Ramada in a not-so-great part of town. The A/C didn't work, the rooms were smelly. There was trash and crud all over the floors where it hadn't been cleaned. The bathtub was FULL, I mean FULL, of dirt and hair. It was the most disgusting thing I ever saw. All the rooms were the same, so we got our money back instead. A "working girl" even approached Earl outside, as he was waiting on the curb to show Angie where to turn into the hotel parking lot, and she asked Earl when he was getting off the corner. Ha ha! We went a couple more miles down the road and found a much nicer Quality Inn with vacancies. We finally got into bed around 1am I think.

But it was worth it to get to be with Angie. We are so glad she's home. And I know I speak for everyone (even Earl) when I say how proud we are of her. She's given up a lot of her life to serve overseas, in some of the most miserable conditions ever. We wish her luck and happiness and stress-free living in Arizona for the next year where she'll be doing some more training for the Army. It's been great having her here (lots of pictures of her visits to come), and we're getting spoiled. Not going to like having her so far away again, for so long. But thank God it's not Iraq. We love you Angie!