Movement

The past few days have been so much fun with Jack. He's so close to crawling and it's amazing watching him try and try and try again. He's a very determined little guy! Wonder where he gets that from?? We've been cheering him on and baiting him with the remote control. We've tried a million toys and he's only interested in chasing the remote. Who knows. Here's a quick little video of Jack starting to crawl. We're not there yet....but we're close! :-)( You have to ignore my conversation with Tom....being in the states I've developed an addiction to scratch off lotto tickets...heheheh)



In another form of transportation, Jack's finally starting to fully utilize his new excersaucer. The Walter's had this contraption for their kiddo Zeke, and I thought it was the coolest thing. Uncle Tim bought it for Jack for Christmas and he loves it. Every toy can bend to get in his mouth for taste testing and it plays music and the little animals on the key board talk to him and talks back. I wish I knew what he was telling them, but I guess everyone can have secrets. :-) Here's another video with a little more momentum. Who doesn't love doing monkey laps?? :-)



HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!

Time flies...

Reality is starting to set in that Tom's not on vacation forever. This is his last week here in Pottsville. He's going to Ft. Lee, Va on Sunday to get situated and then he reports on Monday for his transition course. He's actually looking forward to getting back in to the swing of things. I'm not looking forward to being away from him but we'll be doing the commute to have long weekends together. And not seeing him for a few days during the week is NOTHING compared to a deployment so no complaints here! We've had such a great time these past 45 days. As you can read below we've been to Baltimore and Va Beach. We've been shopping at every Outlet you could possibly think of. We've gotten to hang out with family, Jack finally got to meet all his Uncles (No aunts yet...Ladies, They're all single...)

Great grandparents, cousins, great aunts and great uncles. We saw the Blue Man Group, a bull riding tournament and even checked out a Pet Expo. Jack made friends with the puppies, and a nice Alpaca.


And best of all after a long civic project, I am completely done with school and now have my B.S. in health care management. YEAH! (If you know of anyone hiring....)
In those 45 days I also realized that I'm getting older. This I'm not happy about. I had the flu for a week. I usually bounce back pretty quick from the flu but this time I was knocked out. Tom was forced into full time daddy duty. He was so great taking care of Jack and me. He did tell me though that my "sympathy card was about to expire" on day 6. Hahahahah. I guess everyone has their limits. :-) On top of the slow recovery time I had to get glasses. This was a major bummer!! I was convinced that I didn't need them....I was wrong! It is amazing how well I can see now, but still :-(!!!
I love being back in the states. There are a few things I miss about Germany. Friends is a definite! I miss the markets, wine fests, bakeries and the autobahn! I'm pretty sure I could have cut our 7 hour drive to the beach down to 3 with no speed limits. Hahaha. All in all, I'm Glad we're back. It's nice being around family again. Oh and did I mention how much I love Wal-Mart???
I now have some time on my hands so I'm promising to blog frequently again. We have 3 more months left on the east coast then we're off to Monterey, Ca. I can't wait to take Sadie on the beach. She's going to love it. Anyway, I'm hoping that the next time I blog it will be about Jack crawling. He's so determined and so close, it really won't be long. He gets up on all fours and just rocks back and forth like his legs should just go on their own. Hahahah. He's so curious and doesn't miss a thing and loves to flirt! He's such a goof, but we love him!
I really hope that in the next few months we can catch up with more friends and I can get back to knitting. My yarn collection is growing with no end results... Maybe I should go knit something now... Hope every one's doing great!

Sand between my toes...

We ventured to Virginia Beach last week for another Murtie family vacation. It was a long car ride, but Jack did great! It took us about 7 hours to get there with stops and we went over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It was a beautiful drive.
Of course it's March and we figured it wouldn't be warm enough to get in the ocean, but that didn't stop us! How could we go to the beach and not get in the water?? So Tom and I did a polar plunge. Holy crap, was that water cold. As soon as I jumped in it knocked the wind out of me. At least we can say we were in the ocean, and we gave a lot of beach goers something to laugh at. Hahhahaha. We stayed at a hotel with an indoor pool so Jack got to throw on the swim trunks and dive in. He absolutely LOVED the pool. This was his first time swimming. My Aunt Lisa had bought him little trunks and a floaty seat for the summer, it was perfect. The whole time he was in the pool his little legs were kicking like crazy. I think we may have a future Olympian on our hands. The funniest thing was that he totally loved going under. He would come up with a shocked look on his face then he'd smile. He's a little fish!
We met up with one of our friends from home, John, who moved down to Va a year or so ago. He's living in Va. Beach now and it was great to see him. He got to hang out with us on the beach and in the pool and we ate at some amazing restaurants! If anyone ever goes to Va. Beach you have to eat at "Catch 31"....it was soooo good!!
Jack was a fan of the beach. We dipped his toes in the ocean but it was too cold and he was NOT happy. He wasn't sure what to do with the sand at first but then I started burying his feet and it turned into a fun game. Hahahah. I'm sure the next time we're at the beach he'll be eating it, can't wait!
We had a great time! It was so nice to get away and just BE for a little while. We got to catch up with Wagner and we ate great seafood! It was hard to leave there! We can't wait to live by the beach in Ca.

Hey Little Fishie...

One of our first trips with Jack while Tom's on leave was to Baltimore, MD. We went to Inner Harbor mainly for a Christmas gift that I got Tom.... Tickets to a Professional Bull Riders Event. The plan was to make it a get away weekend for Tom and I but Jack wasn't taking a bottle or sippy cup for some reason so he came along too. I'm actually really glad we made it a family trip. It was our first little family vacation. We had such a great time! We walked around Inner Harbor and then took Jack to the Aquarium. There were no strollers allowed so Tom had Jack in the carrier that whole time. For three hours Jack stared at all kinds of animals. His favorite exhibit was the coral reef and the sharks. He was in awe of them. It was so much fun watching him get excited. He did so great. Of course it wouldn't be a McMurtire trip if there wasn't a diaper blow out at a restaurant right before our food came. It's becoming a theme. Hahahah.
Our highlight of the trip was of course the bull riding. It was the first time we've ever been to a tournament and it was really cool! We took Jack along and everyone around us got a kick out him watching the bulls. For those of you who have never gotten to experience a bull riding event, it's crazy! The cool thing about it is that you're cheering for all the cowboys since it's them vs. the bull. So the crowd really gets into it and you can't help but get caught up in craziness. There was of course a t-shirt launcher and the bull fighters (rodeo clowns) were insane. One guy got tossed like a doll...OUCH!! Somehow Jack actually snuck in a quick nap during the show, we have pictures. Hahhahaha. It was a lot of fun! We'll definitely be going to another PBR event in the future. First family vacation....tons of fun!!! :-)