Holy WOW Batman!!!

Last night Tom and I ventured out on a date night...YEAH!!! Tom's mom and her gang of girls arrived yesterday afternoon with our car after driving 2 weeks cross country. It's so great to have visitors and even better...they baby sat last night. They claimed they needed a down night so we jumped on their offer. Sandy is getting her gramma time in, who are we to argue with that, right? So Tom and I went to the Del Monte Center which is like this incredible outdoor mega mall. It's huge! We ate at Chipotle Grill (Jumbo fast food burritos) They were so good and then we headed to the movies. Can you believe it??? We went out to a movie. Of course we saw the Dark Knight. The movie was awesome! Christian Bale...Yummm!!! Heath Ledger was AMAZING and dark, loved it! You all need to go see the movie. We need to say a big thanks to Sandy, Elaine, Diane and Jean Marie for our date night, it was so great!!!
Today we're off to do the 17 Mile Drive and then we're heading to Big Sur. I'll have more pictures for next time...

17 Mile Drive

Yesterday we ventured out on a sightseeing adventure. We spent the afternoon driving along the 17 Mile Drive. It's this amazing scenic stretch of road that leads you down the coast from Pacific Grove to Pebble Beach and then through the Cypress Forest. The funny thing is that it costs you $9.25 to drive it. Hahahah, but it was well worth it. It was incredible. After you pay your $10 you get this little map that leads you along. There a bunch of look out points and picnic spots among the main attractions. My favorite stop was at the Lone Cypress. It's this crazy tree that's growing all by itself on this rock jetty. It's so beautiful. It's the trade mark for the Pebble Beach golf course. We also saw Bird Rock which had an odor that I can't seem to get out of my nose, it STANK so bad! We stopped at a spot of the beach they had fenced off for the harbor seals. (they didn't smell so rosey either!) And the Restless Seas at China rock. It was hard choosing which side of the car to look out of...the coast side or the resident's side with all the amazing beach homes. These houses were beyond reasonable. The owners much have such an abundance of money they really don't know what else to spend it on. Anyway, it was a pretty amazing 17 miles. We'll be glad to do it again with any future visitors.... it's a must see.

Mwwaahhaahhaaa!!

This is what happens when your child makes a total mess and you shout "OH NO, what did you do??" And he looks at you and LAUGHS!! ahahahahahah!!

Oh the IRONY...well, not really

So my LEAST favorite household chore is ironing! I mean I really hate ironing. What a waste of my time. It takes forever to get the wrinkles out which most of the time stay forever, I'm constantly burning myself and clothes (oops it happens) and it's boring! BORING BORING BORING!! All the days of our Army lives I only ever had to iron the random dress shirt or pants with our weird German iron. Tom's uniforms were taken care of by the dry cleaners or the new BDU's being wrinkle free were a little gift from above so my ironing jobs were usually few and far between. Then my husband gets into grad school. Of course a military grad school where they have to dress in collared shirts and khaki's all week, (Except on Tuesdays...that's uniform day hahahah) So I've been dreading taking on this chore full time. Last night I dove into the pile of clothes to be ironed. I have to say that I mastered my ironing skills. I still am not fond of the job, but my brand new iron makes it easy. All those comments from Tom about my crappy ironing skills will be heard NO LONGER!!! All these years I thought it was me....turns out it was the iron! VICTORY!! Now if only there was a better way to scrub a toilet....

Early 1st birthday

Before we moved to California we had a little party for Jack. It was an early 1st birthday party. Actually it was more of a 4th of July party with a cake for Jack to get messy with. My parent's live in a prime location for local firework viewing and every year people stop by to see the show. This was the Friday before we flew to Ca which was perfect timing to say our goodbyes to family. I have such a big family on my mom's side that it would have taken a whole weekend to make our rounds otherwise.
My Aunts have been on my about Jack not being in Pottsville for his first birthday. (Insert pouty face here) So I thought the highlight of those 1st birthdays is the demolition of the cake and how messy the child can possibly get in a controlled environment. Hahahah. Right? So my mom got Jack an Elmo cake. (His obsession has begun with that weird, red, furry, squeaky voiced, whatever he is.) Anyway, the digging in of his cake was a little uneventful. Tom questioned if Jack is really his child since he wasn't overindulging in chocolate cake. Hahahah. He had more fun letting me lick the icing off of his fingers. He got a big kick out of that. But none the less Jack had a candle, made a wish (through my mind anyway) and had his early first birthday. (Notice the shiner on his right eye...after only 12 hours of walking we managed to find the corner of a table. OUCH!)

Steady Feet

Jack is walking. He's been walking since the 26th of June. He was taking a few steps here and there while we were at the beach and still in Pa. I honestly think he was waiting for his dad to see him take off. He took his first little stroll when we were in Va the night before Tom's graduation. He took 8 whole steps. YEAH!!!! I don't have any good videos of his first steps....go figure, but I have a little clip of him tooling around the new house this morning. Here he is sporting the latest fashions in Dino footie pajamas while on the go....




He's also showing a love for his new favorite thing....that's right....TOILET PAPER! Oh BOY WHAT FUN!!!



We also had a chance to break away from the chaos that is our house right now and give up on unpacking and head to the beach. We were at Seaside State beach and it was awesome. All along the coast, the towns have their own little state beaches where they cut out a part of the dunes and cliffs and form a beach. The coast is amazing out here. It's hard to explain but it's totally different from the East Coast. The sand's even bigger grains out here. Anyway, Jack had a blast walking around in the sand and splashing in the water. We're going to have a lot of fun weekends at the beach!!!

Sandy toes

Jack and I were beach bums for a week! My family (minus Tom), my brother and his girlfriend, Addie, and my Aunt Lisa's family all spent a week in an amazing house at the Outer Banks, NC. We had amazing weather! Our house had it's own pool and hot tub and we were only 400 yards from the beach. Jack absolutely LOVED the ocean! He couldn't get enough of the water. The sand wasn't his favorite thing, but who likes the sand? I wasn't sure how he would react to the crashing waves but he got a kick out of them. When he was on the towel he'd point down towards the water, it was so cute!
We really had a great time hanging out with my family. They were all sorts of entertaining. Hahahahah! I even got the chance to jet ski. My mom was kind enough to treat me to this and watched Jack on the dock while I tried my hardest to steer that thing. Hahahah. Lisa and I shared one and it was hilarious. Lots of fun!!!
We really had a great time and can't wait for the next family beach gathering! :-)

Where to begin....

Well, it's been a while since I've been able to write about our happenings and my thoughts. I have a very good excuse though! We moved!! YEAH! We are now west coasters! The past 3 weeks have been crazy for us. Jack and I tagged along on a family beach vacation to the Outer Banks in N.C. for a week. We had a great time! Tom wasn't able to join us due to his class schedule at Ft. Lee, that was a bummer! After 7 awesome days in North Cackalacky we headed back to Pottsville and packed up all of our belongings for the move to CA. We were lucky enough to have the Army cover movers for us from PA to CA. Thank goodness because I accumulated a lot of stuff and I have no idea how it was going to get across the country. Plus now all the random things of our pasts that were left at our parent's houses are now back in our possession and off of their garage shelves. So we got back from the beach Sat night (the 21st) then the movers came that Monday. Then on Thursday I made my last trip to Ft. Lee. YEAH!!! Can't say that I'll miss that drive! Tom graduated from his ORSA ALMC training course on Friday morning, the 27th. We packed him up and left from there to spend some time with the families before the big move! Saturday we spent most of our time doing laundry and getting all of our ducks in a row. Sunday morning we flew out of Newark airport on our way to Monterey. This was not our best airline experience...I'll have to save that for later... We came right to our new house last Sunday. Tom's brother Bruce flew with us to help with Jack and Sadie. We're very grateful! He was a HUGE help! Tom started at NPS right away last Monday. Our movers came Wednesday and we've been unpacking and organizing and boosting the economy ever since. I should be unpacking now but I needed a blogger break. I have a ton of pictures and highlights from the last few weeks. I'll break them down into their own blogs. That's my plan anyway....here I go....