15 Weeks or so Left in Connecticut

So we did get paper orders but to our surprise they are for us to move to VA.  I refuse to freak out even though I mention and talk about this a lot....until October rolls around and they are still for VA and even then I might just go with the flow...figured the worst that can happen is we move to VA and I beg my brothers to come up and drive a U-haul for me to GA.  Ryan is to be in GA for about 7 months  for training so it only makes more sense for the Navy to move us straight there so they won't have to give him per diem....haha I am sure a lot can understand this, the Navy doesn't always do what is easier and cheaper.  The biggest issue is the Navy has not put out "change of home port" orders for the boat yet....they hope this to be done soon.  For those non military folks, this means that the Boat is stationed in VA and it should move to GA while Ryan is attached to it.

On to more excited news, the girls and I are having a great summer thus far.  I just need to keep them more occupied since they are getting bored.  So far, Katelyn has done a week of Camp (more info below), we have done Six Flags several times & we recently went to Lake Compounce (which is the oldest Amusement Park in America).

 Katelyn going to camp was pretty nerve racking for all of us, although I think it affected Ryan & Amberlyn more.  I missed her dearly but I knew this was something she should experience.  She did have fun but she realized she missed us a lot, I think mainly me doing all of her cooking, etc.  Once we get the Camp photos developed (yep old school - disposable Camera), I will post up pictures she took.

Final news, the start building of the house has begun!  We are all super excited, with the weather it isn't far but it is still on target to be finished near October.  Here are some photos courtesy of my friend, Kristie & some photos courtesy of Tracy.

June 28, 2012

June 28, 2012

June 28, 2012

July 14, 2012

July 14, 2012

July 14, 2012

July 14, 2012

It's almost time to start building a house....

First off I want to say how lucky we are to have wonderful friends like Tracy & Chuck Johnson.  They took time out of their day when I picked out the home lot and created mine & Ryan's house in GA (which took about 4 hours if not longer to finalize)....and then they took additional time to drive back to GA recently and do my walk through of the property that is marked, took photos & videos and even went through the contract so that everything I customized was sure to be in our new home.  It means a great deal to me that they did all this for me and expect nothing in return.

For those that may not know Tracy & Chuck Johnson, we met them about 3.5 yrs ago in Guam.  They have a daughter, Ariel, that is around Katelyn's age (they have a grown son too!).  Chuck was my "other" husband when Ryan was deployed.  He helped me fix things, pick up a dead birdies from the yard...basically anything I was not capable of doing when Ryan was gone.  Tracy was also a big help and we hung out a lot, she is loud and straight to the point...she definitely brought me out of my shell, I had to get use to her straight forwardness but I am glad she can just tell me like it is and give an honest opinion even if we do butt heads.  I remember her telling me several time to just put on my big girl panties!!  I definitely can't wait til we move to GA so that we can be stationed closer to them.

OK onto the house update, the builders will start building this week.  So we aren't far into the process as you can see in the photos but they said they should be done by end of September if the weather holds out.  Here are some updated photos of the land and even a little video.

I know most of you probably don't want to see this but I thought this was a great way for me (meaning my family) to see start to finish of the house.

I have many great friends so don't think because your not posted in my blogs, etc that your not appreciated because you are.

Mini Vacation to Vermont & Maine

So since there was a 3 day weekend coming up, Ryan said we should go to Vermont & Maine since those were the last two states in the New England area that we have not visited yet.  So we packed up Thursday and headed out later that night...we drove through Massachusetts and stopped at the border just inside Vermont.  We got a room at the Econo Lodge, not bad considering we made no hotel reservations before our journey...we just wanted to go and stop where ever we decided to.  At first I was not a big fan of this, even though I'm the more spontaneous one...but I decided instead of fighting with Ryan about it, I would do it his way. 

EconoLodge for the Night in Vermont

Next morning we packed up again (note: next time pack bags by the night not for the whole trip, will save us from getting everything out of the car each time...LOL) and headed towards Burlington, Vermont...the agenda today was going to the Oldest Cheese Factory and then off to Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory tour and then heading down to Waterbury for the Ben & Jerry's Factory Tour.  We drove so far out of the way to do the Cheese Factory to only find out they were not making Cheese today but the lady did sort of explain the process...and we had a great time sampling the cheese and buying some.  Yep we bought about 1lb of Cheese and got some crackers and we finished it off in no time.  That was our lunch for the day....we did wish we bought more but being on the road all day we knew it would taste good later.

Crowley Cheese Factory...

View leaving Cheese Factory

Another view...

 At Lake Champlain Factory we got to see them making Chocolate's w/ Coconut Insides, Chocolate Santa's & Cherries dipped in Chocolate (which those seem to be the fav by me but at $45 per lb I decided I could resist the urge to buy some).

Fishes

The factory hard at work...

Coconut Filling...ready for the Chocolate

Chocolate Santas & Santa Pops

Chocolate Dipped Cherries

Lake Champlain...YUM!

We didn't fair so great at Ben & Jerry's tour, they were not making any ice cream that day (and no pictures of the factory) but we did get to see and go over the process of how it is made and then got a sample of the ice cream of the day!

Grave Yard of Flavors

After the three tours and lots of scenic views we headed towards Maine, we drove through New Hampshire (we didn't stop here since we went there last year when The Johnson Crew were there visiting family).

White Mountain

Views of Mountains driving from Vermont to Maine

 It was dark, late and we were about to just get a room at the border in Maine but I told Ryan I wasn't comfortable in the area and not to mention the cost was higher than I wanted to spend so we drove to Augusta, Maine and settled in at a Super Motel 8.

View from our Hotel Window

This phone is super old...LOL

I know our choices may not be up to par as some but we knew we were not spending much time in the hotel room so why spend a lot to just sleep there.  One thing that I wasn't a big fan of in Maine was all the toll roads...LOL  So we got settled in, in Maine and looked over the brochures to see where we were headed over the next few days.  We picked the Children's Museum in Bangor which happened to be like 2 minutes from a restaurant called Sea Dogs that a friends suggested was good to get Lobstah.

Ryan caught playing with the Boats at the Children's Museum

Lunch at Sea Dogs

Ryan thought it was hilarious to take photos of me trying to get on this Giant Pig...so hope all get a good laugh...

So we ate lunch (which happen to also be dinner) and we headed towards Bar Harbor since Ryan wanted to visit that area...it was beautiful we got to drive up (we would have loved to hike but the girls were not having it - long car rides = grumpy kiddos) to Cadillac Mountain...the views were awesome reminded me so much of Guam views.

The next day since the kiddos wanted to go to Fun Town USA which was headed towards home, we would just go there hang out and then head back home afterwards.  It's funny how when you go to these Amusement Parks how all the parks have basically the same rides but called something else.

Go Cart Rides

Last Stop in Maine - Fun Town USA

We all had a great time but we are all glad to be back home in CT.

So an overview, we packed up and left CT and did not know what we were going to do or where we were going except we knew we were going to Vermont & Maine.   I have to say by far this was one of the best trips, so looks like we will have more spontaneous trips in the future!

A special thanks to Martina (my neighbor) who watched Kaylie for me.  I had Kaylie all set to go to the Kennel and she was like your what??  She said she didn't want Kaylie to go there and offered to watch her for us.  Kaylie had a great time over there with her kids.  Another thanks goes to Jessica (another neighbor) for watching our Guppies.