New Heights

Well, today was a day all three kids went soaring to new heights...LITERALLY.

I am not sure if you have noticed that there are hardly any pools left that have high dives. Well, we went swimming with some friends today and their pool is one of the few I know of in Oklahoma that still has a high dive. My kids ALWAYS love the chance to go to this pool and spend hours jumping off.

I was so proud of Laura today. Right after we got there she was bound and determined to go off the high dive. She got up there, walked to the end of the board, looked down, I wasn't sure what would happen next. This is usually when most kids decide to go back down the stairs, but not our little daredevil, she gathered up her courage and stepped right off the end and then swam to the ladder. She then proceeded to jump off about ten more times, her coot.

The older two kids have been there done that but of course they had fun doing twists, cannonballs, pencils and many other silly jumps. An hour or so into our swim Emma decided diving off the high dive would be fun...and a little scary. I was so proud of her she did the first dive, it was actually pretty good. Maybe she will follow in their dad's footsteps. I bet not many of you knew that Adam was on his high school's diving team? He can do a mean one and a half and even the occasional gainer. However last summer he burst his eardrum messing around on the diving board. We are not the spring chickens we once were, oh how often we are reminded of this. :)

Emma continued to dive off the high dive, well any brother is not about to be outdone by his sister so who do you think trotted right up to the high dive to strut his stuff...Andrew. He too did a very impressive dive off the high dive. They spent the better part of the day diving and jumping.

So in a nut shell we all soared to new heights today. Yes, I even went off a couple of times at Andrew's urging. Too bad Adam had to go to work. :(

Charmed Life

Well, last week I wrote about the Whirlwind, well things have not slowed down much. I just got home from a quick weekend trip out to Portland, Oregon to visit my dear friend Tricia. We were stationed in Maryland together and about the time we moved to Oklahoma Tricia and her family moved to Hawaii...not fair, I agree. :)

Being the amazing friend that Tricia is, she sent me a frequent flyer ticket to come visit her while she was back on the mainland visiting family. We had a great time, neither of us had our kids and we just hung out, talked, ate, shopped, watched chick flicks, drank coffee...and more talking. What I love most about the Navy is all of the wonderful friends that I have made along the way. The only problem is the time and money to be able to visit them all.

We spent one afternoon at the beach in Oregon, here is a picture of us next to Haystack Rock.
I have so many things to be thankful for, the last two weeks have been busy but good. I have been through seven different states, been able to visit a friend in Oregon, have had a friend visit me, made new friends in Colorado, have a wonderful husband who understands the importance of these fellow military wives and my need to recharge with them and three adorable kids that don't mind sharing me for the weekend.

It doesn't get much better than this. I am home now and not planning to go anywhere for a least a week. :)

Tired?

While we were n Colorado I was in awe of the beauty of the mountains. I loved how every angle was a different view and how the same view would look entirely different at different times of day depending on the shading of the sun, the clouds and occasional rain storm.

Each day as we would walk through camp I would just look up and almost feel overwhelmed by the beauty of God's creation. I thought, "I wonder if people who live here get tired of this view?" Do they just drive down the road take the beauty of the Collegiate Peaks for granted?

I have lived a good part of my life in the Washington DC area. I must admit at times I have driven by the US Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, etc and sort of become immune to the sense of wonder the first time visitor might feel.

Since I have been back in Oklahoma I have tried to figure out what is the beauty that I am taking for granted here. Believe me, I had to think long and hard on this one. I was awestruck by the sunset the other night, you can see the entire and I mean ENTIRE horizon and the sky was blazing with color, it was beautiful. Adam is partial to the wheat field blowing in the wind...the amber waves of grain, if you will.

I encourage all of you to take minute to stop and admire something unique to your location and for this one day not take it for granted. And maybe even share it with the rest of us.

Below are some pictures of the beauty of the Rockies. The pictures do not do it justice, believe me.

The Wild

For some reason I had this burning desire to spot some wild animals on our trip. I figured I am out in the wilderness I want to see some unique animal that lives in the wild. On the way up to the top of Pike's Peak(that is a blog post for another day that Adam needs to write) we saw a mountain deer, OK that was cool but I wanted to see something more exotic. Once we got to the camp we saw tons of chipmunks they were cute but I was still not satisfied. Everyday we saw hummingbirds continuously. Although they were beautiful I was still looking for something BIGGER.

Last Wednesday we drove to Aspen for the day to go visit and also drive through Independence Pass. As we were driving back to camp there it was, the moment I had been waiting for... A Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep was standing right in the middle of the road. Of course I did not have my camera out, and by the time Adam pulled the car over HE had wandered off the road and here is the best shot we could get.

Whirlwind

We have had a fun two weeks. It has been so fun I have not been able to blog about it. Now is a great time to start catching you up.


We had the opportunity to head out to the Officer's Christian Fellowship Retreat Center, Spring Canyon. This is just what our family needed. We were refreshed as well as encouraged and met many other like minded military families. While were were there we were able to try some new things and enjoy the beautiful Rocky Mountains.


Here are some of the the highlights-

Pike's Peak
White Water Rafting
Colorado Springs
geocaching in Buena Vista
Aspen
Trout fishing
Cottonwood Pass
Independence Pass
...and much more.

When we returned home we had the pleasure of a visit from some great friends from our first tour in Oklahoma. It was great to see them and get to catch up before they move to the East Coast.

There is so much more to write about, but remember I am working on that balance thing.:) I will expand more on our adventures in the days to come.

Year 3000

The thirty youngest toes made the following musical selection. It is a catchy fun song, Enjoy.

BTW, Rich and Mel were dead on on the photo from yesterday.

Balance

Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to give everything in life my full gusto...in other words moderation is not easy for me. Well, the blog is no different. I might even say that I was getting obsessed. I am trying to find that balance in life. For that reason I have not been posting as much.

Here is a picture of one of the places we have visited recently. I will be posting more about this trip in the next week or so.

Does anyone know where this is?

Happy 4th of July

I hope that all of you are having a most wonderful 4th of July.

We have just been having too much fun as a family and not enough time to post about our adventures. We also haven't been able to read your blog posts. We hope to update you soon and catch up on what is happening with you.

For now... have a wonderful day.

Happy Birthday USA!

Old School

Well, it is my turn to pick the music for the week. I want to take you back to the Old School, tobyMac style.

When I was in high school, Kate (of the Tate School)and I would ride to school everyday with our cool friend Kerri. We loved her she was so fun, like a big sister to both of us. We would crank the music and sing along to tunes as most teenagers do. Kerri would often play her brother's demo tape of newly recorded music. This tape happened to be old school DC Talk and this little sister was that of Toby McKeehan. Ever since then I have been a huge fan and now he is a HUGE hit. I love his music and his lyrics, they are so real and powerful.

I wanted to post one of the old songs in case you are not familiar with "old stuff". This is one of the songs I knew by heart back in the late 80s, Heavenbound. Kate, is this taking you back or what? I am cracking up at this video... it is so "old school" the hair, the dance moves, the pegged jeans, remember that? Any of you NoVa folks out there, look closely I think parts of the video were shot in Fair Oaks Mall. I know the video is cheesy, but remember the 80s were cheesy.

Pause my player and take a trip back in time to the 80s. :)




This next song is off tobyMac's newest album, Portable Sounds. The new music video for this song, Boomin, comes out tomorrow. Check it out... on July 3rd at Yahoo music.

Toby, thank you for twenty plus years of jammin' with a purpose and all the while keeping it real. Kerri, thanks for the rides to school.