Great Indoor Fun for the Kids in Vacaville!

When fall and winter comes to Travis, the weather turns from sunny all the time to rainy most of the time.  When in search of something to do with the kids indoors, I came across this great bounce house park in Vacaville! http://www.kids-gone-wild.com/ 

It's called Kids Gone Wild, and it's only $5.00 per child per hour.  We will be going there soon!

One Way to Make Packing Paper Fun!

Even though we got to California in May, we are still unpacking stuff here and there.  Especially with a baby coming, everything is getting un-boxed.  Last week, I unpacked our bassinet which was wrapped in huge sheets of packing paper.  Then I got the idea to put the sheets on the floor of our living room and make a little art area for our toddler.  I even drew a little road for her to drive her cars on.  I gave her crayons and stickers and let her go to town.  It ended up being really fun for the two of us to sit on the floor and play on the paper!

Great San Fran Restaurant

On Sunday, we made a quick jaunt down to San Francisco on our way to drop our guests off at the airport.  We were hoping for a delicious seafood lunch, and that's what we found at Capurro's!  We all got the lunch special - a half crab salad sandwich with a cup of New England Clam Chowder and Fries - for only around $6.  The restaurant is right off the bay, located in the Fisherman's Wharf area, and it has great ambience.  The staff was super-friendly, the food was out quickly, hot & delicious, and they even had some great options on the kids' menu!

San Francisco is such a great city to visit, and it's always best when you have good weather and a great meal!

Free Wine Tasting for Military!

Napa Valley is one of the most talked-about places to visit in California, and if you have a military ID, Napa Valley is definitely the place to go!  This past weekend, my husband's cousin and her boyfriend visited, and we went wine tasting in Napa and along Route 29, North through Yountville and St. Helena.  We visited 3 wineries, and everyone (except me - the pregnant designated driver) tasted wine for nothing!  At $20 per tasting, this is a valuable tip for anyone wanting the famous Napa Valley Wine experience.

Whether you are stationed out here or just willing to visit the area, wine country is a destination you must experience!  The scenery is beautiful, the weather is beautiful, and where else can military members and their guests try world-renown wines for free?!

This was the second time we visited wineries out here, and both times everyone with us has been able to wine-taste for free.  It is a wonderful perk of being military!

When we told her...

On Wednesday we had our 20 week ultrasound, and we found out the sex of our new baby!  We are having another girl!  Both Andy and I are so excited, and we are hoping and praying that McKenna will be excited too, once she figures out what's really going on.  I wanted to do something cute to announce the sex of our baby, so I played around with some photography and Photoshop, and came up with this.  Just a little joke, since this baby is due 2 days before Christmas.

Check My Reality

Tonight I received a much needed reality check.  While browsing Facebook posts with my husband, we saw that someone he went to high school with lost his baby daughter this week.  His post read: "How can she just be gone???"  As we read down through friends and family offering their condolences, and posts by the little girl's mom and dad, the weight of the loss hit me full force, and I starting weeping.  The family also has a little boy, and he doesn't understand that his little sister will never come home.  It appeared that she got sick the beginning of this week, and by yesterday she was gone.  Of course I think if this happened to my family, my little 18 month old, or our new baby.  I can't imagine the terrible feeling of waking up to a real-life nightmare everyday after a loss like that.  The joy that my baby brings me suddenly being ripped from my life would be nearly unbearable.  With a little more searching, I found out that this little girl had actually been through 2! heart transplants since her birth, and had been fighting ever since to regain a normal healthy life.  She was doing well before she suddenly fell ill.  The whole story is such a tragedy.

While this news immediately saddened both my husband and I, it was a blessing to be reminded that a loss such as this can happen to any of us, and if we don't pay attention to what's important TODAY, we may never have a chance to do it TOMORROW.  I am so thankful for a God who knows what He's doing, and will take small children into His arms and love them in Heaven until we can get there too.  In the meantime, we need to live a little fuller and love a little harder.  We need to always remember what's truly important in our lives, and make sure that we take every opportunity to enjoy every smile, feel every pain, dance every dance, and sing every song.  My prayers are with this family who is going through extraordinary distress tonight, and I know that their daughter's fight in life and their loss will not be in vain.

Saturday Morning in Vacaville

Our new address: Vacaville, California is about 15 minutes from Travis Air Force Base.  Apparently it used to be a little "hick town" as told to me by our current landlord, but it has turned into an artsy little place with outdoor music and food, restaurants and galleries.  Our family of three spent our Saturday morning seeing what downtown Vacaville has to offer.  It was a lovely time.

Eating Breakfast at Pure Grain Bakery -> A cute little cafe' with delicious pastries!

We got breakfast sandwiches, croissants, and coffee.  Very good.

Playtime at Andrews Park in downtown Vacaville.  

Great big place with a creek walk and playgrounds for the kids!

Me, 20 weeks pregnant!

Sideways Sunny Door.

Almost Settled... Almost.

California is pretty much living up to all of my expectations... a lot of positives, a couple not-so-positives.  The weather is gorgeous all the the time, and we haven't seen rain since May.  There are lots of things to go do and see, and so far the atmosphere and people seem really laid back.  Of course, there are a lot of people, a lot of traffic, more rumors of crime than I'm used to, and oh yeah, bugs!  We've moved into a rental home in Vacaville, which is 6 miles from Travis AFB and it works for us, but it is taking longer than I had hoped for to get completely situated.  We're still going through boxes and organizing, and I have about 3 rooms that still look as though each was the site of a major tornado.  However, I believe we will get there soon!

A couple things I've learned: I never want to move in the 1st trimester of pregnancy again, and less is more when it comes to moving your stuff.  We are slowly getting rid of all of our excess.  We have so much right now, we don't know where to put it all!  I've also learned that it doesn't matter where you live geographically; all places come with good and bad points.  A home must be made up of the people you love and you will be joyful no matter where you are.

Before Leaving the East Coast

Even though my husband and I grew up in Pennsylvania, and feel like we've been everywhere there is to go out here, there is still so much to explore that we have yet to see.  Now that a move West is less than 3 months away, the desire to take in all that the eastern seaboard has to offer is strengthened.  This weekend, we are going to take a jaunt down to Washington, DC.  We've both been there before, and my husband actually lived there for a time, but the city holds a lot more treasure for us now that we are adults, and a military family.  There is a lot to see in DC, and I found a great article defining the top 10 places to go while we're there:
http://www.time.com/time/travel/cityguide/article/0,31489,1852610_1852670_1852344,00.html

There are several places I have always wanted to go, and time and baby's schedule permitting, we will get to take in a bulk of these attractions.

How to do the military move...

As our departure date nears, we have begun to plan how to get ourselves, our baby, our two dogs, and our vehicles exactly 2,865 miles across the country.  If you've done a military move before, then you know that there are a number of ways to do it, and many strategize based on ease and affordability.

A really good thing about moving with the military is that they will move EVERYTHING for you.  That means, they will send a moving crew and an 18-wheeler to your house and they will box it all up and move it, then unpack it at your new home.  This is by far the easiest way to move your stuff from place to place.

Another option is to move yourself, which a lot of people do because the military will pay you by the pound and by the mile and you can often make out with anywhere between $10,000 - $18,000 in your pocket afterwards.  However, this is the most difficult way to move.

When we moved from Montana to New Jersey, we did a partial DITY move and made a few thousand dollars with less headache.  I personally like this option, and especially now that we have a baby it seems like the most logical.

However, we have a couple road blocks.  For one, the military will not ship vehicles, so we have to figure out how to get our cars to California.  I would rather not put the miles on my car, and I don't foresee having our 1.5 year old in the car for 4 days, so I plan to fly with her.  My husband could probably drive his pickup truck and if he puts a cap on it, he could take the dogs as well. Add a UHaul trailer with some of our stuff in it, and we can make little money on that.  So... what to so with my car?  Sell it?  Ship it?

...to be continued...

A New Year Brings New Changes

As soon as the first of the year arrived, I realized that it was about time to think about our move to Fairfield, California. Of course it's nice that we have about 5 months, but the wisdom I have tells me that the time will fly and we will be out of here before I can blink twice. There is so much planning involved, such as whether or not we fly or drive, how we get the dogs out there, and what about our vehicles? Then there's the packing, cleaning, and then it's off to the West coast. Time to make a change... Again. Thank God I crave change. However, it's still a little nerve racking and I find myself a little anxious. I think I will go buy some plastic bins today...