The Next Chapter...

There are so many things I still want to post about, but I feel like I have to include this into the blog now; we are moving to South Korea! It honestly doesn't even really feel like this is real, but Greg has a start date as of Jan. 25, so it is going to be real before I know it!

The idea of moving to South Korea has been on our minds for a long time now. A co-worker brought up the idea at the beginning of the year, and there were a few opportunities that just didn't pan out.  But during the summer, there was a program at Greg's work that allowed people to apply for jobs within the agency, and Greg got his first pick to South Korea! He is beyond thrilled, and I am beyond scared, excited, terrified, etc.  This move is going to be crazy.  The list of what needs to be done before we leave is staggering, and we leave in 2 1/2 months.  Yikes!

We plan on flying out Jan 19th (ish) and making a pit stop in Hawaii.  It will be cold here when we leave and cold there when we get there, so we thought it would be fun to stop somewhere warm.  I am really looking forward to that!

A few random tidbits that people have been asking us when we tell them we are moving:

-Where will the kids go to school? On base at a DOD school.  Supposedly the school there is awesome!  The mascot is a dolphin, and the boys are super excited about that.

-Where will we live? Off base.  Since Greg is not in the military, we don't have housing privileges on base even though he will work there and the kids will go to school there.  We plan on living as close to the base as we can though since thats where most of our activities will be.  We think it will be an adventure to live in the culture of Korea.  It looks like we will probably live in a high rise since there are SO many people who live there.  Everything is built up!

-How many hours ahead is that?  13 from the East coast.  16 from Greg's parents.

-What will you do with your house? We are going to rent it out.  We are in the process of figuring all of that out.

-What are the seasons like there?  Exactly like ours here.  It will be winter when we get there during the winter.

Thats all I can think of for now.   I am sure there will be lots to update on later!

Soaking in the last days of summer

The days leading up to the first day of school were good ones! We tried to have as much fun as we could, and I think we succeeded!  I always feel better when I take time to play with my boys. I really need to do it more often!

We really had a great summer together.  I was honestly so worried leading up to summer on how it would go.  Having a baby with two very active little boys felt very daunting, but I really feel like we were blessed!  We did so many fun things; vacation bible camp, swimming lessons, play groups, beach trips, movie days, frozen yogurt outings, park days, and so much more.  Every day was definitely not perfect and some days were better than others, but I look back on the summer with such great feelings.  I can't wait until next summer!

Rehoboth Beach, DE

Even though the kids and I had been to the beach quite a lot over the summer, Greg had yet to make a trip with us, so we decided on a Friday night to make a day trip the next day to Rehoboth Beach, DE. 

It was about a three hour drive to get there, without traffic, but of course there was traffic.  It was the last Saturday before school started, and it seemed that everyone else in the world thought it would be a good idea to go to the beach before school started.  It took us almost 5 hours to get there!  We were all so happy to finally park the car and get to the beach.  

We had a great day as a family, and I am so glad that we made the trip.  I was beached out at this point though.  Rehoboth is a very touristy beach, so it was insanely busy. That part was not my favorite.  We will have to try to find a less touristy beach next summer.

For some reason, I have a fear of bridges, and this bridge totally freaked me out.

He looks pretty happy to be at the beach, but he was actually not that happy.  Its not that fun to have a baby at the beach! :)

We got a spot as far away from the water as you could get because there were so many people there.  

Kayden likes the ocean, but I think he prefers to just look at it instead of actually getting in it.  He stayed by me a lot of the time.

First lost tooth for Deagan!

Deagan lost his first tooth! (Since this picture he has actually lost the other bottom tooth.)  It was so wiggly for a long time, but I was too grossed out to pull it and he was too scared to pull it in case it would hurt, so we just let it fall out on its own.  Luckily it did! 

This was our first tooth fairy adventure, and instead of being excited about it, he was actually kind of freaked out.  He was afraid that the tooth fairy was going to come and kiss him during the night when she was dropping off his money, so he asked that we put it under a pillow on the other side of the room.  Funny guy!

He makes a pretty cute toothless kid!

Kayden and Ashley

Ashley has been living with us for almost a year now, and we have been so blessed to have her here.  She is a huge help in so many ways.  She also loves and adores our kids, which is pretty awesome!  When she first moved here, Kayden was kind of funny towards her.  He is not an over affectionate child, and is really big on things staying the same, and for some reason her living with us really kind of threw him off.  He is also one to say whatever is on his mind! 

One day, after a really hard day of work for Ashley, she came in and instead of getting a nice and warm welcome that she was hoping for from him, he said, "You're back.  Why do you always come back?"  She took it with stride, but I know it bothered her, and it would bother me too! 

After that, it was her mission to get Kayden to like her.  She does so many things for him and tries to hard to do anything he asks, and over time he really warmed up to her.  This picture is proof of that :)

Colonial Beach, VA

Another beach outing! I had heard about Colonial Beach that is off of the Potomac and that it was a kid friendly beach and super quiet during the week.  Ashley and I took advantage of a free week day and went and explored it.  It was only an hour drive from Waldorf, so it was an easy day trip.  The water was really shallow, so the boys were able to swim and play on their own pretty far out into the water.  I loved this beach as well because they had it netted off to keep large fish out of the swimming area. 

(Side note, I learned over the summer that bull sharks have been caught in the rivers and bays near DC, so now me fear of sharks has only gotten worse.)

When we first got there, it was really hot and there was not a lot of places to sit under the shade.  I was really nervous about that because I didn't want Easton to get sunburned, but there were these random trees that gave off a great amount of shade.  We were able to snatch up the last one, and I felt like it was a tender mercy.

During this time, Easton was going through a period his eating routine was way off.  He would only nurse on one side, and then refuse to nurse on the other.  He also just kind of didn't seem interested in eating period; especially if we were not at home.  Anytime we were out of the house was hard on him and me, but we continued to go out to keep the older boys happy. Having a baby with two very energetic boys is tough, but we survived the summer and manage to have a lot of fun along the way.

View of the beach

A wonderful swimming hole for kids!

This was just a welcome nap because he was not napping well outside of the house either!

Snack break

That didn't last long

Another shot of the beach

Calvert Cliffs

Deagan and Kayden love anything involving sharks, so when we heard of a place where you can go collect your own fossil shark teeth, we knew we had to go.  There is a place called Calvert Cliffs nearby where we went to over the summer.  It was a beautiful park! We knew we had to hike a bit to get there, but were surprised by how long of a hike it was.  It was almost 2 ways EACH way to get to the beach to collect teeth, but the boys were highly motivated by the teeth to get there. The walk back, however was a different story.  It took a lot of convincing and games to keep their minds off the walk back. We never did end up finding any shark teeth, but it was still a great adventure.

Easton did so great the whole time.  We had him the front pack, and he loved being able to look out at everything around him.

Snack break

Mom and Easton.  

Water and snack break

Lounging in the sand

First time in the water!

This was the only non sandy place to put him to change his diaper.  It ended up getting covered in sand eventually :)

The boys searching for shark teeth