Our New Home in Virginia Beach

We moved into our new home about 10 days ago. We completed our fastest unpack in 10 years and our house is fully unpacked! We have boxes in the garage and in the under the stair closet to go through at our leisure. It is the first time that Jered was able to take leave to help unpack, so that's why it was so fast. Also being our fourth move in 10 years, we are getting more adept at what to unpack and where to put it. We are so excited about our new home. It's a great house, just perfect for our family. The neighborhood is so family friendly with tons of kids and a great playground just a few yards from our house. There is also a large pool and clubhouse for the residents of our community. The commissary is a mile away, and there are fun things to do on base like bowling, a library, a water park, fishing, and great parks by the lake. The civilian neighborhood has lots of shopping, restuarants, and nice public library close by, but it's still very residential and quiet. Our church is less than a mile away too, so that's a definite plus! We are enjoying our last week of summer vacation before school starts. After Labor Day, it's back to school, ballet lessons for Emma, basketball team for Will, and Awanas for both kids this year. We are very thankful to the Lord for providing more than we deserve and look forward to the next few years here.

Traveling - California to Virginia

We arrived in Virginia one month ago. We have been staying in the Navy Lodge at Norfolk while they are getting our house in Virginia Beach ready. We left San Diego on June 15, and spent 9 days driving across country, and about 3 weeks with friends and family. We stopped in Tucson and enjoyed the Pima Air Museum on Father's Day. After leaving Tuscon, we spent the night in Las Cruces and Fort Stockton.

In Texas, we spent a few days with Abby in San Antonio, touring her work at USAA, going to church, and visiting the Fort Sam Houston veterans cemetery where my grandparents are both buried now. We took a couple of day trips around the Austin area to see friends too. It was great to catch up with them, especially the Cozarts, some of our best and oldest friends that we miss so much! Abby and the four of us also went to Schlitterbaun water park, which was a blast.

After San Antonio we drove down to Corpus Christi. We spent a lot of time with all my aunts and uncles and cousin Phebe, and got together with my friend of 17 years, Lisa, and her husband. My grandmother is in the nursing home very close to my parents' new house, so I got to see her frequently. I didn't know if we'd ever see her again, so it made the visits very special. Baba and Meemaw have a beautiful new house, and we very much enjoyed it. Jered and Will especially liked the lake right out the back door, and caught a lot of bass and blue gill. On our way from Texas to Virginia, we stopped in Beaufort, Mobile (where Will lost his first tooth!), Atlanta, and Charlotte. In Atlanta we met up with a friend for dinner, and in Charlotte we spent the evening with Jered's cousins John and Stacie and their girls. Our kids are almost the same exact ages and they had so much fun together. Traveling across the country with 2 kids, 2 dogs, and 2 cars full of belongings was an adventure for sure! We were thankful that everything went well and we made lots of good memories.