San Angelo move and family road trip!

I'm sorry it has taken so long for me to update our adventures on the blog, but I'm ready to start the much needed update. I can't possibly do it all in one post, but will share our adventures of our last few weeks in San Angelo, our road trip to the northeast, our wonderful vacation with family, and our exciting trip to South Korea!

Our last few weeks in San Angelo. 

The main event of our last few weeks was Easter!  We had a wonderful time celebrating Easter with our church family, our military family, and of course in our little family.  The Friday before Easter, we went to the ward Easter picnic at the lake. Claire got to participate in her first flashlight Easter egg hunt. It was pretty fun, but she was so excited about shining the flashlight on the found eggs that she kind of forgot to pick them up at first. 

On Saturday morning, we went to a brunch sponsored by the Army at the same park at the lake. Claire was in heaven as there was a bouncy house, games, food, the Easter Bunny, face painting, and of course, another Easter egg hunt. The girls were dressed in their matching shirts Aunt Shirley bought them.

 That night, we decorated some Easter eggs at home.

On Sunday morning, Claire looked for her Easter basket we hid for her.

We of course also attended church and enjoyed a traditional Easter dinner at home.

 We also had a little Easter egg hunt in our back yard for Claire.

On April 12th, Chris graduated from his course at Goodfellow Air Force Base. He did an awesome job in the course and I am so proud of him. I'm so glad he's found something that he enjoys, he's good at, and totally fits his personality. And I have to say, my man looks pretty good in a uniform. :)

 After Chris's graduation, we went to the library for a special story time with a guest children's music artist. Claire had an awesome time singing, dancing, and participating in the show.

I have to share a few random pictures of our time in San Angelo:

This is how I woke up one morning. Claire pressed up against me and Maddie on my arm.

What can I say, we like to sleep! Chris and Maddie taking a cat nap.

Claire thought she'd put on daddy's boots and hat instead one morning.

"Sisters, sisters. There were never such devoted sisters."

Puppy Claire and little sister bonding watching a show.

Maddie at 16 weeks old. Who couldn't love that baby?!

Road Trip!

We moved out of our house in San Angelo, Texas on April 18th, and moved into a hotel in San Angelo. Chris wanted to wait to sign out so that he could be with me on my birthday before heading to Korea. He's so sweet. :) So we waited around until Monday morning which conveniently allowed us to have Maddie's 4 month check-up before we left. She's a growing baby and weighed in at 15 lbs. and 24.5 inches long.

Maddie at 4 months old. She had just started sitting up on her own, with boppy to help sometimes.

We were going to go boating on Saturday, but unfortunately Chris wasn't feeling well. Poor guy. We still enjoyed being together as a family and enjoyed our last few days in San Angelo.

Family nap time. I woke up to see this. My heart could just melt. Look at how much Chris and Claire look alike!

 Before leaving San Angelo, I wanted to make sure to get to see the international water lily collection and rose garden they have. It was a hot Sunday afternoon, but we enjoyed walking around the beautiful park together as a family.

This pink gorilla was in front of a scrubs store near our house. Almost every day, when we drove past it, we would say hello to him. We had to have a picture to say good-bye. There was also a bull just down the road we would also say hi to. He was originally called a moose though because Claire didn't believe us when we told her he was a bull instead of a moose. She eventually agreed with us though. 

On Monday, we drove to Dallas to stay with Chris's Aunt Shirley and Uncle Danny. We had such a good time visiting with them, and they do an amazing job at making us feel so welcome and special. We sure love them, and Claire adores them, especially Uncle Danny. :)

On Tuesday, we drove to Jackson, Mississippi. On Wednesday morning, before heading to Birmingham, Alabama, we went to the Jackson zoo. It was a small zoo, and kind of dumpy, but we still had a great time there. It's kind of hard to live up to the last zoo we went to as a family - the San Diego Zoo.

Cool albino peacock. That thing was loud too. Claire correctly remembered, "hey, he's like the bird on Kung Fu Panda [2]!"

The sea otter posed for Chris.

Mr. Rhino.

Funny ape. It reminds me of an old man sitting around on the couch all day watching tv. Hee hee.

Claire loved the carousel and rode it twice.

 After exploring the zoo, we drove to Birmingham where we enjoyed touring around a huge, free botanical garden. There was a huge rose garden and beautiful paths through forested, flowered areas. There was even a cool Japanese garden. Chris took opportunities both at the zoo and the botanical garden to make use of his new photography hobby.

Claire was excited to be out of the car and ready to explore.

Part of the awesome rose garden.

Chris got some great shots of the beautiful roses.

While Chris took lots of pictures, we took a rest on the swinging benches and had fun.

I got this shot of Maddie in the car as she turned 18 weeks old.

Thursday we drove to Augusta, Georgia. Atlanta was about half way, and we stopped at the Museum of Science and History there. Chris and I had never seen really dinosaur skeletons before. They had some really cool hands on discovery things for kids which Claire really liked.

After enjoying the museum, we headed to Augusta and explored the Augusta area and Fort Gordon. Chris may work at Fort Gordon after Korea, so we decided to check out the town and army post to see if it was somewhere we'd like to live. It seems like a very nice town, and we especially loved how green it was there. We missed the greenery while living in California (sandy beaches) and Texas (sandy deserts.)

On Friday we drove to Richmond, Virginia - Chris's old stomping grounds. It was fun for him to reminisce and show me around the place he loved living. It's also the city Chris proposed to me almost 7 years ago. We ate dinner at one of his favorite restaurants - a pizza joint of course (The Brickyard.) This was no ordinary pizza joint though. It really was unique and delicious pizza in a hip, city atmosphere. Yum!

Finally, on Saturday afternoon, we arrived at Chris's parents house in Montoursville, PA. We hadn't been back there since Christmas 2010, so it was nice to be back.

Chris did a great job planning our trip so that we could enjoy a leisurely drive, exploring some sites along the way. With a nursing baby and energetic 3 year old, it took a lot of possible stress out of the trip.