July 2010

So to continue with the summer of travel and family theme, Jansen and I spent the majority of July in Montgomery, Alabama with Daddy as he started his second round of Reserves JAG training. We couldn't really stay too much longer because I have to start school soon and haven't really been home to do much around here this summer on my break, so I had to come home and prep for going back to work as well as get Jansen's daycare situation lined up. It was really hard to leave Daddy there again and come back here just the two of us for so long, but we are getting by and talk to Daddy at LEAST once a day. We've also got great friends helping to fill in the time so we can get through a little easier than Daddy probably is.

Montgomery was HOT and much smaller than I had anticipated. There were several really cool things to see and do, but a good deal of what they have to see charges admission and so it could potentially be an expensive visit as a tourist if you were trying to get all the sights in. There were several things to do that were inexpensive but with Jansen's and My alternative being to sit in a tiny hotel suite for two plus weeks or get out and do something the nickel and diming was going to get costly unless we got creative! We tried going on walks at first, but by 9 am it is so sticky and hot that we couldn't really get far or take up much time doing that. We were limited to what we could do on base because I didn't have a military ID, which you need to use ANY facility on the base. I had thought originally that Jansen and I would spend the days at the pool, but that wasn't available to us. I sought a couple of malls to walk even though I'm not a shopper to get in some cool air and some exercise. The first one I got us to was one of those that had a series of 'strip malls' with all outdoor enterances. No mall-walking there, just having to actually go in to stores and look around. It did get us out of the hotel for an afternoon, but we were sweat-drenched and didn't go back to that one again. The next day I found the indoor mall so we headed there after nap time to spend the afternoon in the cool air conditioning walking the mall and getting exercise. That one was really small and we walked the whole thing in 15 minutes. Boo! We did a couple of days grocery shopping at WalMart Supercenter, Took a nice LONG walk in the park that housed the Shakespeare Theatre and the Museum (VERY hot afternoon for us, but we got out anyway), and ventured up to Tennessee to see Mel, Meg, Bri and families for a few days!! Gosh it had been about 9 years since I had seen them all so it was really spectacular to get to spend that time there!!! While there we met at Mel's and played for a while, spent our evenings at Meg's, met everyone for a fun filled day in the park, swimming, and family dinner complete with smore making and from scratch peach cobbler! Bri somehow managed to avoid the camera and we forgot to do a cousins' photo of us, but at least I got ONE of all the little kids together (Eli looked away at the wrong time though). We went back to Alabama and got in a few more sights with Daddy, then came back home. Seems so short now that we are home and Daddy's still there. :o(

Anyway.... here's our July!