The Move: Stage 4 - Living in a Hotel and Aly's Adventures (June-ish - July-ish 2016)

Well, Aly wasn't quite ready to say good bye after girls camp, and since we still had a couple more weeks  before we could get back into our house, I let her stay with her peeps for a little longer.  Her one friend's family even invited her to go on vacation with them to see the Palmyra pageant and Niagara Falls.  Lucky! (insert Napoleon Dynamite voice there.)

Thank you so much to the Craig family for adopting my child for a few weeks.  She loved, loved, LOVED every second she got to spend with you guys.  We have truly been blessed with wonderful friends.

Love the amazing clouds and those severe thunderstorms that roll in every afternoon in Florida.  It's like intense sunshine, heat, then - BAM! - crazy pouring rain for a 1/2 hour or so and then back to sunshine.  I love the no nonsense, "let's get this knocked out and move on" attitude of the weather here.

Well, as we leave Aly in her vacation bliss, let's see what the rest of the family was doing those couple of weeks, shall we?  I guess you could say we were kind of in vacation mode - in that we were living in a hotel.  But other than that it was just a whole lot of craziness.  First of all, every time we move I (we) get so sick of eating restaurant food.  After a week or so it's just like, "bleh!  Can I get a home cooked meal?!?"  We were staying in a hotel with a mini kitchen so I tried to offset that by bringing some dishes and my crock pot.  It worked out okay, but the hotel room was super cramped and there was no dishwasher.  Oh well, we made it work.   Doing laundry was nice in a way because I could get it all done in an hour and a half.  Using the luggage cart for folding and bringing it back up to the room was interesting though . . .   The other thing I forgot to take into account was the tourism traffic - Yikes!  What a nightmare!  We coulda, shoulda, woulda stayed in Crestview instead (if I coulda, shoulda, woulda found a hotel with a kitchenette) - better for Chris' commute, less tolls over the bridge, and better for getting down to Niceville every day to set up utilities, register for schools, doctor's appointments, etc. - ah the fun of moving!

We also were able to work on our house a little bit while waiting for final inspections and carpet cleaning to be done.  Analise had big plans for decorating her room and so we were able to paint before the furniture arrived - my first time painting - EVER! It turned out pretty well! Unfortunately we had some not-so-good surprises waiting for us when we got into the house.  First of all, we found out that our tenants had 2 cats in the home.  I was having major breathing issues and breaking out into hives the entire time we were there.  This did not make me happy.  Add on top of that we found shingles on the back porch (?!?!) which required some roof repairs to be done along with the AC acting funky which led to us needing to purchase 2 new AC units for the home.  What happened to the Rental management company taking care of the home?!?!  (Come to find out Rental Companies just stick a band aid on everything. Also found out after the fact that our yard maintenance guy quit because of issues with our property rental company too -  but that's another story.)  NOT the smooth transition I was hoping for - especially when Chris was already back at work and school started in just about a month.  STRESS!!

Okay, well enough of all the crapiness.  I'm not trying to complain, and everything got worked out eventually, but I am keeping this blog for posterity sake and I want to create an honest snapshot of our family's adventures - lotsa good, but lotsa craziness too - so that I'll remember that "yes, moving was crazy and stressful and it wasn't all in your mind, Stacy." ;)

So anywho, despite all the hectic-ness, we also had a little fun.  We swam in the hotel pool, watched a lot of Disney TV, read books, and celebrated 2 birthdays (went to see Finding Dory for Lise's birthday and out for Frozen Yogurt for Kate's birthday).  We also hit the beach a time or two.

Lise & Ellie putting on the play, "Cinderella", as the 2 ugly stepsisters.  Another day they came up with a complete circus with Lise & Ellie as the clowns, Kate & Marc as the magicians, and Kylie & Maddy as the Lion  tamer/Lion.  Love all the creative juices that come from playing with the Lawson's.

The thing that saved us were all the fun friends that welcomed us back with open arms and were willing to play with us!  Thanks to the Lawson's for opening up your home and letting us play at your house all. day. long. And for all the people we met at playgroup, or invited us to the movies or went on a day trip with us.  We even got to meet up with Kylie's kindergarten teacher who was down in Destin vacationing!

Our last Hurrah before getting into our home was the 4th of July.  Thanks to the Miller's who invited us over for a BBQ & Shrimp boil and then watching fireworks on the beach.  We actually got to see about 4 firework shows from our vantage point - Niceville, Fort Walton Beach, Harborwalk, and Baytown Wharf.  Awesomeness!

The Move: Stage 3 - Carolyn's & Kentucky Girls Camp (June 2016)

After all the beach house fun, we left Chris to get back to work and "being the boss" while we drove up to Tennessee/Kentucky for Aly and Lise to go to their next girls' camp.  Carolyn graciously let us crash at her house while the older two were gone.  Seriously, Carolyn could make a fortune at the "Paine Hotel" if she ever started charging me for all the times I've stayed with her.  She has been a life saver for our family during more moves and deployments than I can count.  And the best part is, we love their family so much that we actually have a blast staying with them.  Thank you Carolyn, for being the best Sister-in-law a girl could ask for! (And thanks to Rachel and Rebekah, for being Kate & Kylie's buddies!) 

When I went up to drop off the girls I stayed overnight at my friends house and was able to have one last hurrah of working out with my friends and going to Panera.  So going to miss these women.

And how did Girl's camp go?  Well, I wasn't there, so I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure they had a fantastic time! ;)  (Once again, no pictures from Lise, but I know she was there in all her unique craziness and glory!)

The only time to sleep at girls' camp is during the day . . . 

I know that my girls are going to miss their friends as well - more than we can say.  We love you Kentucky!

The Move: Stage 2 - Change of Command & O'Gwin Family Reunion (June 2016)

June 16, 2016. This was the day of Chris' change of command ceremony where he became the new 4th Battalion Commander of 7th Group Special Forces.   After a year of knowing that this was coming (and years of hard work), the day was finally here!  There was a lot of anticipation and build up, but Chris did a marvelous job on his speech and I know he is ready for the challenge.   

 It was neat to see Chris' family come together and support Chris in this next step of his career.  When we found out Chris was going to get command, he said he wanted to fly out his parents for the ceremony.  It was all in the works until Chris' Dad passed away in January.  We were just going to have Chris' mom come out, but his siblings rallied together and came out in force to support their brother.  Super awesome.  So grateful for family.

I am really proud of Chris and all of his accomplishments - and not just in his military career, but in taking care of our family as well.  I know that Chris cares about doing the right thing and will give his best to the men in his unit and to accomplishing the missions assigned to them.  As the saying goes, "Lo que sea, cuando sea, donde sea."  - Anything, anytime, anywhere. (Or, as I like to refer to it in my more sarcastic moments - Whenever, wherever, WHATEVER! ;)> Don't know where this next journey will take us, or how crazy it's going to be, but I'm sure glad we're in it together.  Love you Chris!)

So, of course, with all of Chris' family out visiting, we were going to turn it into a party.  Next stop - THE BEACH!  We had lots of fun playing in the sand, swimming, etc.  We even have proof that Grammy got in the water!

Unfortunately, we were having so much fun that we forgot to reapply sunscreen.  What - we leave Florida for 2 years and suddenly we're back to being the crazy tourists who get fried on the beach?  Poor kiddos.

 The older girls had a lot of fun taking bike rides, selfies,  and sunset walks on the beach as well.

 And if the sand gets to be too much, there's always the pool!

Kylie became super motivated on this trip and suddenly decided to teach herself to swim!

Once we'd had enough of the sun we decided to do a few indoor things. We played games, did some shopping, and hit the movie theater (Jungle Book for the littles.)

We hit the playground and splash pad and then went to see some gators!

Nice Uncle Sean bought the kids some food to let the kiddos feed the gators.  They loved it, of course.

Of course there had to be go carts and bumper boats involved. . .

 . . . and let's not forget a dinner at Olive Garden to celebrate Chris' Command, some birthdays, and to remember Papa, who loved this place so much.  Yummy!

Missy arranged for this cool air boat ride on the last day.  (Thanks Missy!)  A way fun way to view the Gulf of Mexico.  The kiddos even got to drive! 

Pirates of the Caribbean?

(Also, love my kids imaginations!  It's just a couple of wooden stumps, but you never know what they're going to come up with!)

Titanic?

Karate Kid?

 It was really great to get to see everybody.  I was a little high strung that week (and during the entire summer!) from being in the middle of a move, rushing from one thing to the next, and not wanting to make ONE MORE DECISION, so I feel a little bad that I was a little standoffish at times or not as helpful in "hostessing" Chris' family and coming up with a plan of things to do.  I want to officially say that I'm sorry for adding to anyone's stress level while out in Florida!  But I did enjoy getting to hang out with everyone, I made a lot of great memories,  and I am so grateful for your love and support of our family.  We love you Guys!!! (And we are in our house now, so please feel free to come visit!)