New favorite hot spot LOL

Never have I made so many trips to the same place to do and see different people. We have made four mini trips to Dallas in the past seven weeks, making lots of memories and doing lots of shopping.
First the kids and I attended a friends wedding. They had so much fun swimming, shopping, helping decorating, and making new friends. It was also our first successful trip with Daniel and all of his dietary restrictions. It was a great success!

Now we know why everyone loves In & Out Burger!

Next Jake and I went on a weekend getaway. I quick befor-things-get-crazy-need-time-alone-befor-deployment weekend. We spent a few days shopping, spending time with friends, eating out, going for runs without children, planning the next year, having the hard pre-deployment this is how things happen if something goes wrong talk, and just relaxing. The kids had a blast hanging with their second family. We all came back together refreshed and happy to be together.

Next was our lets ditch reality and spend time as a family trip. We spent three days at Great WOlf lodge. Absolutely Fabulous! It just happens it fell over Daniels birthday. So I talked all the boys into foregoing any birthday parties this year and blowing all our money at Great Wolf. At the end of our time there Rainey commented "This was the best time ever! I felt like it was my birthday too." They are all begging to go again. We made some great family memories that week.

That's our fearless monkey Mikey going down the slide for the millionth time

We got stuck in the hallway (the safe area) on our way out of the lodge while tornadoes touched down somewhere north of us. Good memories LOL

This last trip was a Mommy sanity weekend. A few of the girls from Church and I went to a womens Conference. It was fabulous! We spent most of the weekend giggling, telling our stories, and just having fun. It was definitely just what I needed to set myself up for next month. The kids had dad all to themselves and did dad things. It was pretty fun seeing the bonding that happened while I was gone, but walking in the door knowing that I was missed.

Now we are just biding our time, finishing up projects, prepping the house for a lack of muscle around to do certain things, and finding every opportunity to do fun things together. It's a dismal time but I try not to think of saying good-bye and filling it with lots of activities to encourage togetherness and good memories. At least this is only temporal...