It has been awhile since I have written, but it has been a busy month or so. Here are the highlights…
We headed down to Cali for a family vacation and Chris’ first good-byes before he leaves. We had such a great time! It was the perfect balance of simply relaxing in my in-law’s backyard, getting to connect with friends & family and enjoying some fun activities. One of the biggest victories was simply the fact that I relaxed, which I don’t tend to do very well – woohoo!
We took the boys to Disneyland and had a GREAT time. They are at a really fun age to take it all in (but in all honesty, we loved every minute of it too – that place really is magical!). Meeting Mickey, Brody driving his first “real” car and the boys meeting their hero, Buzz Lightyear were the definite highlights…
Chris and I were grateful to get a few minutes down at the beach to complete the trip…
When we returned, reality set in for me that the next big thing headed our way was for Chris to leave. I think in my mind I had always had the buffer of our trip to California, but now that trip was done and him leaving is all that is left. Chris got his official orders last weekend for a deployment date of November 3 for 400 days. He has training starting September 14 for a month, then home for two weeks before he leaves in November. The training makes it feel as though his deployment starts much sooner than November 3, but I am so grateful for those two weeks in October. We continue to plug along balancing the to-do’s of daily life, getting ready for deployment and living in the moment and savoring our time together.
There you have it; you are caught up on the biggies of the last month. Many more thoughts to come as we count down to deployment…all our love to you all and thanks for walking this path alongside us!
