The Best Season

I'm not sure about you, but my favorite season is definitely fall.  We had 10 years of mostly fall-like weather in San Diego, but it's not the same as finally coming to the end of a long, hot summer and having the excitement of cooler weather and the holidays!

Speaking of the holidays, we ended the summer with our annual Labor Day family reunion in Texas.  We had a great time spending time with the people we love, and our extended family continues to grow each year. It was fun to meet the babies who were born since the last time we saw everyone.

My Uncle Brian and Aunt Margaret host the reunion at their beautiful ranch house every year.

Emma loved the horse-shaped tire swing in the yard.

She and cousin Laura had a great time driving in the Jeep together, too.

The kids and adults fished and rode the boats around the pond.

Emma and Laura are taking a pretend kayak ride. They were big buddies all weekend.

New babies!  Left to right, cousin Emily holding Samuel, cousin Leslie holding Shepherd, and sister-in-law Sheila holding Meera

So sweet!

This was the first time we got to meet my brother, Steve, and sister-in-law, Sheila's daughter, Meera.  She is such a sweet, happy baby!

I kind of like her. :)

After a couple of fun days, we took off our cowboy gear and said goodbye to Texas.

Back in Virginia, we've had play dates with our friends, Jenna and Elisha

Two little monkeys

Emma has mixed emotions about Elisha. Some days, she sees him as a threat to her toys and personal space, and other days, she loves playing with him. Elisha is laid back and loves everyone, and he is so confused by their on-again, off-again relationship. I just tell him to get used to it, because it will only get more confusing in the future.

She loves dressing like a princess, and sometimes she acts like one, too.

 But sometimes the princess throws a fit on the kitchen floor.

 Emma has been sick an awful lot the past couple of months.  Preschool has taken a toll on her and she's caught several colds, which have sometimes turned into ear infections.  She had a chronic ear infection last month that didn't go away after two rounds of oral antibiotics, so she had to get some pretty painful antibiotic shots.  

Showing her "owie" from her shot.

Last week, we ended up at urgent care late at night when Emma had a severely painful UTI. Between the catheter and her shot, she fell asleep exhausted on the examining room floor.

Our poor baby

The UTI set her back some, but she had been going to the potty about 50% of the time. A little while ago, I let her try on some underwear since she had been doing really well that day. A few minutes later, she called out, "Look! I made an "F"!"  Sure enough, she had wet her underwear (standing right in front of the potty, mind you) and somehow peed the letter "F" on the carpet. Ha!

I went away on my own for the first time since before Emma was born. October 19th was the one-year anniversary of my brother, Paul's, death, so I flew to Texas to spend the weekend with my parents and brother, Steve. It was a very strange feeling to get on an airplane without Emma and Dan for the first time. Although it was by far the most relaxing travel experience I've had in over two years.

After they dropped me off at the airport, Dan and Emma stayed there playing for about two hours. Between the escalators, stores, and curved benches, Norfolk International Airport became Emma's favorite playground. She would walk from one end of the bench to the other, lift her arm, and say "ta da!"  

My parents, Steve, and I had the best time in Texas that weekend. We brought flowers to Paul's grave (the tombstone hadn't been placed yet), watched old home movies and photo slideshows, and just reminisced about Paul together. We also played games, ate great meals, went to church, enjoyed walks and runs, and just appreciated being together. 

While I was away, Dan took Emma on the Jamestown-Scotland ferry on their way up to Williamsburg. 

They spent the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Jester's house and Emma had a blast playing with her cousin, Naomi!

 The following weekend, I joined some of my coworkers for the Light The Night Walk to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Dan's school has a very good girls' volleyball team. They were undefeated in the metro conference and won the regional tournament for the 4th year in a row! We've enjoyed watching their games this season.

Before we knew it, it was Halloween! We drove to Williamsburg to go trick-or-treating with Dan's family. Left to right in front: nephew Aaron dressed as "Bullet Man" (he made up his own superhero!), Emma dressed as Cinderella, and nephew Josiah dressed as a dinosaur with a pistol. 

Dan's sister, Robin, and her daughter, Miriam, dressed as Celia and Mike Wazowski from Monster's Inc.

Robin's husband, Rob, and their older daughter, Naomi, dressed as Sully and Boo. Boo was not happy about her costume.

But she had a good time riding around the neighborhood in her cousins' car.

Dan earned all of Emma's candy since he carried her around the neighborhood.

She kept saying "I'm a beautiful princess!" Yes you are, sweet girl.

Getting To Know You

We are officially Virginia residents now - our license plates say "Virginia is for Lovers," and everything! Dan's school year started this week, so he is working long days, but he feels like things are going smoothly so far.  I was offered a new job by the president of my company's Portsmouth office, so I'll eventually transfer from my department in San Diego to a new department here.  I'll be doing the same type of work, and I think it'll be a good change.  The three hour time difference between coasts has been somewhat of a strain.  My San Diego coworkers don't end their day until 8 pm Virginia time, so when they send a project to me late in their day, I often don't finish working until around 10 that night. I'll really miss being a part of such a fantastic team, but it'll be nice to work with a group in the same time zone again.

Emma seems to be slowly adjusting to preschool.  This week, she didn't cry for two days in a row when I dropped her off!  But at the end of the week they switched her to an older class with a different teacher, and she was back to crying again.  Oh well. She knows her new teacher already, so I think she will be fine again soon.  She always has a good day at school after the drop-off drama. Also, they are potty training her for us! That in and of itself is worth every cent we are paying them.

We've had a really good month getting to know our new home.  All three of us were sick with a string of viruses or allergies the first month and a half after our move, but we are feeling well again. Also, the mosquitoes have begun to die and go to hell where they belong.  It's a happier world, all in all.  Here are a few pictures of the places we've explored recently.

We got free tickets from my company to the Norfolk Tides Minor League Baseball game.

There was a Star Wars theme that night, so instead of the players' faces on the screen, they showed a Star Wars character.  Emma wanted to know all the monsters' names.

Cool girls

I took her to the Portsmouth Children's Museum on one of our weekdays off together. It's a really fun place! They've divided the museum into rooms with different themes. They also had a planetarium where they showed a Sesame Street movie about the stars.

 One room was set up like a grocery store

Another section had a play area specifically for toddlers, where everything was cushioned and set low to the ground

Emma really enjoyed playing in the bubble room

There was an art gallery 

A music room

A room about the human body where you can brush enormous, nightmarish teeth!

 And an entire room filled with building blocks.  We spent about 3 hours at the Children's Museum, and didn't explore several of the rooms!

We've been on the hunt for the coolest playgrounds in the area, and there's a fantastic one just down the road from us at Chesapeake City Park.  It has a large network of about 5 wooden playgrounds for different ages in a shaded area, which is nice in the 90+ degree heat  

 We found another large, fun playground at Mount Trashmore. (I am not kidding about that name. It's a park built on top of a landfill.) 

Emma is telling me what a terrible mother I am for leaving her unattended in order to take a picture. Or something to that effect.

She loves swinging in these swings for special needs children (after we make sure no one else needs one)

Tackling the Mount Trashmore hill!

We've gotten to visit old and new friends this month, too.  We befriended Ann through our church in San Diego before she married a Navy Seal and moved to Virginia Beach years ago. Emma and I visited her one morning and met her three kids, Asher, Gabe, and Betty.

We've gotten to know several of Dan's coworkers and their families better, too, including Emma's new buddy, Elisha, who is just a couple of weeks younger than her.

We drove to the Outer Banks one weekend to check out the town of Duck, NC and the beaches. We had a good time once we got there, but we don't recommend driving there on a Saturday during the summer. The traffic is horrendous!

 The past couple of Sunday evenings, we've driven to Virginia Beach for pizza, ice cream, and play time at the beach.

Emma is afraid to get anywhere near the ocean waves, but she wanted Dan to help her build a sand castle. She and Dan are compromising by making a sand pile with the dry sand.

We're having a good time getting to know Virginia better!

Life in Virginia

We're here! We officially moved to our new home about a month ago, which almost feels like a lifetime ago. Although we miss so many people and things about San Diego, we are loving our life in Virginia and are thankful that God opened the door for us to come here.  

All I can say about our cross country move is "we made it." I will just summarize the trip:

12-hour days in the car = 4

Vehicles that lost air conditioning when the temperature was 95 degrees outside = 2

Travelers who visited urgent care = 4

Antibiotics prescribed = 6

Sleepless nights comforting a toddler who wanted to go home = 1

There you have it.  But God blessed us with safety each day and good attitudes through it all, and for that I am very grateful.  I honestly don't know how we would've ever made it without the help of my parents and Dan's parents.  They put their love into action and helped us drive all our earthly belongings across the country, never complaining about the long, tiring days and uncomfortable nights in hotels. We love and appreciate you guys more than we can say!

Since everything was still packed in the moving truck, we made quick work of finding a house to rent. We love the neighborhood we chose in the Greenbrier area of Chesapeake.  We are in the middle of one of the most crowded suburban areas, which is the only place we felt at home since Hampton Roads, VA is much more rural than San Diego, CA. When we asked about areas to rent, people said we'd want to avoid Greenbrier because it's so busy with all the shops and restaurants and malls. Those people love the country. They probably grow vegetables and have a dairy cow in their backyard. I, however, want to buy everything I need at a store that is less than 5 minutes away. Maybe I will grow to love the country more with time, but for now, home is where the Target is.   

Work has been going well for both Dan and I.  Dan likes his new coworkers a lot, and with eight years of experience under his belt, he feels well prepared to handle the Upper School Principal responsibilities at his new school.  I'm working for the same company doing the same proposal/marketing job I've had for 10 years, and the transition to my new office has gone smoothly.

Emma loves our new home and all the experiences we've enjoyed in Virginia, but she is struggling with preschool three days a week.  She's used to being the only child at home or with a babysitter, and we are not exactly regimented about our daily schedule. Apparently, a drill sergeant forces her go to the bathroom with the other children, sit at a table while she is eating, and lay down on a mat at the same time every single day! I'm sure it feels exactly like toddler boot camp to her. She cries every day when we drop her off, but they say she has a good day after the first five or ten minutes. We chose a small church preschool, and we really like the Christian environment and the kindness of the employees.  So we are praying that she will grow to love it with time.

The thing we've enjoyed the most about being here is the time we've spent with family! We've driven an hour (or so) to Williamsburg every weekend to hang out with Dan's family and that alone has been worth the cross-country move!

Here are some pictures of our move and new home.

Emma finally finished loading the truck in San Diego. We thought she'd never get it all in. :)

We sold about half our furniture before we left so we could cram everything into a smaller 17 foot moving truck.  It saved a bundle of money! 

The friends and family who came to help us on moving day were such a blessing! 

Emma got one last hug from her babysitter, Linda. She loved going to Linda's house and really thrived under her care.

Emma and I flew to Fort Worth, TX (where my parents live), while Dan and his parents drove to Fort Worth from San Diego. Emma and I clearly got the better end of the deal!

Once Dan and his folks arrived in Fort Worth, we rested for a day at my parents' house. Then my parents joined us the rest of the way to Virginia. Having everyone with us made the drive a much more fun experience!

A photo of the drivers. My responsibility was to keep Emma entertained for 12 hours in the car. 

We've had such fun times since we arrived in Virginia!

We stayed in Williamsburg with Dan's parents while Dan and I searched for rental houses.  We got to visit nearby Jamestown Beach, which is beautiful!

My parents (left) stayed until we were settled into our house, and then headed back home to Texas. We are working on convincing them to stay forever. :)

We've also been blessed to spend time with several friends we haven't seen in years! 

Our good friends from Colorado, Mike, Kate, and their kids were in town to visit Mike's family for 4th of July.

Our friend from San Diego, Jenn, stopped by our house while she was visiting her parents in Virginia Beach.

Emma had a great time playing with Jenn's kids, Sarah and James!

We caught up with another sweet friend from Colorado, Courtney, when we visited her church one Sunday!  

We had rain every single day the first couple of weeks. Emma was fascinated by the umbrella which she saw in action for the first time in her life.

When we were asking questions about our rental house, I asked the property manager if we were responsible for running the sprinklers for the grass.  She looked at me like I had two heads - heh!  No sprinklers necessary here. :)

We have a garage!! My CR-V and I are spoiled.

We visited Chincoteague with Dan's parents. It's a lovely island off the coast of Virginia where Dan's dad's side of the family is from. They even have a street named for us!

Chincoteague was made famous by the children's novel, Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry. It's a story about one of the wild Chincoteague ponies that roam the area.  Emma loved meeting some of the ponies while we were there!

We've gotten to celebrate two family birthdays since we've been here. It's wonderful to be close enough to be a part of the festivities! 

Emma loves going to Grandpa and Grandma's house. We go swimming in the pool, play with all  their cool toys, and help feed Grandpa's fish.

She also loves hanging out with her cousin/BFF, Naomi.

We bought season passes to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, which is a very fun way to spend the day.

Busch Gardens has some of Emma's favorite characters, too!

We are so grateful to God for answering our prayers about moving to Virginia. It was a big decision and a major life change, but we love it here already and feel like it's the perfect place to call home.