Goofing around

Here are some pictures from the last couple weeks.  We have been busy getting things lined up to move so haven't been great at posting new pictures.  Sorry!  Lately Grayson has figured out how to rock himself in his little rocker and likes to sit there and rock or read.  He also go to play in the rain outside our kitchen for a little bit the other day.  Monsoon season has come and our grass is actually GREEN!  In fact, our backyard looks somewhat like a jungle since we don't have a lawn mower.  Will has the pleasure of borrowing a friends mower this weekend and getting to mow the backyard before we check out of our house next Monday.  Should be quite the job for him!  Movers come Thurs and Friday to pack and load the truck.  We'll stay in lodging near our house those days and over the weekend until we hit the road Monday morning.  Grayson has his 18 mth appt on that Monday and I also have a dr appt before we hit the road and then we hope to make it to El Paso or farther that afternoon.  Hopefully things go smoothly this week and aren't too stressful before our long drive next week! :)  I'll try to keep updating pictures and our adventures throughout the month.  

Walking around in Mommy's shoes

Beach time!

Our trip to GA wasn't ALL work and no play.  At the end of the week we headed to the beach in the morning.  Grayson has seen the ocean once before last Sept, but it was definitely a treat to actually play in the water this time!  The Pacific ocean is always so cold that your toes cramp up right away when you first walk in.  That morning while getting ready he crawled up in his stroller in the house we rented for the week and told us he was ready to go!  The beach was only about 20 min away from Savannah which is great and Grayson LOVED to play in the water!  Some kids would be hesitant of the waving lifting them away, but Grayson thought it was hilarious.  He'd sit in the sand, look at us and sign "more please" when the water would go away and giggle when the next wave came.  The tide was definitely coming in because at one point the waves got so big they'd shoot up our backs.  Good thing Grayson was sitting in front of me so he didn't get swallowed by the big waves! :)  He loved just sitting and playing in the sand and could do it for hours I think.  We'll have to look at getting a big pop up tent cover for shade to head to the beach on weekends when we move down there.  

Our future home... hopefully!

LATEST UPDATE:  All inspections and appraisals are done!  Now we are just waiting on finishing up the finance paperwork and we are set to close at the end of the month!  Hopefully we don't have any issues with our things being delivered on the 1st so that we have a full week to unpack and get things set up before Will needs to fly back to AZ for his last bit of training.  We'll be heading to GA next week and taking care of things on post like switching over insurance, then we head to Myrtle Beach for a week with friends.  We'll then be making a trip to OH and IN to visit family before heading back down to GA to close on the house and get moved in.  It'll be a crazy month, but hopefully Grayson does well with all the traveling and Will and I don't get too stressed out with all the things going on so we can enjoy this time as a family and all that's going on!  I'll do my best to post pictures when I'm able to and give updates on our adventures throughout the month!


UPDATE:  Our home inspection was completed last week and they only found a few things that needed fixed.  Nothing major.  The sellers have agreed to have everything fixed which is a blessing so we didn't have to go back and forth asking for things.  The termite inspection was done yesterday and no termites were found.  Whew!  Now we just have to wait on the appraisal and things should be able to finish up after that!  We don't expect an appraisal lower than the price we agreed upon, but we'll see!  


We just got home from a week trip to Georgia to go house hunting.  My parents were able to meet us there which was wonderful to have them join us for the week!  Grandma got LOTS of quality time with Grayson while we went looking at houses for 2 days.  My dad joined us one day and then met up with us the second day so mom could see the houses we had decided to take a second look at.  The house we ended up putting an offer on was actually the very FIRST house we looked at and wasn't even one we initially planned to see.  Will had seen the house online that weekend before we looked and then when we got to the realtor I was flipping through a magazine of houses for sale and saw this one.  We then asked our realtor to add it to the list for the day and we headed there first.  It's a little on the outside of town in a cute neighborhood with all these "cottage" style houses.  They call them cottages since there is a carport instead of a garage.  We loved the porch when we first saw it and found other perks to it when we walked through like a large laundry room with a utility since, screened in back porch with a fenced backyard and wonderful landscaping.  There's also a play space in the attic area that opens to 2 bedrooms with small doors.  We would need to put a fan in there for some air flow, but love the idea of having a space just for Grayson to play with some of his smaller toys!  The kitchen is open to the dining and living room and the 3rd bedroom upstairs should work as our master (the real master is downstairs) so that I don't have to be going up and down stairs in the middle of the night when the new baby is born.  There seems to be lots of storage space as well which is a bonus!  We have an agreed price with the seller and just waiting for the paperwork to come through for us to sign and get inspection and appraisal underway!  Hopefully it all works out!  We have a closing date of Aug 31 so Will should be able to help get some paint on areas we want done before our things arrive and have time to help unpack before he needs to head back to AZ for his TDY training for 6 weeks.  

Phoenix Zoo & Swimming

We took a trip to the Phoenix Zoo last weekend.  We were flying out of Phoenix to head to Georgia for house hunting and decided to go a day early in order to go to the zoo.  It was definitely a HOT day (115) and were happy the zoo opens at 7!  By 7 am it was already 90 degrees and Grayson was a happy camper to see a water play area there at the zoo.  Of course we didn't think about bringing his swimsuit so his clothes ended up soaked, but were able to dry them out some with the hand dryer in the bathroom. :)  

Phoenix Zoo has the BEST monkey exhibit we have seen by far!  It was set up like an aviary or butterfly house where the smaller monkeys were hanging out and you could walk inside.  Of course they asked you to stay 3 ft away not knowing how a monkey would react and not to touch them.  Trying to keep Gray 3 ft away was tricky, but a lot of fun to walk through!  In the pictures below I didn't have to zoom in with my camera at all because that's really how close we were to them.  One jumped from a tree branch to another and scarred a lady half to death since it seemed like it was ready to jump right on her!  There's a rope above your head they can climb across as well so you better watch out when they're up above!

 As usual Grayson had fun a the zoo despite the heat and really enjoyed the area where he could pet the goats.  I think he ended up going around to every goat to say hi.  He even got to touch a sting ray at another exhibit!  

We stayed at a hotel with a pool for 2 nights and Grayson loved swimming in the pool.  We found a couple floating things that Grayson could sit in so we didn't have to hold him the whole time.  He loved being able to hang out in the water on his own!  We had a fun time in Phoenix despite the heat and managed to miss the HUGE dust storm they got last week!  However, our poor Volvo was COVERED in dirt when we got it from the parking lot yesterday and we managed to pay a soccer group $10 today to wash our car for us. :)  

1 Year Album

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Fire info

As some of you have heard now, a fire started Sunday about 10 miles south of Sierra Vista, the town by Fort Huachuca.  It has continued to spread and only about 15% contained at this time.  47 houses have been damaged or destroyed due to the fire and many families are evacuated due to the spreading.  The Monument fire is still about 5 miles away from town.  We were advised in our neighborhood and the others here near the base of a canyon to keep watering our lawns and perimeter of our houses for preventative measures in case flames come through the canyon.  At 2 pm today, another fire unrelated to the Monument Fire broke out on the south end of base away from the housing units.  However, due to the rapid spread of this fire, houses now in south Sierra Vista are being evacuated and Will's class was let out early.  I added a link below this that you can click on for more information containing these fires.  There's usually new info every hour it seems so you can keep referring back to that if wondering how things are going.  Grayson and i dropped off a number of items to a shelter in town and other drop of sites for items needed for those working to fight the fire as well as evacuees.  They were very thankful for all the items and it's at least a small way I can help those in need.  Please keep our area in your thoughts and prayers.  We are in desperate need of the winds to stop that have been strong these last two days as well as an early monsoon season so we can get some rain.  It hasn't rained in over 2 months in the area so things are VERY dry.... as expected for the SW in the summer! :)  We'll let you know if anything happens and if we end up having to evacuate as well.  


Info on the Monument fire and fire on post
Pics from Monument Fire from a day ago