Ricky Speaks!

On Sunday we finally actually spoke to Ricky. We've received quite a few newsy letters from him, but I told him before he left that when he gets his 5 minute phone call (if he gets it) to call Ashley. If I were a 20 year old with a boyfriend, I'd really want to talk to him. So, the last few Sundays, he's called Ashley and had her call me to let me know he's good. I couldn't figure out though, why, for a few weeks, it was in the evening, and the next few it was in the morning. Well, one of his letters said he's been going to church. He went to a Mormon service with some buddies. He said it was kinda weird, but he's going to keep going becuase they give out cell phones for "like, five minutes!" They all lost their phone privilege because "a kid in another platoon was arrested for weed"!"isn't that weird?" Ricky's words, not mine!

He's been appointed as a team leader and he gets to "boss the weak and non-motivated around!" He gets to wear a Sgt. patch on his arm too. It was 10pm when he was finishing his letter to me and said he had to get up at 4am, but wanted to get up a little early to get ready to go out on the range. He said he's doing very well on the range with his M-16!! He loves it. This week, he'll be doing a 3 mile march and 3 nights in the woods, next week, he'll be doing a 7 mile march and 7 nights in the woods.
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His graduation is June 27. He'll be leaving the next morning for Fort Gordon, GA for AIT.

I am SO proud of him!

Laurel Graduates!!

Our last one graduated yesterday. Talk about mixed feelings. I've been waiting for this FOREVER!!!! Now, I'm not so sure I'm happy about this. We actually have no "kids" here anymore. Wow.......we are getting OLD!
Anyway, it was a wonderful graduation ceremony. Up on the screen, there was a picture of each graduate and their "Senior Quote" as they walked across the stage....some of them got a whole lot of laughs! The favorite of everyone's was: "If the #2 pencil is so popular....why isn't it number ONE?"
Friends and family gathered at our house afterward for a lasagne dinner (Laurel's favorite). Her grandparents from Texas are here and brought a really cool video they had made for Laurel starting with baby pictures and ending with last week. It was awesome.
I put this video together of the pictures Harly took yesterday. I'm finding out, for some reason, all the videos I have on this blog start up automatically, along with the music. You'll have to scroll down and turn off the volume on all of them to hear the current one.
In the meantime, I'm going to try to figure it out.

Bluebird Love

Brent's parents are here for Laurel's graduation this week, and his dad, Harly brought his awesome camera. He sat in our backyard the other night for ever and was able to capture all these amazing photos of our resident bluebird couple feeding their young. We've waited for over three years to have actual babies in our bluebird box. There has been several nests every year, but something always got the eggs. This is the first year we actually got babies! And what makes this even more special that Harly got these pictures when he did; we noticed that the bluebirds were no where to be seen today so Brent checked the box. The babies are gone! They've flown the coop. We are going to miss seeing the Mr. and Mrs. feeding them every night. And we still have a whole container of mealy worms in our fridge! Hopefully, another pair or the same pair will nest again this season.

Dinseyworld!

Our trip to Disneyworld was fantastic! A great time was had by all of us. It was so great that none of us wanted to come back home!

We left Fort Wayne on Sunday, May 27 at 6:00 a.m. The girls were exhausted already by the time we got in the air, but were very excited to go on their very first airplane ride. Mackenzee was asking me if we were up yet before the plane even started moving. They thought it was the coolest thing when we finally did get up in the air. It was still dark out and we could see the light down below. They both exclaimed at the same time, "Wow, you can see the town". Mackenzee also asked me, after seeing the clouds below us, if I thought Grandpa Great could see us. "Of course he can!", I told her.

Sunday was very, very long. We stood in a huge line at the Orlando airport to get our bus ride to our hotel, Pop Century. Then we stood in a very long line to check in. Our luggage would not be delivered for another three hours and we were wearing warm Ft. Wayne clothing in 85 degree weather! All the girls wanted to do was go swimming. Instead we "made" them go to the Magic Kingdom. They were in awe of everything and very tired, hot and a little cranky. We went back to the hotel so Grandma Great could take a nap, and I let the girls swim. We went to a really cool restaraunt that night, The Rainforest. We got back pretty late.

Monday, we headed out very early for Breakfast with Pooh and Friends at The Crystal Palace. We ended up eating there several times during the week, for different meals. They had a super buffet with something for everyone. We hung out at the Magic Kingdom most of the day, went back to the "vacation" as Mackenzee called our hotel (Maddison called it our apartment) to swim and let Grandma Great rest. Then we headed out again that night.

Tuesday, we went to Epcot. Maddison was already tired because I woke her up before she was ready. As soon as we entered the gate, she had a melt down. She hated this place, it was boring, and she just wanted to go back to the apartment! Then we found the Nemo ride. We rode it two times in a row. She was good to go after that, but we didn't stay at Epcot. I agree, it was a little boring for little ones. We had a 3:30 appointment for the girls to get a princess makeover at the castle. They didn't get a nap that day. We headed over to the Magic Kingdom and they were so excited. They got to go "shopping" to pick out their princess gowns, tiaras, shoes, and wands. Maddison chose Cinderalla, and Mackenzee chose Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). They really were treated like royalty. Maddison fell asleep during her makover. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen. There are pictures of it on this video, but I took an actual video. I took it off this blog because I submitted it to AFV, and I had to sign a form that I would take it off. We'll see what happens with it.

Wednesday, we went to Hollywood Studios and then had a late dinner reservation at the castle where they met Cinderella and, again, were treated like royalty during dinner. Cinderella's Fairy Godmother sang and we were able to see fireworks right out the windows way up high in that castle. It was truly breathtaking.

Thursday, we headed over to Animal Kingdom and went on a safari. We saw a really cool show with Lion King. We had tickets to Cirque de Soleil ~ La Nouba that evening. I couldn't take pictures inside the theatre, but it was amazing. The girls sat through over an hour and a half show. The theatre was in Downtown Disney and when the show was over we checked out all the shopping. There was a huge Lego store where you can play and build things.

Friday was the Mickey's Pirate, Princess party at the Magic Kingdom. They closed the park at 7pm unless you had tickets. The girls dressed in their princess gowns and we got to ride on so many rides because there were almost no lines. We loved the Winnie-the-Pooh ride so much we rode it about five times! We also loved the Pirates of the Carribean ride. One of the times, the boats stopped moving and were were stuck down there for almost 15 minutes. We didn't get back to the hotel until 1:00 a.m.

We didn't have anything planned for Saturday, so we went back to the Magic Kingdom for a while, then back to the hotel, then back to the Magic Kingdom. We were going to go back early because we had to be up around 4am to get our bags checked and get to the airport. That didn't happen! We left the Magic Kingdom after 10:00 p.m.! It was hard to leave, knowing this was our last night. The girls were pretty sad that they had to go home.

was a very looooooooong day. I had to dress Maddison while she slept. I carried her out front where we waited for the bus and she still slept! She didn't wake up until we were about to board!

We all had such a great time. Grandma Great gave us such a wonderful gift - this vacation. The girls tell me everytime we talk that they are ready to go back. I want to thank my mom for such a wonderful time - it was a "dream come true"!

The first two videos here are from dinner at the castle. Cinderella's Fairy Godmother was singing Bippity Bobbity Boo and everyone joined in.

The second two are from one of our meals at the Crytal Palace. Maddison and Mackenzee were old hats at this by now and were so waiting for the characters to get to them. It's so funny, because the first time we were there, they just sat there and acted shy. By now, they were barreling the characters over to give them hugs.

So precious!

I had posted, earlier, a video of Maddison sleeping while getting her Princess Makeover, but had to take it off because I submitted it to America's Funniest Home Videos and it's not eligible if it's posted anywere publicly. I can, though, e-mail the video to you if you'd like.