Evening at the "Lake"

So, after a long day at work, I packed up the girls, and met up here with some of my favorite people, Michelle, Jeremy and Ava. Even though the skies were a little cloudy, the sun was somewhat shinning, the water cold, but we had FUN!!

Kierstin didn't quite want to get wet, she would only go in until her diaper was wet. The only times that she got fully wet was when she fell face first into the water! She did have fun splashing the water at mom!

I LOVE this picture, I couldn't tell you exactly why, but it is my favorite picture of my little Kiki! She was having a wonderful time playing in the sand.

Teniah had a BLAST swimming around and playing in the water. So did little Ava...she was shaking because she was so cold, but she wouldn't get out of the water!

Here she is playing on the beach...she totally had a blast!

She would grab the sand off the beach, and throw it into water.

Even if we did get a little sprinkled on, we were able to see a beautiful rainbow!

Rain Puddles

It rained a little today, and the girls wanted to play outside. Teniah had a blast riding her bike through the puddles.

Kierstin was running around after her, singing a song and JUMPING in the puddles! They were having a blast!!

They might be a little bit dirty when I finally get them in the house, but...they are happy!!

Forgive and Forget

I love this plant! It is probley my favorite plant ever! I seriously thought that I had killed it a few months ago...but alas...LOOOK!

I can't wait for the Lilies to start blooming again!

Teniah is SEVEN!

Happy Birthday to our Niah Girl!!!

I can't quite believe my little girl turned seven!! It just seems like yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital! Now, we are having a "Twilight" birthday party for her! Oh my goodness!! She has been goo goo over Twilight since I let her watch it with me a couple of months ago. So we hung up some pictures, and this poster....

Can you tell that she is EXCITED!

I thought this was funny, here is Teniah as Bella!!

She is definitely TEAM EDWARD!!!!!!!

Teniah was MORE than excited to open her presents that night ... she had to wait until I got home from work ... she was super excited to get Pet Shop Puppies!

And a wii game!!

Here she is playing wii mini golf. We played 3 games and she beat me twice!! She is pretty good at it, and will only get better!!

And cute little Kiki...was "reading" while we played! :0) Such a cute little girl!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TENIAH!!

We LOVE You!

Happy "Fake" Birthday!!

Is my little one really gonna be SEVEN!!!!!!!!!!! I can't quite believe it is true!! I'm surely not old enough to have kids that are gonna be seven!! We had a Petersen Birthday Bash on Sunday in celebration of Teniah and her cousin Logan's birthday! I let her pick out her birthday cake and of course, she wanted PINK frosting! She is also very much into "pet shops" and that's what she wanted on her cake!

She sure loved her cake!!!

Here she is blowing out her candle! I think it took her about 3 times to actually blow it out! Silly girl! She was spitting a little...and her cousin Kabe told her, "You don't spit on it!" It was really cute!

And here were the kiddos eating cake! We all thought that it was funny, all the girls wanted the pink cake, and all the boys wanted the chocolate cake!! Go figure right!

2 Wheels!!

Teniah can ride her bike without the training wheels!! What a big girl she is!!!

July Jamboree and 10 year Reunion!

The July Jamboree has become one of my favorite summer traditions. Main street is blocked off and their is a huge car show. There are vendors and bands and rides for the kids. All in all it is a total family fun night! So I packed up the car with the kiddos, and headed to main street (with Jer, Michelle and Ava too)! We walked around a bit, checking out the cars, and looking for some cotton candy, Teniah wanted some! We finally found some cotton candy, and KiKi was so funny...she was licking it. She finally ended up just eating it, but I thought it was cute when she was licking it. :0P

Teniah also wanted to go on a ride. She found a ride that is similar to the ferris wheel, but it was enclosed. I thought for sure she would be scared, but she wasn't ... she laughed the whole time!

Can you tell that she had fun!!!

So not only was it the July Jamboree, it was my 10 year high school reunion! I seriously can't believe that it has been that long since high school. It was so great to see everyone that was there. Quite a few of the people there I haven't seen since high school. We ended up just having it at Pizza Factory, which was really fun.

I think that I look pretty much the same as I did in high school!

We're still BEST FRIENDS!!

Jessica, James, Jer and Michelle!

Hang 10!

Some of the gals!! I had so much fun chatting with these girls!

At the Airport!!!!

So, we didn't really know if we would be able to meet up at the

airport or not, but we ended up having flights about 40 minutes apart. Because of that, we were

able to spend the majority of the day together. My girl Carol and I were just checking in her

bags when Robert called me and said he was at the airport! We went to check in his bags.....

and we walked around for a while and ate some lunch. Because so many soldiers go in and out of the Atlanta Airport, they have a USO area for them. They have a place to go and relax, have some free food, and the are always willing to help. (Luckily they had one in Dallas where Robert was flying to, because his connecting flight was cancelled, and the USO helped him find a cheap hotel room, as well as give him some toiletries. In the airport there was this really cool "clock tower"

and the shops and the terminals were surrounding it. Since we hardly had any photos together, we asked one of Robert's platoon buddies to take this photo of us!

Us at the Airport...my favorite picture!

Robert and Persons, his battle buddy

We also ran into his battle buddy, who through this 10 week process, had become good friends with. Since we didn't get a picture of them together on Grad day, we took one then! I hope that they continue their friendship!

Forever Friends, Carol and Me!

While Robert was making friends with Persons, I was making friends with Carol. We met on facebook, through the Fort Benning facebook page. Her husband graduated the same day as Robert, but was in a different company. We talked throughout the whole 10 weeks on facebook and on the phone as well. Whenever either of us had a bad day, we were there for each other. Both of us were traveling alone, and decided that it would be fun to go together. We met in the airport and then drove to graduation. We stayed at the same hotel and all in all had a wonderful

time together!! We've been through so much together, that I am sure that we'll stay good friends!

Jason, Carol, me and Robert

This was just about an hour before I walked onto my plane. I sure love this man!! It meant EVERYTHING to me to see him, even if it was only for a couple of days! It was very hard to hug him, and walk onto my plane and him walk the other direction. I am sure that everyone on that plane thought I was a crazy psycho girl, I think I cried and cried for the first 20 minutes of the flight! :0)

Gold Phase!

Robert's platoon was Honor Platoon. They give out little gold banners for each event/title for each cycle. Robert's platoon won all of the banners but one! Their pole was full of gold banners that they all said they were in GOLD phase!!

This was taken the LAST NIGHT in the barracks!!!!

Graduation

Graduation Day!!!

These signs were posted all over the road, leading us to the graduation fields!

We parked the car and made the long walk to the bleachers. Along the way, we had to take a picture of us with these pretty pink trees! We found a spot to sit way up at the top! Just before the ceremony started, my friends brother in law, who is a Sergeant First Class, was able to get us front row seats, center field! It was awesome!! We were able to see the soldiers perfectly!!

This Army Band played music before the ceremony started, and a few during the ceremony. They did an amazing job and they did a great job marching, and making sure that their lines were straight!

As part of the Ceremony, they had a soldier and weapon display. The had smoke and 'cannons' (or something like them) firing. The soldiers came stalking through the mists. It was really pretty cool display. They told about what each soldiers job was and which weapon they had and the uses for it. It was very interesting!

Then they had the display we were all waiting for. Our soldiers were put through the test as they were to go from parade rest, to attention, to salute, etc. They were perfectly on time, and did a great job! The day was hot, and I wasn't wearing the uniform! The commanding officer gave them 30 seconds to wipe their brows and shake their legs. It was right after that one of the soldiers passed out. It was quite an amazing sight to see. As he started falling, three of the soldiers around him, caught him, and helped him to the ground. A few seconds later, they picked him up and put his arms around their shoulders. He was then moved quickly to the back of the group. A few moments later, he walked off the field. It was really neat to see the camaraderie of the soldiers...but I felt so bad! It was the hottest day that I spent there, it was at least 101 degrees and the humidity was high as well!!! As the last part of the graduation, they did a parade march in front of the bleachers. It worked out so great, because Robert was the closest to the bleachers!! He looked so great!!

Me and my handsome Soldier!!

The rest of the day included more relaxing!! We did go swimming for a little while, but it was still so hot, (and we had no sunscreen!) that we didn't stay out for very long! We watched another movie, and ate some more ice cream! We ate dinner at Fuddruckers, a really good burger place. When I had to drop Robert off at the barracks that night, I hung around there for a while, I talked with a few of the guys in Robert's platoon. They all had such a respect for him, as the platoon leader. It was cool to see. I stayed for a while once they had to be back. They did role call and such, it was interesting to see.

We had such a great time together, that we didn't want to see it end. I was really glad that the days went slowly!! At least I felt like I had a LONG good visit with my husband!