My little girl is growing up to fast

Wow what a year this has been for us. Breeanna seems to amaze me more and more each day. She is getting so big and doing so many things that I never thought she would do. She decided this year that she was going to run for treasurer at school. She had to make a poster and write a speech. I told her when she was doing this that she would have to say her speech in front of the whole school. She seemed to be o.k. with this. So of course her Dad and I supported her in this. She made her poster and wrote her speech all by herself. She asked her dad to go and listen to her speech so he had the day off and was actually in port to do this. He said she did good except she said so vote for me your next great president. But the kids just clap and went on. She had also fallen on the play ground right before she went up to do her speech so she had two big white bandages on her legs. But the kids must have liked her because today we found out that she won. She is the new treasurer for her school. I can't be more proud of her. It took lots of courage for her to get up in front of the school to do this. I just can't believe how fast she is growing up. Before I know it she will be in middle school and asking if she can have a boyfriend!!

My First Underway

I got to do my first underway with Keith. On Friday I got to go out with Keith and spend the day with him. We got to see how they live on the boat for days and sometime months at a time. It was very interesting. When we got there we got briefed on what we were going to be doing for the day. And Keith went over a few things and talked about motion sickness. I didn't think I was going to need anything cause he said it's not that bad. Well they are used to being rocked around and they don't even feel it anymore. Unlike us that have never been on the boat and feel every little movement. Sara and I could feel every time the boat rocked. When they sit on the surface it is like a big bobber in the water is just rocks back and forth. So I ended up having to take something cause I didn't want to be sick. So Keith and Brandon showed us around for a while and we got to see lots of things on the boat and some of the guys told us how things worked like how they made there water and air. Which to me was kinda cool. Then we went up and watched the boat submerge. It was cool to watch they had the periscope up and so we watched the boat go under then all you could see was water. I thought I was going to have a hard time being under the water but it was just like being on top of the water cause when you are on top you don't know it cause you are in a tube. So we headed down to the torpedo room were Brandon works and hung out there for a while. They were going to do angles and dangles for us. Which is when they take the boat and make it go up and down and side to side at sharp angles. The guys wanted us to be in a open spot that we could stand to see this. Which there isn't many open spots on the boat. So we are standing there and they start doing them and I look over at Keith and he looks like he is falling but he's just standing there at an angle. Then Brandon starts doing it. It was cool to see them like that. After that was all over Keith decided to climb in the torpedo tube and show us how long it was. Wow it was very long and dirty. After that we went up to the sonar and listened to the whales. I really enjoyed that I wish I could have seen some of them though. When the boat returned to the surface we got to go up in the coning tower and look out. It was cool to see. The captain said it was the best place on the boat when they were on the surface and I have to agree with him. You get to be up in the fresh air. So I have come to the conclusion that I would never want to be on a Sub. I have a whole new respect for the guys and what they have to do on a daily basis. We walked into the engine room to find our friend John down in a hole that I don't think I could fit into. It was quite interesting to see what they have to do and in such tight quarters.

Our Last Boat Trip for the Summer

Well I know its been a while since I blogged. But have been really busy doing lots of fun things. We made our final boating outing for the summer. It was a lot of fun in the sun. We took our friends Milie, John, Michael and Alex with us to Lake Martinez. It started as an adventure before we ever got there. Keith and John left in the morning and took the boat and Milie and I brought the kids over after I got off work. The lake is about 3 1/2 hours from were we live in San Diego. Well in the state of California if you are towing something you can't go over 55. Well we all know Keith can't do 55 in anything. So he started the trip by getting pulled over. He calls me when the cop is standing there asking me where his registration to his truck is. I got the tags renewed when we had the fires here last year, and I made that trip up to Oregon. Well I guess I never put it in the truck. So he had the old on but not the new one. Luckily he had a cool cop because he let him go with no ticket (70 in a 55) and no ticket for no registration. Which would have equaled out to be around a 450 dollar ticket. Wow we got lucky. So needless to say I tried to do the speed limit on the way over because I didn't want to get a ticket. So that is how our trip started. Then we got there and it was late, so we just hung out for the night out side in the peace and quiet.
The next day we go out on the lake and the adults get to go on the wake boards but then the wind picks up so we decided to go out on the river. We go down and get Milie some new sunglasses and some ice cream and head to the cliffs. There is a little lake that has some cliffs you can jump off. The tallest one is about 40 feet and one that is about 10 feet. Well the kids jump off the the 10 foot cliff and the guys decided they were going to go up to the big one. Well John doesn't really like to jump off high things. But from the boat it doesn't look bad until you get up there. Keith had jumped and dove off this cliff in the past so he was coaching john through were he wanted to stand and how he wanted to jump. Needless to say Milie and I were safely in the boat taking pictures and video of this cause we new it was going to be good. So Keith jumps off to show John were he wanted to go from so we waited for John and wanted some more for John. It ended up taking him about 20 min to finally jump and when he did he didn't really jump he walked off so on his way down his feet came up and he ended up landing on his butt and back. As soon as we found out he was o.k. we decided at that point to laugh at him. He was braver than me cause I still haven't jumped off it. After all that we decided to go back to the cabin and hang out for lunch. We didn't end up going back out on the lake that day. We took the kids to the swimming area and let them play for a while.
The next day we go out on the lake and its the kids turn. Well Bree has been doing really good on her Wake board so we were trying to teach her how to jump the wake a little bit. We told her today is the day the water was perfect and she was really excited. So she gets up and gets outside the wake, is having fun then decided to cut back into the wake like a pro. She hit the wake and it shot her up in the air, well at that point she had no idea what to do so she decided to superman it. She let go of the rope and ended up face planting really hard. She hit the water so hard we could all hear it in the boat with the music on. So we get back around to her and she is crying. I get her in the boat and she has a bloody nose and her arms are all red. So we just talk to her for a couple min and tell her how good she did. Then Michael and Alex decided they wanted to go. So they tried to get up. Michael is almost there but when he gets up he gets so excited he lets go of the rope. And Alex isn't so fond of the wake board she prefers the knee board. Then Bree decides to go again. Which at this point I am very proud of her cause if I hit the water that hard there would be no way I would be getting back on that thing. So she gets back up to prove to herself that she is fine. (my brave little girl) It is colder this day so none of the adults want to get in the water at all. So we just headed out on the river for a while. It started raining while we were out there. I can tell you its not much fun to be in a boat doing 30 plus miles and hour down the river and have the rain pelt you in the head. While we were going down the river our cabana on the boat decided to break so back to the store to get a piece to fix it. Then we went to the cliffs again and hung out there for a while. It was really windy so we put the flag up on the wake boards like always and the girls were jumping off the cliff. We had to end up moving the boat because the wind was dragging us. So we ended up losing the flag in the water. So back to the store again to get a new flag. So we went back to the cabin and hung out for the night there. We played cards and had a great time.
Sunday the day we leave the cabin. We always go out and spend a couple hours on the lake before we go home. So Keith, Bree, Alex and I are the only ones that want to go. Milie, John and Michael decided to stay behind this day. Well we go out and play for a while and the girls get up on the knee board and are pulling 360's and going in and out of the wake like pro's. They love the knee board. Keith and I got up on our wake boards and had fun with them for a little bit. Well we have to be checked out by 12 so we decided to head in and pack the truck and car so we can leave. On our way home that day we had planed on going by the range to go shooting. Milie had never been so we went by there. When we got there Bree was crying that her ear hurt. I thought she might have an ear infection from being in the water and wind. So we lay ed a bed out for her in the boat and she slept while we shoot the guns. We were there for a couple hours and then headed home. Milie and John are huge Sonic fans (the restaurant) so they asked if we could go by there on the way home. Well we had no idea were it was. We knew what road that is all so we found it and when we got there we noticed that Bree had ruptured her ear drum. At that point it started feeling better so we ate dinner and headed home. Well it is already around 4:30 at this point and have a 3 1/2 hour drive home and over the mountain. I new it was going to be a long night for me. I new I had to take Bree to the emergency room as soon as we got home so that she could get on something to help her ear. So we made it home spent a couple hours at the hospital and Finlay got home around midnight. So that was the last summer adventure for us. Bree is out of the water for at least 8 weeks and the weather is going to start getting colder here. We all know I don't like to be cold so the boat has now been put up for the summer. Now its time to get the quads out and start riding. I will post pictures as soon as I can My computer is full and I can't down load my camera.

Our trip to the Lake with Mom

This was our second trip the Lake Martinez this year. We decided to take my mom there when she came down to visit. When I was little Mom and Dad took me there so I thought it would be fun to take her back. We had a good time even though it was 109 the whole time we were there. We found this lake that had some cliffs at it, so we decided to hang out there for a while. The water there was actually cold compared to the water at Martinez. It was nice and refreshing. We also found out there was a place you could get soft serve ice cream so we went there everyday to get ice cream. It was nice and relaxing and I think Mom got to relax a little. She got to see how good Bree is getting on her wake board and knee board. She is my little hot rod. Keith also got a chance to have some nice water while we were there and learned how to clear the wake. It was awesome. I don't have any pictures of course though cause I was driving the boat and Bree was flagging and she can't do two things at once. By this point mom had enough fun in the sun so she was in the cabin reading her book and relaxing. Well here are some pictures of our adventures.

Bree eating the Smores we made. This is what happens when its still over a hundred at 9 at night.

Keith, Bree and Mom at the cliffs, Keith had just jumped off the 40 foot cliff.

Bree and Mom with the lake and boat in the back ground. This is across from our cabin.

We plan on taking John, Milie, Michael and Alex the first week in Oct. We are all looking forward to going and having some fun before boating season is over for us. Well will write again soon.

My Big 3rd Grader

Well as we all know school is back in and Bree is now in 3rd grade. She is getting so big so fast I don't know what we are going to do. She is in a new school this year since we had to move out of the house at the beginning of summer. When I took her to school for her first day she kept telling me that we were in the Kindergarten section, and I kept telling her no Bree this is your school. We went back in forth for about 5 min until she finally realized that everyone was meeting in this area. She said mom I can't believe that this is the whole school. The lunch area is the same size as her old section were the 2ND graders ate. So it is a big change for her but I think she will do much better at this school. She seems to like it so far. She is also wanting to get back into cheer leading so I am working on finding her a place to cheer at. We are in a really nice area now and there are lots of things to do but we live right next to million dollar homes so everything is very expensive also. Well I will blog again soon to update everyone on what is going on here.

Our Adventures at Lake Martinez

Bree getting up on her Wake board!!!!













I know it has been a while since I blogged and so I am going back a while to try and catch up on some things. We took a trip to Lake Martinez in April after Keith returned from Deployment. I was one of the lucky kids that got to go here when I was about Bree's age. I loved it so I thought is would be cool for me to be able to take My family there now. We enjoyed the week that we got to spend at the lake and river. Here are some of the pictures that I took while we were there.

Bree feeding the friendly raccoons!!!!!!!!

Bree on the Knee board!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keith and Bree fishing! All they caught were weeds. Oh well better luck next time.

Bree posing for the camera with the lake behind her.

Keith and Bree the first night that we got there.

Sorry there are no pictures of me I am always behind the camera and the ones Keith takes are not pictures that I would post for everyone to see. Well we had a lot of fun relaxing and enjoying each other as a family. We went at the perfect time because there was only one other cabin that had people in it so we had the lake to our selves most of the time. Bree got to get up on her Wake board and had a blast with it and she learned how to get up on the Knee board. She loves playing behind the boat and is a little hot dog now on everything. At night we enjoyed going down and feeding the Raccoons. They loved to eat dog food and dog biscuits. We also went for a hike and our dogs thought they were going to die. But they didn't they made it just fine and we through them in the lake when we got back to camp. I can't wait to go back again.

Being a Slacker

Natural History Museum

Bree at one of the only Dinosaurs that have bones in the museum!!

My Friend Milie had asked me if I wanted to take Bree and go to the Natural History Museum today. So we decided to go and I was a little disappointed in it. I thought here in San Diego were they have one of the best Zoo's that they would have a great Museum. Well I am here to tell you that I don't think that this is true. O.K. so I have been to some very famous Natural History Museums so I had high hopes to start out. I should have used Keith's theory. Go in expecting it to not be great and then you won't be disappointed. Well next time I am going to do this. So it started out that there is only one room on the first floor that you can even go into and look at things. So we went in there and it was just o.k. nothing exciting. So we go up to the next floor and it was supposed to be animals and water. Well there were animals but none of them looked realistic at all. They were all plastic very few of them had bones at all and then they didn't even catch the kids attention at all. Then we went into the water section and there were some things that the kids could play with so it caught there eye a little more. I think this section was the one that took us the longest to go through. All in all it only took us about 1 1/2 hours to go through the whole thing. Here are some pictures that I took while we were there. But if you are going to be in San Diego in the Future I would not suggest that you take the time to go in here.

O.K. here is one thing that I did like there. This is a sculpture from Africa and is called difference of Opinion.

Here is one of the Dinosaurs

Here is the Michael, Alex, and Bree under the Big Shark!!!!!!!!!!!

My new way of keeping everyone updated

Hello to everyone!

I am trying this out and don't really know how long I will keep up with this. But a couple of my friends have a blog and they enjoy doing it and I enjoy reading them so I thought I would give it a try and see how it turned out. Its a good way for everyone to see what is going on in our lives, since I am so horrible about sending pictures. Let me know what you all think about this.

So as most of you know we are now in San Diego, CA and have been for a little over a year. We are enjoying ourselves here and spend most of our free time out in our new boat. Every weekend we have free we are out in the boat. Keith is in and out a lot so it is hit and miss when we get to do it but we love to when we get a chance.

So here is a quick update about what is going on. Bree is now 8 going on 18, growing up to fast for my taste. She is going into 3rd grade this year and is getting excited about it. Keith is stationed on the USS Topeka as the Doc. He was put up for IDC of the year and is doing good. He has to spend a lot of time away from us but its only a couple years. So we are dealing with it. I am working for an Insurance company doing there accounting. While we are work over the summer Bree goes to YMCA day Camp and has been doing lots of fun things this summer. We just moved into a new house. We are now in base housing (so much fun) since the owners of the house we lived in are foreclosing. We like the area but I don't know if I like having neighbors attached to us again. Oh well what can you do. Well I will blog again soon!

This is our first kiss picture from Keith's homecoming after his 6 month deployment.