We say good bye

As we are about to say good bye to our dear James I am saddened. I do not know what it is about this deployment but I just am not ready for it. I know lots of people do it all the time. We have done it a lot before, but I just have not been ready for this one. It is his job and we respect and love him for that. I feel so blessed to have a husband who stands up for our country every day of his life. He loves his job and what it stands for. We may not love it as much all the time. It means a lot of lonely times for me. it means a lot of nights when the kids go to bed with out hearing from their father. but we all do it. just like many others all across the country. it is so hard to feel sorry for yourself when you know and are reminded by many others that you are not the only one. Not that I have ever felt I am the only one to ever have to do this. I just want James to know though before he leaves how much we love him and will miss him. You are certainly the center of our family. We miss you terribly when you are away and nothing seems to be just right while you are away. Please come home safely and soon.

Our trip

We got the chance to go on vacation with the kids before James leaves in 2 weeks. We were very excited about it all. We were going to go to Pigeon Forge Tennessee. We did a lot of fun things with the kids but also enjoyed just chilling at the cabin and soaking in the hot tub out side while watching snow fall. It was a good trip and we will treasure the memories for a long time. I am so sad to know that my dear love is leaving in 2 short weeks. We are used to it but it does not get any easier. But I have one more post about our trip I will do later on tomorrow.

Ripley's Aquarium

We went one day and did all of the Ripley's tourist things they had in Gatlinburg. We had a lot of fun. We definitely had a long day after all the walking we did.

James messing with a water filter system.

Look at this school of fish

This shark looks hungry

And a huge sea turtle

A now some jelly fish.

Skiing with the kids

So we were all very excited about going to TN and taking the kids skiing. James and I thought the kids might last for a few hours and we would be done. Well I also thought we would hear whining and complaining the whole time too. We were very surprised by the end of the day. The ski slopes open at noon and we got there right as they opened. The kids did so good and they actually lasted until 8:00 that night. We had such a great time. The kids skied on the small hill. and then James and I would take turns going up the mountains and coming down. I have not skied since I was a kid and I was so scared I would not remember how to do it. But I only fell once on the bunny hill when I was taking James down and we both turned the opposite way and we both fell. I also fell getting off the ski lift the first time. You can laugh. I did. I really had no clue what I was doing. But we had such a good time. We all got in for $87 to make the day even better.


James skiing.

Bethannie looks like she is having fun.

Look at this handsome skier.

Bethannie giving it her best try.

Don't they looks so cute.

Here I am going up the ski lift.

And this is the mountain I am coming back down. I never fell coming down so I was pretty pleased

Mackenzie skied a lot like this. She would fall half way down and slid the rest.

How cute are we.

Mackenzie still going.

The end to a LONG day.

Indoor fun

We went to this really cool Adventure Quest. They had an indoor putt putt. A mirror maze, and a Lazar room. It was like being in Mission impossible. We all had a ton of fun.

This was a pic we took. It was out on the course. The whole thing was pirate themed. It had black lights through the whole thing and of course the flash killed the whole effects of what it looked like but it was so cool.

Mackenzie had had enough by the time we got to the mirror maze.

This was a room in the mirror maze. James freaked out because he thought he would fall through the floor.

More putt putt

How many Bethannie's and James's can one family have?

We could not ever figure out how to get out of the maze. So we went back to the beginning and then went in the end and surprise surprise we could never get to the beginning. We walked around for forever. It was really cool though. It was a fun day. Especially when it was like 20 degrees out that day.

The end of our trip

This was our last morning in the cabin. We were all in coats ready to go but I thought I would get one more pic. We had such a good time. It took us 8 hours to get home. The kids are back in school today and life is back to normal.