Bothel family year in photos (Day 1-4)



I have decided to steal an idea from my sis. I am going to post a picture a day, or two, on my blog (or several every few days, lets be honest, I have been horrible about posting since the move and holidays started) and facebook. After six short months of shore duty we will begin the new year and this next sea duty separated by the majority of the country. Jon leaves on Friday to spend about 2 months in San Diego. For obvious reasons I am not looking forward to starting separations again, but I am looking forward to the time we get to spend in Louisiana. For those of you who know what it's like to say good by to your husbands (or other loved one) whether it be for a week or 18 months you know how important it is to look for the little joys in every single day. So here is the perfect project for me to undertake. Everyday I will have to find something to tell the blog/facebook world about...the good the bad and the ugly.

Day One: On New Years Day we raked the lawn. We were all ready to go outside to tackle the task when Hailey ran up to me with the tutu in hand with a request to wear it. She was a sight to see raking the lawn in the tutu.

 

Day Two: We spent the day visiting Nan and Pops in Lake Charles, LA. The kids had a blast, especially at the park. Hailey and Anders both slept in the next day because they were so worn out.  (full blog to follow)

Day Three: I had decided to do the year in pictures and realized right at bedtime that I didn't have any pictures for the day so I ran up and took this picture of the little man. He has way to many things that he takes to bed with him.

Day Four: As I said earlier Jon is leaving for 2 months. Tonight he was finishing up packing :(

Mystic, CT

We decided to go with our friends to Mystic, CT for the day a while back. The original plan was to eat at Mystic Pizza and then head over to the Mystic Aquarium for the afternoon. So our caravan of 3 mom mobiles set off for Mystic for a fun day. We got to Mystic Pizza and enjoyed a really good meal. There is a reason why that place has been open so long and has even been featured in a movie....the food was really good! The husbands all split a pizza as did the 7 kids. Lisa had a Mystic salad and both Jamie and I had calzones. If you are ever in the area I suggest you go and try it out!

The three older boys. Tyler 7, Henry 5, and Anders 3.

Our first attempt at a picture of all 7. FAIL!

On our way out of Mystic we ran into a class mate of the guys. We mentioned that we were heading to the aquarium and they told us to hurry because they were closing at 3pm for a private event...it was 1pm. We decided that the cost of the aquarium was not worth it for only 2 hours (side note:it would have been nice of them to post this kind of thing on their website so we could have planned accordingly...but I digress). So after realizing that seeing the fishies we no longer an option we stood in the parking lot for the longest time trying to decide what to do. We decided on the garlic festival. There was some worries about the kids getting a chance to run around, but I think it worked out perfectly.

My first ever wiener mobile sighting.

We found a grassy patch for the kids to run around on and it worked out perfect. There was a large rock that the boys loved to jump from and the babies loved to try and climb up on.

Boys will be boys!

I think our second attempt at a picture of 7 kids 7 and under (4 of them were under 18 months) turned out pretty darn good.

I do believe that this was the highlight of his day.

Hail hanging with the boys!

After and exhausting day we curled up on the couch for a movie.

One thing I really love about living in New England is how close things are. There are some many fun adventures to be had and all close enough for a day trip! That is one of the few things I will miss. What I will miss more is the great friends we have made! But the good thing about this life is we seem to keep crossing paths with families where ever we seem to move!



Jacksonville Zoo...oh, how I've missed you!

I love the Jacksonville Zoo! We have gone to the Providence Zoo and it's just not the same. It's not as fun or educational and half the time I had trouble even finding the animal in the exhibit. So when we decided to go to Jax we of course had to make a trip to the zoo. And of course there are a ton of pictures to show from the trip.

Hailey was in awe of the birds...well pretty much all the animals, but in this pic it was the birds.

Pointing at the elephants.

Will and Ben mapping out our route.

Meet Duke! We first meet Duke on May 30, 2010. I know this because it was Hailey's due date and I went to do as much walking as possible with the hopes of going into labor. I did not go into labor, but we did have a great time. One of Anders favorite things to do at the zoo is feed the giraffes. Duke was the giraffe we fed on that day and so Anders decided that Hailey's stuffed giraffe that was already at home and in her crib awaiting her arrival should be named Duke. Well you can imaging how excited I was when the lady told me that the giraffe we would be feeding was Duke!!!So Hailey got to feed one of her favorite stuffed animal's name sake.  

He love marry go rounds!

I wasn't sure how she was going to like it,

but I would say it was a success! (sorry for the poor quality, but it was too cute to not post)

I didn't think Anders was going to be so into feeding the bird, but he loved it and could have spent the whole day there!

Will showing Hailey how it's done.

Again, shocked at how bold he was going straight up to the birds!

Hailey didn't understand why she couldn't grab them and hug them!

Anders helping Hailey hold the cup,

and not doing such a great job of stopping her from drinking the nectar.

They swooped down at the same time and scared me half to death.

Did you know that these birds mate for life?

The ropes outside the squirrel monkey exhibit. She was determined to go under them.

And Anders was content to act like a monkey!

It was a great day! And the perfect way to end a great vacation!

Happy Halloween!

I know I have a few more blogs from Jax to catch up, and even a few much older adventures I would love to share with you. But for now I will share our Halloween adventures.

We spent Halloween at my friend Jamie's house. It was Jamie and her family, our friend Lisa and Team Blaszczyk (that is what she calls her family of four) and another family from Jon's class. This was by far the most entertaining Halloween so far. Last year Anders went to the door and put his pumpkin out but didn't really get it. This year was different. He said "trick or treat" at every door and said thank you alot, although Mommy had to encourage that behaviour some. However, he was very quick to tell me when he remembered to say it without my prodding. After every house he wanted to show me what he collected from that house and he would just keep repeating himself until I acknowledged him. Come to think of it I'm not quite sure who he showed when I was lagging behind with Hailey...one of the other adults? some stranger? I would like to think that it was Ms Jamie, Ms Lisa, Mr Mark or his Daddy, but knowing my child you never know. Our group of trick or treaters ranged from a 12 year old to 3, 17 month olds. After a block we sent the babies back with Jamie and Lisa and Jon and I continued on with the older kids. It was much more relaxing at that point. Hailey didn't quite understand why you only went to each house once and didn't want to move on or ride in the wagon, so to say the least she was exhausting.  After the rounds with the older kids we returned to the house to eat and let the kids run off some of the sugar. All in all it was such a great night. We are lucky to have some great friends here in Newport and very blessed to be able to spend the holidays with them.

Not the best since Jamie is trying to wrangle Markie, but it's the only one where Hailey isn't having a melt down.

I'm not sure what made her so upset, but to say the least she was less than happy with us.

Evelyn (the elephant) is so lucky to have Tyler (the ninja) as a big brother, he was so precious trying to comfort Hailey. Tyler is going to be so protective of Evelyn.

BOO!

ARG!

A ghost and an elephant taking a ride

  

I was surprised that neither of the three girls were scared by this guy. And the picture doesn't capture it completely, but the trio walked right up to him to get their loot.

"RE, RE" (or in full grown up words, "tree, tree")

So cute!

"What? You mean I'm suppose to take the paper off before chowing down?"

Anders loved the caramel apples Ms Lisa made.

Hailey was a bit put off because Evelyn had her bear, candy corn (it has a bow around it's neck that has candy corn on it...Anders chose his name)

Happy again!

As the evening wound down we got a pick of the last five standing (which we had taken this before the twins left)

"fine, but this is the last time I'm smiling for a picture"

And I saved the best for last! I love my babies and I love that they seem to already be joining up as partners in crime...and here is a prime example.