Friday

cross country trip

pat was in a wedding that weekend in seattle.  while flying across the country with a 5 month old is quite an adventure, we had a fabulous time.  

laurel did a great job.

although she didn't sleep as much as we would've liked her to on that 5 1/2 hour flight from atlanta to seattle.

she loves looking out the window.  

is every baby this curious?

we finally got to meet miss sophie ritzmann.  her daddy, josh, and pat were roommates at the air force academy many moons ago.

that's pretty darn cute, if you ask me.


it was cold in seattle!  this carolina girl wasn't ready for that, but we survived.

pat went to a mariner's game one night.  here he is with brent (the groom) and ritz

pat, showing laurel the city from the top of the space needle

sophie wasn't REALLY trying to eat laurel... 

getting a bottle at the reception from daddy.  

she was SUCH a trooper.  just rolled with the punches.  on the other hand, the time difference just about killed mommy...  

belle of the ball

happy girl with our good friend, jess jones

mornin!

here we are with ritz, krista, sophie, and the newlyweds, brent and lisa stark

on sunday afternoon we got to visit with david and esther still in tacoma.  their son, tom, is one of pat's best friends from the academy and pilot training.  we love this family!
 
the view from their house.  not bad, huh?

the week of the tongue

laurel woke up one morning and stuck out her tongue.  and it stayed that way all week.  this little girl is so funny!








goodbye charleston... :(

okay folks, i have a gazillion pictures from the past month, but had to select a reasonable number of them to post on here. 

starting back on july 12th, my good friend marty brown and 2 of her 3 kiddos were in town visiting david and amanda sisk.  and after 2 years of living in the same city, amanda and i finally saw each other!  embarrassing, i know.  so good to visit with them.  

laurel and mar mar.  we go waaaay back.  love this girl.  

we had a little going away party at santi's that week.  the bruces, the swearingens, the balls, the thumpstons, ruth, nate, and all the rowdy kids showed up to tell us adios.

here is laurel, giving hannah something to remember her by...

awesome laurel tattoo

aunt roo got one too!

our church also had a going away party at the baileys' house.  i didn't take many pictures.  but here is laurel saying goodbye to jimmy alele...

goodbye jaime

one last beach day.  goodbye lil big joe

goodbye ms gray

goodbye atlantic ocean

goodbye dingle manor

goodbye roots

goodbye raven

(man, i already miss my neighbors so much!)

goodbye jack (can you tell i'm practicing for goodnight moon?)

goodbye again lil big joe...



just plain cute.


Sunday

moving is fun... right?

i haven't posted in weeks. give me a few days and i'll bombard you all with tons of photos from the past month. currently, we are in the process of moving into a rental house we found in hattiesburg last week. the Lord has provided, once again, and we love this little house. laurel is doing well and rolling with the punches. she has started to put some consonants with her squealing and talks our heads off. i don't know where in the world she gets that...

i may not have a chance to post this on tuesday, so i'll go ahead and say
HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY to my big brother, merrill! i love you man. can't wait to hang out with you and your crew in a few weeks.

Thursday

squadron going away lunch

laurel and i joined the 16th airlift squadron today for a going away party for pat and two other pilots.  

we are so proud of him

he has a really cool job!

as it turns out, other people are pretty proud of pat, too.  his commander had some very kind and encouraging words to say to him and about him.

no, they aren't break dancing.  i only caught the tail end of the salute.

the plaque pat received was shaped like the tail of a jet.  laurel was pretty into it.

"you think i could chew on that?"