Wilmington. Winter. And A Day Date.

The thing with reunion and reintegration is everyone needs to get their needs met. After doing this parenting thing alone and catering to kids needs for 6 months, I wanted a day away.

Wilmington is the easy answer. Downtown Wilmington with all it's history and eateries. Sometimes, it feels like if you've been to Wilmington once then you've been a hundred times. I learned this does not apply during winter. I didn't realize what an impact seasons have on coastal towns. Wow! We had the entire city to ourselves and it was really nice!

But first, breakfast.

Yummy yummy breakfast. Always a good idea!  #1 Yelp rated restaurants are always a great idea. I don't eat anywhere without consulting my Yelp app :) Blue Surf Cafe is suppose to be the place for breakfast in Wilmington. We wanted to make sure we agreed. Plus, the reviews were all about the hot chocolate and I'm all about the hot chocolate. Win for me!

Charred marshmallows. Finely grated chocolate.

Opps, almost forgot the caramel :)

Next, Downtown Wilmington because it's the likely place to choose.

Riverwalk was first. 11 o clock and had the place all to ourselves.

After walking the length of the river, we headed up to the historic neighborhoods.

They really are beautiful and worth oogling.

After our own walking tour, we took the horse carriage tour. I've wanted to do this as hokey as it seems. There is always a lot of good knowledge to learn from the tour guides.

You just have to remember it. 

For example, this house is important but I don't remember why. 

Clearly I should not be a tour guide!

This is the oldest building in Downtown Wilmington.

The rocks around the foundation were used a ballast in the ships from Europe in the 1700s. when they got to wilmington they were like what are we going to do with these rocks now? 

They were like "hey, let's try this". That's the short version.

We ended the day at the beach for about 2 1/2 minutes. 

Just enough time for me to wave at a helicopter overhead and decide it was cold.

Honestly though, that water is going to be so warm in a few months. 💜

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Deployment Homecoming Is The Best

It goes without saying, Deployment Homecoming is the best for sooo many reasons. #1 You are done with deployment status which despite your seasoned experience will always suck! #2 You get to see your military person again after way too long! #3 The excitement is off the hook at the actual homecoming. #4 You get to go back to doing all the things you couldn't do without your SO there. Whatever those things are for you ;)

So, we were all super stoked last week when we got to see our Marine after half a year apart. Yes, I'm so proud of us for making it through this deployment but nothing replaces having him home.

Like deployment homecomings sometimes go, the guys got delayed a couple of times before we finally got them back. It's a hard thing to tell your kids that their dad isn't actually coming home tomorrow like everyone had planned. However, military kids are champs and they are super flexible with stuff. So that is pretty cool and gracious of them :)

When you have a camera happy parent, then you would think you would raise children who know how to take nice pictures. Not my bunch. They love to mess up all my great shots. But then those candid moments kind of end up being great shots. 

As the mom, you would think you could get a good picture with your husband who just returned from deployment. Unfortunately, when you have so much catching up to do with your dad there is no time to break for 3 seconds and step to the side. Thanks child!

Despite all the hassle over having the perfect homecoming picture, our Marine is home. 

The most important thing!

Now we can hit the resume button on life as we know it.

Waiting

I've got nothing to say, except when the powers that be push back the return repeatedly the week you are suppose to have homecoming, you start to get antsy.

Why not have a little blog post in the meantime? We will call it an update. And cross our fingers the next post is a smiley complete family photo!

Last night I finished up this stellar book, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Wow! It was incredibly eye opening for me and peaked an interest. Now I'm beginning The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead with a similar subject but different writing style.

Last year, I read so many books and that was ok. I had a lot of time to read books. I read what I wanted when I wanted. Although, things got a little messy in my head keeping details of books separate or retained. I felt a little deflated at the end of the year. Like my reading was more quantity over quality, only really valuing my favorite reads. This year I wanted to commit to learning through reading. African American history was at the top. With all the media attention given to the Black Lives Matter movement and related police incidents in 2016, I thought it was wise to educate myself. I plan to do that with fiction and non-fiction. When I feel like I've had enough, I will move on to another.

I'm still getting Stitchfix boxes. It was my little deployment treat. But lately, I haven't really been in love with anything in my Fixes. Ok, there was an exception, this dress. I thought a possible homecoming dress but I have a closet full of sleeveless dresses. So, I passed.

I thought this purple top was cute too. The V neck was a little too deep for the classroom. So, I sent it back. I'm taking a little StitchFix break until my birthday month.

We had a snow day last weekend when the rest of American was also getting snow. The real South saw inches of white stuff, NC got this. Thank goodness North Carolina is proactive and cancelled all activities all weekend long and gave us a 2 hour late start on Monday. I'm not sure how we would have managed to get to school after this kind of weather on Saturday 😜

If you look really really closely, you might see ice on my fake Christmas garland.

Treachous weather! But then again, two hours up the road had a half foot of snow.

Then there is basketball practice. 3 days a week we come to the middle school gym for basketball. Here is the thing about me, I'm not a sports mom. I like sports. I think kids should be involved in sports for many different reasons. One of them is not so they can become professional athletes or college scholarship receipients. If I child has the determination, then I'm completely supportive. I do not agree with pushing your child to be that, want that, or parents acting like children are that...at 11 years old. When I sit in the bleachers I pray some overzealous parent will not start gossiping with me about how the coach is playing what players or how distraught the parent is that their child hasn't had their growth spurt to make them a better defensive player...at 11 years old. I don't know how to respond like I'm remotely interested.

So, I'm super excited to hand this off to my sports loving husband. Who values some good parent sports talk and gym time :)

Good news, I just killed an hour. I'm going to sign off and get myself ready :) Thanks for keeping me company!

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We Made It!

Deployment is quickly coming to an end. And as the kids and I wrap up these last few weeks/days, I find myself a little sentimental over our (hopefully) last deployment. We made it! Together, us four, made the most of our new home with not a friend in July 2016 to thriving (or surviving for me) in January 2017. My kids are champs. I'm so proud of them for overcoming this insanely big change and challenge. We didn't do too bad :)

Almost half a year ago, we all said goodbye looking like this.

Two parents, one teenager, and a couple kids.

Wow have things changed!

My husband has come home from deployment twice to new babies in the house.

I promise this homecoming will be the biggest adjustment coming home to two teenagers and a tween. Life is drastically different from July 2016!

When the Marine last saw us, we were Pokemon obsessed. We spent the first month of deployment maxing out our data collecting pokeballs and battling gyms. Looking back, it was overkill but we were staying sane. Six months later, we aren't even sure if people still play PokemonGo. 

We certainly don't.

In the beginning, the beach was another big source of entertainment. It's local, the weather was perfect, and the boys couldn't get enough.

We started to get a little braver and travel a little further from home.

We went to Fort Fisher Aquarium.

We rode a ferry for the first time.

We took a ghost walk in Wilmington.

We braved an even scarier Hurricane Matthew, which was an experience! Not as bad as expected but not a big fan of high wind and no electricity in the middle of the night.

We did have to pick up the yard which was a complete hassle. We have a very big yard with lots of trees! Which my husband thinks is important because he is never here to mow it...or pick up after hurricanes 😡 So, in September, the Marine was very very lucky we didn't not move back to California.

Post Hurricane Matthew with the Atlantic Ocean acting like nothing happened.

We travelled out of state too :) Can't forget about those trips that made me feel like Super Woman!

Then we did other things which don't seem as important but probably meant more. We began to make friends, be social, and enjoy our new home.

Pool parties.

Hiking.

Weird North Carolina attractions.

Our first Fall...and Halloween.

I even went off on my own now and then.

Acting all Southern and cliche at the Airlie Gardens.

And when we got sad or lonely for our Marine, we made our own little escapes.

To the zoo on Veteran's Day

And UNC Chapel Hill during Thanksgiving Break.

And to Iowa at Christmas.

And now here we (actually just me) are, cleaning, grocery shopping, and getting my hair did for the big Homecoming. 

I hate deployment. It isn't fun. I promise. But you always grow and you always find you are stronger than you thought you would be. And you make these memories that you laugh about or roll your eyes over years down the road.

This is not glamorous. This is not ideal. But it's our life. And now we get the sweet reward of Homecoming!

Winter Break. Road Trips. And A New Year.

There is one thing I've never done in his whole military career. Drive back to our home state without him. This year I needed it and I felt comfortable with it. So, I did it. I drove to Iowa and back as the only adult with three kids. And I only got pulled over once!

Living in California for our entire career, I was always apprehensive to make the drive across the desert. No cell reception. No towns or services for miles. I would be up a creek without a paddle if anything happened. So, I either spent the money on four place tickets or stayed home. Since moving to North Carolina, the drive seemed more do-able. And let's face it, I might be the only military spouse who has never driven home without the military member. At least, that is how I feel. It's not the biggest accomplishment one can make (I suppose). However, after 15 hours in the car yesterday, I feel like it!

So, how was the trip? What did we do? Here are some highlights the kids would want me to share:

• snowy walks
• sledding
• family gatherings
• cousins
• pigeon hunting
• horses
• BABIES!!
• old toys
• grandmas
• soda (or as they say in Iowa--POP!)

One of my highlights was taking Kyli prom dress shopping. My sister, mom, and two nieces joined us. Kyli obliged us each by trying on one dress each of us picked out. She is such a good sport.

Holidays with family is the only way to go during deployment. Even if the struggle requires tolerating arctic temps. No matter how much I love family and family time, this body can never live in Iowa again. California and North Carolina have spoiled me rotten. Snow is a novelty.

Now, we are back to 60 degrees...and raking leaves...in January.

It's day one back from vacation and I have a million things to do. Yet, here I am writing a blog post. So much better than laundry and grocery shopping and raking :)

Happy New Year everyone!