| Update Page #5 |
| Monday January 14th So much has happened over the past few weeks so let me get right to it. We had a great Christmas here in Northern VA with all the family. We made cookies for santa, listened to Christmas music, wrapped a million presents and hung our stockings by the chimney. We actually had to make new stockings this year as ours were accidentally packed and put into storage. Christmas morning was great. We all got tons of great presents. There were too many to mention them all but check out the pictures for the highlights. We woke up kind of late this year, 7am, and opened presents with Gramma and Grampa Chester. Aunt Susie, and cousins Robbie and Andrew came over later in the day for round two of present opening. Gramma made a wonderful Christmas dinner of Ham, mashed potatos, veggies, rolls and lots of other good stuff! The rest of the day was spent playing with our new toys (and putting them together!) and napping! We celebrated our 2nd Christmas a few days later on December 29th with Doug's parents. It was the first time that the kids ever got to celebrate Christmas with both sets of grandparents. Since Doug was leaving them morning of January 1st we decided to spend New Years Eve at home together this year. All the kids except Emily stayed awake until midnight by watching Dick Clark's Rockin New Years Eve, and working on building their new "K'NEX Trampolin Ball Tower" The goal was to have the Ball Tower finished by midnight and drop the K"NEX ball from the top of the tower at the same time the ball was dropped in Time Square. The tower wasn't quite finished by midnight but they did finish is a couple of days later. The finished tower was over six feet tall! (They had to stand on chairs to finish the top) The kids celebrated the new year by running around on Gramma and Grampas back porch at midnight banging pots and pans and yelling "Happy New Year!" The kids are really enjoying going to their new school. There grades are staying up and they have started to make new friends. It's great how fast they adapt to change and just settle right in! The thing they really enjoy most about being here is that they get to see and play with their cousins Robbie and Andrew so often. I've spoken to Doug a couple of times since he got to Holland and things seem to be going well for him. He got there okay and got to visit with some friends as well as get himself all checked in with the Navy. He's currently underway on a trip to the Med. Hopefully he'll be able to post some of the amazing pictures he'll be able to take if they get a port call or two. If you would like to email Doug he can be reached at doug@reckamp.com This past weekend we celebrated the birthday of my sister Susan. The kids all helped with the party in one way or another. Daniel and Andrew helped to make the cupcakes. Robbie and Andrew made their Mom a card. Katie and Andrew helped witht he balloons, and Matthew and Emily joined the rest of us in singing "Happy Birthday" to Susie. |
| Thursday March 21st We're back! I know that it has been a very long time since I last updated this page or any of the pictures on this site. I apologize to all of you who have written and/or called and asked when there would be new pictures and updates. I also want to apologize to those of you who I owe emails or phone calls. It's kind of hard to keep telling people that nothing has changed so I kind of kept to myself. Now that last line I just wrote sounds suspiciously like an invitation to my pity party but it's not! Because I have good news! My health has greatly improved and my doctor has cleared me for travel! The kids and I will be leaving this sunday march 24th and flying to The Netherlands! The move is unfortunatly not permanent. We'll be there for 3 weeks then we'll return here to Virginia for the kids to finish school. Doug will be underway most of the time after we leave and we decided that three schools in one year might be too much for the kids. But after the kids are finished with school we will return to Holland and stay for the rest of the summer, until we find out where our next assignment will be. Doug was able to fly home two weeks ago and stayed for a week. The kids and I were very happy to see him. We took several trips around the area including going to the Smithsonian Museum of American History so Doug could see the "Fast Attacks and Boomers" (submarines) exhibit. While he was here we discussed all the places we wanted to see while we were in Europe. So far we have definate plans to see Belgium, and Germany as well as Holland. Check back to this site in Mid-late April for pictures and highlights of the trip. I hope you all will keep in touch! We'll be able to check our email accounts while we're overseas so keep those emails coming! |
| Saturday March 23rd I'm just taking a break from finishing up packing for our trip tomorrow. I sat down to check my email and there was a note from our detailer (Career counslerfor those of you not in the navy). He has decided where our next assignment will be after we leave Holland! Unfortunatly I can't tell you all yet. Those of you who recieved our 2001 Christmas newsletter might remember the three postscripts we had to add when our orders kept changing at the last minute. In light of that experience I have decided to wait until we have actual orders in hand before making any grand announcements. Just know that we are all very excited about the place we "should" be going to. Check back soon for the big announcement, as well as pictures from our european trips. |
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