Goodbye Key West

Three years ago we said hello to Key West and began our island adventure.  Now, it is time to say goodbye and begin a new adventure.

We will not miss hurricane season.

We will not miss the isolation of being on an island.

We will not miss all the iguanas.

but....

We will miss seeing all the Key West chickens around town.

We will miss waving hello to the Conch Train or Trolley as we drive down the road.

We will miss filling up the gas tank once a month.

We will miss the fact that everything you need is within two miles.

We will miss all the interesting local Conch flair that Key West has to offer.

We will miss the fabulous sunsets.

We will miss seeing the ocean everyday.

We will miss all the wonderful friends that we made.

Key West, thank you for the past three years.

Moving On

We are just under two weeks away from moving on and out of Key West.  And boy how the time has flown by! 

Looking at our house you would have no idea that we are moving in only 12 days.  Everything is still where it normally is.  Nothing is boxed up and nothing has been taken down from the walls.  That is the nice thing about a military move.  One day your house is as it should be, the next they box it all up, and the day after that it is on a truck and on to the next location.

While our home may not look like we are ready to go, we are emotionally ready to go.  We have already found a house in San Antonio.  It is an older established neighborhood with lots of big trees.  It is four bedrooms (so the girls get their own space), has a very open floor plan,  a fireplace, and a fabulous red door.  The only downside is that we haven't seen it in person, but it looks wonderful from the pictures and we did have a friend walk through it.  We are excited to see our new home in person and start filling it with memories. 

The girls have been signed up for Mother's Day out and Haley cannot wait to go to her new school and meet new friends.  When we drive by the water, Haley usually looks out and tells me that she can see her new house or new school.  She is excited.  I'm not sure Emily knows exactly what is going on, so I'm hoping for an easy transition.

Plans have been made on how we will spend our time before we move into our new house, since it will not be ready until early September.  Lots of nights will be spent at my Dad's house or in hotels.  We will be without Zach for a few weeks since he doesn't leave his unit here until late September.  But he will come out to help us move into the new house for a few days.

Quite a few days will be spent on the road, since it is a 1,557 mile journey.  I have been busy making busy bags (thanks pinterest!) to keep the girls occupied so they don't have to watch movies the whole trip.  The girls now have a few new books, magnetic trays with puzzles and stickers, a potato head quiet book, and a few other little surprises.  I'm just crossing my fingers it all entertains them.

The next few days will be filled with getting the house and our things ready.  There is lots to do.   

Part of me feels like we will be walking back into the life we had before we moved here, I know we won't be.  Things are so different now than they were three years ago.  But a good different.  I am excited about all the new possibilities that are ahead of us.

Bathtime

To change things up a little, one night we decided to let the girls swim in our pool after dinner and then just give them a bath in it.

It was pretty fun at first because they got to splash as much as they wanted to, something that doesn't get to happen in the bathtub.

Emily enjoyed it until water started getting in her eyes from Haley's splashing.

After all the fun, it was time to get scrub a dub clean.  We brought out the soap and loofah and just lathered them up.

Then came the rinse from the watering can.  Classy, I know.

After getting all rinsed, the girls got stripped down to get dried off.  Only, they didn't want to get dried off.  Swimming naked was much more fun.  Sorry, no pictures getting posted of that :)

It was fun to do things a little different and we'll probably do it a few more times this summer. 

Key West

As it starts to soak in to my brain that we are moving in a few months, I find myself looking back at our three years here in Key West. 

When Zach first told me that he got orders here, I was in a sort of denial about it.  I didn't want to talk about it because if you didn't talk about it, it wasn't really going to happen.  It was a hard adjustment on so many different levels.  We went from big city to small island.  I went from working to not working.  We went from having a great support system to no support system.  To say that it was an eye opener is an understatement.

When we first got here, I was so lost.  I had no idea how to meet people and people weren't exactly coming up to you and saying hi.  It was terrible.  I broke down so many times.  I think it helped when we got pregnant with Emily (not that that was why we got pregnant) because it was a way to keep my mind busy and off of how lonely I was.  Then somehow, that first year flew by.  Haley and I had made a few good friends and we were doing things.

Our second year here was a little better.  Emily was born, we took a few trips, made a few more friends, and kept a little busier.  Then we were halfway through our tour here and on the downhill slide.

Our third year has gone by in a blur.  It helped that Haley was in school and that we had things to do on a regular basis.  We've had to say goodbye to some friends this past year, which has been hard, but that is part of the military life. 

Saying goodbye. 

Now that we have about three months before we leave, it's starting to hit me that we are going to have to say goodbye.  Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled to be leaving and heading back to Texas, but I hate that we are leaving such good friends and a place where we have grown so much. 

Key West will be the place where I grew.  I got here and had no clue.  But I knew I had to put on my big girl panties and tough it out, somehow.  Over the past three years, I've learned to slow down a little bit and not always be in a rush.  I've learned to be a stay at home mom.  I've learned that I kind of like being a stay at home mom.  I've even learned to cook a little better (not that I was a bad cook before)!  I don't feel like I lost the old me now.  I feel like I've found a part of me that was in there the whole time. 

After we leave, I doubt we will ever come back here again.  I really hope that we will see our Key West friends again.  We will look back and smile at all the wonderful memories we made here.  I will not miss the drive from Key West to Miami, but I am looking forward to making it one last time.

Circus

I'm a little late on this one, but a few weekends back we were very lucky to have the circus come to town.  Now mind you, this is no Ringling Bros. kind of a cicus.  This was an indoor (tent) big top circus.

There was the ring master, of course, who also ate fire.

There was also a tight rope.

As long as Emily had a pretzel, she was more than happy.

There was also an ariel act.

The girls were in awe of this one.  They didn't take their eyes off of her.

There may not have been lions or elephants, but at least there were giant pigs.  I mean, you can't have a circus without pigs, right?

And of course, for the grand finale, there were the giant balloons.

The girls ended up with a blue one and I'm sad to say it only lasted about five minutes in the car before it deflated.  Oh well, it was worth the fifteen minutes of excitement and entertainment before its demise.

And that is what a circus in Key West looks like.  It was definitely fun (and unique) way to spend an afternoon.

Family Photos

Every year I like to get family pictures done.  Mainly because so much changes in a year and we rarely get the opportunity to have a picture with all four of us.  This year, we knew we wanted to take some beach picutres so that we can remember our time here.  We were very fortunate that one of our neighbors is a photographer and she was able to capture some of these beautiful moments.



And this year was also a first...both girls got school pictures.

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful (and pretty darn cute) family!

Key West Christmas Parade

This will be our third Christmas in the Keys and we finally made it to our first Key West Christmas parade.  And boy oh boy!  Was it ever an experience!

We had a few of Haley's friends with us for the big event.  The parade didn't start until 7, which is a little late for this group, but they all hung in there pretty well.

I'm not sure how typical it is to get candy at a parade, but just about every float that went by threw candy at us.  We are still working on our Halloween candy and now we have Christmas candy too!  But all the kids enjoyed a lolipop (or two) while watching the fun go by.

There were lots of cute floats that went by.

And then there was stuff you would only see in Key West.....

Ho Ho Ho and Merry Christmas?

A roller skaing Christmas viking and elf.

Drag queens.  And lots of them!

The Conch Train with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

It was a great night with great friends!  And a fun way to start off the holiday season!

Halloween

Halloween was kind of a big deal in our house this year.  Haley was really excited about it and when I asked her what she wanted to dress up as, she knew.  A pirate.  With a sword.  Emily was just excited that she got to wear more beads.

The week of Halloween fun began with the Fall Fair that the base puts on.  There was pumpkin decorating.  Haley created a very silly pumpkin. 

And Emily was quite content just holding hers.

 There was a petting zoo and Haley held and petted the baby alligator.

And Emily fell in love with a turtle.

There was even a hay ride and somehow (a miracle!) we managed to get a picture of all four of us!

Next up was the girls' school pumpkin patch.  Emily was in serious mode.  She wasn't very sure what to make of it all.

There was a cute little parade where all the kids marched around in their costumes.  Then there were Halloween stories and songs.  Haley was just excited that she got to wear her costume to school with her friends.

Then came the pumpkin carving.  Haley was beyond ready to dig into that pumpkin.  She loves getting in there and making a mess. 

Even Emily got into it a little.  She mostly played in the rocks while the carving was going on, but she did stick her hand in the pumpkin a few times to see what was in there.

Finally, it was time for trick or treating.  Our street doesn't get many kids, so we only planned on going to three or four houses.  The girls looked so cute in their costumes (even with Haley's pink sparkle shoes).

After an exhausting night of asking a few people for candy, Haley was able to kick back and relax while sucking on her lollipop. 

It was a great holiday this year, but I am happy to say it's over!

Outdoor Fun

 The weather has been so great lately that we've been spending a ton more time outside.

Haley asks for bubbles daily now, so we've done lots of bubbles. 

I love that they were blowing bubbles together.

We've also done lots of coloring with chalk (and getting ready for Hallween, can you tell?).

 Haley even drew her first smiley face.

There have also been lots of trips to the park.  Haley loves getting all dressed up for that.

 Emily had lots of fun going down the slides.

We've also been running around in the back yard.  Zach found an old tarp and we turned it in to a super hero cape for Haley.

Then it became a dragging toy.  Haley particularly enjoyed this.

She was a good girl and shared the fun and let Emily have a turn. 

I am so thankful that summer is finally over and we are able to spend more time outside.