We said our final goodbyes in VA which was just not fun. We loved our time in VA so although we are excited about this new chapter of life we were very sad to go.  We made it out of DC relatively in one piece….or maybe more in 4 pieces with lots of luggage. But sane nonetheless. We flew to Houston last Friday and have been in Friendswood since then. We have had a nice relaxing time with Seth’s family. Jackson has had lots of great time playing with his cousins. They all seem to have endless energy and have gotten along really well. Seth’s parents have a large window by their kitchen table and during meals Jackson can spot some of his Grandan’s turtles outside the window. This is proving to be a challenge in keeping Jackson in his chair to eat, but he can’t get enough of the turtle entertainment.

This afternoon we will drive to the Ft Worth/Arlington area to be with my family. We are looking forward to our time there. This trip is faster that we originally planned but we are trying to make the most of every minute! We plan to pack in the fun! It’s hard because with limited time we can’t do everything we would normally do and see everyone we would normally see.  If you are some of our friends that we aren’t getting to hang out with because we have been kidnapped by family, that is just a good excuse for you to come to Switzerland!

I will add some pictures when we get our camera and hook ups in the same place at the same time We also want to blog about Jackson’s 3rd Birthday that was this past Friday the 23rd but want to do it when we have time and pictures! Happy Birthday to our little big boy!

This morning at breakfast I told Seth it was a great day for a language waiver, sure enough he called about an hour later to say he had gotten the waiver!!! Seth has worked so hard and it is such a relief now for him to be able to take the test and get moving! So we are leaving for Texas on Friday. We will spend about a week and a half there and head to Switzerland. The good byes are sad but we have been preparing for this for a while now.I think being in an empty house has made us more than ready to get settled again sooner rather than later.

On a totally unrelated note, we met the O’Leary’s in Annapolis on Sunday night and had a wonderful evening catching up with them and introducing them to Owen. For those of you that don’t remember the O’Leary’s they are the family I met in Houston and babysat for for yrs. We spent some time with them on our homeleave and we afraid we would have to move before seeing them and them meeting Owen. It worked out with our delay that they were in Baltimore  while we were still in VA. Here are a few pictures.

Here are some pictures from our summer…friends, farmer’s market and all that stuff!

Although we didn’t plan on being in VA for most of our summer we have enjoyed the American summer! We have seen the fruit of our labor in our little garden. Our parsley, sunflowers and tomatoes have made us proud! And watching Jackson sit barefoot on the front step with popsicle juice dripping down to his elbows is just priceless. We wish we had a community pool to cool off in but overall we have found ways to keep cool and have fun!

We go into this new week hoping that we will be leaving on Friday but not knowing much for certain. We are still waiting on Seth’s language waiver and another language exam. Hoping for the best!! We will keep you posted!

This yr we decided to lay low on the 4th of July. Last yr we spent the evening with 5500 others. You all may remember that Seth was responsible for the big shindig.  He did an amazing job. But the stress began in Oct and ended with the fireworks on the 4th! It was a ton of work. This year we decided to spend an evening at home with the 4 of us.

We made a yummy dinner and lit a few sparklers!

this was Jackson’s all American meal…farmer’s market tomatoes, hot dog with fixin’s, corn cut off the cobb and strawberries and blueberries! It was delicious!

the porch audience was quite enthusiastic during the sparkler show

The day after the 4th Seth had a federal holiday so we got to have him home. We originally thought we were going to be packing out the next day so hadn’t really made any plans. But, since our lives changed drastically the Thursday before the 4th, we were invited to spend the afternoon with friends and were able to accept because we weren’t moving. We drove out to Bluemont where our friend’s parents own a home in the country. We had time to just decompress with friends and enjoy a meal and the handful of sparklers we had left over from the night before. Here are a few pictures!

Owen and Rowyn reunited again! These two are hysterical together. They are both into kisses and tackling these days!