Day 3: Trick or Treat with the Wild Things

Posted by: Cris

The night Juneau wore her wolf suit and made mischief of one kind... and another...her mother called her "WILD THING" and Juneau said
"I'LL EAT YOU UP!"

And when she came to the place where the wild things are...

they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth...
and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws.



"And now," cried Juneau, "let the wild rumpus start!"

Then all around from far away across the world, she smelled good candy to eat

so she gave up being king of where the wild things are.

But the wild things cried, "Oh please don't go -

we'll eat you up - we love you so!"

But Juneau said "No!"

...Juneau stepped into her private stroller and waved goodbye

and sailed back over a year...and in and out of weeks...

and through a day...

and into the seat of her very own van...

training....

posted by: Emilie

well, training is going ok. It's funny because as an overall experience, i have to say that the training is extremely efficient. they are processing about 300 people in 7 days, which is remarkable consisdering everything we have to do. On a day to day basis, however, it is somewhat painful. Each individual task takes FOREVER because there are so many of us trying to get it done. I have been reading a lot on my new Kindle, however, which i LOVE!!! so i haven't really minded all the waiting. it's been a while since i had several hours of uninterrupted time to just read :)

it has been soooo amazing to be able to stay with my friends this week AND as a suprise, one of the other girls from my residency class flew in for a few days! So Saioa, Tracy, and I have been having a blast catching up. It has really taken my mind off being away from cris and the girls, and has made the transition a billion times easier. i am beyond grateful for this, because i can't imagine the loneliness i would feel right now if i was all by myself in a room full of strangers everynight. Cris' Dad (Grandpa Stickley) was actually just telling me about that exact experience when he was in the Air Force...i'm trying to remember to include some of the details of my experience (like the green wool blanket!) for Grandpa Stickley for old times sake....i know you get a kick out of reminiscing about that stuff!

Day 2: A day at the beach

Posted by: Cris

Let me start this post by apologizing to everyone who is sitting somewhere where winter is starting to creep up on you and this picture is just cruel:
Today we headed off to the beach. Despite being quite hesitant of the sand as a baby, Nova has become quite the beach girl.

In keeping with the theme of yesterday's post, as soon as we got to the beach and set up our towels and toys, without a bathroom in sight, Juneau announced it was time to sit on the potty. At first she thought I was kidding when I told her to go in the ocean but eventually she ventured into the water.

The potty is that way...walk toward Chinaman's Hat until you feel water then stop.

Didn't you JUST go 2 minutes ago Juneau?

Juneau loves doing the "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Photoshoot" thing where she lays on her stomach on the beach and waits for the waves to come splash in her face.

The girls recently got a great book from their friend Julian (thanks to Aunt Becca) about a girl visiting the beach. She is uncertain about the waves so she stands at the edge of the water and ROARS at the wave to scare it back from splashing her. It looked so fun in the book that the girls thought they'd give it a try...

We spent awhile building sand castles...

Finally, many of you will remember this flashback to Christmas 2008 when Brent got transformed into a rather provocative mermaid during a visit to the beach... the best part of this whole thing is watching the video of it and seeing Coral who literally cannot stop laughing to the point of not being able to breathe...

After Juneau buried herself today in the sand, we decided to bring back a mini-version of the Brent mermaid...in this case, she is happy to be transformed into one of her princess heroes - Ariel from the Little Mermaid.

We had a blast at the beach but we all wished mommy had been there to join in the fun. By the time we left the beach we were all wiped out (and Juneau of course was 6 shades darker than when we got there) and everyone enjoyed a loooong nap. Top the day off with a "Monsters vs. Aliens" Halloween Special (they are currently obsessed with M vs. A) on TV tonight and the girls had a great Saturday...plus, the Buckeyes won and Michigan lost so that's just icing on the cake!!

Day 1: Our Gifted Child

Posted by: Cris

**It looks like Emilie and I may end up posting on the same day at times so make sure you scroll down far enough so you don't miss a post (mostly aimed at my parents).**

Our Juneau is one gifted child. No child on this planet is as good at having such extremely ill-timing for needing to sit on the potty. Have you been sitting at a restaurant for a half hour, looking at the menu, placing your order and waiting for your food and now your piping hot food has just arrived at the table at this very moment? Then Juneau has to sit on the potty RIGHT NOW!

Back to that in a moment...

Today was the first day of the new "normal". I had the first day of my normal back to work schedule and headed to school early leaving the girls with Nelson and Katy. When I got home at 2:30, the girls were down for their nap and got a great report. Everything went very smoothly it seems.

It was amazing how much I missed the girls just being away from them for only 8 hours today after having spent nearly every second with them for the last year.

So, tonight the girls and I headed over to the Pearl Harbor Navy Exchange to get some dinner and do some shopping. Nova was thrilled to get to eat her favorite thing in the whole world:

Taco Bell Pintos & Cheese!!

After dinner we headed over to the commisary to get groceries. I had only been there about 10 minutes and had the cart partially loaded when of course Juneau announced her urgent need for a bathroom. Under normal circumstances this would not be a problem except without Emilie there to either stay with Nova or take Juneau to the bathroom I'm left with the following dilemma:

Since the bathrooms are out past the check-out, do I:
A) leave the cart hoping it will still be there when I get back
B)wait to check out then park the cart of paid groceries outside the bathroom and hope they are still there when I'm done or
C) tell Juneau that this is a great opportunity for her to practice "holding it", finish shopping, check out and take the groceries out and load them into the van then trek back into the store and visit the bathroom.

The correct answer is of course: C

The only problem became that just prior to leaving the house tonight, Nelson announced that he was going to make pancakes in the morning and gave me a list of things to get that included stuff like baking powder, baking soda and buttermilk. Ask me to find the milk or Go-gurts or a box of Lucky Charms in the store and I'm fine but for this type of stuff, you might as well be asking my wife to go into Lowe's and come out with a 3/4 inch carriage bolt with a 20 thread pitch and a toggle nut.

So, it took a little longer to complete the shopping than might have been ideal. Meanwhile, Juneau was reminding me at least twice per aisle that she preferred to stop shopping and head toward the bathroom.

However, finally we made it out of the store, out to the van, back into the store and to the bathroom...and Juneau held out that long. But the lesson of day #1 on our own was learned:

"Don't be in a hurry because it is going to take 3 times longer to do things with only 1 adult around"

i'm in the real army now!

posted by: emilie

i made it to my first stop on my deployment route. getting here wan't easy, as you can see from cris' post below. we all cried yesterday when we said goodbye, and i choked back tears about 10 times between hawaii and georgia....but i made it. i will say that being in this situation has made me realize how unbelievably blessed i am. blessed to have 2 wonderful daughters, blessed to have a husband that without question will be able to take care of these little girls, blessed to have a family and friends who poured out love with emails, texts, phone calls, and messages as i was saying goodbye to my little family. blessed to have the opportunity to serve this truly great country in the same way the generations ahead of me from both my family, and cris' family have served. I have to say i do find great comfort in thinking about the generations before me that have sacrificed so much. i am thankful for their service, and also proud to be able to serve.

i got off the plane this afternoon, and made my way on post. as i approached my checkin point, i realized that things are going to be a whole lot different for me. I have spent the last 5.5 years of my army service in a cushy hospital, with all the latest technology, and every available resource. When i checked in this afternoon, i was given the location of my barracks, and directed to a stack of linen containing 2 hole-y sheets, a pillow, and a scratchy green wool blanket. I was pointed in the direction of my barracks, wich i found to be 4 bunk beds in a cinder-block building, with a set of foot lockers. yes, my friends, i'm in the real army now. no more pressed scrubs and white coats...only a green wool blanket.

thankfully my amazing friends from residency, tracy and jeremy, are stationed here, and graciously offered/insisted that i spend the week at their lovely home...so i am actually currently in their guest room, snuggled up in a down comforter :) i guess i will enjoy a few more days of the good life before i ship off!

the next few days will be filled with gathering my gear, and being sure all my paperwork is in order before i leave the country.

finally, i must say, i love you cris stickley. thank you for taking care of our girls as the best stay at home daddy ever last year, and thank you for being the kind of dad that will give them 110% of everything you have over the next 6 months. thank you for being the one to do the hardest of all the jobs - staying at home and trying to maintain some semblance of a normal life for our girls. thank you for crying with me before i left, and for making sure i knew that everything at home was going to be just fine. thank you for at least making the attempt to post to our blog everyday, because i will be starving for the pictures and the stories. i love you!!!!

Godspeed Mommy...

Posted by: Cris

Some final moments on our lanai before heading to the airport

Today has been a tough day for our family. Over the last few months, amidst the whirlwind of leaving Colorado, getting prepared for the deployment and getting moved back to Hawaii, it was never far from my mind that at some point that moment would actually come when we were standing on the curb at the airport hugging and crying and saying goodbye. And that's where we found ourselves just a few hours ago. With Emilie and I kneeling down to the girls level, we all stood there in a group hug as long as we could but eventually it was time to let Emilie head off on her long trip and the girls and I headed back over the hill to our side of the island to settle in for our first night as just the 3 of us.

Though it has been a hard day, I can't tell you how much it meant to us throughout the day to be continually inundated by texts and voicemails to both of our phones from many of you telling us you were thinking of and praying for us today. Thank you.

And so the next chapter in our family adventures begins. We are continually humbled to hear how many people (many of whom we will probably never meet) regularly follow our little blog. The next 6 months will either be very entertaining or very boring as I attempt to make Emilie feel like she is as close to home as possible by posting every day she's gone...stay tuned to see if I'll be able to do it!

back home....in hawaii!!!

the last few days have been truly crazy! we spent a couple of days in southern ohio with Grandpa/Grandma Stickley (see the pics below!), then boarded the plane for the looooonnnngg trip to hawaii. Nova and Juneau have been telling random people "we don't live in colorado anymore, we live in HAWAII!!". Although Juneau has made it known that one day she thinks we should live in Vietnam :)
the trip went fairly smoothly...i guess as smoothly as traveling for 20 hours with 2 toddlers can go! We thought we had the Airport Security Check routine down to a science....until it all got messed up by Sweetie Baby. Our very first bag through the scanner was stopped, so i had to go with the TSA agent to have it searched. he searched, and searched and searched, and finally told me he was going to have to run it back through the scanner because he couldn't find what he was looking for. I couldn't imagine what he could be looking for....until i saw Sweetie Baby's head sticking out through the zipper. Sweetie Baby is filled with water to make her extra life-like (which unfortunately also means she is TSA contraband). I talked the agent into letting me empty her, rather than confiscating her, and after lots of stares from curious passengers (I'm sure people were wondering what exactly we were trying to smuggle inside a baby doll), we were on our merry way.
On to some pictures from the AMAZING pumpkin patch Mammaw Stickley took us to.
Yep, our kids definately ride the "Cool Bus".... so does Grandpa Stickley!

...and Mammaw!!!

It was awesome to spend the day with Aunt Donova. The girls had soooo much fun, and i must have heard them yell "Aunt D, Aunt D!" about 100 times!

Juneau spent a lot of time in the Corn Box....I'm still trying to convince grandpa to ship 30 or 40 bushels of corn to Hawaii to make Juneau her own Corn Box. I'm quite certain it would be the only one on the island!

Mammaw "horsin' around"

Lucky for Juneau and Nova, Aunt D was willing to give lots and lots of Shoulder Rides!

The entrance to the corn maze (or should i say the Maize Maze? ohhhh geez, i'm funny!) The first 2 or 3 acres of the maze were pretty fun...i think by Acre 5 we were definately ready to see the exit!

Everyone reading the clues to find the way out of the maze.

Cris found a little Corn Hole out in the middle of the field....(if you're not from Ohio then you may not know that Corn Hole is a popular version of a beanbag toss)

Juneau tried the over hand technique

Aunt Donova with the girls

Mammaw Nova, Aunt Donova, Nova, and Juneau

Lot of Stickleys...

Lets just say farmkids know how to have some fun...here is a makeshift zipline (which i am certain meets all the safety ordinances of a zipline)

not sure it qualifies as safe for a 2 year old....but Nova really wanted a solo flight

she loved it :)

and speaking of farm kid fun...this "Monster Slide" was a blast! a little rickety, but super fun!

Cris can always find a way to entertain himself... as you can see, we had lots and lots of fun with the fam. then we had the long trip (which was not lots and lots of fun!), and we finally made it to hawaii. We stepped off the airpline, and out into the island air and Juneau enthusiastically announced "It's AMAZING out here!" Yes, i think these girls are going to love it here. The next day i FINALLY got to see our new house in person. The beautiful view immediately won me over, and i fell in love with our new house. I can't wait until i get back from afghanistan and actually get to live in it!

We have been running all over the island trying to get some furnishings together for the house, buying a car, and trying to get everything situated before i leave on thursday. Since i am technically still stationed in Colorado, the Army will not move any of our furniture our household goods until i get orders to move to Hawaii (which will hopefully be next summer, after i get back from afghanistan). so, cris is living on the bare essentials for the next 6 months.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Nelson and Katy (who just found out they will be having a baby of their own next summer!) on Monday.

There is lots and lots to do before Thursday rolls around.