She's Got Her Momma's Sweet Moves!

road trippin'

okay, so we are not quite to colorado yet, but i had some really cute pictures, so it thought i would go ahead and post while we are traveling.

we left ohio yesterday morning. Grandma and mammaw kept the girls giggling and busy with bubbles, which gave cris and i the chance we needed to pack and repack the van (and uhaul!)

Grandma Stickley's homemade bubble recipe totally rocked! the girls LOVED playing with the gigantic bubbles!



Mammaw joined in the bubble festivities!

We are taking the 20 hour road trip at a leisurely pace, which has been great. we made it to St. Louis last night, and checked into our hotel. we couldn't believe the awesome view of the arch from our room!

Juneau takes her cartoon watching very seriously....

Nova showing off her new trick - winking!

This morning we woke up and headed over to see The Arch up close and personal. unfortunately, the fact that it is Memorial Day Weekend probably contributed to the fact that there were approximatley one million people who also wanted to see the arch today. the girls were troopers (for the most part....there was a moment where i thought we might all lose our minds after they BOTH announced they had to use the potty once we were already waiting for the tram to the top of the arch.....there is nooooo potty anywhere near the tram, and both of them had refused to try to go before we got back into the tram area. ahhhhh....the joys of parenting 2 toddlers!) anyway, here is Juneau in her most ladylike pose, waiting on the steps while we waited in line to go through the security checkpoint.

Me with the girls, in the "space ship" on the tram, waiting to go up to the top.

Nova lookin' super cool in her daddy's shades.

Mommy and Nova :)

Daddy and Jbug looking out the tram window on the way to the top

family self-portrait in the "space shuttle"

The girls enjoying the view from 630 feet...

ummm....yeah....this is some sort of famous stadium cris took a picture of.... a little clowning around before getting back in the van for more road trippin'

Downton St. Louis - headed back to the van after a fun morning at The Arch

We drove the rest of the day until we arrived in Kansas. My dear friend from residency, Benakar, (aka Auntie Benny) is stationed in Kansas. Unfortunately she was working all weekend, but we did get to bring over some Pizza Hut for dinner and spend a couple of hours on Labor and Delivery catching up with her.

As an extra surprise, one of the L&D nurses from Tripler is now in Kansas also, and works on L&D. She brought her new adorable sweet baby girl, Veeda over to say hello (even though it was wayyyyy past Veeda's bedtime!)

"Live Long and Prosper" The final 7 hours of the road trip is tomorrow. We are anxious to make it to Colorado and start settling in! Much love to our Ohio gang....we miss you sooooo much already!!!! Thanks for being the BEST ever, and making our 2 weeks of reunion/vacation extra special! We love all of you!!!

Happy Birthday Nova.......again!!!!

well, our faithful readers have probably noticed that we aren't doing daily posts right now! life is just toooo crazy to update the blog everyday. the downside of that is that i have TONS of pictures when i do finally post to the blog!
Soooo.....back to a few days ago while we were still up north with the Matus gang. The girls love to pretend to fish....anytime they see anything remotely resembling a fishing opportunity they revert into fisherman mode. here they are fishing in Ed and Coral's koi pond, using tulips as fishing rods. yes, they do have vivid imaginations!

After getting to watch Alex and Lyndsey's basketball tournament, we were super happy to get to go to one of Brent's baseball games. Juneau and Nova had a blast at the game, and spent a lot of time jumping around in mud puddles.

i love this picture of the girls jumping in the puddles...

The next morning we got up and headed over to the 7th grade award ceremony at the middle school. Once Juneau realized that the teachers were calling Alex and Lyndsey's names to get their awards, she waited on the edge of her seat with her little hands clasped in total anticipation, waiting to hear their names so she could cheer. it was soooo cute how much she loved watching the girls get their awards. Luckily Lyndsey and Alex totally rock, and finished the year as #1 and #2 in their class, so they got their names called quite a bit....giving Jbug lots to cheer about! Awesome Foursome

Finally we got the car....and the uhaul trailer(yes, we have to have a uhaul to get all of our stuff from ohio to colorado) loaded, and headed east to spend a day with Grandpa/Grandma Saccenti and Aunt Bets. We had a great time shopping at our favorite discount stores in the area (hey...i have to fill up the uhaul now that we have one, right?!), and hanging with the fam. Then we loaded up the car for another road trip to southern Ohio to see Grandpa and Grandma Stickley and Mammaw Nova. We took the girls to the Aviation Museum and everyone had a blast! Well, at least until the last 5 minutes when juneau had a moderate melt down over a piece of candy (really she was just super tired, but the candy sent her over the edge). Once they were fed and napped all was well again :)

Astronaut Jbug

Astronaut NovaJo

The Stickley Gang in front of a SR-71 (you have to kind of squint to see it back there!) This is, in fact, the very same SR-71 that Grandpa Stickley radar tracked during Vietnam!! is that cool or what?!

Grandpa and his girl (and the SR-71 in the background!)

more giggling Nova and her grandpa

The bug in the cockpit

Juneau in front of the Aviation Museum's depiction of the entrance to the "Hanoi Hilton"

And....Cris' actual photograph of the entrance of the Hanoi Hilton....taken about 3 years ago!After the trip to the museum, we headed over to Five Guys for burgers and fries! our grumpy junebug turned her attitude around pretty quickly when she saw the peanuts. This girl LOVES any kind of nuts, and it is even better when she gets to crack the shell herself.

Delicious!!!

Nova was tiiiiireeed, but was pretty content to sit on her daddy's lap

love this little cutie....

after a nap and a bath, we got to celebrate Nova's birthday (again!!! haha!). when we told nova that it was time to celebrate her birthday with Grandpa, Grandma and Mammaw, her little eyes lit up, and with total surprise she said "I get to have my birthday AGAIN??!!" This was one happy little girl to get to blow out her candles, eat cupcakes, and open her presents. juneau helped out with blowing out the candles

This princess loves a crown (especially a crown with a secret candy compartment!)

we finished up the evening snuggled up, watching MegaMind. a great end to a great day. As a bonus for the trip, we got to have a little visit with long time faithful blog follower, Louise Fisher (and her cutie dog Mandy, and Bandit the Parakeet!) which was a real treat! We also got to visit Uncle Dean and Aunt Glenda (and enlist Uncle Dean's expert woodworking skills for a little project!) Needless to say, this Stickley crew is TIRED!!!! The next time you hear from us will probably be from Colorado!!!

still runnin' around like crazy!!!

we made the long trek from williamsburg to ohio (although that is a short trek compared to the upcoming trip from ohio to colorado!). the girls did great on the 11 hour car ride....thank goodness they are such great little travelers, and also thank goodness for the DVD player in the van!
We have been hanging out with the Matus gang for the last couple of days. The girls LOOOOVVEEEE anything that has to do with "Cousins!" They have been in little-girl heaven this last week, and have loved getting to spend time with all of their cousins.
They have really been into playing chase, tag, and racing lately. Nova's running gait is so funny, because she runs at full speed with her arm straight by her sides. She thinks if she swings her arms faster, she is actually running faster, so her little arms swing straight by her sides at double speed. it's really hilarious to watch.

The Matus gang is always up for a good challenge....here they tried to see who could balance the longest on this toy at the playground

the playground gang (minus photographer - Aunt Coral!)

spinning!

underdoggies all around!

Daddy is always the 1st to jump in on the fun...

Brent :)

Cris challenged Alex and Lyndsey to a balance-match...

and won :)

We got to catch Day 2 of the girls' basketball tournament for their traveling team. It was awesome to be able to see Alex and Lyndsey in action....and even more awesome that their team won the tournament! great job, guys!

Juneau was pretty much convinced she was part of the team. she sat with the team before the game, then warmed up with them along the side of the court. Later she and Nova played a very invovled basketball game where they pretended to be Alex and Lyndsey.

the little girls hanging out with the big girls before the game. J&N thought they were sooooo cool!

Now back to Williamsburg for a few pictures and a wrap-up of the week. This super amazing "buckeye park" would've fit right in in Columbus, Ohio, but oddly enough it was located at our condo in Williamsburg, VA. The girls loved this park, and asked to play at "The Buckeye Park!" every day!

We finally got to celebrate Micah's birthday. Unfortunately, if you are the last one to celebrate your birthday in a house full of toddlers, you just may end up with cotton candy somewhat smashed into the shape of a birhtday cake, with candles on top. Micah didn't seem to mind, though.

as i mentioned in my last post, my family had put together an elaborate plan to celebrate all the holidays i missed while i was deployed. Here you can see the kids having a great time celebrating Halloween in May.

We did get a few funny looks hauling a group of toddlers in halloween costumes through the resort community :) but we all had a great time! my mom even recruited some neighbors (actually, they were perfect strangers who happened to live next door to us in the condo) to go along with the plan and pass out candy. the kids loved it, and this momma loved getting to be part of the trick-or-treat festivities, even if it was 7 months late!

Secily, Juneau and Nova are all pros at the ipod (and the ipad, the laptop, and the smartphones for that matter!)

Micah, however, preferred to just march around the group of little girls and do his best to terrorize them!

Earlier in the week we also got to celebrate sweet Secily's birthday with a Princess Tea Party. The little girls absolutely loved getting to play dress-up in the princess costumes...complete with tiaras and a mini-makeover.

even Jbug joined in the princess festivities....

The birthday Princess, post-makeover...

Juneau rockin' her weave...

Micah was a superstar on the Buckeye Park Monkey Bars

Daddy had to show he still has some monkey bars skillz

not to be outdone, Grandpa took his turn on the monkey bars too (yes, this is the very same grandpa that had open heart surgery less than a year ago!!!)

Betsy and Secily watched from the slide

a quick game of chicken on the monkey bars

daddy was the victor!

Aunt Becky and cousin Kaleb took their turn at chicken! Aunt Becky didn't take any mercy on Kaleb, and came out victorious! It has been a super awesome week getting to spend tons of time with the people we love. We start the drive back to colorado this weekend, and will stay quite busy trying to get the girls and I moved into a new house and selecting an Au Pair to help with the girls when cris moves back to hawaii this summer!