Report from the Road

First item of business to report:  All Greers are alive...and still talking to each other!

I'm checking in from beautiful Ames, Iowa.  We are loving our time in the heart of the heartland, spending long, wonderful days with the Wades (Christopher's childhood best friend Nat, Libbey, Madeleine and Skyler).  We are just home from the town aquatic center...a water amusement park, really...and have plans for dinner and a semi-pro soccer game in Des Moines tonight.  The weather is fascinating.  Up until today it was about 95 degrees with about 95% humidity.  Everyday was a flash thunderstorm culminating in incredible lightning across the sky.  One of the very best parts of this visit is watching the kids bounce and run around the house in one big pack.  I've never seen such fast friendships formed.  I can't even tell you how great it is to have the adult friendships renewed.

So all is going really, really well.  Our Denver/Boulder stop was equally enchanting.  Lots of great time with my brothers and some sweet time with old friends.  We saw the Blackanns (Laura and kids Taylor and Bo) for a really fun and quick visit (I'll FOR SURE post photos of this visit once we're settled in VA...some quality dress up and playtime there) and a sweet reunion with Jill, Brent, Brynn and new baby Drew.  In a few days we'll hit the road towards Chicago and New England.  There is no way this trip is feeling like a laborious move.  It's just a three week meander from friend to friend!.

TWO!

Before we packed up I managed to upload a few photos from Simon's low-key birthday celebration:

Work begins on the infamous "truck cake".

Millie picked out this truck for Simon.  He LOVES it.  Millie said "I knew Simon would like it."  Sweet.

Score!  Train table and approximately 1000 train pieces and parts found at a very affordable price on Craigslist.  Both of them loved  this one.

And dinner was...where else...CiCi's!  

Simon HATED his cake.  I mean he screamed and cried at just the sight of it.  What...you're not totally down with the electric yellow frosting, black licorice truck arms and shady donut tires?  Imagine that!  Seems like I have a pretty sorry track record when it comes to homemade birthday cakes.  Maybe the universe is telling me to give it up and head straight for the ice cream cakes.  Yessss!

Someday this kid might have a normal birthday with a party and friends and the whole thing.  But then again, it might not happen all that often since the Navy likes to move us in the middle of summer.  For now we'll make sure to stop and celebrate all that Simon means to our family.  He's an amazing kid...not sure how we were chosen to raise him, but I feel lucky for it everyday.

It's On...

The 'big adventure' (our term for this crazy move) has begun!  Writing from Cedar City, Utah, the first stop on our epic odyssey.  The packers came on Wednesday to load everything into boxes.  The movers came yesterday to put everything on the truck.  We hit the road this morning.  I wish wish wish I had a photo of our traveling circus.  ALL of us, including Casey and including enough entertainment items for an entire school of children (I get panicky about the long hours in the car, especially the Nebraska section) are packed into our Ford Escape.  Yep, if you do the math, that means we have a huge contraption for luggage on the roof since Casey's got the whole back area.  The back windows are fogged over with dog drool, the middle windows are covered in sticky handprints and Elmo/Buzz Lightyear stickers, and the front one has my face pressed against it, staring at the landscape and trying to comprehend all that lies ahead for us.

We are taking our time on this journey, spending almost three weeks visiting family and lots of great friends along the way.  I'm looking forward to having Christopher with us full-time and checking in with so many people that we love and don't see often enough.  And you know, deep deep down I really feel like we will be back in San Diego soon.  So this is more of a 'see ya later' than a 'goodbye'.  Much easier on the emotions that way.

A few random photos from our last few days:

The kids and I got to watch Christopher receive an award from his Command.  

 

Love this shot of the kids against the sea of uniforms.  What an interesting life for them...they don't even think twice about running around a helicopter landing zone in a crowd of uniforms.  Or packing everything they own and moving across the country.

  

Boxes...everywhere!

A Picture Perfect Day

I think we found utopia.  It's Balboa Island on 4th of July weekend.  Holy Cow this was a patriotic, idyllic little enclave of fabulous beach mansions...I mean super-sized cottages...and kitschy tourist shops.  Add in one great breakfast place, over-the-top holiday decor and a fun hotel stay and we had ourselves a perfect little weekend.  Julie met us there on Saturday morning and joined us for the fun.

Mils and Si are showing off their first-ever gummi-bracelets bought for them by Aunt JuJu.

Picnic lunch on the boardwalk.  Wish I could have captured the awesomeness of Si's stained lips and shirt after drinking this grape/berry concoction straight from the bottle.  

Here's what I'm talkin' about.  Cutest general store ever.  This is Millie's first ever motorized ride of this type.  My mom is (and therefore I am) convinced that these rides are just filthy enough for the kids to contract some form of flesh-eating bacteria, so we generally steer clear.  Not on this dream of a day, however

Just a cute house...my favorite, in fact.  What you can't see is the two gigantic golden retrievers sunning themselves on the front patio.  Heaven.

And we could call it a day in Millie's book.  She has discovered the magic of a candy necklace.  

Si's not as concerned with the beauty of it...he's more of a flavor guy.

Back at the hotel, Dad and the kids crashed for naps while Mom and Jules hit the pool.  Sometime before dinner Millie busted this out on us.  SHE WROTE HER NAME!  I might have cried about it.

What's a perfect day that doesn't end with s'mores?  I did a dance when I saw that the hotel had a big s'smore roast planned for that evening. 

We called them 'sticky deserts' and loved every messy bite.

The evening ends with some running around and rolling down the hill at the hotel.  

The next morning we headed back to the island for breakfast at Gloria's and a visit to our cow friend Bessie (The kids called her Betsy since I have two mom-friends named Betsy.  They must be so happy to have a cow name-sake.).  What an awesome final SoCal road trip.  

Instead of packing...

...here's what we've been up to:

I am doing everything I can to burn this smile and his sweet laugh onto my brain forever.  He's goofy and clever and such a little flirt.  Oh man I love him.

Millie's preschool friend Sam and his sister Abigail came over for a playdate.  What's more fun than popsicles on the front porch?

Another triathlon enjoyed by the fam.  This one was right downtown and was actually the race that started all this madness.  It was the first one Christopher ever did back in 2004.

Our neighbor Dara joined Christopher, Casey and the kids for the nightly ride/walk around the block.  These steps are the usual rest stop along the way.

A little old-school style car washing in the driveway.

He's thoroughly soaked...head to toe...

...and loving every minute with his dad!

Dolphins

How's this for a cool Navy job?  Dolphin trainer!  Christopher met a few of the guys who handle the Navy's very specially trained dolphins and they offered to let us come down to the pens to watch them feed and interact with the dolphins.   This one giving me a "high-ten" is pretty amazing.

Millie loved it!

Meanwhile, Simon was kept pinned down as tightly as the three of us could manage (Julie was with us, thank goodness).  What a great morning.