happy 4th!

We had a pretty fun and low-key 4th of July this year.  We had Hannah in town so she got to celebrate it with us.  We went swimming, Matt and Hannah played tennis, and we grilled up some dinner.  

moving day

On May 29th and 30th, we packed up our things and moved from north San Diego to even further north in San Diego county.  We absolutely loved the area we were living in, but we were wanting to back in a house that we owned and a little closer to Matt's work.  Since Matt's duty station was changing from the Naval Medical Center San Diego, the navy was willing to move us, even though it was only about 30 minutes from our old house.  Score.  Last year when we moved to San Diego, we did the move ourselves and collected the money.  This year was a little different.  At the time of our move, Matt was working horribly long days, and I was 8 months pregnant.  Neither of us could really muster the energy or time that was going to be needed to move our stuff ourselves.  So...we had the Navy do everything and it was wonderful.  

For the record, I packed nothing.  It was great.  We did, however, go through all of our things and super-organize everything.  We took down picture frames and put them all in a single pile, we condensed all our linens and things to one place, and so forth.  On the morning of May 30th, our movers arrived.  It was a team of three guys, and they were awesome.  They started packing at about 7 am.  (And a special thanks to the Dalquists and the Deans for watching my boys both days.  They loved playing with their friends and it made my day easier.)  By about 1 pm, the movers were ready to put everything on the truck.  They packed up our house so fast.  It was incredible to see.  By 5 pm, they were completely finished and everything was in the truck.  

Here are my little moving buddies having some lunch between play dates.

The next day, the movers were ready to deliver our stuff as soon as we were ready for them.  We were closing on our house on the 30th, so we had to wait until everything was recorded and we got the keys.  At about 3 pm, we had our keys in hand and the movers were waiting for us at the house.  They had everything unloaded in two hours.  Sadly, this is the only picture I took of the whole moving process.  Because Matt was working both days, and it was just me and the kids and the moving and the cleaning, I didn't really think about taking pictures.

Once everything was unloaded in the house, the movers were off and we were just left to unpack.  These few days of the move, Matt was working from 5 am to about 8 pm, and with an hour commute to our new house, it made for some really long days.  (After we moved, Matt had a month left of working downtown before he started working closer to our new house.)  Matt is awesome, though, and super motivated, so when he got home he was more than willing to help clean and finish up as much as he could get done before we all crashed in exhaustion.  We did have to laugh, though, because in all of the moving commotion, Matt never saw the movers.  He'd come home and everything would already be done.

Graham in swimming lessons

We signed Graham up for swimming lessons through the city, and he loved it.  He was the smallest one in the class, but he did great.  He was so proud of his swimming.  When he went off the diving board he told us "I was so brave!"

unclassified pictures

I always end up with a collection of random pictures on my phone that don't really belong under any specific category.  That being said, here are some of these pictures of our cute kids.  : )

The boys love to read.  And I love that they love to read.  There's no place better to read than the book box.

a really strange Saturday

A few Saturdays ago, we had big plans for our day.  Matt got up early, finished paining the toy room and entryway, and we were going to head to the zoo.  Our plan was to drop by the San Diego library to claim the boys' summer reading prizes before going to the zoo because we didn't know when we'd be back over in our old neighborhood.  Everything was going along swimmingly.  We hopped in the car after doing a few things around the house, and made a quick stop at Target.  (Where I found a really cute chair and bench for 70% off.  Score!)  After we left Target, we headed to the library.  As we were driving, the car started making a funny noise, then it quickly got worse.  It sounded as if our tire was flat, because we could hear a thump, thump, thump sound and it was getting louder.  As we were slowing down and getting ready to pull over, our tire exploded.  Or at least it sounded like it exploded.  My biggest fear is blowing a tire on the freeway and rolling the car an unheard of amount of times, so I was really glad Matt was with us and was driving that day.  

When we were stopped on the side of the road, I jumped out to check the tire since the cars weren't zooming past my side.  When I saw what the car looked like, I told Matt it was bad.  I don't know if he thought it was as bad as it was right at first, until he saw it.  What had happened, or what we think had happened was the tire, which didn't explode, lost all of its tread, and the tread caught the fender and basically mutilated it.  This picture below is after we had the new tire on and Matt pulled the fender back down.  When we stopped on the side of the freeway, the fender was completely rolled up into the wheel well.  We aren't sure, but suspect, that someone hit us in the Target parking lot, which made something on the fender bend in enough to rub on the tire.  Then, as we were driving, whatever was rubbing on the tire was making the tread come loose.  Once the tread was completely ripped off, the rubber caught hold of the fender and yanked it up.  We don't know for sure, and may never know for sure, but our car was pretty beat up.  We weren't going to let this ruin our Saturday, so once we had the tire fixed (thanks, also, for the help from a highway patrol worker) we made our way to the library. 

intern year: check

At the beginning of June, Matt graduated from his intern year of his residency.  There was a ceremony for all the graduating interns and residents at the Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park.  We're really proud of Matt's accomplishments this year.  He worked a really busy year, had a very busy schedule, and somehow lived to tell the tale.  : )  I was able to snap a few pictures of Matt in his uniform (or outfit, as Graham calls it).  I think he looks quite dashing.  Way to go, Matt.  One year done, and we're not going to count the rest.  : )

happy 30th Matt!

Matt turned the big 3-0 this year!  Seems a little old, right?  : )  Maybe not.  This year, we tried to make Matt's birthday special, despite it occurring right in the middle of our move.  Matt had to work on his actual birthday, and didn't get home until quite late, so we celebrated his birthday on June 1st, since it was his only day off that week.  The boys were so excited for his birthday, and I felt bad not telling them that it was actually Matt's birthday on the 31st.  The whole day went by and they had no idea.  Whenever Graham would ask if it was Matt's birthday, I'd just tell him we were going to celebrate it tomorrow.  But when we celebrated Matt's birthday, the boys had a blast.  Happy birthday, Matt!  We love you and are so fortunate to have such a wonderful husband and father in our family!  We hope that the next 30 years are just as great, and even better.

Graham plays soccer

We put Graham in 3-year-old soccer at the Miramar Marine Base, and it was so funny.  Graham had a great time, although he sometimes had a really hard time focusing on the game or the ball.  He was such a good sport about playing soccer.  He never complained and was always willing to play.