A trip to Minnesota

We finally get to pick up Scooby!!! So Scooby flew to Mass from England a couple days after we did, he then stayed with Mom while we went to Cali, and now that we have made it to North Dakota and are getting settled in, Scooby is on his way. But how about we have to drive 6 hours to Minnesota to pick him up… Scooby’s kennel was too BIG to fly anywhere into North Dakota (note to self for next time… lol) We can’t wait to pick him up!!! We drove up on Friday night, and visited with some of El’s cousins, stayed the night and then picked up Scooby in the morning. Since his flight was early… we decided to grab lunch before hitting the road… 

…we stopped at Mall of America… it was a shame we couldn’t stay to shop or play.. but we did eat lunch with El’s cousins. Then we were off again. I am sure the kids will be begging us to come back sooner than later.

Heading home… I love pictures taken in the mirror

First Day of School

Today is the FIRST DAY of school for both of my babies!!! How time flies, the summer always seems to go so quickly, but this summer with all of our traveling and PCSing it seemed to pass like nothing. And this year they are starting earlier than what they have been used to the past couple years. Yesterday was open house at the school for both of the kids. They got to see their new classes and meet their new teachers. They were both soo excited to start school!!
Jaylen is 7 years old and going into the 2nd grade. 



Jada is 9 years old and going into the 4th grade.



They are BOTH soooo grown!!! How does the time just fly by???





Taking it back… ya’ll know I love the baby pic’s…
2006- Jada starting Sure Start (preschool)

2007- Jada starts Kindergarten, and we just had to get Jaylen stuff too… hahaha

2008- Jada started 1st grade, and Jaylen started preschool (Jaylen went to a British school)
 
2009- Jada 2nd grade, Jaylen Kindergarten

2010- Jada 3rd grade, Jaylen 1st grade

~*~New SUV~*~

So today we picked up my new SUV!!! yeaaaahhhh!! We have been told we will be needing it… not looking forward to that, but LOVING the new ride!

The last leg of our trip

We left California on 15 August heading to St. Louis, “The Gateway to the west”. We had to pick up El’s car from there, since it is the closest port to North Dakota, go figure. It was a short trip,  we were only staying over night and heading out the next day. While we were going to be in town we thought it would be nice to meet up with some old friends. Aunty Kamesha was on our MUST see people list but she wasn’t going to be there.. Another couple on the Must See list was Todd, Alise and “new” baby Finn. We all met in England and worked in the Pediatric Clinic together. Todd and Alise are some of the sweetest people we know, and their newest addition is cute as can be. We met them for dinner and had a wonderful time. The kids missed Todd very much and had fun being “crazy” with him!!
After dinner, and back the hotel the kids were out like a light, a full day of traveling for these kiddos.



The next morning we were up and ready to go visit The Arch. The weather was beautiful and clear, should be a great viewing.

High above St. Louis











We all enjoyed visiting The Arch this morning then it was time to hit the road. We grabbed something to eat, then we were off, on our 14 hour drive…
leaving St. Louis









El ended up driving the whole way- day and night, and after MANY stops we ended up arriving at Grand Forks AFB about 4am. We have finally made it!!

Our time in California

Our next two weeks were spent in California with El’s side of the family. They are much like El, or I should say I know where El gets his “I hate my picture being taken”!! And you all know with me with my camera.. I don’t give up, I like the challenge
Our trip was filled with lots of visiting with family, hanging by the pool side, a drive-in movie date, wrestling/ play fighting, LOTs of shopping, eating out and having a good time.
Below are some of the pictures from of our trip.
El and Dominique play fighting, the whole time we were home, Dominique was determined to try and take El down, needless to say it didn’t happen this trip.

watching some tv w/ cousin Marshawn

Uncle Romain





Cousin Ajee











Grandma.. hiding from the camera

cousin Artiniece



Cousins; Marqis and Marshawn









Cousin Devin



Grandpa and the kids



hahaha, I have to laugh when people take pictures with my camera!!



Devin just had to sleep with the BIG kids.. too cute









Aunty Audrie and Devin

JJ and mom

the kids wrestling with Uncle Dominique









someone decided to wear his grits instead of eat them…lol

Pool times, the kids LOVE the pool. Before coming here they didn’t know how to swim and were quiet scared to try… but by the end of our visit they were some swimming fishes.



















cousin Heaven





Our time in Cali was great, we had TONS of fun and good times.