North Island Navy Lodge

I am trying to get everything updated...

Edward was home from Afghanistan for about 48 hours before he left for his medical conference in San Diego. This was the whole reason for his early arrival, about a week ahead of his guys. Anyways, I took care of booking the hotel and flights, as I was not about to let him go to our favorite city alone! My parents were so wonderful to come and stay with the kids all week. The kids were good, bit that is never a vacation with getting three kids off to school/preschool, homework, sports' practices and such. We are very grateful they could help out and enable me to travel with Edward. Since we have spent a lot of time in San Diego, I booked our favorite place, the Navy Lodge on Coronado. I had to devote an entire post to this place because it is so nice. Since we moved away from the West, the Navy Lodge has added on a lot! The best thing is the private beach is still just as awesome and just as private.

Here is the addition from our balcony. It is beautiful.

This picture cannot capture how beautiful Coronado is.

After all our trips here, they finally added a pool.

...and a splash pad.

They replaced the play area.

Beautiful morning with Point Loma in the distance.

The "older" part of the hotel...we were impressed with the design and ability to match the properties up so well.

Soccer

I have been trying to add these soccer pictures for awhile, and they finally uploaded.  All three kids are deep into soccer season right now.  They all stayed on the same teams this year, which has made it really nice. 

 

Madison, starting at the center forward, is ready for the game to begin.

 The Lady Panthers tied their first two games, but they won this past weekend while Edward and I were out of town.

 Luke has really blossomed into an awesome player.  He scored three goals his first game and again this past weekend!

 Luke is on the Fire this year, and he is really fun to watch!

 Alex is in his last season of "Lil' Kickers."  He is on the Dragons again this year, and man, this league is so cute!  Alex started the season with the first goal at the first kickoff!!!  Of course, I was dropping Luke off at his game, came back, and found out that Alex was the star of the first game.  He has not looked quite the same since, but he's definitely having fun.  He is Number 9.

 He looks so intense in this one, but usually he's not intense at all for soccer.

Toothless

Luke lost his first tooth, which was on the bottom, the night before Edward came home.  We had been at Madison's soccer practice all evening, and when we walked in the door, he just pulled it out.  I'm happy to report the Tooth Fairy found Luke and left him a dollar.

HOME!!!!!!!!

After six months in Afghanistan, Edward returned home.  We are so glad to have our soldier home and thank the Lord he returned safely to us. Words cannot express the amount of relief we all felt with Edward arriving home, especially knowing some of his soldiers, and friends, would not return home.  War is horrible and the reality that good men have given the ultimate sacrifice will remain with us forever.

 

 I didn't tell the kids until they came home from school Friday that we would be going to the airport.  They thought it was going to be Sunday, which was our original date, but due to many circumstances, Edward arrived home early. I knew the kids would not focus while at school, and it was a great surprise. They came home to the banner up, as I hung it after they got on the morning bus.

 Once home from school, the kids quickly started working on their signs.

 "We have waited six months to hug our dad."

 Soon, it was time to head to the airport. Because Edward came home a few days early, he flew home partially with the Air Force and partially with a commercial airline.  He was able to come home early because he will be attending a medical conference all next week, something he hasn't been able to do for a few years due to back to back deployments.

 Beyond excited

 We were able to wait at the gate, which is a trick of the trade I knew about, and I'm very glad to report the Fayetteville airport was so nice (and helpful) with everything. They were excited for us too.

 Finally!!!!

 11,000+ miles and several days of travel=HOME

Edward was shocked to see us at the gate.  He was deep in conversation with another medical person from his unit that he happened to meet up with in Atlanta and ended up sitting with on the flight home (small world). As the guys walked off the plane, Madison flew over to meet him at the opening to the door, and Edward almost didn't know what was going on.  It was really sweet. Luke, who has been so stressed with everything, just started crying, and I don't even think he knew why. He wasn't upset, but the relief of seeing that airplane just came out. It was so good to see our favorite guy.

 Edward with his mini-me

 Luke was determined to carry Edward's ruck sack through the airport, in spite of it weighing well over 50 lbs.  He was so cute trying so hard to carry it.

 Finally together again

 This was the last day of our jar.

EMPTY and ready to be put away for a LONG, LONG TIME!

 

Lacrosse

The kids all love sports. Saturday, after soccer, we went to Raleigh to pick up our snow skis. We had taken them to the ski shop a couple weeks ago for waxing and adjustments. All five of us have skis, so it is a big job. Anyways, after we picked up our skis, we ate at our favorite spot, Sweet Tomatoes. Nearby is a great kids' consignment store we all like to check out, so of course, we went there. We also wandered into the sports store next to that where all three of them found these lacrosse sticks. The kids have been talking about lacrosse a lot lately, so they were very excited to find these. Who knows...they may play it in the spring here.