Month: June 2015

It has thus far been a whirlwind of excitement and memories, memories these kids hopefully will remember forever!!! Now I don’t know how much Cruz will really remember but kids can certainly surprise you but Angelica will really miss hanging with all her primos, AJ, Aaden, Katelyn, Eden, and Jaylyn. I get such joy in my heart seeing both of them with their smiling faces running around with their cousins!!!!

Now don’t misconstrue this as to believe they don’t miss their Mommy, nothing could be farther from the truth, but it certainly has bridged a HUGE gap in their lives, it was very fortunate for us to have this chance during a trying time for my wonderful children.

Recently they got to experience the joys of Lake life, zip line in a very dear friends yard, Rodeo, and mass pool time with cousins! And what does the short future hold ahead… well maybe a little more lake life, maybe some river life as well, some fireworks, and we still have to visit more old friends and FAMILY!!

New Mexico Family…
The great summer of 2015 vacation continues, and it has been just about perfect, except the big fact that Mommy isn’t with us, but other then that it has been great!!! The kids are just loving all the time they are getting with there Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, and of course their cousins!!! My 2 Sisters, MICHELLE AND ESPERANZA are nothing less then AWESOME, without even batting an eyelash they take BOTH my children and have been giving them the time of their life!! In fact they ask me constantly to take them and leave them!! Which in tuen has provided me with a littel child free time to get some good old, BAD, golf in!!

Angelica has been just overjoyed to spend time with her cousins, especially Katelyn, as shes the girl cousin for her, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t wait on baited breathe to see AJ and Aaden. She actually has taken a fancy to her cousin Aaden, she always wats to sit by him, go in the car with him….

Cruz on the other hand thinks of AJ as his buddy, and at Espys house he get way more spoiled as he is the only boy there with all the girls, whereas Angelica is the only girl at her Nina’s house.

Tis past weekend we got out to Cochiti lake for some camping with Aaron, Michelle, AJ, and Aaden. Unfortunately we went on the HOTTEST weekend of the year as we saw triple digits over the weekend. This dry air is way different then the humid weather of Florida, in a sense if you put a fan out it cools down a bit in FL, here it is dry dry air so your just blowing hot hot air, no relief. We were fortunate enough to get my Dad to come out for Fathers day, a rarity for me, as many of my brothers and sisters in the military know, we don’t get to spend a lot of holidays with our extended family, in fact i cant remember the last time i actually saw my Dad on FathersDay.

Now a couple days visiting with old friends in Albuquerque, then back to SF for some Rodeo and swimming!!!!

The kids are having such a blast, and it helps distract them from missing their Mommy, but they still miss her, they ask about her all the time, and always say”I wish my Mommy was Here to see this…” just breaks your heart a little every time, but we are getting closer and closer by the day to seeing her again!!!

On the first day of my summer vacation…….

Well its not our first day, but it is our summer vacation, and being with Family has been great for the kiddos!! they are so loving hanging with their cousins, AJ and Aaden. Oh and not to mention their Auntie, uncle and Grandma!!! But you know kids, its all about the ones they can play with!!! Good for Daddy too, already had my breakfast Menudo and Posas Tamales, so I am well on my way to gaining 50-100LBS of New Mexico cooking weight!!!!

Weather is sooooo nice here, well comparatively speaking, once the sun goes down it gets soo nice and cool, not even a need for AC in the evenings. Of Course its that dry air so the chapped lips and stuffy dry nose are back too!!

So as we move on in our journey, think we will go even more North today and see Grandpa and their other cousins today, girls, so Angelica will no dou

bt be in heaven!!!

Still missing Mommy but being around family does help, and again it will be hard to leave when that comes about as well, but for now, its happy smiling kids, and that makes a happy smiling DAD!!!!

NM we have arrived!!!

Well last day of travel was supposed to be the easiest and shortest, and it ended up being just as long and the hardest really. We got up early but took our time with breakfast, some walking, and just relaxing a bit, then headed West for our 2:30. AND that plan worked out great until we gassed up in Tuccamcari.

Then about 12 miles down the road, DEAD STOP!!!! Accident somewhere about 10 miles up backing us all up to a stop. So there we stood, or sat, for some 45-50 minutes. BUT the beauty of RV travel is we put in a movie, cooked up some lunch and just waited it out. finally we got on the move, and went about 20 miles, just got up to traveling speed and traffic spaced itself out a bit, when…. you guessed it, DEAD STOP again, and right outside Santa Rosa, and this time apparently for construction, not sure why it stopped us, but there we were for another 30 minutes and now moving…. BUT eventually we got going, hit our exit at Clines corners, made the turn onto 285 and then fought the crosswinds that you can only really appreciate in a big flat moving home for then next 20 miles….!! Lo and behold, after at least 40-50 Angelica’s “Are we close to my Nina’s yet” we rolled into Santa Fe, at 4:30 in the afternoon!!! Nice 4 hour trip turned into 7 hours!! but we arrived, safe and sound and no less for the wear, although the trip didi finally get to the kids and they passed out in the chairs, with there computers in hand right toward the end!!

So now is time for some qulity Family time, and more iportantly the kids some cousin time they never get being that a Military family is always deprived of such luxuries!!!

Day 2

Early rise, early go! Had alarm set for 0445 and still woke up at 0400, which is really 0500 my east coast time. Anyhow, un-hooked and gassed up and on the road by 0500!! Pretty smooth ride right through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and finally into Texas. Nice 10.5 day, although plenty of stops long the way, with the inevitable, “DADDY I NEED SOME HELP!” from the bathroom…. We really have ruined these kids from any extended road trips without an RV.. They will never know what to do without a bathroom readily available along the way, or the joy of getting up out of their seat to move around!!!
Angelica’s only worry the whole way is how close we are to NM!!! sure i heard that question at least 2-dozen times yesterday!!!

Made it to Glade Water Texas and parked it at a quint and very nice little RV park called shallow Creek. Run by a couple retired Navy folk who reminisced about days in Norfolk. Kids got some splash park and pool time to burn off some road energy and Sandy got some leg stretching in as well.

Day 3

Another early rise, but I slept right till the alarm today, still got unhooked and on the road by 0510 though. Few more stops today, as the coffee was flowing right through me, so it was a Rest Stop to Rest stop kinda morning. Eventually got through the hell that is Dallas traffic and road construction, with only a hand full of cuss words from yours truly!!
Got to Amarillo relatively early, 3pm, making it another 10 hour day, although less milage covered, and NEVER left the state of TEXAS!!!
Made it to the Big Texan, as we always do when passing through Amarillo, and had to have me the Nice 27oz pale ale brew they had, to go with my 12oz steak!!! Kids got their hats and of course dessert and all were happy, as we got back to the Amarillo Ranch RV Park and they pestered me incessantly until i broke down and took them to the pool!!!!

Got here to Amarillo a day earlier then anticipated so not sure what tomorrow will bring, see if we can get in a day early at our Santa Fe abode, if not we will shoot from the hip and plan something else out….

Well looks like my little Angel has gotten through her first year of school, well VPK, which here in FL is Pre-Kindergarden. So on to Kindergarten for little miss Angelica!!!! She sooo loves going to school, just a matter of how long will that lasts????? That also means Cruz gets his shot at VPK next year in the same school as Angelica, which will be nice t have just one stop drop-off everyday.

The end of school also means, the start of our journey West, and here we go, on to New Mexico, although we will take our time and get there sometime next week, hopefully dodging any flood and storm delay’s as we get through Texas…..
This also marks about 8.5 weeks since mommy headed to Iwo Jima, with somewhere around 8.5 weeks to go..more or less, who knows, with the Navy you NEVER know until your actually done!!!
Sooo day 1 of the travel has come to a conclusion, making to Alabama, just over the border from Fla., and Pensacola in a very quint and cheap RV park. Good day of travel, kids behaved pretty well, except for the multiple potty breaks that involve someone from the back yelling, “I need help!” So inevitably there were more then a few stops along the way, but it worked out relatively well.
Early day tomorrow and we’ll see how far we traverse…..