BLOCK LEAVE!!

So it has been awhile since my last post and I uploaded the pictures backwards so the stories will go reverse chronologically. A lot has happened since early Aug - Jon had block leave which is when your Army unit tells you what days you are allowed to take vacation and if you have enough stored up and there is at least one person willing to stay back and cover the office you can take your leave. Luckily for us Jon's assistant is getting out of the Army in a month so he was willing to man the office so we could take the whole 14 days and we made the most of it. We traveled to OK, TX, and VA saw great grandparents, old roomies, aunt, uncles, cousins and friends galor! We ended block leave with potty training and feeding Riley big people food. Be warned this is picture overload but since I print my blog as my scrapbook you will just have to deal:)

Molly helped me feed Riley peas for dinner - Riley gets a spoon to keep her hands preoccupied and to help her from shoving her hand in her mouth (a trait she got from her cousin Taryn). Molly loves getting to help and we have only had one or two moments where I think she was trying to shove food down Riley's mouth.

We spent some time with my parents in Williamsburg and spent a day seeing the sites. A street musician even sang Molly her own song - but lets hope she doesn't grow up to be a fish monger (whatever that is). We loved seeing the people dressed up and seeing the old buildings.
Bowling at Great Wolf - there was a competition that my dad and Jon were supposed to compete in but I was able to join in. It was winner of most events - air hockey, bowling and putt putt had bragging rights and I was sure I could take them but alas I lost bowling by 1 point and the air hockey table was not my friend on competition day but I did win putt putt. Jon won this time but NEVER again I will say!! I was sorely disappointed my dad did not win the bowling as that would have made it a 3 way tie and I bet I could have won whatever they threw my way. My mom was kind enough to let Molly be on her team for bowling and stayed in the room for a rest time while we did air hockey so she was unable to participate in all 3 events. We all enjoyed the slides at Great Wolf but were never able to convince my mom to ride the Howlin Tornado:(

Since Busch Gardens lets military have free tickets we spent 1 day there - it was great there were no lines and it was super family friendly. Molly loved Oscar's Whirly Worms and rode it probably 6 times.
Molly in the bumper cars which she also enjoyed mainly because she got to drive it by herself - she did not quite understand why others were ramming her but at least she was happy!
The swings!
Flying the airplane - she also loved this ride and rode it 3 times.
Riley was just happy it was a cool day and she got out of the stroller every now and then.
Molly and her first live character - she loved Elmo and ran up to him pushing people out of her way. I would have hated to see what she would have done if it was Dora. She really didn't want to get any closer than this but she also did not want to leave she would just look at us and say ELMO and cover her mouth and laugh.
Molly and Granny on a ride - Granny doesn't do many rides but she could handle this one!
Elmo's ride
We DID NOT ride that one again - you win some and lose some
Riley checking out the rides but making sure to stay close to Granny
While in Texas we hung out at my brother Brian's for a few days and made it to an Astro's game. Riley had her first food ever COTTON CANDY! She loved it
The Astro's are not doing well this season so not many people were at the game. We left at the top of the 9th -if we had stayed 20 more minutes we could have watched a Grand Slam and seen the Astro's go from a 2-5 deficit to a 6-5 WIN.
Paige and Brian have some friends who work at a polo field and they were feeding the dogs while their friends are on vacation so we tagged along. Riley was not a fan of the saddle.
Molly wasn't as confident as her cousins about climbing but she did love the horses.
SUGAR HIGH!! Molly ate her weight during the baseball game and got a true experience with cotton candy, ice cream, hot dogs, (her first ever) orange soda, animal crackers, peanuts and popcorn.

PAUSE -
We visited Waco and saw many great friends but I forgot to take my camera out and get a picture:( We had a bar-b-que with our old lifegroup, stopped by and visited friends and got to go to church at Antioch - it was a very refreshing time and was a highlight of block leave.
We started the trip going to Jon's grandma - who we attempted to get Molly to call 2 Messy (family story behind that one). Grandma cooked tons of food for us and we hung out and had fun. Aunt Jenn was coming to visit during that time and Molly was doubly sad when we pulled out of the driveway and neither were in our car.
Molly had to wait a whole day to help eat my birthday cake - but she was able to!
I made a quick stop over to Norman and saw Stephanie and her girls and parents for the afternoon. All my old college roomies have kids and our visits are quite like the old college days were you goofed off now the kids goof off and we just laugh.
SIDE NOTE - I also got to see Stina and her 2 adorable kids as they drove over the Grapevine Mills for a quick lunch and stroll around the mall. We saw Jon's roomie Al who is a cop in Dallas and missed seeing Trey by 1 hour:(
At the wildlife reserve in Lawton. It was great but Molly did not want to give up the camera - note the tears.
On our way out of town Jon and Molly went to stop by Jon's grandfather's grave site.
On McPherson Ministry Monday we made the girls poster with verses we are praying for them. Riley's main theme is she is an oak of righteousness.
Molly's is that she will be fearless
Riley would like some ice cream - we attempted to ride our bikes to the new Dairy Queen but you get within 1/2 and there are no side walks anywhere and it is not worth riding our bikes on the main road with the bike trailer so we went back home and drove the truck to get ice cream.
Molly was thankful for her treat!
For my birthday Jon has us do a scavenger hunt a few days early in Florence SC - this is my rubbing of my birthday off of the tombstones in the national cemetery.
Dizzy Izzy at the Ball field - since I accomplished all 8 I got my present!


Hope you enjoyed this long over due and very long post!!

Cooking with Molly

The camera has been found!!
A few weeks back Molly requested that we get an Auntie Anne's pretzel kit - ok maybe she threw it in the cart and when I tried to remove it she let her opinion be known. Tonight she found the kit in the back of the pantry and ever so nicely asked if we could make the pretzels. Since Jon was not home and there was no end in site I thought - why not that should take an hour or two and at least she will learn something. She helped me mix the yeast and learned another lesson in patience as we had to let it dissolve and then another lesson when the dough had to sit for 30 minutes. After the dough was ready we rolled it out and tried to look like the people in the mall twisting the pretzels and failed but at least we laughed! We baked the pretzels while Molly continued to "cook" with a bowl of water and a spoon. When they were done we tried to share some with our neighbors but no one would answer their door at 8:30 so we ate the cinnamon sugar and saved the salted ones for later.

Cutting the dough to roll out the pretzel
I think Auntie Anne would hire us on the spot!
Daddy and Molly sharing - the kit was really good and it did taste like Auntie Anne's. I think it will be a redo since it was so fun!
Riley looking on wishing she was allowed to eat - maybe in a few months.
While we got Molly ready for bed Riley managed to roll over to the plate left on the floor. Instead of taking her off I made sure to get a picture first. Good thing there was no pretzel left or that might have been her first food - I am pretty sure she did get a little sugar because she was sucking her hand a little harder than normal.