Special Time

Sometimes an unplanned trip can result in multiple blessing, which is exactly what happened earlier this month when Dean's squadron decided to send him down to a CRM class in Pensacola. We were excited about the opportunity to visit family and friends, but with all the craziness of this spring (will explain in later post) I was a little weary of the long road trip. We finalized plans and left on a Friday to meet the Farmer’s at their cabin in NC. It was truly a Godsend that we were there because within an hour of arrival a frantic man came scrambling up the road to the cabin in search for help. His soon-to-be-finance was struck by lightening at Max Patch (a point on the Appalachian Trail) and with no cell phone coverage he was forced to drive around looking for help. Dean and his dad immediately scooped up this man and went to the top of the mountain to help while Dean’s mom placed the 911 call from the cabin. Help arrived fairly fast as we could hear the sirens heading up to Max Patch, but unfortunately the girl did not survive the strike. We were definitely supposed to be there that night. Article below.

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100608/NEWS/306080033/Woman-killed-by-lightning-at-Max-Patch-minutes-from-engagement

As we continued our trip down to Pensacola we were able to see more family and close friends, celebrate the arrival of my best friend’s twin boys and put a contract on a house! Busy week. On Friday morning Dean got out of class super early so he was able to ride up to Atmore with us to visit my grandmother. We had debated about going Monday morning, but with Dean able to join us we decided that Friday was the best day. We had a great visit with her. She was a sharp as ever and was up on the latest news: the oil spill, the military, lawn care, etc. DB enjoyed crawling around and checking out his new surrounding and even found a chair just his size. We didn't know it would be our last visit with her at the time, but how amazing that we were able to enjoy her company that Friday. Below are 2 pictures that we took that day. She passed away early Monday morning and while it was a complete shock to everyone we know that she is a better place!

Above, Great Mama (Mattie Lou) is explaining to DB that he can indeed walk and talk...if he wanted to... ;)

DB finding a chair his size!

While it wasn't the 'trip' we expected we know that God's hand was with us every step of the way.

Standing up

You hardly ever catch this little boy sitting anymore....

One handed

New Places

DB and I have made several trips to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens lately, but this past Friday was the first time we checked out the children's 'water park.' DB was a little unsure about the cold water squirting out of the ground at first....

Our friend Meredith showing us how to splash in the water

Changes

We've had a few changes in the Farmer house lately...as you can see below....

This is how we find DB after his naps

In case you couldn't see in the above picture...he is standing up in his crib

Gabby now has a partner for her neighborhood watch program ;)

If you turn your back for a second you have to search underneath furniture to find someone

Annapolis Weekend

For the first time since our honeymoon we took a mini weekend vacation to Annapolis, MD...and had a fabulous time!!! With the possibility of moving later this year we have decided to plan a few weekend trips around the area to see the sights and Annapolis was first on our list. We were a little unsure of what it was going to be like to travel with the little dude, but DB was a great sport!

We drove up Friday and made the most of the afternoon by touring the Naval Academy campus, riding around downtown Annapolis, watching the parade on the parade field and eating some yummy crab at Jimmy Cantler's on the back deck. Saturday morning we were blessed with more great weather so we headed out for breakfast...more crab...enjoyed a beautiful morning sunrise in downtown, saw more of the USNA campus and headed over to the baseball field to watch Navy play some ball. After watching about 30 minutes of the game we headed back to the hotel to get in a quick nap. That evening we enjoyed an early dinner and dessert and headed home happy and full! Sunday morning we were able to visit the church that Dean attended while in school and visit with the Pastor and his wife there before hitting the road. All-in-all it was a GREAT weekend and I'm so glad we made it happen!

I thought I would include this CUTE picture taken in our yard on our 4 year wedding anniversary!

Dean & DB in front of our future house @ the Naval Academy! ;) HA - maybe one day!

Waiting for the parade to start...I know I accidentally cut off Dean's head, but it was too cute of DB not to post!

Not sure what we are looking at....????

Family pic

Parade

Downtown

Bancroft Hall

An example of what Dean's room looked like back in the day!

Famous Herndon

A sleepy baby @ his 1st baseball game!

Silly Hat, birthday cake and the crawl

DB's stylish hat...he loves being in the kitchen with us while we cook

Dean made me a yummy key lime cake for my birthday...it is so good! Thank you sweetie!

We offically have a crawler on our hands. Hopefully the video will work so you can see him in action.

A weekend in review

Our weekend received a great review by the Farmer household. Dean was able to come home early on Friday afternoon (which is a rarity) to start it off right! We are trying our best to keep up with movies at our house so we finally watched the movie The Blind Side Friday night…loved it! More stories like this should be made into movies to promote that kind of sincere compassion. We finished the movie around 11pm and headed up to bed. DB decided that it would be fun to wake us up every 2 to 3 hours because he couldn’t get to his pacifier. Around 5:30am (this has been DB’s waking time since we got back to Norfolk in March) I brought DB in bed with us and he fell back asleep!!!! What a sweet surprise it was because he has NEVER done this before! Sunday morning he woke up at 5:30am and we brought him into our bed again and he slept with us until 8am! How sweet it is to sleep with a little baby. Hopefully we have kicked the 5:30 wake up call to the curb because it was exhausting! And do you know what was waking him up so early….the birds! Go figure it was the all the noisy tweets outside his window!!

Saturday morning we headed out to the OSC garage sale fundraiser at the CO’s house. We visited for a little while and then headed home in time to get DB down for his first nap (which is crucial). That afternoon we visited the zoo for DB’s first zoo experience. I got a zoo membership as an early birthday present so we decided to check it out since the weather was perfect! Most of the animals were out where we could see them in their exhibit since the weather was beautiful! Dean went fishing Saturday afternoon and caught an eel...nasty thing...and brought it home to show us. That evening we built a fire, made hamburgers and relaxed.

We drew straws (not really) Sunday morning and Dean went to church to represent the Farmer family since it interfered with DB's nap schedule. The weekend ended with an AWESOME homemade Italian dinner at the Haselbauer's house....yumo! Enjoy the pictures:

Looking a little mexican? Just ate a little black bean soup!

At the zoo

Dean, DB & the green ring

Spa treatment???

Elephants!!

Roll Tide!!

Worn out...but I still have my green ring!

The only animal on DB's stroller level...and the goose wasn't even part of the zoo

My first backyard fire

Close up

Everyone is interested in eating a cracker

Dean's eel that he caught...gross

Cutie pie

So fun!!