The start of a long journey...

The years go by.  Too fast.  Just the other day, we were down the road from here at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville and the little old lady was pushing Becky out the front door in a wheelchair.  We put our brand new boy in his brand new car seat and drove him home for the first time.  That was in June of 2007, more than five years ago already.  Not long after that, he was hanging out at the beach eating sand, and then riding his bike up and down the sidewalk in front of the house in Maryland.  He grew tall and big, faster than we could keep up.  He’s still got a long, long way to go, but just this last week, he made a huge step and turned his mother into a huge mess… as he went to his first day of school.  If he’s anything like me, he should be comforted by the fact that he may only have another twenty years before he’s done!  Lucky him.

Amazingly, ready to go!  Even at this early in the morning.

Please try to pay attention... at least for a few minutes.

Adam was there to wish him well, but he was extremely thankful it wasn't him going off to some crazy place without mom.  And the first couple of days are done now, so we can report that they went very well.  The teacher said she was amazed at how well-spoken and intelligent he is... so we guess that's a good sign.  Wish him luck as he takes the long road toward being an educated boy!

It was all a dream about Tennessee...

Another thing we got to do on the trip was stop in Clarksville, TN to see Uncle Andy and Aunt Theresa!  Last time, we didn’t have much time to hang out, so we took a day off to spend with them this time through.  We went on the base to check out the army museum and had a good time hanging out in the intense heat and humidity. 

Shot down some German war planes.

That's not a gun, THIS is a gun...

Private Paul, manning the anti-aircraft gun.

The "Do not climb on exhibits" sign did not apply to us... hopefully.

Get to the chopper! Get out of here!

And it looks like that was the last time we'll go to visit them in Tennessee.  By March, they'll be out of there on their way to their next destination, wherever that may be.  Nobody seems to stay in one place anymore!  But hopefully, we'll see them again before too long!
 

Cross-Country Adventure IV

It felt like we’d done this before.  Probably because we had, three times.  But a few weeks ago we packed up the car (again), said good-bye to family and friends (again), and drove all the way across the country (again).  And the best part is… this isn’t even the last time!  We’re now in Brunswick, GA, way down near the Florida border for the next six months, and then in March we’ll be driving (not as far) back west to Texas.  When we get to Corpus Christi, hopefully we’ll be able to stay in one place for an extended period of time.  Hopefully.  But the great thing is that we got to see some family and familiar places along the way.  So here are a few photos from our cross-country adventure number four!

After crossing through the mountains of Colorado, we drove the long way across Kansas.  But along the way, we stopped at a familiar place to us... Prairie Dog Town! Way back in 2006 when we came this way, we stopped at this off-the-wall, side-of-the-road zoo full of interesting animals, and we figured the boys would appreciate it.  Adam loved the animals, Paul ran from them.

The world's largest Prairie Dog... or so they say.  

And then we stopped at the Miller homestead in Missouri, for the last time.  We'd been there a few times over the years on our back and forth trips, and it's sad to say we won't go back.  The house is sold and they're moving on.  But it was fun to hang out with them again, and we look forward to visiting them wherever they end up next.

 Mo was there... of course.  And as always, like a fish.

 Not getting in the pool with those crazy fools, but I'll dip my feet in for a bit.

One of the last swims of the summer.

 Too much horseplay.

 Drying off on the trampoline.

Ready to jump back in.

And the escape artist, formulating his next big break for it!  Liam and all the Millers are growing up fast, so we're glad we got to catch up with them, and hope it's not too long before the next time.

Our Utah adventure ends...

It’s been a hectic few weeks obviously, and we’re no longer in Utah.  But before we left and made the long drive back across the country to the east coast (again), we spent some time with family.  So I have a few pictures I never got to post of our last few days in Utah and Becky’s trip to Montana.  We’re so thankful for all the time we got to spend with everybody back in the mountain west and are sorry that the time came and went faster than we expected.  We have to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped out, stopped by, and spent time hanging out with us while we were in Utah.   We’re off again jet-setting around the states, but we won’t forget the family and friends back west and we’ll always be planning and hoping for a chance to go back to visit.  So again, thanks to everyone for everything!

Went with the last of the Montana Sellers to the Salt Lake County Fair!  Gotta love the pigs and the sheep!

Even Izzy was there!

 Not too fond of the smell in here... kinda smells like a pig sty.  Go figure.

 Grandpa Jim, probably being a good influence on his grandchildren...

 Sisters-in-law.

Always the favorite child.

 Spent lots of time with big cousin Mason.

Whining at me.  Typical.  Haha!

 Catchin' a ride at the carnival!

 This biker girl needs just a few tats to make this perfect.

 Adam Michael on a motorcycle, looking very cheesy.

Crossing the creek on the trip back up to Montana.

Adam needed some assistance from Grandpa Bill.

Backyard swimming pool time with the Clayburn girls!

Taking a summer break with Grandpa Bill and almost all his grandkids...

Brookie B brightly dressed for a fun day!

Down by the water again with Aunt Kelly, this time catching some crawfish!

And the youngest Clayburn, Alexis, recently arrived to enjoy the end of another Montana summer.

So glad we got to see them all, and hope everyone can come visit us some time, once we get where we're going! 

Gardens and Scenic Byways

A few things have been going on around here, so I’d kind of forgotten that we had some pictures to post on here.  Earlier this month we took a trip up to the Red Butte Gardens on the northeast end of town because, well, they were having a free day and normally it would have been out of our price range.  Becky found it online and wanted to check it out since it’s a botanical garden filled with all sorts of flowers, plants, and other things that grow up from the ground and look and smell nice.  Sounds exciting, right?  I thought so, and since it wasn’t going to cost anything, I decided to go along.

 Paul was looking very Adam-like here.

And Adam... was looking... very Adam-like.

Not sure why they were talking about bison, we didn't see any.

Nor did we see any moose, but the boys enjoyed climbing on this.

 Adam paused to enjoy the refreshments.

But he may have gotten carried away with the whole water drinking thing.

 Then he climbed on some big lizards.  Pretty... cool...

 

A week or so after that, we took a drive down south toward Provo and took the Nebo Scenic Route.  It was a beautiful scenic byway and would have been a great time had it not rained most of the day.  We still got a break from the rain for a moment and took a short hike to the Grotto Falls to take a few pictures of this cool little waterfall.  Pretty nice, and it would be great to go back when the fall colors change everything, but… I don’t think we’ll make it back this year.

So that’s it for now, though we should have a few more pictures of Utah before we head out.  Turns out, our Utah adventure didn’t last as long as we thought it would.  We were planning on sticking it out for quite a while, but there were other plans for us I guess.  We leave next weekend on our fourth cross-country adventure, and this time back to where we first went.  We’ll be in Georgia, close to Jacksonville for six months, and then it’s down to the Gulf and Corpus Christi, Texas.  Never would have expected it, but we’re excited for what’s ahead.  Wish us luck, as we travel on…