Rock & Roll!

Chris has been training for several months now for the Virginia Beach Rock & Roll Half Marathon. We wouldn't have missed it for the world, so on Friday the kids and I drove down to Dahlgren to pick him up and head for the coast. After a fairly uneventful drive save some heinous traffic right at the end we arrived at our hotel and checked in. We ordered a pizza for dinner and settled right in for the night. We got up bright and early and had a good hot breakfast (free!) and were on the beach by 0930. This afforded us a great spot right in front of the hotel.  

Declan enjoyed his time on the beach immensely.

 Especially crawling by the waves.

Christopher and Daddy built castles and dug moats...

Christopher loves sitting right in the water.

After this little incident...

Declan was happy just to chill out in his playard while I lounged and read magazines. Hooray!

After we finished up at the beach we went for a a quick shopping spree at the NEX before meeting up with our old HOWARD shipmate and good friend Bill.

After we got back to the hotel we turned in right away. I woke up before the dawn to see Chris off and then took a moment to enjoy the sunrise over the Atlantic.

After we had given Daddy a little head start, the boys and I headed down to the halfway point of the course to wait for him.

Jr just chilled in his stroller.

Deck rode in style in my obi.

It was amazing to see Chris come running up. Jr was extremely excited and dashed out to meet him!

Chris finished the race strong! I wish we had pictures but the way the barricades were set up coupled with the crowds and me being saddled with two kids made it impossible. We do have a low-res one from the race people though.

We didn't have much time after that to lollygag because checkout time was approaching fast. We hurried back to the hotel and packed up and drove over to the Westin. We had decided ahead of time we wanted something a little more restful after Chris' race and the Heavenly Bed ™ sounded like just the ticket. When we got there it wasn't quite check-in time yet so we went to The Cheesecake Factory and had lunch. After check-in Chris decided to lay down for a bit. He didn't wake up again until well after midnight. The kids and I watched movies, did bathtime and went to bed- Chris was so deep in sleep he didn't even snore, let alone stir.

We woke up early with the intention of heading back down to the beach for the morning but sadly this is what started just as we were approaching the beach...

We opted instead for breakfast at the Log Cabin Pancake House...

Followed by a dip in the amazing indoor pool at the hotel.

After that we had to check out and head back towards reality. We are so proud of Chris for taking on this challenge and finishing! 

Can you believe Declan is a year old?

Me either! We had a little celebration in the park for my beautiful boy. Here are a couple of snapshots to commemorate the event.

We had chicken nuggets...

A special cake just for the birthday boy...

and adorable Elmo cupcakes!

The candle was fascinating!

Christopher didn't seem to mind murdering his buddy Elmo at all.

All in all the party was a (cake) smashing success!

By the way, Christopher wore the same shirt for his second birthday! Whoa!

In a Daze...

So, I was in Michigan last weekend for Dexter Daze. Got a gorgeous olive wood rosary bracelet for only $4.00, saw a magic show, and drank way too much beer with some dear friends. Here are a couple pics from the infamous Dexter Daze "Social Tent". Yeah, some towns have ice cream socials, we have a beer social! Salute!

Top models in action!

All of the Buto sisters- Too bad Bridget and Crystal were caught up in their own picture! LOL Jenni and I are cute though.

Kelly and I with our cheesiest self-portrait grins

The crowd...

Me and the gorgeous Mrs Troczynski

I was a bit too inebriated to consider the camera anymore by the time we moved on to Katie's but had a great time

catching up with some more peeps there.

I would like to applaud my friend Jeff for driving me home

afterwards too. {{hugs}}

I can't wait for Dexter Daze 2013 when we come back to the states! Slainte!

Imports...

So I gathered up my older blog posts and imported them to here. :) They're oldies but goodies. I can't figure out how to grab my MySpace blogs though. Maybe I'll copy and paste them. Any suggestions?

My big boy!

Christopher turned three last Sunday! We didn't have a huge party like last year but lots of family fanfare and "Happy Birthday" choruses marked the day. We had chocolate chip pancakes at the crack of dawn. This was followed by a showing of "Littlefoot" AKA The Land Before Time.

Daddy took Christopher to the park and out to pick out a toy while I baked the cake. They returned victorious in their mission with a huge set of die cast mini Tonka™ trucks which have been an obsession ever since.

We topped the day with Christopher's favorite dinner, spaghetti, and a grand finale of chocolate cake with "free" candles. Christopher definitely approved.

St Paddy's Day!

The boys and I went grocery shopping on St Patrick's Day and we found one of those cool rocket carts! They both loved it. Declan sat up like a big boy with his brother.

Now this is funny! And true, too.

Turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so!

It's official! Chris got picked up for orders to the USS MUSTIN (DDG-89). Our new homeport is Yokosuka Japan! We are very excited for this new chapter to begin. We will be there at least three years, starting by the end of this year.

I've only been to Japan once but enjoyed my time there immensely- it's a beautiful country. I am also very excited about using it as a jumping off point for travel to other countries. China, Singapore, the list goes on!

Here are a few pictures from our previous visit to Japan. I can't wait to add more to my collection!

So... I set this blog up several months ago with the intention of getting back into a regular writing schedule. Ho hum. Oh well, my intentions were good.

Now that I logged back in I'll hopefully make the time to keep up here. My previous blogs were through Friendster and MySpace but both sights are pretty much dead to me (and the rest of the world for that matter). Here's to the beginning of a new era!

I expect that this will mostly be about the kids but I'm sure there will be a sprinkling of my thoughts as well as poetic exaltation on coffee in all forms. Finding something to talk about is never a problem for a loudmouth like me. With that proclamation I'll wrap this up until next time- it's all uphill from here!