Living off base has been an adjustment.  For the past 8 years, I've had the luxury to be surrounded by friends my own age, with kids the same age as my kids, whose husbands do the same job.  Living on base means lots of parties and happy hours.  Living on base means numerous parks within walking and biking distance.  An extreme sense of safety and security.  A familiar face wherever you turn.  Living on base...now that I've left...was perfect.  

This has been a hard transition.  Audrey doesn't have as nearly many friends, and going for a run or walk means loading everything up in the car and heading to base.  The tradeoff is a roomier house.  But, thats not an equal tradeoff, in my opinion.  We will see how this year treats us.  I'm giving it one year to either break me or build me.  So far...base is winning.

However, more room does mean I love having people visit without feeling cramped.  We've got to see sweet Kinsey and Maisie a handful of times which has been by far one of the biggest pros of moving back to this area.

And moving back to one of the busiest cities in America, means we spend a lot of time in the car traveling to and from various places and sitting in traffic.  Audrey will exhaust herself to no end all day every day, but refuses to nap.  Only once in the car does she doze off and this time, she made herself a barricade with the sun visor.  I'm guessing she thinks napping is a sign of weakness so she didn't want us to see.  

But this guy loves to nap.  He is still too young to understand the difficulty of moving so just continues with his days like nothing happened.  His personality is developing at lightning speed.  And by personality, I mean he is an exact clone of Audrey.  He is crazy.  He loves to run and scream and laugh and is just as happy as can be.  He can be a real stinker.  Will give you a side-eye just as he is about to do something naughty.  He pretends to sleep when he knows you're watching.  But he gives out a million kisses a day, lots of hugs, and just adores his sister.  These two squeal in the car, in the checkout line, in bed, in the bathtub, and every chance they get.  Makes me thrilled they like each other.  At 22 months, he loves to eat everything, like Brussel sprouts and butternut squash, but his favorite food is chips with salsa.  The only food he has ever turned down is an avocado.  His obsession has moved on from construction equipment to trains.  At this moment in his life, he is beyond obsessed with spraying everything with a spray bottle.  He loves to draw, more so than Audrey ever did.  He loves books.  He is so darn awesome that I often go give him a million kisses after he's fallen asleep and anxiously await to see those dark brown eyes in the morning. 

Audrey starts kindergarten August 31, so we've had lots of time to take care of random things like dentist appointments.  This dentist remembered us from three years ago and had an in depth conversation with Audrey about her very thought-out clothing and jewelry choices for that day.

A long summer break also means we got to welcome and host Popo and Gaga for a few days.  We surprised them at the airport because where else can you play hide and go seek in huge concrete beams?

During their stay, we revisited Mount Vernon and while I loved this family picture of us, I knew it would be banned from social media because of the horrible lightning on Nick's hair line.  

We witnessed the retirement of the CH-46 (the helicopter Nick has flown on many times throughout his career, including his tour in Iraq) at the Dulles Air and Space Museum. 

We spent a hot day at Arlington National Cemetery and had to take a few breaks to sit and reapply our lipgloss.

Thank goodness we brought the pack mule.

We couldn't resist this massive ferris wheel at the National Harbor...

...where Gaga and Popo had just as much fun as Audrey and Ethan (I assume).

Audrey wanted to pose next to this huge letter "A,"

and Nick was just as excited about his "N."

Gaga and Popo got to experience the weirdness that my two kids embody, like dancing around naked in robes after baths.

After 45 days of leave, Nick had to eventually go back to work and be the bread winner in our family. This was his first day at Command & Staff school and we were sad to see him go.  Days upon days of having daddy home was such a treat.  Now they are just stuck with me.  

And I make them learn!  And be educated, what a bummer, right?  Audrey has this massive summer homework packet for St. Francis so every day during Ethan's nap we try to get caught up.  I'll often sit there and stare at this little girl working on her writing and just be amazed at how smart, caring and determined she has become.  She gets frustrated easily, but only when something isn't perfect.  As a perfectionist myself, I completely understand the struggle. 

In the early mornings, when I need to finish my cup of coffee (don't judge! its how i keep my other two alive) before becoming productive, Audrey builds amazing structures with Magna Tiles.  Her imagination is actually very impressive.  

We are trying to teach Audrey the importance of saving her money and being financially responsible. So far, she is doing great and absolutely refuses to spend any of her own money.  But one day, she decided she wanted to pick out something for herself on a trip to Target and almost had a breakdown when the necklace she wanted cost $5 because she just couldn't come to terms with spending that kind of money.  So while she was having this meltdown, Ethan was running around with a bow on his head and here I am with a belly squeezing through clothing racks trying to chase him down while consoling a wailing child.  I would have laughed at that woman if I saw her. 

We've had countless trips to my happy place, Wegmans, and Audrey thoroughly enjoyed this cooking class.  

With pregnancy #3 making my belly bigger than its ever been, I've had to lean on local friends for maternity clothes so I'm not wearing Nick's Metallica t-shirts every day.  Maternity clothes make great dress up clothes.  

And when we received a package in the mail that was surrounded with packing styrofoam, instead of being OCD about the little mess, I decided why not have an inside snow day?  A huge, huge, HUGE mess that I didn't regret for one second.  

We've spent lots of time at the pool on base, and one time Ethan got a little overly zealous and slipped on a slide, busting his lip open.  With blood gushing everywhere and Nick at work, I rushed him to the first aid at the pool.  They have to report any incident, but when five EMTs and two police officers showed up, I realized he was hurt more than I realized.  We had to take him to his first urgent care appointment and thank goodness, they didn't think stitches were necessary.  Audrey had to get two stitches under her lip when she was the same age (slipped and hit her mouth on the bed) and having to hold her down to put stitches in was a nightmare I never want to relive with any of my children.

Nick found a great car show that takes place every Saturday night, so guess where we've been most Saturday nights?  Peering under hoods and wondering what I'm looking at.

We've never been big TV people, and I can't stand the sound of TV on during the middle of the day, so when we moved to our new house, we decided we needed as little TV as possible.  We hardly get any channels, just the big news stations, meaning one night we all watched an episode of American Ninja Warrior.  This became a little tradition and we all (including Ethan) were amazed at these athletes.  The next day, Audrey performed her own American Ninja stunt at the Marine Corps Museum Park and if the video wasn't over a minute long, I would have included it on this blog.  She is indeed an athlete.  

That's all I've got for now.  I've been horrible about taking more pictures over the last few weeks.  I'll have to do an update from Nick's phone because his pictures are often more hilarious and candid.  I'll sign off for now as I will spend the next hour + attempting to get comfortable falling asleep.   36 weeks and counting.  I just KNOW without a doubt its a boy.  Nick swears up and down its a girl.  All I know is this baby is big.  Bigger than Audrey, 6.15 and Ethan, 6.11.  I've got a month to go and have no idea how this baby is still going to gain a half pound a week. I won't be able to walk.  So I'll have to do more blog updates so at least my fingers get a workout.