Saying our goodbyes!

Our time in Panama City has come to an end. We spent our last week in town saying goodbye to the wonderful friends we've made over the last 3 years at Tyndall AFB.

We first said goodbye to our home on May 1st. That was very tough for me to see a family moving all of THEIR stuff into MY house. I cried as we drove off. I didn't bother to take any photos.

On Sunday the 2nd, had I known this would be the last day I'd see Candace healthy, I would have made an effort to take take more photos of the kids together. She and her crew got sick the week we stayed out at the base so our plans to hang out didn't happen. We were both totally bummed but are grateful for the extra 10 months we got together back at Tyndall. Here's to hoping of being stationed together again in the future.

We're at Pump It Up at a friend's birthday party.

Jonathan taking Ava, Camryn and Kylie down the big slide.

Kylie with her friend Caroline (center) and a friend from gymnastics (left). Kylie has asked me on numerous occasions of she would make new friends in Vegas. She "gets" what is happening at this point in her life.

On Tuesday the 4th, we had a pot luck dinner with friends from church. Our pastor, Tom, and his lovely wife Sylvia opened up their home to almost a dozen families and countless kids. She has a great perspective on kids and messes and I'm sure I'll get to that point in life eventually. She has been our Sunday School teacher these past few months and thinks Jonathan likes to "argue" with her. :) Not everyone in the following pictures are in our Sunday School class, however they have had some kind of impact on our lives...on the lives of the girls really.

Kylie and Mr. Keith. He and his wife Laura taught Kylie's Sunday School class last year.

Juliet and Miss Samantha. She and her husband Jeff babysat the girls for us.

Jonathan and Grady. He works out at the base so they have that jet stuff in common. I'm sure that is what they were discussing because what else can make them smile that much?

Miss Laura (taught Kylie's SS class last year and taught Ava this year), Ava, Miss Krissy and myself.

Juliet and Miss Krissy (or "Cookie" as she calls her).

Jeff, Scott and Jeremy listening intently to Jonathan telling a story...about flying I'm sure.

Juliet with Miss Anne. Anne is not only a good friend of ours (she's married to Scott in the pic above, have a sweet daughter Maya and is about 4 months along with her second baby) but she also taught Juliet's SS class every other week.

Shelly and me. She's not a big fan of kids, but she does like mine. :) She's your typical southern girl to the core!

Linda and me. She's about a month out from delivering her first son, and I'm not happy at all that I'm going to miss meeting him. Had she and David only gotten busy sooner! :)

Us with Joey and Krissy. I've blogged about them before so you can click here to read about them. We'll miss them terribly and are so blessed and grateful for the love they had for us and especially our girls. They are like family to us.

Krissy doing all she can to not let go of Ava.

I hated saying goodbye to our church family. This is the first church we've really gotten plugged into and it will be hard for any other church to measure up in the future. We pray God had another church family lined up for us in Vegas!

On Wednesday the 5th, I took the girls on their last field trip with our home school group to Chick Fil A. We took a tour of the kitchen (which was shockingly tiny!), met the CFA cow and of course ate lunch. This was our last time seeing the Skagg's girls. When our 6 girls get together, there is never any fighting, just girlie giggles and good times.

Waiting patiently to go tour the kitchen.

Leah and Kylie working on a puzzle.

Ava and Keri.

Kylie and the cow. Ava and Juliet wanted nothing to do with him.

But here is Ava mooing...

And Juliet copying her and mooing too.

After that we went and said goodbye to the Schantz's. It was here that I noticed Ava realizing what we were doing. She said "I don't want to go to Vegas" before we left Addie's house.

My girls and Addison.

That same evening (yes, we were super busy saying bye to everyone!) I had one last get together with my MOPS table. We had a big group this year so in all, there were 9 of us at my table. This was my funnest year yet and I will miss these great ladies. They even got me a gift card to Starbucks thanking me for being a great table leader. :)
Not everyone got to go to dinner this night, but here we are at Bonefish Grill. We got together a total of 4 times to go out to eat and every time we went here. Yum!

Adrienne, Hollind, Laurie, Magan, Jen and me.

And finally, here we are saing goodbye to the gulf of Mexico at our favorite beach spot, Mexico Beach.


See, our new underwater camera!



We had to drag Ava out into the water. She's perfectly content hanging out on shore (as is her sister in the background) but she eventually got comfortable being on her own.



We enjoyed our time in PC, are grateful for the friends we made and look forward to our new adventure!