Kassebaum PCS #6

Here are some highlights of our 6th move across the US, the second move for the big girls and Juliet's very first move. It took us 5 days and 4 nights to drive about 2000 miles.

Leaving town...driving day #1. The big girls had their last soccer game so we hit the road immediately after that (with a stop at Starbucks of course).

Little Miss Coolness riding in daddy's truck. That is the girls favorite thing to do!

We hit the pool at every hotel (except for the hole of a hotel in Van Horn, TX). Here the girls are yelling at Jonathan who is down at the truck bringing in more of our JUNK.

By junk I mean our animals.

Juliet checking herself out in the mirror.

Sunday was Mother's Day. Since we spent the day driving, my only request was that Jonathan take all the girls in the van and I get to drive the truck with Alby and Bailey. Here they are snuggled in the back.

And I'm sad to say that Alby has since disappeared since we arrived in California. He's been an outdoor cat for about 5 1/2 years and when we let him out at Grammy and Grandpas house, he never came back. Its been over 3 weeks and I've lost hope he'll return. I think he was a bit mad at how much we had him inside during our stay on base in Florida, in hotels, and in the car. Sorry son! Bailey really misses you!!

Jonathan teaching the girls bad things to do in hotels.

Mother's Day margarita at some hole in the wall Mexican food joint in San Antonio.

Snugs!


The animals got to hang out in the beds at the hotels.

We did use the potty a few times on the drive. We are at a rest stop here, but those are just plain nasty!

Juliet smooching on her big sister.

PF Chang's in Tucson. I wanted it for Mother's Day, but we knew all those restaurants would have long waits so we hit it a few days later.

Our drive was uneventful. Texas was boring as usual. We of course ate out a lot and that got old after about 2 days.

When we finally drove into southern California and headed up the 15, Kylie shouted to me "MOMMY, LOOK!!" I said "what honey". She said "up there" and pointed to the foot hills. I said "what do you mean?". She said "there are houses on that hill!". It took me a second to realize...there are no hills in Florida and she's never seen that before.

Fini Flight

Jonathan had his last flight on May 6th with the 95th FS. The last time we had a fini flight, we were in Idaho and it was dark, cold and rainy. That was not the case today! It was a beautiful day.

After his flight.

Yawning, singing, amazed...I don't know what she was doing here.

Spray time! You can't see Ava, but she's controlling the stream on the right.

Kylie getting daddy right in the face, and Ava soon to become a human shield.

Juliet did NOT like Jonathan getting sprayed. She stood back and cried. She eventually went in for a kiss.

Payback!

Mr. Bookie handing out snacks to the girls. He obviously has kids!

The 4 ship-Bookie, Jonathan, Woody and Evil. Jonathan took all his gear off in the jet knowing he was going to get wet.

Last time riding in the white bus for a while.

New Tool

I have been calling it my "new toy", but my father in law, the professional photographer, says it is a "TOOL"! Jonathan (his parents went in on it too) got me a new camera for Mother's Day and my birthday. I was shocked, especially because we just bought a new water proof point and shoot camera for our Honduras vacation. He gave it to me a few days before Mother's Day so I could use it for our last few days in Florida before we left.

Here we are in the yummy on base housing and the girls are eagerly giving me their home made Mother's Day cards.

Pulling my new tool out of its bag.

I'm very happy. I love my new camera! Be on the lookout for more posts with pictures...not like I've let you down in the past though, right?

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!