One Year

It was one year ago. After two and a half months of anxiously awaiting, communicating only by snail mail, and making the decisions about what to pack and what to wear when I first got to see Derek... it all led up to this moment:

Amazing.

Here's a recap of our visit at Fort Benning:

We visited the post for Family Day activities in the morning.

 A make-shift birthday party for Jackson in the hotel lobby

We found out we were going to have a precious baby GIRL!!

We watched Derek's graduation ceremony, which was really, very cool. If you didn't read it last year, you should definitely click here to check it out!

Family Time after the graduation!

Next, we traveled to Fort Gordon, got Derek checked in to his AIT location.

This is where we were supposed to say good-bye-- after a short two and a half day visit. But I was ELATED {understatement} when he ended up having two extra days to spend to us. THANK YOU COLUMBUS DAY!

We visited the National Infantry Museum {which was really cool, read about it here}

Visited the Atlanta Zoo

and Chuck-E-Cheese

and the highly recommended Varsity burger joint.

It was such a great weekend. And Derek managed to get Monday off work {Columbus Day again!} and so we're excited for a three day weekend this year!

Where a kid can be a kid (and the food is disgusting)

With the end of the semester schoolwork (yes, I have had all semester to work on these papers and yes, I should have started them sooner) and the never-ending yard work that accompanies home ownership I have fallen behind in posting events as they've happened. So, I have some catching up to do.

As we are now counting down the days before Derek leaves, we are trying to capitalize our time together and work on making memories. (Shouldn't this be the goal in everyday living and not just when a significant separation is in the future?) Well, a few weekends ago, Derek wanted take Jackson to Chuck-E-Cheese and I said, "why not?"

We had a lot of fun. The pizza was gross.

Jackson loved the horse game. Well, he enjoyed riding the horse and couldn't care less about the race.

Like mother, like son- Jackson loved Skee ball.

But, he has a different technique when it comes to the getting the balls in the targets. Though, despite being inches away, he still only put the balls in the 1,000 point slot.

And when Jackson lost interest in a game while it was still going- Derek took over. He did awesome at toddler whack-a-mole game.

And of course, being one and all, sometimes he was more interested in the buckles and other random things instead of the actual ride.

We had a really good evening. But next time (because somehow I know there will be a next time) we will be sure to grab pizza somewhere else and then head over to Chuck-E-Cheese just to play the games.