More of a journal entry

THE TREE AT THE VISITORS CENTER.

Jackson's face is so funny in this picture! They were pretty excited about this "snake" though.

SOME CUTE KIDS!

So Jack has been J.O.W. since January. I recognize no one knows what this means and I'm not going to explain other than say it is SO STRESSFUL!!! I don't know if I have ever seen him this tired in the past six years. I understand this is the hardest part of his fours years and I can totally believe it, but I'm not going to hold my breath to think it will just be easy cheesy from here. It lasts four months, hopefully. There's another story to that hopefully, but HOPEFULLY I won't have to explain that. Anyhow, it is supposed to last four months-January through April- but his chiefs are having him run the outpatient clinic the month of April and go back to JOW for May. Part of me wishes he could just get it done and over with, but it will also be nice to see him this month and when he's home maybe he really will be home. We'll see. His body really needs some rejuvenation and hopefully that last month will go quickly since it is just one month. He is doing so great, though, and I'm so proud of him. Sometimes I get irritated with how freaking honest and nice he can be, but that's why I loved him in the first place so I can't complain there. It's crazy to think we're almost done with our first year here. It has gone by quickly and I think my SIL, Kim, prepared me well for the worst because it hasn't been near as bad as I thought it was going to be (although it was no cake walk, either). I am SO glad the weather is warming up, though. Not that I can complain from seeing pictures from everyone else's blogs with all the snow, but it's been in the 80's warm enough to whip out the swimsuits this week...everyday. On Monday, I thought I would be brave and actually get into my so, so, so cold pool with the kids and I think I proved myself mother of the year that day. They, at least, thought I was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I had so much fun hearing them laugh and jump in and swim around that I had to do it Tuesday and Wednesday, also. The last two days I was pretty cranky (shocker, I know) and let them swim alone. But back to beautiful weather! Hooray! So last weekend we took a day trip with the bikes up to Malibu Creek State Park. We even let Emma take hers which was fun, but a LOT slower and turned out to not be the best idea for upcoming reasons. The park was beautiful and we rode up one side of the creek. We are always so surprised when we go out to these beautiful locations that California has to offer and recognize that not that many people take advantage of these parts of California. Once again, I'm not complaining. That's the whole reason we like to leave our area is to get away from all these people! A couple of movies and tv series have been filmed here like MASH, Planet of the Apes, and I think Pleasantville (?). I don't remember the TV series. It was so fun and relaxing for us. As far as Emma is concerned. She is still on training wheels. I think her legs are getting stronger and confidence could still be in need of some boosting, but training wheels are NOT the source for confidence! She's become this completely cautious chic who now won't even go into a driveway dip. She gets off herbike and walks across it. She did a great job on the mountain, but when she would hit a rock she had no choice but to go whatever way (which was pretty much forward) the training wheels would force her. There were some pretty scary falls the I was so grateful she was wearing gear. She scraped up her helmet real bad on one of the falls that would have been her face if she hadn't been wearing it. Then the cuts she got on her hands and knees were bleeding pretty good and she didn't want to ride anymore after that. Fortunately, we were close to the river crossing so we got some good play time there and got the cuts cleaned and rejuvenated to get back to the car. There was one last hill that we had to get past and we were all pretty tired and Emma was just struggling to keep going on her bike and there was this family that was so nice and and man who just kept his hand on her back and pushed her up the hill...she (and we) were so grateful to him. She kept telling us "he's a nice man" and I'm so glad he'll be blessed for such a small act of kindness. I wish I could thank him yet again for helping us out.