Last Post of 2008!

This last month has been busy as Decembers always are, but in a very different way as years past.  As I had mentioned my parents were able to come down the beginning of the month and we had a great visit.  My dad was only able to join us for a few days, but it was nice being able to spend his birthday with him, and he enjoyed the bar crawl he did with Jimmy.  One of my favorite parts of their trip was when we walked down the beach to the pier on my dad's birthday.  We lucked out as were able to see a dolphin, 2 sea turtles and a submarine going out.  All were firsts for me since we moved here and I was really happy I got to share those moments with my parents.  And as an added bonus, as we were standing on the pier, we got the phone call that my good friend Missy, who is like a little sister to me, had gone into labor!  My dad was pretty happy that Baby Miles decided to share his birthday.  After he headed back to MD, it was just my mom and I while Jimmy was at work, and we spent most of the rest of our visit talking on the beach and hanging out on our balcony enjoying the view.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from their visit:


Dad enjoying the birthday dinner I made him.


Playing cards with my parents.









One of the stops on the bar crawl we did.  (Mom and I didn't last that long since we'd already been drinking for almost 5 hours when it started.)



On the beach on Dad's b-day.



The submarine we saw go out.



One of the sea turtles we saw.



Awww!  Aren't they cute?


I was not prepared for how hard it was going to be when they left.  I think that because I had SO much going on right before we moved that I just really didn't have the chance to completely absorb the fact that I was no longer going to have them right down the street.   I am trying to stay focused on the good part, which is that I do get to spend really great quality time with them when they are here since I no longer take it for granted.

Not to long after they left, Jimmy and I decided we would not be able to go back to Maryland for the inauguration and instead would go home for Christmas and surprise our parents.  Why we decide that is a long story I won't bore you with.  My Uncle Bill picked us up from the airport Christmas morning and drove us to my parents house.  My uncle parked behind some large bushes in front of their house and we jumped out and hid behind the house while my uncle went into tell my mom he had brought her something he needed help getting out of the truck.  I wish I had a picture of my mom when she came out in her bathrobe and slippers!  I also wish I could remember exactly what she said when she saw us, but I do know she cursed at us before she started to cry.  Too funny!  Unfortunately my dad wasn't home for the initial surprise, but we did get him by jumping out from the kitchen yelling "Merry Christmas" when he did get home.

From there we had to drive to Frederick to surprise Jimmy's parents who were celebrating Christmas at his sister Lauren's house.  Our plan didn't work out exactly as planned, but when Lauren opened the door we jumped in yelling "Merry Christmas".  Jimmy's mom cried too.  I think everyone liked our surprise.

We spent the rest of our trip catching up with and having a blast with our friends and family.  The only problem with going home for the holidays is that other people are traveling too, so we weren't able to see everyone we would have liked to.  I ended up with way more pictures I love than I could possible post here, but here are a few.  


Jimmy's mom with her babies



Out to lunch for Mom's birthday



Out watching the Raven's game with some of our favorite people




What a year 2008 has been!  I can hardly believe it's over or how different my life was at this exact time last year when I was headed to work at Flip's to work New Year's Eve.  I hope everyone has a very safe and happy New Year and hope you will stay tuned to see what 2009 will bring!

Love,
Jenn

Merry Christmas from sunny Florida!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Endeavor Rides Back to FL!

I'm going to go a little out of order because my plan was for my next post to be about my Mom & Dad's visit this past week, but since that's going to take more time than I have right now, I'm going to just go ahead and post these now.

For those of you who live outside Florida and don't get the minute by minute updates on all things NASA like we do here and/or live under a rock, the space shuttle Endeavor landed in California on December 1st.  The first choice is always to land the shuttle back here in Florida, but like this time, that can't always happen.  Amazingly the same shuttle 
which takes our astronauts to space is not capable of flying back to Florida on it's own, so instead NASA has to pay $1.8 million dollars to strap it on the back of a 747 and fly it back here.  

These are the pictures I took about an hour ago from the beach in front of my house watching the Endeavor "ride" back home.


















It really is amazing what a huge deal the space program is, especially to the people down here.  I was very surprised how many people, of all ages, were down on the beach in the middle of a work day to watch it come back.  And I am also amazed by how cool it really is to live here.