OUR NEW PLACE

Not that one room living with the boys hasn't been a blast, but we are very excited to announce that we are moving into our new home tomorrow! I must give credit to the Bangor Navy Lodge (for you non-military types, a lodge is simply a hotel on a military installation). They put up with us for 10 days and were actually very nice to us. I think they felt sorry for poor woman in 116 with no home and no husband and four children. What can I say? I'll take all the pity I can get.

Our new house is in a great location and has plenty of room for guests, so come on out here and stay with us. We've even got a view of Port Orchard Bay, I think. There's so much water around here that I can't keep track of what's what. The moving truck arrives tomorrow with all our household goods that we haven't seen in a while. I'm sure getting unpacked will take me a long time, but breaking open boxes is better than living out of a suitcase.

WE'RE HERE!

Saturday evening, Amy, the boys and I crossed Puget Sound into Bremerton. Hip hip hooray! It's still hard for me to believe, but the Brown family (minus Tom, of course) is on the other side of the country.

We settled into our home for the time being--the Navy Lodge--and we'll begin the hunt for a house right away. We spent today driving around and checking out the neighborhoods around the naval base, and just seeing the sites we'll get to enjoy for the next couple years. It's really very pretty, and the salt water smell in the air is perfect for this Navy family.

The sad news is that Amy has to leave us tomorrow. We wish she could stay with us, but in addition to being Aunt Extraordinaire, she is also Geography Teacher Extraordinaire. She has to get ready for her upcoming school year. That means I'm on my own. Yikes!

WE'VE COME THIS FAR...WE MAY AS WELL KEEP GOING

The last two hotels have had poor internet connection, so I'm so happy to finally get some new pictures of the cross-country progress we've made. We had our excursion to Niagara Falls, and from their drove to Chicago. That was our longest leg of the trip, and it didn't help that Girlzilla (aka the Garmin Nuvi we installed last week) kept trying to get us to cut through Canada. She was pretty insistant too. She's got a British accent, so maybe she's got some Canadian loyalty going on. Or else she hadn't gotten the memo about Americans no longer being allowed to go willy-nilly into Canada. I'm not sure. Thankfully, Amy and I are skilled at map reading, and we managed to get back on course the old fashioned way.

From Chicago, we drove to Sioux Falls, SD, via Wisconsin and Minnesota. The big excitement out of Minnesota were the wind farms. I've seen pictures of those big wind mills, but I've never seen one up close, nor have I seen huge numbers of them clumped together. It's like something out of a sci-fi move. Unfortunately, I can't get the video we took of that to post, but it was pretty wild. Wisconsin has a lot of cheese.

We met up with my parents at the hotel in Sioux Falls (they are currently on their own semi-cross-country trip) and drove with them to Mount Rushmore. We all really enjoyed that.

We arrived this evening in Gillette, WY. Nothing against the rest of the midwest, but Wyoming is really much prettier that our previous states. As the kids experience meltdowns during all these long drives, our redirect tactic has gone from "look at the corn!" to "look at the rocks!" The kids are really holding up pretty well. The days are very long, but the fun stuff we do on the road along with the Fruit Loops the hotels serve for breakfast (yes, I've caved. I'll go back to my old ways when we settle in somewhere) get them through the day.

Tomorrow, we head for Missoula, MT. That will be our last stop before Bremerton. Woo-hoo!

NIAGARA FALLS? YES IT DOES!

From this morning's excursion. A little out of the way, but worth the trip!

DAY 1: BUFFALO

Amy, the kids and I have arrived at our first destination. After about 9 hours in the car, we made it from Carver, MA to Buffalo, NY. The kids handled the drive remarkably well, although I don't think they yet realize that they will be doing this everyday for the next week. Hopefully, as long as I keep them bribed with Dunkin Donuts (the cause of Alasdair's chocolate face) peace and harmony will reign in the minivan.

Our van has recently been equipped with a Garmin Nuvi, so we are adjusting to driving around while an English woman tells us where to go. It takes some getting used to. On a big trip like this, she talks a lot, so we asked Andy to give this woman a name. Don't know where it came from, but he came up with "Girlinza." Ok. We got a little annoyed with Girlinza as the day went on, and her name eventually morphed into "Girlzilla." I think that one might stick.

Tomorrow, we will visit Niagara Falls before getting underway for Chicago. The adventure continues....

AND, WE'RE OFF!

So, I packed up the kids on Friday and left town. Yep, I am officially on my way to Bremereton, WA. We first headed north to see Tom one last time (for those of you who aren't up to date, Tom is in RI for 9 weeks attending Naval Justice School. He won't join us in WA until mid October.) We got to spend Sunday in RI at Tom's Uncle John and Aunt Judy's lake house, and had a fun time swimming and boating. We also collected Tom's sister Amy (hearby known as Aunt Extraordinaire) who will be joining me for the cross-country drive.

BUSCH GARDENS

In keeping with the need to find activities outside the house, we took a trip down to Williamsburg to visit Busch Gardens. It would have been more fun with Tom, but we'll have to save that trip for next summer. It was a HOT day, so the kids thoroughly enjoyed the water rides (I think the adults did too). Andy and Ian got to ride on their first roller coaster, and Peter enjoyed the train around the park best. Alasdair's favorite part appeared to be his new found freedom in walking. Despite our best efforts to keep him in the stroller, the kid managed to escape a few times.

Following BG, we stopped in Richmond, VA to visit my sister-in-law Carrie, husband Mark and kids Elizabeth, Dan and David. The kids were thrilled to get to see their cousins one last time before moving.

TALES OF THE STAY-AT-SOMEBODY-ELSES-HOME MOM

When you're staying at someone elses house, especially when it is a house without any children, you realize how much havoc can be wreaked by four boys. It's amazing how little I care about the wanton destruction of my own home. Anyway, in order to prevent the roof falling in, I have to find daily activities outside my brother and sister-in-law's house. Today, while Andy was invited to check out a Steinway grand (and what 6-year-old wouldn't want to do that?) I needed an activity for the three younger boys. Ian is completely taken with dinosaurs right now, so I googled dinosaur exhibits here in Virginia. The top result was Dinosaur Land near Winchester, VA. I've driven past Dinosaur Land many times, as I went to grad school out in Winchester, and it always struck me as a tacky, redneck tourist site, but I didn't have Ian back then. So, the three younger ones and I paid a visit. No, it's not Universal Studios, but I think it may have been a whole lot better. It's really a very nice Shenandoah Valley forest, with models of dinosaurs scattered throughout. No rides, noise, or lines. Just dinosaurs, dinosaurs and nothing but dinosaurs. It was Ian's dream come true.

Catching up

My goodness, it's been a while!! We do have a good excuse though. Our camera decided to die, and we only replaced a couple of weeks ago. So, just to update everyone on a few minor details in the lives of the Browns.....Matthew Alasdair celebrated his first birthday, Tom graduated from law school, and the Navy ordered us to Bremerton, WA. Currently, Tom is in Newport, RI attending Naval Justice School, and he'll be there until mid-October. I'm with the kids at my brother's house in VA, and we'll begin the drive to WA in 2 weeks.

For those of you on Facebook, you can see the pictures of the more pivotal events, because other wonderful people took pictures for us. Now that I've got digital photography back in my hands though, I can get this blog back on track.

Peter's Birthday

Happy Birthday Peter! Peter is a big 3-years-old today, and we had an opportunity to party on Friday. We first took a trip to Annapolis to watch Navy play Princeton in baseball, but the weather wasn't quite as lovely as the forcast had predicted. The sky became totally overcast, and a tremendous wind was whipping off the water. The boys toughed out 3 innings in the cold before retreating to the van.

We celebrated when we got home with a giant cookie cake, and Peter's new Bounce Around. Unfortunately, the craziness of life right now prevented me from organizing a "real" party where we could invite lots of kids, but thank goodness we have four boys--it's a party everyday in this house.

This is the beginning of birthday season in the Brown house, with Tom's birthday coming up on the 25th, and Matthew Alasdair's first birthday on 4/2. Come by and visit any time in the next two weeks, and you're certain to be served somebody's birthday cake.

Ian's Award

I'll take back everything I've said about people with those "My child is an honor student at...." bumper stickers on the backs of their cars. Ian was the recipient of the much-coveted Principal's Award at St. Paul's Lutheran School. I might be making up the much-coveted part--maybe they give them out like candy--but what can I say. It's cool to have an award winning child. Ian received this honor for the encouragement and help he gives his classmates, especially when doing puzzles. Go Ian!

A new way of getting around

As with all our children, our little Matthew Alasdair has to have his own way of doing things. Instead of traditional crawling, he prefers to scoot. Many of you will recall our Peter's method of scooting before he could walk. This is a little different as you can see. His brothers like to call him "monkey boy."

March Weather

While we enjoy 75 degree weather today, let's not forget that less than a week ago, we had the biggest snow of the season. The snow was up to Peter's knees (as you can see in the second picture) and it was still falling when we went out to play. Tom used our slide as a launching pad for the improvised sled (a plastic storage tub). The snow was very powdery, so it didn't make great snowballs at all, but we had a good time anyway.

An Andy Cantata

In this particular picture, Andy has constructed a performance of a cantata. The Lincoln Logs are organ pipes, the trains on the piano are the chamber choir, and the trains on the bench are the small orchestra (he really did specify "small" orchestra). Typical 6-year-old behavior, right?

Four Little Boys Bathing in the Tub

We had baths for the boys this morning, to get ready for church. Here's an update of the old boys-in-the-tub photo that some of you have seen:


Here's Peter with some spikey hair.


In other news, Matthew Alasdair cut his second tooth this morning, so one up top, and one down on the bottom.

Snow '09

Up in New Jersey for New Year's, we had a good covering of snow. While it upset travel plans for Mark coming up from Hampton Roads, and Amy looking to head back to Plymouth, the kids were able to enjoy playing together.

Here Elizabeth and Andy are constructing a snowman:


Ian enjoying a solo swing in the snow:


And Peter with Dan in the background: