today is the day!

This afternoon we are scheduled to close on our house. This means that will we be the owners of our very first home (and a large chunk of debt- my first debt too). Since Ben graduated from pilot training in January we have spent over 2 months in various hotels from Wyoming to Mississippi and now Texas to Delaware. Rhone and I also spent 2 months at my parents house. After 4 months of living out of a suitcase, and 7 months since we put our stuff in storage, I can't wait to see all of our belongings tomorrow!! We hope everything goes well today so tonight we have a place to call home.

a day in DC

On Tuesday we were able to meet up with Ben's sister, Terri, and her 3 kids to do a little sight seeing around Washington, DC. It was a long hot day- we left Dover at 7:30 in the morning and didn't get back until 10:30 that night. It was well worth the trip to spend a little time with family and see a bit of the nation's capitol. We met up at The Museum of Natural History. We browsed through a few of the exhibits (there are a ton!) Before we took a lunch break. Here are a few pictures from the morning.

If you didn't guess it, this is a soil monolith, straight from Idaho. How fun for me that there is currently a soil exhibit at the Smithsonian! Idaho's state soil is the Threebear. It has a layer of volcanic ash in it from the Mount Mazama (now Crater Lake) eruption.

Above an ice age animal, an ocean animal and Ben and Rhone in front of some quartz in the gems and minerals section.

After lunch Terri and company got to see the butterflies, while we moved the car and feed Rhone. Then we walked to some of the monuments. We saw the Washington, Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean, and WWII Monuments.

At the WWII monument. You can tell how hot is was by the look on Rhone's face.

Reilly, Meag & Rhone, Brandalyn, and Barret taking a break by the Vietnam Memomrial.

After all the walking in the heat we were beat. Terri & company headed home, but we decided to just stay downtown longer to avoid the evening traffic. We went back to the Museum of Natural History and take a break by watching Harry Potter and the Half Blooded Prince on the IMAX. After it was over we only had a few minutes before the museum closed so we squeezed in the mammal exhibit. Rhone was such a great trooper- he only cried once the whole day and that was when the movie got too loud and scared him.

Rhone and I in front of a bobcat on the pounce (he's smiling, not yawning)

On the way out there was literally no traffic, so we were able to stop on the road in font of the Capitol and take this photo out of the car window.

Wow this turned into a long post, but like I said it was a long day. We'll have to head back to DC a few more times to get in all the sites while we're here. Thanks for having us Terri and kids!

getting out

As the days in the hotel continue, we look for any excuse to get out of the room and explore a little bit of the area. Here's a few things we've been up to.

1. Buying a new car, well new to us. It's a 2003 Nissan Maxima, we came in under budget even after we registered, license and payed taxes (yeah). The only bad news is that I have to drive around with Delaware plates for a year (don't worry I'll always be an Idaho girl- it was just a few hundred dollars cheaper to pay taxes, ect here). We have been enjoying the sun roof, keyless entry, and not having to shuttle Ben to, from, and around base (although I think he will really miss the front door service).


2. Celebrating our 4th anniversary. It's been a crazy but fun 4 years. We ate lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and dinner at the Texas Road house. It was delicious (although eating out isn't nearly as exciting since it's pretty common these days). Ben got me some beautiful roses and I got him a DVD. We shared the day with Rhone because we don't know anyone to watch him. He's pretty good entertainment, so we didn't mind having him tag along.

3. A quick trip to Philadelphia. Ben didn't have to work one day so we decided to check out Philly, too bad we didn't check out the Phillies schedule first, because traffic for the afternoon baseball game was crazy. We also hit up Ikea and a fun little restaurant called Farmicia (thanks to Cole's recommendation). This picture of Citizens Bank Park is where the Phillies play.

4. A day at Fenwick Island State Park. Ben finished work early on Friday so we decided to head to the beach to bet the late evening "beach traffic". It was a nice beach and the water was great. Getting all sandy can be awfully exhausting for a 7 month old.

5. Getting a good deal. We made a very quick stop at a few outlets at Rehoboth beach because I wanted to get Rhone a new swim shirt (notice tummy showing in above picture). There wasn't any swim shirts at The Children's Place, but I did get 2 shirts and a pair of shorts for under $6. (The picture is complements of Ben). I LOVE getting a great deal!

Seven is 7

That's right Rhone is 7 months old. It seems like it's been a long time since he was little Seven. He is full of energy and curiosity. He is an excellent eater and wants to do it all by himself. He is army crawling, but not up on all 4's yet. He has been so good to put up with our house hunting, car shopping, and all of our other boring stuff that comes with moving. He still favors is left hand and his hair certainly has a little red in it.

Right now Rhone loves to go swimming and getting in the tub. He would stay for hours if we would let him. He loves getting to spend time with his Dad again. He likes to play peak-a-boo and he has a cute laugh that's pretty deep for a little one.He loves pizza crust, being upside down, and making all sorts of noises and talking. Rhone was a little late getting his 6 month check up, but in case you are wondering he is in the 90th percentile for height and off the chart for weight. He weighed a little over 26 lbs. Here are some pictures of Rhone doing things he likes.

I can already tell he will be the kid who puts his hands up on the roller coasters.

Helping me do laundry in the hotel (notice he is holding the room key). This was a heavy laundry basket to carry 2 floors. It has 2 loads of clean laundry plus Rhone.

Ace and Rhone checking each other out.

Curly haired tub time boy. He still has a few rolls and a farmers tan.

Rhone is all business when he has some pizza crust.

Amish buy in bulk too.

why not...

...get a piece of the stimulus package? How are we going to do this? We have a contract on a house. We weren't sure whether or not we would buy or live on base here, but the wait to get on base was just as long as getting into a house-so we thought with the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers this was a good time to take the plunge. With our budget in Delaware it was either a house in a development (NOT ideal) or an older house in an established neighborhood.

After a week of hard core house hunting we concluded that we were not willing to completely renovate a kitchen and deal with oil heating. That only left a development. We found a brand new home ready for quick delivery and it already has a lot of the landscaping done. It is a smaller lot, but the development is nice and we were able to get some nice upgrades for the house. We even got to pick out the tile and grout colors. Plus we know this house isn't going to be ours for forever so it's okay that we don't love everything. The closing date is on August 31. This means we still have another month in a hotel (we have already been in them for more than 2 weeks). Here's a few shots of the house for our family who has been asking about it. Hopefully everything works out well so we will finally have a place to call home (which we be great since we have been "in transition" since the end of January).

The lighting makes the house look light yellow, but it is actually white with dark, dark green shutters and door.

just peachy

Wyoming, DE a little town just south of Dover had a peach festival last weekend. The festival downtown had the normal arts and crafts, food, and booths. There is only one working peach orchard in the town any more, but they put on a show. They give away peach ice cream cones all day, have a wagon tour of the farm, music, and all the fresh produce that you could want.

Ben and Rhone cooling off in the shade
Rhone enjoying his wagon tour. He still loves tractors!
Free peach ice cream cones. They were delicious!
Rhone enjoying a taste of peach ice cream.

Rehoboth Beach

Friday we decided to head to the beach for a much needed break from our hotel room and our recent real estate endeavors. Rehoboth beach has a board walk, shopping, and lots of other touristy things, but we just stuck to the beach for this trip. We were only there a few hours, but the drive wasn't bad and it was certainly worth the trip for the sun and the people watching. We even saw some dolphins swimming around. Next time I think we'll try out one of the beaches at the state parks because we hear they are less crowded. Come and visit and we'll take you to the beach!

Of course we had Rhone sun screened up and sitting on the beach towel under our umbrella, but of course Rhone loved, loved, loved the sand and did a face dive right into it. He didn't cry even with all that sand so close to his eyes. We ended up skipping the swim shirt since we didn't think the sand under it would feel very good.

Watching the waves- Rhone wasn't so sure about them.

Hanging out with Dad (notice they both have a farmer's tan)

Staying shaded up

We had sand everywhere.

I mean everywhere :)

Five Fun Facts

1. There are no sales tax in Delaware
2. Dover's claim to fame is that it is the capitol of the first state (Delaware is the first state).
3. Delaware is 1,954 square miles, Oneida county where I grew up is 1,202 square miles
4. The state flower of Delaware is the peach blossom
5. Dover is only 28 ft above sea level