All Gave Some, Some Gave All

The girls and I gave some, Todd gave so much, but Wes gave all. When 9/11 came, it changed our country forever, but I never thought my life would have been so personally affected by the chain of events that would occur from it. My nephew, Wes, was serving in Iraq in 2005 and lost his life when clearing away debris that was in the road and an IED exploded. My brother Dan lost his baby, and words cannot describe how painful it was to watch my brother say goodbye to his son. Wes looked so much like him. He had the most gorgeous eyes and he was loved by everyone who knew him. I will never, ever forget everything that he sacrificed and how brave he was.

The year Todd was in Iraq was one of the hardest years of my life. I know I had the easy part, I was at home, safe with our girls. But to have someone you love so much over there, it was like there was a dark cloud over me the whole time. I missed him so much, he was so down all the time, and it was so hard for me to do anything and enjoy it knowing what he was going through there. Todd served in Iraq at Camp Victory near Baghdad International Airport for almost a year. I knew soldiers were selfless but I had no idea everything that they go through and leave behind for their service. Todd was taken from his family, his home, his country and his new baby to do the job he promised he would do. I have so much that I could post about that year he was there, but here is one story that I wanted to share.....I went to one of the Detroit Tigers world series games here in Detroit with Mom, Mike, Becky & Dan back in the fall of 2006. Todd was with his unit in Iraq. Well, Becky made a sign for us to hold up for Todd hoping we could get on TV. All of us took turns holding up the sign the whole game. I recorded the game and when I got home, I watched the whole thing and never saw us on TV. But, a few days later, Todd was stopped by a few soldiers he didn't know on base, and they asked him if he had family back home that went to the game. He told them yes and they said that they saw our sign when they were watching the game on TV in Iraq! And another soldier from his unit actually saw it and recorded the game and played it back for Todd! I guess there is another network that broadcasts sporting events for the soldiers, called AFN, and they showed our sign!!! Todd appreciated it so much and told me that it really helps the soldiers there to know that they are supported back home.

At the airport in May 2007, Welcome Home Daddy!!!

Whitewater Rafting!!!

Oh my gosh, it was the best time ever! We shared a boat with Brian, Alise & Brendan. Our guide was great, and she made the trip really fun. I was scared but excited, and of course, I fell out about two minutes down the river! The guide called it an "out of boat experience". Our raft started into a rapid on my side and we hit a rock, and out I went! I took off down the river, but they caught up to me quick and saved me. I got over it quick and thankfully, did not fall out again. Rob, Diane, Becky, and Jordan rode in the same raft and got it stuck on a rock and had to evacuate! It was so funny, and we waited on the side for them to get unstuck for about 40 minutes. Then we noticed a boat float by with Diane! So, we got her into ours with us for a little while. It was just the best time and I'm so thankful that Dan organized this whole trip. And here are our sun burnt legs :( Todd's are still red......

Check out these babies, they're still red today!!

I think I'm going to make a slideshow for the rest of my pictures from the trip.........

More of our Tennessee Trip :)

We arrived at our cabins in Tennessee a little before 5:00PM on Friday, and almost everyone was there. The cabins were so perfect! They were in a town called Benton, TN and you had to drive past pastures full of cows and calves to get to them. It was beautiful, there were four of them sprawled out with a pond and a pavilion in the middle. The cabins came fully stocked with everything a hotel would have for us, (dishes too), we really didn't need to bring anything except food and clothes. Here are some pictures of the cabins. Seeing them just makes me want to go back......

Becky, Dan, Brian, Diane, Ryan & Sarah's cabin

Our cabin (The one with all the kids!),

Rob & Alise & Kids, Kristin, Shayne, Sheryl, Alex, Ashley, & Us!

The view from our cabin....

The pavilion where we ate and spent most of our time

Dad, Helen, Dan & Vicki & Daniel & Justin & Tara's Cabin, Check out the satellite...

Our room (before we messed it up)

Jordan & Alise

We had a great time on Friday night! We played horseshoes, volleyball and washers (thanks to Brian) and Diane cooked a huge dinner for everyone in the pavilion. And Dan showed everyone his pretty toenails, I almost peed my pants....

the kids in our cabin all slept in the living room, here's a picture I took from the loft. Kayla of course, slept in our room.

Next post.......RAFTING!!!!

Our Tennessee Whitewater Rafting Trip......

....was AWESOME!!! I could not have asked for a better vacation!!! My big brother Daniel treated us all to a much needed family vacation. There were 30 of us: Dad, Helen, Dan, Vicki, Daniel, Justin, Tara, Me, Todd, Eva, Kayla, Becky, Dan, Rob, Alise, Jonathan, Chris (his friend), Jordan, Joshua, Jaidyn, Brian, Diane, Ryan, Sarah, Kristin, Shayne, Brendan, Sheryl, Ashley, and Alex. It was a long drive, about 10 hours, but the girls were perfect angels there and back and I don't think I stopped smiling the whole trip. Todd packed the whole car on Thursday night and we went to sleep a little after midnight. We were on the road at 5:00AM. Our plan was to be up at 3 and leave at 4, so we were just an hour behind schedule. I had a little bit of a hard time waking up but Todd popped right up and we got ready and grabbed the girls last. Eva woke up with the biggest smile, and that is UNHEARD of, she is typically NOT happy at all if you wake her up. But, she was so excited to go, and Kayla was too. They were adorable all sleepy in the backseat. Todd drove the whole way down, and I slept a little at the beginning, but for the most part, we were all awake the whole time. We are so thankful we had my brother's GPS, and now I'm pretty sure we're going to buy one. I have never used one, they are awesome. But you still have to remember to pay attention to where you should be going because computers sometimes are not smarter than people (we ended up going backwards to get to a Wendy's!). I will write more about the weekend and the rafting trip, but here are pictures from the drive there.....

So happy to be going on vacation :)

The first of many stops along the way....My sleepy Eva:)

My sleepy Kayla :), I just love her smile in this picture, she's so proud...

Sound asleep at sunriseKayla took this one of meI took this one of Toddand Eva

I don't know why we trusted Kayla with an entire bag of chips......

Somewhere in Kentucky

Our trusty GPS, she talked to us the whole time

A very bad picture of Mommy....

Eva's Raccoon Story

I took this little video of Eva in the spring of 2007. She had just got off the bus from school, she was in kindergarten and it was her turn to be Special Helper for the week. Special Helpers get to take the classroom stuffed animal, a raccoon, home for the entire week and they are supposed to write stories about him and take him with you everywhere. It's a BIG DEAL and the kids can't wait to be the special helper. Well, it was Eva's turn and when she got home from school, she didn't have the raccoon! Well, I found out that her little friend talked her (bullied her) into letting her take the raccoon home with her instead. I felt so bad for Eva because she is such a people pleaser and sometimes she lets her friends tell her what to do instead of sticking up for herself. So, we had a little talk about it, here it is......

Fourth of July

We had an awesome day!! It was a much needed day off of work, and the weather was perfect. I took the girls shopping and Kayla just had to wear Eva's old dance tutu the whole day. Eva always has to stop and check out the shoes, so while I was trying to convince Eva that it was too early to get new shoes for school, Kayla comes around with these froggy rainboots on. It was so funny because the string was still there that holds them together and she was walking so crazy. Plus, they were about 5 sizes too big on her and came up over her knees. Eva and I could not stop laughing, which only fuels Kayla's desire to do something cuter. So she ran back and put on the kitty rainboots. Kayla loves to make everyone laugh :) Here are some pictures from earlier that day.....

In the evening, we were to help out with the inflatables for the Freedom Center's tailgating parties that they were putting on around Silver Parkway. It was so much fun, Todd and I helped out with the dodgeball cage. The only bad part was that the girls could not play, but they did really good sitting and watching and Eva helped out alot with Kayla. I had to leave for 2 minutes to make sure that Eva and Kayla were okay, I mean I was only 20 feet away, and I turned around and the whole thing deflated! It was so funny :) But we were really glad that we did it. Then, we watched the fireworks right at the same spot, and so were my friends, Dawn & Jen and their families. Dawn is the one that first introduced us to the Freedom Center and I will be forever grateful for that. It really is a wonderful place to worship. It's hard to call it a church, because it's more than that. It's a place where you go to center yourself and get ready to go back out and live for Jesus. It's almost like a pep rally for God, it's awesome. And Jen is so great, she's very funny and you can tell she's just a really good person with a very big heart (and I'm not just saying that because she might read this one day!) And Jen's daughter Alexis and Eva play so good together, and I know Eva had a much better time last night because she had a friend with her. Here's more pictures of our Fourth of July evening......

Happy 4th of July, almost!!!

The Fourth of July has always been one of my FAVORITE holidays. My dad would take us camping every summer over the July 4th weekend, and that always was the best. We could each take a friend if we wanted and he would make us the best breakfasts. We would go to a store that still today sells penny candy. And they still sell candy cigarettes that I thought were outlawed a long time ago :) I love the parades and the fireworks and that strong sense of patriotism that I feel every year on the 4th. I love it when we go up north, or go camping or tubing (my favorite), I just love Michigan.

So, I am really excited that it's Thursday, we have lots of fun things going on this weekend. Eva's Jonas Brothers concert at DTE (Pine Knob as us thirtysomethings call it) is tomorrow. Eva, Rachel, Madeline and Molly all made their own concert T-shirts, it's going to be so much fun. Eva is so girly and emotional, it's times like these when that's a good thing :) Poor little K-fun is too little to go, but she will have fun staying back with Miss Sue (or Miss Shoe as Kayla says). Last night, we missed our church's service at Fenton High School because Kayla was very tired, but it turned out okay because I needed a night to just be at home and spend lots of time with the girls. I miss them so much when I'm at work and work has been so crazy busy lately, but I'm just lucky that they are with my sister and my mom who love them as much as I do :) The one day they spend with Miss Sue is good for them, she has rules and makes them mind, which is a new concept to them :) and very good for them. No, they are good girls.

Oh and one more thing before I go, we tried potty training again with Kayla yesterday, and she said, "No, I want my diaper back on!" And this morning she cried when I threw her yucky diaper away, so I had to get a clean one and bundle it up like it was dirty so she could lay with it. Eva called it Kayla's "cuddle bug". Great, it looks like Kayla will be in diapers forever!