Tyler the Fearsome Dragon

Our first full day in our new apartment just happened to be Halloween as well. We started the morning off by unpacking some boxes and putting things where they should go, then running some errands and meeting some friends for lunch. Then it was off to attempt to find one of Sue and Mark's evil caches. Before long it was time to rush back to the apartment and get ready for our Halloween night. Tyler was transformed into 'Tyler the Fearsome Dragon' for the night. Though if you ask him, his reply was "it's just a costume, I'm still Tyler". LOL Since we were new in the area, our friends who live close by, Katherine and Rodney, asked if we wanted to Trick or Treat in their neighbourhood. We gladly said yes and drove over to their house. However on the way, our fearsome dragon fell asleep. It had been a busy week for this little guy! After we woke, 'Tyler the Fearsome Dragon', we started the Trick or Treating with Katherine and Rodney's house being our first stop. Katherine then joined us for a walk around her neighbourhood to gather up lots of goodies. Afterward, we hung out at their place where we talked awhile until it got late and it was time to go back home and put our dragon to bed. Thanks Katherine and Rodney for making our Halloween more fun with friends! :)

We Sold Our First House

Friday we ended another chapter in our lives. We packed up some more boxes and furniture and loaded up the U-Haul one last time. We said goodbye to our neighbours, Candice and her children, as well as Chloe. They had been great friends over the time that we lived there and will be greatly missed. It was a day of mixed feelings. We were relieved that we sold the house so quickly. The house wasn't even listed on the market when the first couple looked at it put in an offer. However it was also a day of sadness. This was the first house we had ever owned and a lot of great memories were made in it; Tyler took his first steps in the living room and said his first words. It was difficult saying goodbye to this place we made a home, but we knew in the beginning that we couldn't stay forever, such is our life in the military. We signed the closing papers Friday afternoon and congratulated the new owners happiness in their new home. They too, are first time buyers and the wife is pregnant with their first child, so there are lots of firsts to continued to be made in this home. Another chapter has ended in the Smith Family, but another one begins...

Preschool Halloween Carnival

This morning Tyler and I went to his preschool Halloween Carnival. I must say that it was so much fun! They got to do the Time Warp, got their faces painted, played musical chairs, touched creepy things and guessed what they were without looking, got tattoos, and of course munched on lots of treats. Miss Angie, Tyler's teacher who has been out on sick leave because of her surgery was even there. Tyler was very happy to see her. Trevor, Tyler's best buddy in his class was also there. For the past few weeks, Tyler has been coming home talking about his buddy, Trevor. His grandmother told me today that Trevor has been doing the same about Tyler. It was evident today that they really like playing together, the two kept close by each other at all times. Below are some videos that I took while at the carnival. Enjoy!

The Time Warp

Tyler and his best buddy from his class, Trevor, are with the 4 year old class.

Musical Chairs

Musical Chairs: The Ending

Goodbye Boxes

For anyone who may not know, we received orders to move to Virginia in January. Fortunately, our Realtor managed to find a buyer for our house within a few days of contacting her. Our house didn't even have a chance to get listed on the market. So with this being said, the past couple of weeks, we've been busy getting things ready for our move into our temporary apartment until our big move to Virginia. Today we rented a U-Haul and put a bunch of stuff that we won't be needing for the next few months in storage. Those boxes had been sitting in our kitchen for about two weeks, so it was great getting rid of them and getting our space back. Our furniture will be moved on the day we close, which hope will be Friday or Monday.

Halloween Class Party

Today Tyler's preschool class had their Halloween party. Parents were invited to attend, so I gladly accepted the invitation. The kids basically had a special plateful of snacks and then were passed out a couple of Halloween treat bags. It was neat seeing Tyler's class and especially all their cute artwork on the walls.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Thank you Charmaine, Kelly, and Cameron for my really cool Halloween shirt that you made for me!! I wore it to preschool today :)

Me and my boy :)

Cache and Eat

Lately it seems like we've been attending a lot of caching picnic, but hey we're not complaining. It's absolutely beautiful time of year here in Maryland, the foliage is incredible with such beautiful colours. It also gives us a chance to get together with our good caching friends for some fun and food. This was the second event that we've attended where they had the ammo can toss. As you can see from the photo, Steve did a remarkable job! And what could be more fun than an evil cache find to spice things up at the picnic. Thanks to our friends Sue and Mark, mostly everyone was busy during the event looking for that darn thing. They are known for their evil hides so Steve and I knew that anything was possible. And yes people were even looking and climbing up rafters! Close to the end of the picnic the FTF was made by a newbie. Soon after a few more people made the find, including my husband. :) Once the event was over, we met our good caching friends Katherine and Rodney at Dunkin Donuts for stayed for awhile talking with each other. It was a nice way to end our day spent with our friends.

Books Passed Down

Tyler has a new favourite book. However this new book is not really new, it's over 30 years old! The book titled, 'The Little House' by Virginia Lee Burton used to belong to Steve when he was about the same age as Tyler. Steve found a few of his old books when we were packing last weekend and he started reading them to Tyler at bedtime. And ever since Tyler has been asking for them each night. Last night, Steve read 'Little Toot' by Hardie Gramatky, another book enjoyed by Tyler. Perhaps one day, Tyler will read them to his children.

Fall Photos

It's Just a Sculpture...It's Not Real

Finally Getting the Hang of it

Bento Box for Lunch

Last weekend when we were at the Asian store with Larissa and the girls, we discovered a really neat Asian food court. The tables were slabs of cut wood and the seats were logs. They were lower than normal. Steve and I decided to check the place out yesterday and have lunch. We noticed from our first visit that people seemed to be ordering these really neat bento boxes. If you are not familiar with what a bento box is, it is basically a Japanese combination plate. Here's a photo of ours. We picked one with three different kinds of sushi, fried carrots and vegetables, and some green stuff with sesame seeds. It also came with a bowl of soup. YUMMY!!! Tyler wasn't too keen on ordering the sushi. He knew it had sushi in it from an episode of Emily Yeung (on Tree House in Canada) where she makes it herself. Instead we got him a bowl of rice which he was quite content with. We didn't even get a chance to explain to him about how to use the chopsticks when we looked over he was already using them and quite well. He must have noticed the other people there using them. Overall, it was a delicious meal, but we really wish it wasn't such a long drive to get there because we would eat there a lot more often!

Riding the Giraffe at the Mall

Shopping

It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's...

Superboy!!!

Thanks, Nanny, for these really cool jammies! Obviously, they were a big hit!

P is for Pumpkin

Awhile ago Tyler told me that they planted some pumpkin seeds in a bag at preschool. Today he got to take his pumpkins home! I was surprised to see how much they had grown!

Daddy Goes to Preschool

Daddy had the day off today, so he got to come with us to drop off Tyler at preschool today. This was the first time Daddy had a chance to see the preschool inside. Tyler was very excited about Daddy coming with us. Today was also Tyler's turn to bring snacks for the class. His classmates take turns bringing in the snacks to help teach them how to share with others. Tyler brought in Scooby Snacks and SpongeBob cheese crackers to share.

Friends Forever

Yesterday afternoon our good friend, Larissa, arrived with her two beautiful daughters Aya and Danielle. You may recall seeing them on our blog in previous years. Larissa and her husband were stationed with us in Sicily. Aya was only a toddler and that point and Danielle wasn't even born yet. Larissa and I have been blessed to keep our friendship close after all these years. We were so happy to have her and her girls come visit us during this holiday weekend. This morning we decided to get out and about and visit the historic city of Ellicott. It was an absolutely beautiful day for a walk around with the kids. We went to a farmer's market and took in all the sights of the quaint little city. After visiting Ellicot, Steve suggested we go visit the Asian supermarkets that were close by. It had been awhile since we had been to one and Steve wanted to check out the cool stuff. The children had fun looking at the fish. Located in the same plaza is a terrific Chinese buffet. We were getting at at this point, so food sounded really good to us. We were quite stuffed after the large amount of food we ate, so we relaxed with Steve took us on a nice leisurely drive throughout the pretty countryside on the way home. Sadly, the weekend went by way too fast and Larissa and the girls have to make their way back tomorrow morning. It was wonderful having them visit us!!! The children got along fantastic together. We are all going to miss each other dearly. But we're hoping to see them again very soon!

Tyler Says the Darndest Things

Daddy: Look, that guy is wearing a cowboy hat. He must be a cowboy! Tyler: No, he's a man.

Scout Meeting

A few weeks ago, our friends, Becky and Curt, asked us if we would be interested in teaching geocaching at their cub scout meeting. Of course, being the avid cachers that we are, we jumped at the chance. So last night, we gathered up all our caching gear and showed the scouts what caching is all about. Actually Steve did most of the work because I was too busy keeping an eye on our future scout, Tyler. The scouts had practise finding three caches that we hid before the meeting and then they stocked and hid their very own cache to be published for other cachers to find. It was fun night for all and it gave us a glimpse of what we're probably going to be involved in once Tyler is of age.

Here are some photos of Steve's trip to New York City to interview the Secretary of the Navy on the set of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The Secretary of the Navy and Jon Stewart in the Green Room.

Tonight's Daily Show

This morning Steve is boarding the train to go to New York city. The Navy is interviewing the Secretary of the Navy who will be appearing on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight. Steve will be on the set of the show doing camera for the interview which will take place in the green room just before the Secretary is to go on the show.

Caching in Cumberland

As previously mentioned, this weekend we drove up to Cumberland, Maryland to take part in the annual Maryland Geocaching Society's Fall picnic. We have been to Cumberland before, however it was just to drive through. This trip gave us a chance to really explore this cute town and its' surroundings. It is a great time visit as the leaves were just starting to turn different colours. Cumberland contains beautiful mountain scenery. We had a couple hours before the picnic started, so we decided to grab a few caches in the area. One of the caches was called 'Home on the Range' and it took us down a beautiful one lane country road. We really could have easily just drove all day taking in the scenery; it was absolutely gorgeous! On our way back, we ran into our friends Katherine and Rodney who were also caching before the picnic and we told them about the cache we just did and how beautiful the drive was, so we ended up escorting them to the cache. This time the horses were out. Katherine found some mint growing along side the road. It smelled incredible and tasted even better. Our time was soon running out and we made our way to the picnic. They couldn't have picked a better place! The location was stunning. The park had several trails that went around a large lake. Tyler had fun playing the "See how far you can toss an ammo can" game. As you can see he did pretty good! LOL Overall, a beautiful location, great food, lots of fun, and of course, lots of caches nearby made this one of our all time favourite caching events we've ever attended. After the picnic, we still had plenty of time to grab lots more caches in the area. One of the caches was called "Harvey the rabbit". The coodinates took us to this really neat looking tree! Some say it looks like a rabbit, but to me it looked like a rhinosaurus. This was definitely a cache to remember! Tyler made a lot of finds for us adults that day. We were really thankful for his help! Earlier in the day we made plans with our friends, Katherine, Rodney, Sue, Mark and Jeff to meet for dinner after we finish caching. Jeff recommended a great italian restuarant. The food was delicious and it was wonderful having dinner with such wonderful company. The next morning we had breakfast at a cool old fashioned creamery close to the hotel. The furniture was original inside, making it for a really neat dining experience. As soon we we stepped outside the door after breakfast, we heard the steam train making its' way into town. We were very excited to see the vintage town, so we made a dash to try and catch a glimpse. Tyler was so happy to see this massive train upclose. It was just like Thomas! The train does scenic tours to Frostburg and back. We are definitely going to try and book it one weekend! We were so caught up with seeing the train that we forgot we were suppose to meet up with Katherine, Rodney and Jeff to do some more caches together. However we soon rejoined our friends. There were several caches hidden within the town and it gave us a great chance to sight see all the neat little spots of interest. There were a lot of old buildings that were kept in terrific shape. It was a lot of fun walking around and playing tourist. The remainder of the day was spent driving around finding caches, until it was time to drive back home. What a fantastic weekend!

Birthday Get Away

Our fun filled weekend has officially started. Late this afternoon we arrived in Cumberland, Maryland where tomorrow we will attend the Maryland Geocaching Society's Fall picnic. Once we settled into our hotel, we decided not to waste a minute of our time here in picturesque Cumberland. However because it was getting dark, we decided to check out the mall where we found some fantastic savings. Then it was back to the hotel. We're looking forward to tomorrow's picnic. Cumberland is surrounded by pretty mountains and the town is quite quaint. Steve is having a wonderful birthday!

Happy Birthday, Steve!!!

Nope, you didn't forget, we're just a day early! Since we'll be in the car tomorrow on our way to Cumberland, Maryland for a caching weekend that involves the Maryland Geocaching Fall Picnic, we decided to celebrate Steve's birthday today. Tomorrow Steve turns 36 years old! Today I spent the day in the kitchen preparing for Steve's very special birthday dinner. I attempted to recreate the Smith Island dinner we so much enjoyed about a month ago when we visited the island. The cake I made had 8 layers and was lemon flavoured. It broke my mixer and took three trips to the grocery store, but it was well worth it. The dinner was crab cakes, corn and a special stewed tomatoes that had a cinnamon flavour. After dinner, it was gift giving time. Tyler and I gave Daddy a Bjork movie titled 'Dancer in the Dark'. Steve is a Bjork fan and we don't already own this movie, so Tyler and I were pretty sure he would like this gift. Overall, Steve had a very nice birthday. Tomorrow we'll continue the celebration, but it will be from on the road.