Ring Ring

Tyler got a surprise phone call from Dad tonight. Even though I knew Steve was pulling into port today, I decided to totally keep it a secret from Tyler. He was so happy when I passed him the phone and he found out who it was. Steve is in Mayport, Florida just for today. They got off the ship this afternoon, had dinner and then went to the mall.
Less than 2 weeks to go before he returns back home. We sooo can't wait!!! His phone call totally made our day. :)

Knocking Down the Wall

This is from Friday's Progress Party at Tyler's gymnastics class. They let the parents have a little fun at the very end.
Steve Update: So, I was a little disappointed with the 60 Minutes show. They only ended up showing about a minute of Secretary of Defense, Leon E. Panetta, visiting Steve's ship, even though Steve said he was on the ship with the 60 Minutes crew all day. Steve did get introduced to Mr. Panetta and was in charge of putting the mic on him and taking it off. He said he was very nice. In other news, Steve gets to get off the ship for a little while tomorrow. I am allowed to say where, so stay tuned.

Set Your DVRs!!!!

The Secretary of Defense is going to be on 60 Minutes tonight. The 60 Minutes crew was aboard Steve's ship, the USS Enterprise, when Leon E. Panetta was visiting. Hoping to catch a glimpse of Steve in the background. :)
60 Minutes airs on CBS. Check your local listings for the time.

Another New Molar

While most of his friends are losing their teeth, Tyler is actually getting more. Yesterday, Tyler stopped what he was doing, looked at me and said, "Mom, I think I'm getting a new tooth". In disbelief, I checked it out and to my complete surprise, he was right. You can see to the left of the photo where the tooth is just making its' way through the gum. This is the second molar to appear in the past few months. Meanwhile, however, Tyler is excitedly awaiting his turn to lose a tooth.

Progress Party

It was a party to show the parents all the skills our little gymnasts learned over the past several months. Tonight we were invited in class to see first hand the progress they've made, and boy did they all come along way.  From the balance beam to the bars, it was great fun watching them all show us their stuff. I was just amazed with how well Tyler is advancing. His instructor even commented to everyone that Tyler's handstand is a "muscle handstand" where he uses his knees to get his legs up. She said that requires a lot of strength and not a lot of people can start their handstands that way. This class marked the halfway point. Here are some more photos from tonight's Progress Party.

Yay for Long Weekends

It was Early Release Day at school and the start of an extra long weekend. To celebrate, I took Tyler to Friendly's for lunch. We then spent the remainder of the afternoon at his favorite playground where he played football with the other boys and hide and go seek freeze tag. It was a great way to officially start our weekend.

Look, Dad

Tyler couldn't wait for me to take a photo to show Dad what he had been working on the past couple of days. He built his very own fortress from scratch using the Legos from the pile that his dad use to build with when he was his age. Great job!!!

Climbing Mountains

Since about the time when he used to sleep in his crib, we knew Tyler was a climber. Nothing much has changed since then, now he just finds larger things to climb. Today while at the park, he completely shocked me by climbing the humongous "rock" they have for just that purpose. And it seemed like he climbed it in a blink of an eye. This was his first time attempting to climb the rock and he climbed it several times afterwards. Stop your worrying, Nanny; he is within the age limit of this activity according to the posted sign and I helped him down each time. What a huge accomplishment for such a little guy though. He felt very proud of himself.

My Nana :)

Here is my 93 year old grandmother learning how to knit. Isn't she amazing!!! We love you soo much, Nana!!! xoxo from Heather, Steve & Tyler

60 Minutes Tonight

Sorry if we made you watch CNN last night. All that was on was South Carolina's Republican primary...BORING! Anyway, Steve assures us that tonight on 60 Minutes (CBS) you'll see what we've been waiting for. Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta visited Steve's ship, the USS Enterprise. In this photo he is having a chat with Captain William C. Hamilton Jr.

Tyler Says the Sweetest Things

This actually happened the day that Steve left to go on the ship. Later on, I was getting Tyler ready for bed and I said to him, " Let's hurry up and go to bed. I bet Winnie missed you a lot today". Tyler replied, "No, Mom, Winnie didn't miss me, he missed Dad".

Rolling Down the Hill

This was Tyler's favorite part of gymnastics class tonight. His instructor said he can join the more advanced class now that he is doing so well, however his best friend Rachael won't be in the same class because it's an all boys class. So, if he is still interested next year, we'll enroll him into that class.

Steve Update: He said to watch CNN tomorrow night. Remember his ship is the USS Enterprise. That's all I am allowed to say. LOL

Woo Hoo!!!

Both my boys had a great day, academically. After studying all day yesterday, this morning Steve wrote his Chiefs exam. This exam is one of the requirements in determining whether you get promoted to Chief. Of course, the grade will be applied to his overall evaluation. Steve said he should know around March how he did on the exam. Then later in the year, we'll know whether he's been promoted. He has a great chance this time, especially with the leadership responsibility he is gaining through this upcoming deployment.
Meanwhile, my other boy, is very pleased to announce to us all that he completed his Reading Log for Literacy Month at school. His reading skills are coming along excellent. His teacher said he is one of the top readers in his class. He received a coupon from his teacher for a treat for completing the log.
Great job guys!!!

Another Car Video by Tyler

Wasn't Expecting That Ending...Cute!

Yuki's Birthday Party

Yesterday we attended our good friend Yuki's birthday party. His birthday was actually on December 27th, but with the busy holiday season his mom decided to postpone it until later. The party was held at the YMCA where the children had an awesome time playing ball, bouncing in the inflatable, and best of all, playing under the giant parachute. After the running around, the kids then had a pizza and cake. Yasuko's Japanese friend, made an unbelievably delicious Japanese cake for Yuki. The party ended with opening of the presents. Everyone had a great time celebrating Yuki's 5th birthday.

Miss you, Carol

A dear friend of mine went to heaven yesterday after fighting a tough battle with cancer that lasted over 10 years. Carol and I met through our indoctrination class when we first moved to Sicily in 2002. Together, along with several other friends we met through the class, quickly made a bond that will last forever. We became more than just friends, we became family; spending almost everyday together.Carol was known for her witty humor, caring and kind soul, and her love for her family, especially her children. She was one of the best mothers I have ever known. She leaves behind two beautiful children, Chris and Heather, and her loving husband, Jacob. Please keep them in your prayers as they will need a lot to help them through this difficult time.*Carol is the one in the middle wearing an orange shirt.

Video from the CNO

Steve has been extremely busy on the USS Enterprise. He is in charge production and has 20 shipmates to supervise. There has been a lot of late nights getting the daily newspaper together. The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert visited the ship on Thursday. They made this video addressing the crew. You can view it by clicking here.

Rhythmic Gymnastics

Tonight at gymnastics class the children were allowed to bring their favorite music instruments. Tyler brought his keyboard. The kids had a great time playing their instruments as they marched to each set of equipment. Their instructor explained how the music's rhythm works in different routines. Next week is a continuation of music, so they get to take their instruments again to class.

Mad Hatter Day

As part of Literacy Month, Tyler's school had Mad Hatter Day today. Tyler decided to wear his mouse ears  he got from Disney a few years ago. They were a huge hit with his teacher who said she owned a similar pair when she was his age. She said she remembered watching the Mickey Mouse Club with her ears on in front of her black and white television every week. It's amazing how some things don't change very much. The show is no longer on, but children still love to wear their mouse ears.

:(

Steve got underway early this morning, but before he left we woke up Tyler so that he could also say goodbye. As you can see from the photo, he had his eyes closed. This wasn't because of the bright flash but rather because Tyler was still half asleep. It wasn't until he came home from school this afternoon that he realized Dad was going to be away for awhile. It's never easy saying goodbye, no matter how many times we have to do it. :(

Lets Go for a Drive

When Dad got home from work today he said lets go for a drive. It was a gorgeous afternoon and after today he'll be gone on the ship for a whole month. He didn't want to waste the day being stuck indoors. First, we went to the car wash to get the Impala all squeaky clean. We took the car to the place where you get out of your car and it drives through on a track. Tyler loved watching it go through.

Dad then wanted to go out for dinner. It was his pick and so he chose Chicago Uno. We found one in Norfolk to go to. We haven't been to a Chicago Uno since we lived in Syracuse, so it was a real treat. It was nice doing something special before Dad has to leave, but we are soo sad at the thought of him being gone for a whole month. :(

For Mom

Shoal Harbour (Trinity Bay), Newfoundland. If you look close you well see the log boom going across the harbour. There is a sawmill there to the right by the church that belonged to the Wisemans.
I saw this on my cousin's Face Book page this morning and immediately thought of my mom. She grew up here.

Disney Vacation: Day 3

Our final day of our Disney vacation was mostly spent saving the world. Seriously! We joined the team from Kim Possible and became secret agents. Our first mission was to go to Norway and pick up our "kimmunicator". The kimmunicator then gave us instructions to go to China where we then received another message to go to a particular area of the pavilion. It was there where we followed special instructions and witnessed one of the statues actually move right before our eyes. From there we continued our way through China completing further assignments until our mission was done.

The kimmunicator then told us to go to Japan where we had to do the same kind of series of instructions to witness all sorts of very cool actions including activating wind chimes, a statue in the middle of the store appearing from a display, and a crystal ball glowing from a statue. It was so much fun waiting to see what happens. This was the first time we played this game and we could have continued for the remainder of the day, but this was our last day and we still had Hollywood Studios to check out.

When we arrived at Hollywood Studios we were shocked to see how crowded the park was. In fact, Steve had never seen it so packed before. Our options were very limited what we could do there because the lines were so long, so we basically walked around. We stopped and had lunch at the Backstage Lot and then went over to the 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' play area where Tyler had a blast. Afterwards we went to the animation studios to see how cartoons are made. We had a long ride back to Epcot to the parking lot from Hollywood Studios. We took the water taxi which was fun. We were pretty exhausted when we arrived back to Grandma's house, but we had a great 3 days.

Disney Vacation: Day 2

The next morning we took the water taxi from our hotel and got off at the Boardwalk where we had breakfast at the Bakery. Epcot was nearby, so we decided to walk there.

The night before we ran out of time to do some of the rides at Epcot, so we planned on going on them first thing this morning. First we did the Norway ride, which was enjoyable, especially when we went backwards. The ride at the Mexico pavilion was also entertaining with lots to see.

Then we walked around for a bit more taking it all the sites at Epcot before taking the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. Our tummies were starting to rumble by this time and Steve suggested we try and eat at Toni's (the location of the spaghetti scene of Lady and the Tramp...LOL). Luckily, it wasn't too busy and we didn't have to wait too long for a table. It was great timing because it started to rain. The food was yummy and it was fun to people watch through the front window as we ate.

Just as we were finishing up our meals, the rain stopped. Steve suggested we go check out the Country Bear Jamboree, a show he knew Tyler would really like. The show has been at the park forever, but yet this was the first time Tyler and I had ever watched it. It was really cute! After the show was over, we went over to the Swiss Family Robinson house for a tour. We went on a few more rides before taking the monorail back to Epcot.

We visited a few more countries while at Epcot, and to our surprise we were delighted to find Tyler's favorite Disney characters, Winnie and Tigger in England. The best part about it was that there were hardly anyone in line waiting to meet them. Tyler got their autographs and got some hugs from them. The smile on his face was absolutely priceless. Then we got a couple of family photos together.

We finished up our night by visiting a few more countries. Steve decided we eat in Downtown Disney for a change. We got in the car and drove down planning on eating at the T-Rex restaurant, but unfortunately it was too long of a time to wait. So, we walked around looking for another restaurant and found Bongos Cuban Cafe which had delicious food. It was another late night for us and we still had another day at Disney the next day, so we called it a night when we got back to the hotel. Here are a few more photos of our day.

Disney Vacation: Day 1

During our Thanksgiving trip to Florida we bought a 4 day park hopper pass to Disney, however what we failed to notice was that they expire before Steve comes back from his next deployment. We only had time to use one day during Thanksgiving, so in order not to waste our passes we had to return to Florida to use them up. Steve decided to incorporate the passes into a family vacation since he won't be with us during the summer. He booked two nights at the Dolphin Hotel on Disney property so we could just leave the car there and then crash each night without having to go too far.

So, after checking into our hotel we took the bus over to Animal Kingdom. Tyler had been to this park once before, but he was much too young to remember his visit. The park was rather crowded so we did Fast Pass for the safari.

On our ride through the jungle we saw all kinds of animals including this okapi which happens to be the only live relative to the giraffe. It was a great day to view the animals, most of them were out and about.

After our safari ride, we continued our trek throughout the park viewing several different kinds of animals and walking through different countries. We then ended up in Dino Land which happened to be a favorite of Tyler's. By this time it was lunch and we were getting hungry, so we grabbed a quick bite in a restaurant located inside Dino Land and then found a neat spot where Tyler could run around and expel some of his energy. It was an enormous jungle gym. After running around for awhile, Tyler asked if we could go to the Magic Kingdom. So, we left and got on the bus to the other park. It was even more crowded over there. We couldn't do much as far as go on rides because the lines were too long, but we took in the sites and had an ice cream treat. Later on in the night we went over to Epcot and walked through the countries and then went back to the Land and had dinner before retiring for the night. However, on our way back to the hotel, the Magic Kingdom had snow that fell from the sky. Tyler was sooo excited. I think it made his day even more special. Here are some more photos from Day 1.