Welcome Home Captain Nelson!!!!

He's home, he's home!
I sort of forgot about my blog with all the craziness of Dave's return so I'm finally on here to share about his homecoming. Dave got home on May 26th....after seven long months of deployment. We arrived at the squadron around 8:30pm that night and began the waiting game for our men. It was way past bedtime so we spent most of the next couple hours chasing an overtired toddler all over the hangar. Finally, the buses arrived around 10:15 pm and I can't tell you the emotions that washed over me in that moment. I was lucky enough to have my sis and Alisha there with me (Alisha was my photographer), plus Dave's parents were there and of course, Carter too! Kristen, Mandy and I stood together - arms linked - waiting for those buses to get out of our way so we could finally get to our guys. Naomi spotted Dave quickly and before I knew it....I was in his arms again! Best feeling in the whole world!
Carter instantly went to his Daddy as if he had never left. In fact, he didn't want anyone except Daddy once he was in his arms. It was the cutest thing ever and my heart just melted!
It was a perfect homecoming and Carter and I are thrilled to have Dave home again! Life is good!
Here's a few pics from that night, thanks to my bestie who captured all those great moments for us! Thanks Lish!

The countdown is on......

I can't believe I can finally say that Dave is coming home soon! We only have about a month left and I'm getting so excited. It's so nice to FINALLY be close to the end! But, Carter and I have been keeping ourselves very busy which has helped the time go by. We had Easter at my mom's house and Carter was very excited about his Easter basket this year. I was sick all day but I'm glad he was able to enjoy the holiday. We have also even had the chance for a couple days at the lake and a beach trip when the grandparents came for a visit from Seattle. Carter is starting to talk a little more these days so I have been having fun listening to all of his babbling and even some real words now!

Oops....

Well, March has come and gone without me blogging anything! Oops! A whole month went by without one post from me so I'm writing a quick one now just to make myself feel better since I'm a slacker when it comes to this blog. The good thing about this situation though is that another month is over and we are getting close to Dave's return! We are officially counting down now and I'm getting so excited. We can't wait to have him back....Carter needs his daddy and I need my hubby!
So like I said, I have nothing interesting to say here....so I'll just throw in a couple pictures of recent activities!

Lions and Tigers and Bears....Oh My!

Yesterday, we took our first trip to the San Diego Zoo. My mom came along and we went with Alisha, Madi and Bre too. It was a perfect zoo day, nice cool weather. First, the kids checked out the children's zoo. Then, we jumped on the bus tour so we could see the whole park. Carter's favorite was the elephants. He was pretty mad once the bus turned away from them. Of course, Carter's Grammy loves to spoil him so we also had to check out some stores. Carter got a book about elephants and a cute rubber frog - which of course has been in his mouth since we bought it. Breanna and Madi also scored some personalized mugs from Grammy! She LOVES spoiling kids and can never resist. I'm really looking forward to heading to the Wild Animal Park next - everyone tells me it's even better!

Valentine's Day!

Well, I never thought I'd say this but Valentine's Day wasn't so bad after all. I thought it would be pretty depressing with Dave being gone but Carter and I actually had a really nice day. Kristen brought her parents for a visit and Carter had a great time playing outside with them. Then Naomi and Scott came over that night. We made a great dinner and watched a movie! Even though I'm always missing Dave, I'm glad the day turned out so well. Of course the best part was getting the flowers that Dave sent me! This is my second V Day without Dave (last year he was on duty all night) so here's to hoping the next year, I'll get to finally spend that day with my hubby! :)


Trying to "drive" Daddy's car is his new favorite thing to do.


Carter reading some of his books.


Me and my Valentine!


Heartbreaker


Finally enjoying his quad!

Carter is not quite ready for Jumpin Jammin

Carter and I went to Jumpin Jammin yesterday with the Milosevich family. We sat around forever trying to figure out something to do on a rainy day and we really couldn't come up with much else. We wanted to go to the Santa Ana zoo but it closed too early. So, off we went to the Jumpin place. He had a pretty good time but I don't plan on taking him back there anytime soon - it is definitely a place for bigger kids! There is a dinky little toddler zone which Carter ignored so I spent an hour following him in circles as he roamed through the play zone. I kept waiting for him to get knocked out by one of the dozens of big kids zooming past him but luckily he managed to just barely avoid collision. The biggest problem was that it was super crowded and it smells like a sweaty locker room in there! So, I think we will wait for a while before we visit this place again!

Hmmmm, what should I do first?



Only Madi could sleep through all the noise at this place!

Carlsbad oulets trip....or should I say toddler fun?

So, Monday night Carter and I went to the Carlsbad outlets with Jess and Will. We had good intentions of shopping but mostly it was just a lot of chasing toddlers and letting them play on the shopping center rides. The funny thing was that we never even paid to actually use the rides but the boys still thought it was great fun. Who needs the ride to actually turn on? Apparently one year old boys do not care! They also enjoyed the fountains and walking in and out of stores where they got plenty of attention from store employees since the outlets were pretty empty. It was a lot of fun and the boys were very well behaved while we ate dinner at Ruby's. I was very surprised - should have taken a picture of that too - they were super cute in their booster seats, watching each other eat! Next playdate is this Sunday - Carter is looking forward to chasing Will around our house!