"I See Pine" Family Reunion at Pine

We had an awsome time up at the cabin ......of coarse! Another successful reunion! We had 3 legged races, musical chairs, James juggling, jump rope, quilt tying, stories, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, stories, laughing, visiting, watermelon, dirt, bugs, snakes, fun and all the other Pine usualls! My mom drove my car and we followed my dad up, He and my mom like many others in the family still play the "I see Pine" game. So my dad calls me, but I guess he misjudged where he was cause he called a few hills to early.... so after a few minutes of small talk I finally said "We're on to you just so you know, I know you just called so that you could be on the phone to say I see Pine." Total dead silence on the other end of the phone.... I totally caught him off guard with that then he tried to pretend like he wasn't there but he was making so much noise moving around I knew he was then as I am telling my mom everything going on he starts giggling. He finally got his chance to say those three magic words everyone loves to hear "I see Pine"

Friday - our day of travel

We got up at about 3:30 am so we could get ready for our 3 hour drive to the airpoert to make our 9 flight. It was a beautiful drive. We flew home through Nashville with a couple hour layover. By the time I picked up kids and got home it was 5 in the evening. We decided to get up early and head for Pine instead of going Friday night we were all pretty exhausted!

My visit with Hobie - Play time

Swinging with Joey

Hobie climbing the rope! I asked him if he was allowed to climb the rope so I could see, I told him I wanted to take his picture for the kids. He said yea sure we can do that. So after he gets down he says "I'm glad none of the drill srgts. saw me do that they would have been yelling at me." I said why did you do that then, he said "cause I knew you wanted a picture." he is so sweet to me. Isn't he cute climbing the rope?

After Graduation Joey was so excited to see his dad again. Of coarse I was too! We had another great day together. Although this one was a bitter sweet day, the time seemed to fly by, and there were several times through out the day that I would look up at him and he'd be all teary eyed, or he'd look at me and I'd be all teary eyed, both of us anticipating the upcoming goodbye. That was really hard! But the time together was precious. I love the way it feels to be together.

My visit with Hobie - Graduation

The graduation ceremony was really awesome! It is such a neat experience to see all those soldiers lined up like that. And when they bring in the flags and play all those patriotic songs, it is really overwhelming. I have so much respect and admiration for all of them. We are so blessed to live in this amazing country. I am so grateful to have been a part of such an amazing experience.

My visit with Hobie - Family Day

My dad and I went to Ft. Benning to get Hobie, Joey was of coarse asleep so I asked my mom to stay with him. We were there a couple hours when all was said and done. It was so good to see him, neither one of us could stop smiling all day. I think it was almost 11 when we got back to the hotel. Joey was sitting in this chair, the curtains were open and Hobie knocked on the window. Joey looked over and his face lit up and he started yelling "That's my daddy, that's my daddy!" It couldn't have been more precious! As you can see he was very happy to see his dad. They played for so long! I was glad Joey fell asleep on the way to take Hobie back, I didn't know how he would take that. It was really hard for me to say goodbye that night. When we got back to the hotel, Joey woke up as I carried him in, and he was so mad that his dad was gone, he cried really hard for about 45 min. it broke my heart. I was having a hard enough time, and then listening to him say I want my daddy, where is my daddy about killed me! I finally got him calmed down when Hobie called and he got to talk to him. Hobie and I text until about midnight, we were both exhausted from not sleeping the night before, but we were so excited to see each other and talk in anyway possible we were wide awake! I just love him!

My visit with Hobie - Our day of travel

We missed our flight out of Phoenix by about 3 min. and it of coarse was the last flight, so we ran across the airport to catch a flight to Vegas, where we sat for about 5 hours until our flight to Birmingham left! Joey enjoyed a little Madagascar while we waited. He was so good all day we got so many compliments from people. I entertained myself with my first Vegas slot machine I did amazingly well I might add! I started out with $2.oo and I came back with $3.00 pretty awsome! After a 3 hour plane ride, that Joey was so excited about. When we got all straped in he yells 2 rows back to my mom "Grandma Gramdma we need to pray." Then he folded his arms. Some of the passangers around us got a kick out of that. He fell asleep shortly after take off and slept most of the way. When we got off the plane we ran across the airport to the car rental cause it was 11:40 and the car rental closed at 12:00pm. Then we drove the 3 and a half hour drive to Ft. Benning. With the travel time, time change and a few wrong turns, we arrived and got all checked in, and as I put the key in the door at about 5:00 am my cell phone rang, Hobie was giving me my wake up call. But we laughed all day in Vegas, and all night on the road. "Bonding Time" as I like to call it! So I think we slept about 2 hours before we went to get Hobie.

Memorial Day Weekend

Look at all that cuteness

Who can resist A story with grandma

Memorial Day Weekend

Aunts and uncles and babies oh my

Memorial Day Weekend

who wants to see the snake

I do I do can I Please Please

Daisy and Joey with their new catapillar friend

The catapillar

Prestons earthworm

Oh the creatures you'll find

Memorial Day Weekend

Our first weekend at Pine for the summer for my family (The Cluff) turned out to be a great choice of weekends.... Apparently great minds think alike, cause without planning it all of my married siblings and my parents ended up there together for lots of projects and fun. (We missed Mike and Desi) Most of us arrived Friday night, Grandma, Grandpa, Keith's Tammy, and her kids, and Heathers Family were already up there. Saturday Austin, Richie and his Family, LaRue and her family all arrived, and so did Grandma's neighbor. It was so fun to see all of them. We had a big pancake Breakfast Saturday morning, Hope's parents came in from Payson for that. We spent most of the day visiting, and dabbling with projects (We were working on the wheel chair ramp off the front porch) (Mostly Jared, my Dad, and Derek) We had a great day visiting! The Perry and Kreutz families installed new swingsets! Sunday after church we spent more time visiting, the girls did there nails, and I waited for my Weekly phone call from Hobie (which unfortunately never came). Monday morning shortly after we woke up, we started planning our day of projects, and Hobie called YEA! Monday we were much more productive, we worked on the ramp, flew planes, made curtains, worked on the quilt for the family reunion, and played of coarse!! The kids had a blast!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Ok so I'm realizing I don't know how to add multiple pics to the same post, so I'm gonna do several short posts of Pine instead!

Memorial Day Weekend

Dad getting the food going with his "helpers" of the day

This post is a little out of order, but I didn't get a chance to post our first Pine weekend of the summer due to my crazy week of packing and I didn't want to miss posting all the goodness of this one!!

June 2nd "The Big Day"

Today is finally "the big day" the one I've been counting down to like a little kid at Christmas, for almost 3 months. I've spent the last week packing to sets of suitcases for each family member in preparation for this "big day" There has been shopping trips, house cleaning, and of coarse the making of cookies! Today is the day I get to fly over to Atlanta ( Ft. Benning) to go see Hobie! I've missed him so much! There have been lots of sad nights, as I'm sure you can imagine! But to my surprise we've found lots of blessings in our situation too. We both spent time each day writing to the other about our daily tasks, but we also shared our feelings, and love for each other daily and more in depth than just the usual "I love you" We gained a greater appreciation for each other, we learned more about each other. Our communication is better than it has ever been, (and we've always had good communication) so we've grown, and we've grown closer, amazing how Heavenly Father blesses us with things we didn't expect! I always love it when I can find the Blessing in the trial. There are always blessings in trials. So it's a little after 5, my bags are packed the kids clothes are all laid out, and now we wait!!! I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight!