jjrlstiffler

So many things have happened since I wrote something in July…

The kids have been learning how to swim, I was promoted to Chief in the Navy, the Stiffler family got together at Disney in South Carolina for a sudo-Thanksgiving, Halloween, and of course a couple other random things. Jessica is now working and we are going to the pool a couple times a week so that the kids can swim. It has been a lot of fun watching them progress over the last couple months.

Hope you guys enjoy the pictures.

Not too much to report…

We had a busy week and broke out some of last year’s toys to play with. The most important toy was the giraffe pool. The kids spent a good bit of time enjoying it this weekend. It was a lot different than last year considering that they only spent about five minutes at a time in it last year and this year we have trouble getting them out of it.

Ryan also got some time in on his bike. He is really enjoying it but Lily is still boycotting it with all of her might. It is somewhat disappointing because it would be cool if they could both go out at once and enjoy it. Hopefully she will decide to give it a try again before too long.
Thanks to everyone for sending presents to the kids! They are steadily enjoying all of their new toys! Enjoy the pics!

We had a nice quiet birthday with Jessica’s side of the family. The kids ended up getting more stuff than they needed and had a great time visiting with Kylie and company. It was a close tie between new bikes and the crazy horse that Susan brought but they definitely have enjoyed playing with all of their new toys.

We blew up balloons and the kids enjoyed running around kicking them all over the place. Ryan is a superstar when it comes to riding his new bike while Lily is still trying to figure it out. It won’t be too long until we are chasing after both of them! We ended up breaking down and getting Play-Dough for them and it seems to be a hit as well. They enjoy playing with it everywhere else but we hadn’t decided that we needed it in our house.

Hope that everyone enjoys the pictures!

Birthday bike ride….

We had a pretty good Fourth of July weekend.

The weekend started off with a fishing trip with Greg. We had a blast but we have learned that we will have to figure out how to only walk downstream. The upstream transit on the return kills your feet. It doesn’t help if the soles to your shoes fall off after about thirty minutes in the water.

On Sunday I took the family to Skyline Caverns and the kids had a blast. It was pretty cool although I felt as if it was churched up a little too much. I was disappointed with how tourist friendly they had made the place. That said it would have been extremely difficult to trudge through a foot of mud with the kids so it had its advantages.

After Skyline Caverns we attempted to go to the park but it was too busy and Lily ended up getting sick so we quickly turned towards home. Unfortunately for us we had to walk forty miles to the car…with all of our stuff. It was a good try and I won’t give up! We will hopefully camp before the end of the summer!

Monday was the fourth and we hung out downtown in the afternoon to watch the fireworks. Jessica had been building up the fireworks for some time so the kids were pretty excited. It was cloudy and ended up raining for a bit but the kids had a blast running all around with their umbrellas while eating cookies. The fireworks were exciting for them but they didn’t finish. As usual the fireworks have some sort of issue here in Manassas. They never seem to finish appropriately. Ohhh…well, gave us something to bitch about.

Since then things have been crazy… I picked up Chief in the Navy and have been diligently trying to learn as much and prepare myself before the induction starts. Jessica is still trying to figure out what making chief means and what it is going to be like during the process. I am excited and trying to get ahead of the curve.

We have done the playground and the pool a couple times and the kids are getting to be a lot more active and independent. It is tough trying to figure out how to teach them to swim though. Any pointers would be helpful. I still can’t just throw them in…Ryan just stands on the bottom with his hands in the air…

We are preparing for high speed low drag weekend. Of course tomorrow is Ryan and Lily’s third birthday and it should be a lot of fun. No presents until Saturday and we are “gonna burn some meat” as a buddy of mine would say…should be fun…

Enjoy the pictures and we will throw some up after this weekend as well so you can see the festivities.

Family day at work was pretty fun today. We enjoyed walking around the building seeing all of the cool things that they had out for us. Ryan and Lily enjoyed playing on all of the outside toys. R & L got to bounce, slide, ride, and eat. What better of a day could it have been…right. All in all it was a lot better than I expected it to be. It was interesting and nice to see all of the folks that I work with laid back and hanging out with their families.

Enjoy the pictures.

We took the kids to the Fire Department yesterday during their open house. It was a pretty good time for all. The kids enjoyed climbing all over the Ambulances, Fire Trucks, and even a helicopter. We thought they would enjoy spraying the fire hose but they didn’t even want to be around it.

I added the rest of the pictures into the ‘Current Pictures” album.