Packing.....and Driving....and more driving.....

Packing day is upon us tomorrow!! The packers show up bright and early Monday morning the 29th to pack, and they come Tuesday to load it all into crates to be sent overseas!

Then we check out of our house on Wednesday, and head to Mugu on Thursday the 1st to hand off Roxy to her adoptive family :)

 

Everything seems to be falling into place!!

The car is packed, the fridge is empty......almost ready to go!!

 

I'll do my best to keep the updates fresh --which means you will likely get near daily posts of our cross country trip adventure!!

 

This will be our first of 4 cross-country trips in 10 years without the dog!

Should allow for a bit more sight seeing!!

 

The agenda is as follows:

Jan 1-2 in Mugu (Hand off the dog)

Jan 3rd We drive to Arizona to stay the night at Kens

Jan 4th We drive to the Grand Canyon-staying on the South Rim

Jan 5th We drive to Kirtland AFB, Albequerque NM

Jan 6th We drive to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma

Jan7th We drive to Millington TN

Jan 8th We drive to Knoxville TN

Jan 9th We drive into Norfolk (FINAL STOP!!!.....for 3 months!!)

 

We should fly to Japan mid/late April depending on how efficiently they get Mike's training done in Norfolk.

 

 

Keep Up to Date with our BLOG here:

(You can check back at anyime between posts....)

www.navysmithfamily.blogspot.com



Mike's NPS Graduation

Mike graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School of Monterey this past Friday.

It was a nice ceremony on the campus in the main ballroom. Quite a historic location.

Many Smiths were in attendance, as well as Grandma Donna and Henry!

Thank you to those who spent the day with us!!

 Grandma and Maddy

 Mike's family--Nephew Cade, Sister Bonnie, Newphew Daniel and Mom Susanne

 Cute kids in front of the NPS tree

 

Mike and his California nephews

 Mike and Bonnie

 Receiving his Masters diploma after 18 months of hard work.

Monterey will definitely be a Navy tour to remember!!

Happy Hannukah

Our family is on our third night of celebrating Hannukah today!

The girls decorated some cookies too for our Hannukah guests coming on Saturday!!

The Nutcracker

This past Monday night my friend Casey and I took the older kids to San Francisco!

We bought tickets to see "THE NUTCRACKER" performed by the San Francisco Ballet!

What a special night, and the kids loved it!

Final Aquarium visit

We managed one final Monterey Aquarium visit last weekend!

They were offering FREE entrance for locals, so we took advantage!!

The girls will miss this special place!

Efl Antics

The girls elf "Ginger" has been keeping them on the hunt each morning!

They wake up just to go see where she is!!

Moving is upon us

We are MOVING soon!!!!

The official change of address form has arrived. Par for the course for us every few years!

Monastery Beach Dive

Last weekend Mike and I were supposed to dive at Point Lobos together!

But due to the storm, the park was closed and had to cancel our dive reservation.

So Mike ended up diving with his dive center owner/expert at Monastery Beach in Carmel, just around the corner from Point Lobos, so that he could accomplish the last phase of his Advanced Diver course and complete a deep dive past 100 feet!

The surf was too rough for me to go in, as its a tricky beach to enter/exit from the water.

So myself and two other dive instructors watched them from the shore, enjoying the beautiful day and scenery!

Holiday Party Fun

The girls were invited to a fun holiday party last week!

They made a craft, made reindeer food bags, and had a book exchange!

We have GREAT friends!!

Oh How they GROW!!

 Last year to Los Angeles......

And this year as we travelled with the four kids for Thanksgiving to Phoenix!

BONUS: this year's trek was twice as long in time/distance!! And they did amazing!

I love seeing how they grow! Even one year can make a difference :)

Christmas in the Adobes-Monterey

This past Friday my friend Casey and I had an opportunity to take part in a local Monterey event.

"Christmas in the Adobes"

The two evening event showcases 21 of the historic adobe homes and buildings in downtown Monterey, opening them up to the public to view (most are rarely open for tours). The homes hosted musicians, desserts and warm drinks for those attending to enjoy as they toured the homes interiors and listened to historical facts along the way.

We dressed up as women from the 1800's and played docents in one of the homes, the Larkin House.

Home to Thomas and Rachel Larkin from 1835-1849. His Grandaughter willed the house and its contents to the State of California in the 1950's when she moved to Santa Barbara in her 80's.

Due to our volunteer time Friday night, we were given tickets to attend Saturday night as guests.

So Mike and I scheduled a date night! We walked downtown between 15 of the buildings to tour!

Among those were the temporary quarters of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the home of John Steinbeck where he wrote "The Pearl". 

The tours were full of great history and good exercise getting to each!

Scuba Certified!

This past weekend, I finished my Scuba open water certification (it consists of a lesson in a pool, then two days of two dives each in the ocean, plus taking a few written tests)!

And I have to say, given the skills I completed, 20-40 feet underwater, I impressed myself!

Since having kids 7 years ago, its probably the most challenging thing I've done!

Mike got certified in October, and was encouraging me to do so as well, so we can dive together on our many opportunities while overseas in nice WARM places!! Monterey is FREEZING.....thank goodness for wetsuits! You'd hardly know the water was 55 degrees!!

 I did two dives on my own Saturday....

 And the last two dives on Sunday with Mike joining our group as an extra supervisor/aid.

 All suited up about to walk into the water!

Floating at the surface, waiting to go down!

Thanksgiving 2014- in Arizona!!

We were lucky to escape to Phoenix this Thanksgiving to celebrate with my mom's family!

We were about 26 people for the big day! And it was 80 degrees!

Definitely the first time I've ever eaten outside for Thanksgiving!! SO NICE!!!!

The girls and I traveled by car with my cousin and her two boys, and we stayed a full week (Mike joined us Wednesday night via air). We had MANY meals together, and lots of laughs!!

 

 

 

 

 Heaven forbid this kid control herself!! Goofiest 5 year old I know!