"See You Later Daddy"...again

Its that time (again) to put Aaron on a plane for another month apart. We were lucky enough to wake up at the crack of dawn to drive him to the airport to say goodbye. As he was checking in I was asked if I wanted to go to the gate to say goodbye. I LOVE the kindness of airports to allow the families to spend a little more time with our loved ones as they are about to leave. Jackson and I made our way through security with Aaron and got to play at the gate while he waited for his plane to arrive. 

 Goodbyes are never easy, and with Jackson I think they have gotten a little harder. So its not goodbye...just a See You Later!! We Love you Daddy!!

and its all Mine!

Jackson's first Solo Ice Cream Cone (with help of Dad's hands)

Family Day

In the "big" army there are a lot of social events for the families. Not going to lie I've been pretty jealous that our unit doesn't do them. To my surprise 5th Group decided that they were going to have a Family Day and the go big or go home moment for the event was that our guys would be jumping into the area/event. I was SO excited. I have tried on a couple attempts to go out to the airfield and watch Aaron jump, but for one reason or another the jump was cancelled. This time there was nothing but blue skies...and a little bit of nerves from Aaron. Jackson and I were up bright and early to catch the bus out to the air field. I had to pack for a Hot Hot day and a possibly cranky little boy. I felt like I packed everything but the kitchen sink, seriously! Because we have so few family events I tend to forget how many of my friends are actually 5th Group Wives. It was wonderful catching up with them while we waited for the planes to pass.

The first group to jump were members of the HALO Team. I think it stands for High Altitude Low Opening. Basically they jump from REALLY high up and free fall for a while=) It was pretty cool watching the formations, because they are a special team a couple of them landed right in front of us. Made me wish Jackson was a little older to get the coolness of it all.

After all of the HALO jumps it was our guys' turn. It was kind of cool, we knew what pass our guys would be on and then they announced the jumpers in order of plane exit. So we knew that Cory was number 3 and Aaron was number 4 out of the plane. The crowd would count the soldiers as we saw them exiting. It was amazing!!! I wish I had a better lens for my camera to get better pictures though.

Aaron is the little black blob closest to the plane=)

Cory is the one about to touch ground, Aaron is still in the air.

 It seems like it took forever for the guys to land, pack up and start walking over to us but they finally made it. It was great seeing the kids run to their daddies and get confused as they got closer bc all of the guys look the same with their helmets on. Our Daddy came walking up happy to of survived the jump and Jackson was all smiles for him. J has been in a bit of a Daddy mood lately and I know that Aaron is eating it up=)

He lived!!

Hi Daddy=)

After a quick bite to eat and some pounding of water for the guys we started packing up to get on the bus. All in all it was an amazing day and I am so happy that we were able to see what our guys do on those Long jump days. 

Jackson was all smiles when we got on the bus. I think the sudden burst of a/c helped lift his spirits. Well, that and the awesome game of peek-a-boo we played between the seats!

 

The ride back to Post was a long one, but J had his Daddy to snuggle with and an nice cold bottle to drink.

He tried it...and he LOVED it!!!

The Boy Has His Priorities

Forget the clothes Mom...

Moose A Moose is on!

Finally putting her in the water

 Aaron has had the kayak for a while now and we haven't really had a chance to get it in the water. We finally had some free time and beautiful day so we decided to go for it. We packed up and grabbed a picnic lunch from Jersey Mike's and went to a lake on post. 

 Aaron and I were both anxious about testing out the kayak before we went camping at Nickajack lake for his block leave. It was hot...Hot...HOT outside but we had a great time!

 I even gave it a try...and didn't die!! *Before my mother chimes in on the absence of life vests on me and my child, please notice that we are beached*

Dick's Last Resort...Finally

While we were in Gatlinburg we saw a restaurant called Dick's Last Resort. Walking by the place on the street and looking in we saw people wearing funny white hats made out of paper. It looked like fun, but we didn't have time to fit it in. When we heard that there was one in Nashville we jumped at the chance to go. So...drumroll please....Here are our funny hats=]

"I also eat baby food for breakfast"

"I'm the Babysitter"

"Need Babies? I Don't Miss!"

We know what it is...

And It's GOOD!!!!

We got a new freezer

I always thought that kids liked playing with the cardboard boxes more than the product itself?!

 Jackson is usually drawn to the box, but this day it was the freezer that was more interesting. 

 It took us a while to get him out.

Pickles and Grits

Before you start judging me let me explain! Getting Jackson to eat while teething has been a nightmare. He will start a jar of food and then decide he doesn't want it, then I will give him a bottle and he will only play with it, I attempt a cold pickle as a last ditch effort and am pretty successful most days. While Jackson was enjoying his salty DILLicious breakfast I made some grits for myself. The moment I placed the first bite in my mouth J started "asking" (a couple Ah Ah Ah's) for a bite. The boy who was not hungry and vetoed the baby food was more than happy to enjoy my breakfast. To quiet the beast, I gave him a couple scoops of grits and cut up his pickle. As gross as it sounds, it was one of the biggest meals he had eaten in a couple of days! 

grits and pickle seeds were everywhere!

I can help you Daddy

With Jackson crawling and pulling himself up on EVERYTHING lately he has been all sorts of helpful around the Malone house. When I fold laundry J feels it necessary to "audit" my folding skills by unfolding entire stacks of shirts that weren't done correctly. Not only does he supervise my work, but he does a lot of hands on training with the "Man Stuff" around the house with Dad! I had Aaron put up our baby gate a while ago and Jackson felt the need to help. Aaron wasn't so appreciative of the help, but I thought his little apprentice did a great job and looked super cute while doing it!!

Loves his Aunt Jess

 I don't know what it is about Jackson, but whenever we are at Jess' house he acts like I'm none existent. He wants to play with and sit by/on Jess. I don't know what we would do without her some times and I am glad that Jackson feels the same way. He definitely LOVES his Aunt Jess!!

He's Done It

For a couple years now Aaron has been talking about making his own beer. Its a pretty simple process, but the time frame between phases makes it a little difficult with an army schedule. We finally decided to bite the bullet and bought all of materials he was going to need. We even made a trip to Nashville to pick up some bottles at a cheaper price. I mention this because we bought it at a Gardening and Brewing store...lol! I don't know if its just me, but the combination of the two products in a small store is very entertaining=) Anyway, right after Aaron got home from Jordan he and Cory got the process started. 

After crunching the numbers Aaron decided that if starting then and making sure it was in bottles before he left for his next training (he leaves on Wednesday) it should be ready to drink and finish off the entire batch before he deploys again in Oct/Nov. The wonderful husband that he is he made sure to make a batch that was "wife approved" for wives that aren't the big beer drinkers besides Budlight and Corona.

Aaron is pretty excited about the whole thing and can't wait to try a more manly batch next time! He just hopes he has time to start and finish the process before we leave Ft Campbell (we're hoping to PCS sometime next fall/winter). Whether the next batch be for our going away party or welcome to the neighborhood party I am sure its going to be delicious...for some people;)

Fireworks, BBQs, and Friends...Oh My!

For the first time in 6 years Aaron and I were finally together and able to celebrate the 4th of July as a couple. We decided that we needed to make the most of the holiday by doing all the things that we wished we were able to do in past years. First up was going down to the river and watching the firework show. I have had invites to go down the past two years with friends, but for one reason or another I haven't gone. Last year was because I was super pregnant and it was horribly hot outside, not a good combo! We put the word out to friends that we wanted to go and putting a big group together. We knew it would be super crazy down there so Aaron and I went down to river to scope out sites to sit the day before. We found a pretty nice one up on a hill away from the crowd, but still close enough to the river. Instead of doing fireworks on the 4th of July, the City of Clarksville did them on the 3rd don't ask me who made that decision.

We decided to bring a picnic dinner of pizza and beer, set up our chairs and blankets and just relaxed while we waited for it to get dark. The Furmans were with us and were a lot of fun...as always! Quenton and Malik were arguing about some video game and were googling things to find out who was right. Christina and Nakija were playing with Jackson and keeping him entertained. Aaron sat back and enjoyed his beer, while Viviana and I took pictures and supervised...lol. Right before the fireworks started the Bensens found us and joined our "party". It gets dark so late here that Jackson was asleep by the time the show started. I was kind of sad that he wasn't going to be able to see them; I was curious to what his reaction would be. Luckily he woke up about halfway through the show. Although is a sleepy state he was memorized by the fireworks! We were so close that they were pretty loud, but surprisingly he wasn't scared of the noise. Even though the traffic getting out of there was pure chaos it was an absolutely amazing night with fabulous friends.

The next night...the actual 4th of July we had a bbq at our house. We invited a couple families over to grill out and then light fireworks later that night. With this being our first 4th that we were actually celebrating I let Aaron go a little crazy with fireworks for our party. Not that we spent a ton of money on them (like our neighbors down the street who dropped $1500), but I think a pretty decent amount. The nice thing about being in Kentucky/Tennessee is that mortars and other fireworks that go up into the air are not illegal like they are in Idaho. This made the shopping and selection of the perfect fireworks even harder for Aaron.

We had a great turn out with TONS of food and TONS of fireworks. Aaron was just as excited as the kids were when it came to the fireworks. As for me, its sparklers all the way!! (I made sure to save some of the fun, big sparklers were saved for me. We ended up dubbing them as Mom Sparklers) Melissa, Viviana, and I ran up and down the street showin' the kids how to Really play with sparklers...lol ...it was hilarious!! Aaron had some assistance in lighting everything off by the "older" kids, but they were all giggling like they were 5 when one would go off! 

Lighting the kids' sparklers

 I think that we did a pretty good job making up for lost time and celebrations. It was definitely a very memorable weekend. Big Thanks to everyone who came to make it so=)

Lighting the Moms' sparklers=)

What did I do??

Jackson's hair has gotten a little out of control lately. Seeing that he's my son it really shouldn't surprise anyone, my hair is pure craziness and a definite love/hate relationship! I know we just had Nicole trim his outta control curls back in May but it was looking like it was time for another trim. Being at Fort Campbell this time I wanted to make sure I took him to the right place, not just a place soldiers went to get their fades and high and tights. Sadly we are lacking when it comes to a place that falls in between a military special ($10) and a salon ($40). Luckily a friend of mine stumbled upon a Great Clips and we were set to get J's haircut...again! I know it was only a couple months since the last cut, but there was a HUGE difference between 7 month old Jackson and 9 month old Jackson. He wiggled and wormed and was up in everybody's business but his own. To save the day Aaron found a bowl of strategically placed DumDum suckers and TaDa...Jackson was quiet and sitting still. Sadly, by the time we got him to hold still the damage was done. What was supposed to be an inch off turned out to be 2+ off and my poor baby's curls were no more=( I kept trying to play with his hair and there was nothing to run my fingers through. After the massacre of the curls we went to El Bracero for lunch. Mama definitely needed a drink!!!