Miss Anabelle!

Ok, well we were planning on waiting on a pup, but just LOOK at her! She's an 8 week old full boxer that we got for hardly anything since the breeder said she has trouble placing her white boxers and that it meant more to her to have a good home for her "furbabies" than to make the extra $$$. Maeryn has been absolutely smitten. I'll ask her about Anabelle and she'll say "I hug her...and I kiss her...and I hug her....and I kiss her". She's been pretty relaxed and almost withdrawn the first day; I think she probably misses her sisters and brothers. She already has her first two rounds of shots, and is microchipped. Her mommy and daddy are both AKC registered and have been in big fancy shows (sorry, Anabelle, no ribbons for you just a bunch of LOVE!) One of the other dogs they had there is actually going to be on the front of a pup food bag (Eukanuba I think) next month. She is the sweetest thing ever and she loves to crawl in your lap and to give hugs when you pick her up. She gives a bunch of kisses. She's eating really well, and after the first time she went to the bathroom outside (there were a few accidents inside before this point) she hasn't had an accident yet. We're trying to stay up on bringing her outside a ton. She's ok in the crate. I just give her some treats for going in and tell her she's a good girl, then if she starts whimpering a little while later I just have to hush her once and she usually stays quiet unless she has to go outside. She really just wants to be wherever the people are :) So now I have two little girls I'm potty training. Definitely an adventure. Maeryn's doing really well by the way. She'll tell me now when she has to go even if we're out (like today in the commissary) and she'll hold it til she's on the potty. VERY proud of her. Daddy has been a great help switching off on midnight (4 am, 7 am...) potty runs with Anabelle, as well as throughout the day. We are loving our new addition and our hearts are smiling as our family grows.

The SeaWorld/San Diego Zoo weekend!

As the weekend approached, (and we started getting a little antsy in the desert) I started looking around for some deals for an awesome low-cost weekend adventure. When I got into the military ticket specials, I hit the jackpot!

We went to SeaWorld first and hit as many shows as we could. The first was probably my favorite, mostly since it was so unexpected. It was a "It's all about pets" show and at first it was just this pup catching frisbees, I mean that's cool and all, but this is SeaWorld so I was kinda like "...oh." Then that's when they broke out a whole choreographed show with several dogs, cats, ducks, doves, pigs, a parrot and other little animals. The stage was set up as a bunch of hidden doors and an animal would go in one door and other animals would come out and cross their path to another door. At one point a cat ran into a door at the base of a tree and a bunch of birds came flying out. They actually flew out of the stadium and I'm still wondering where the heck they went. Then a parrot comes flying INTO to stage area. I was just wowed that the whole show (probably 10 min long) was so choreographed and involved so many different animals. I bet they all get TONS of treats in the process. We also saw a sea lion show that was pretty neat. I was surprised at the a agility of these huge animals. One balanced a ball on his nose while he swam a lap in the little moat dealie and jumped over a bar in the air STILL balancing the ball. Cool. Then of course there was the "Shamu" show. It was pretty good too. The one trick that was the most amazing (besides the fact alone that they have whales trained in a choreographed show) was when the trainer and the whale both went under water and all of a sudden the whale JUMPS straight up with the girl standing on his nose. They went pretty high too. I wonder what that must feel like...the adrenaline, especially the first few times. Of course we saw a ton of animals along the way.

Maeryn did very well. She was very excited when we told her she was going to see animals the night before we left. She remembered and told me "See animals" first thing the next morning. She was mostly serious, just taking it all in...from a distance. The couple times we had a chance to touch things (starfish, and manta rays), there was no way she was going to be convinced to touch them. When we'd ask her if she wanted to touch them, she'd say "No, DADDY touch 'em." We rode in a little sky ferry thing and she was all about that. She was also really good for all the shows, just watching, probably thinking "What the heck is that?" As we were heading out we asked if she liked it and we got a "Yeay-ah" back :)

We found a P. F. Changs close by for dinner, stayed in a hotel within 2 mi. of Seaworld, and prepared for another adventurous day. The San Diego Zoo was beautiful. It was a lot less "showy" and a lot more spacious, with a ton of animals (that were decidedly refusing to cooperate with their guests) and some beautiful plants. There was a lot more walking involved, and though Maeryn loved the zoo too, she got bored towards the end, and that's when we brought her to the petting zoo. At first there was no way she was going to touch the goats. We had to keep asking her if she wanted to and showing her that they were friendly. It wasn't until 3 other little kids pet the goats that Maeryn decided to try it. Once she finally went for it, it was over. She was lovin on some goats. After the goats, we went to a snake exhibit. She fell asleep on the way there and understandably so (lovin the goats took some serious energy, and who wants to see snakes anyway? lol) I'm pretty sure we saw all of the animals there and all of them at SeaWorld, and man my calves were killing me. They even had to keep complaining about the walk through the whole next day at home. All in all it was a blast. I got to see where I was born, Maeryn got to see a ton of animals, and Ttrain found us a PFChangs in between. :)

Yep, those are big girl panties!

So Maeryn started potty training a little while ago and she's been doing so well the past few days so we took the next big step! Today's the first day she's trying out her big girl panties and I'm SO proud of her. She's been getting Sesame Street stickers and just recently got Princess stickers that she LOVES. She always wants to pick it out herself and takes FOREVER. haha I'm so proud of my little girl!

How could I have forgotten about Joshua Tree National Park

The Marine base is actually sitting right up against the Joshua Tree National Park, so we had a chance to stop in and see what it was all about. It was pretty neat; a bunch of trails, camping spots with grills, big rocks to climb on. Even Maeryn hiked most of the way by herself (as she exclaimed, "Baby do it.")

Catching up on Halloween

Miss Maeryn LOVED her first Halloween (that she was old enough to know what the heck was going on). She went as a GA cheerleader (thanks mom and dad :) and was adorable! She seemed a little concerned at first since it had started to get dark and there quite a few, ok a bunch, of people on the street that we were on. Not to mention the garb they donned. So yeah, at first she was a little..."Ooook mommy, where are you taking me?...." but once she got the hang of things she was more like "Ok, mommy I see my candy bowl target, later!"

The first piece of candy she got, the lady put it in her bag. As soon as we started walking away, Maeryn reaches into her bag to retrieve her treasure. I had to tell her that we were getting MORE as I put it back in her bag, repeatedly, pretty much until we got to the next person who gave her candy. I think she believed me then. She would hold on tight to my finger looking mostly concerned, until she spotted a candy bowl. Then she'd make a beeline to her target and the concerned face would come only after she got her candy and remembered she'd left her mommy. Of course I was steps behind her and we'd hold hands again until she found another treasure post.

She was pretty funny. She didn't quite get the whole "you only get one thing from each person" deal. She tried, multiple times, to hit up the same candy giver over, and over. She was probably just trying to be efficient. "Heck with all this walkin to get one piece of candy, I'll stay here and take YOUR bag, thank you."

The drive, the move, and now we wait...

We set off on our great cross-country venture, two-year old in-tow, and made it to Twentynine Palms, CA four days, and 9 states later, without a hitch. Well, almost (there was a google maps error that resulted in an extra hour or so added onto travel time, and a breaking down, and reassembling of a certain U-Haul/Car tow dolly in a particularly street light deprived, sketchy part of town...but that's besides the point.)

It was amazing to see how much the scenery changed, sometimes even from state to state. The drive took us through/touched: Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and lastly California. Texas was by far my favorite state to drive through because it was so completely different and open, though I think I went into some form of shock when I saw the one of the first exit signs say "EXIT 877". Surely I misread that, I thought...then I saw exit 876.

We got to the base at night and checked into the military hotel. When we got up the next day, I opened my door and the mountains were *BAM* right there. They're gorgeous and they're everywhere. The biggest change has been the fact that there really is hardly any grass. If you pass a building/house/establishment with a green lawn, you're like "Wow! Grass!" About a week ago we went though our first sandstorm. It was weird because everyday that we had been here there was a blue cloudless sky and then all of a sudden one day it looks like it's overcast outside and it's a tad chilly. I soon realized that they weren't clouds...it was sand. You could see where the stronger gusts were because there'd be a stream of sand going across the road. Tommy and I were driving that day and he looked alarmed for a second and then said "Oh, I thought that was rain for a second." Nope, just sand on the windshield.

The weather isn't terrible. It can get hot for sure, and usually is, but as soon as the sun starts checking out for the day (about 5:30 pm), it cools real fast. There have been a few random days where it'd be exceptionally windy/chilly, so much that even with a jacket I didn't want to go outside and that caught me off-guard. For the first couple weeks we were in the military hotel and now we're living in a house off-base until we get housing ON-base (currently we're number 4 on the list...but we've been number 4 for almost 2 weeks.) When we found the house we're in right now, I saw it had a fireplace and laughed to myself. I mean come on, it's a desert. After those few random days of chilly weather, I now understand the fireplace.

That's pretty much where we are right now. We haven't done too much sight-seeing (I have seen a ton of roadrunners though). Aside from a quick hop to LA to pick up a bike Tommy found, we did take an air tram to the top of Mount San Jacinto, and that was pretty awesome. That's about where we are now...more adventures to come. :)