Brian Comes Home for R&R

Nine months. It had been nine months, almost to the day, since we had seen Brian when he came home Sept. 9. That is way too long. It has been sixteen months since we have lived a normal life together as a normal family. It has been a long haul, but when Brian walked out of that airport, all that time melted away. It has been so wonderful to have him home. Everyone keeps asking how he is adjusting to the constant chaos of seven children. My answer to them is that it's the same as it has always been. He's never really liked quiet and being alone. He manages the children so well. He cooks, he cleans, he does homework with the kids. He's always been like that, and he would prefer seven crazy kids to deployment any day.

We love doing fun family activities. Fun is our other last name :)! Here are a few activities we've enjoyed during Brian's break: We visited the Nashvile Children's Science Museum, which is hands down the best children's museum I have ever visited (and I've been to a lot of them!). We took the kids for lunch in Nashville to the Rainforest Cafe, which we will never do again.

Later in the week we went hiking and swimming and buffalo watching at Land Between the Lakes in KY. I love activities where the children feel free to run, scream, be crazy and fully exhaust themselves. Maybe because I still love hiking and climbing trees myself.

We took four of the kids rock climbing at the military gym. Diamond did well, but he's a little afraid of heights. Oakley and Gwynyth were excellent, but Sophia was a rock climbing animal. She could scale the inverted walls like they were a ladder on her bunk bed. It was the perfect balance of strength and intelligence to completely engage Sophia. She is very analytical and being able to analyze the different holds and paths seem to be just the challenge she thrives on. At one point, when she was nearly to the top of the wall Brian called her name. She said, "Not now Dad, I'm busy."

If you've read the news lately, you might have heard that Tennessee and Georgia are getting a lot of rain and flooding. We aren't in any danger of flooding here, but we haven't had many nice sunny days as of late. But don't worry, when your name is FUN, you can make the best of anything!--almost. We took the kids out in the rain to play Flicker football. It was fun, and wet, until we got swarmed by mosquitoes the size of seagulls. It felt like a scene from The Birds, only they were mosquitoes. We were all slapping and dodging and itching. That's when we decided inside was more fun than outside!