My Birthday Surprise

My birthday was without a doubt an unforgettable day. The day started by Joel cooking french toast and bacon for me for breakfast. As soon as we finished eating, Joel told me that I had to be completely ready to leave by 2:00. I asked if I needed to wear anything special which was a big mistake. He told me I needed to wear blue jeans and closed toed shoes because we may get dirty. At this point a million different things are running through my head and this "surprise" is not sounding like something I would want to do. After a little negotiating, I talked him into letting me wear capri pants since it has been extremely hot. It is finally time to leave and Joel informs me that I have to wear a blindfold until we get to where we are going. He puts the blindfold on me after we have gotten gas and proceeded to drive in circles to confuse me so I have no clue which direction we are going. After riding blindfolded for a little over a hour and a half, we finally get to where we were going which ended up being a hotel parking lot. I still have absolutely no clue what is going on, but we have to wait here for someone to come get us. My surprise finally comes and I found out that I am going on a hot air balloon ride and I was completely speechless, but so excited. We were able to watch the crew put the balloon together, inflate the balloon, and blow cold air as well as hot air into the balloon to make it rise. Joel and I get into the balloon with our guide Tom and float over the city of Burlington, NC. We were able to float a mile high in the sky and where eye level with clouds and actually went through a few clouds. The best part of the ride was floating level with the trees where we saw two deer and were able to see everything a lot better. We were able to ride for almost a hour and ended up landing in someone's backyard. Joel and I help disassemble the balloon and at the end had a small ceremony where we both received certificates for going on a hot air balloon ride.

Duplin Winery

A few weekends ago, Joel and I went to the Duplin Winery in Rose Hill, NC. We were able to take a tour of the actual winery and see the process of how the wine is made. After the tour, we went back to the gift shop to do a wine tasting of twelve different wines and learn about each one we tasted. We had a lot of fun and best of all it was free!! You can visit the Duplin Winery website at www.duplinwinery.com

Nickelback Concert

Saturday, August 1st, Joel and I drove to Raleigh to see Saving Abel, Papa Roach, Hinder and Nickelback in concert. During the concert, the singer from Papa Roach, Jacoby Shaddix, came out into the crowd during a song and was about five rows from where we were seating. It was an amazing concert, we took lot of good pictures and we had tons of fun!!

Saving Abel

Papa Roach

Papa Roach's singer literally right in front of us.

Hinder

Nickelback

4th of July Weekend

Joel and I were both off Friday to start the 4th of July ninty-six. We decided to go on an adventure to Tregembo Animal Park, which is located outside of Wilmington, to get out of Jacksonville for the day. After finding Wrightsville Beach and downtown Wilmington, we finally found the road we needed to be on to get to the animal park. The Tregembo Animal Park is about ten acres filled with a variety of animals such as bears, monkies, goats, sheep, kangeroos, and tons more. Joel and I had a lot of fun walking around looking at and feeding the animals corn and peanuts.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

After we left the animal park, we stopped to eat dinner and headed back to Jacksonville. Saturday, the day started watching tv and relaxing and then I went with Joel to play golf at Jacksonville Country Club. We came home to cool off and play with the dogs and then head to Camp Lejeune for the 4th of July Celebration and fireworks show. We took beach towels and had a picnic dinner while listening to the Marine Corps band and watching fireworks. Overall, we had a great long weekend!

Father's Day Weekend

For Father's Day, my parents came to spend the weekend with us. My parents did not get to Jacksonville until Friday night so after they unpacked the car and played with the puppies, we went out to eat at Outback and then came back home to hang out. Saturday morning once everyone was awake, we loaded up and went on a fishing adventure. It was extremely hot, but we were all successful and everyone caught at least five fish.


After showers, lunch at Jesse's and relaxing around the house for the afternoon, we went to play putt-putt at Fletcher's Landing. Of course Joel beat everyone, but he gets a lot of practice since he is the only one that actually plays golf and is constantly practicing in our living room.



We ended the night by getting yummy dessert at Cold Stone and playing Mexican dominoes. On Sunday, my mom made a delicious Father's Day lunch for everyone. After lunch, we went to Lowe's because Joel decided he wanted to grow tomatoes and wanted my dad to help him pick out the plants. Once all the supplies were bought, Joel and my dad went to plant to tomato plants while my mom and I went shopping. Although the weekend flew by, we all laughed a lot and had lots of fun.

Jane Wayne Day

On Friday, June 5th, I was able to take off work and participate in Jane Wayne Day with several other spouses from Joel's unit. We started off the day eating breakfast with Colonel Haines and Sergeant Major VanOostrom. After breakfast we flew in both the Huey and Super Cobra flight simulators. While I was flying the Huey I did good until it came time to land and unfortunately I crashed...thank God it was just a simulator. The Super Cobra was more fun because not only were we able to fly, but shoot rockets and guns at oil rigs and other objects and see them explode. After everyone finished, we went to MAG-29's classrom to eat lunch. Then we made our way over to the Super Stallion hanger to take a tour and explore inside one of the aircrafts. We all were able to sit in either the pilot or co-pilot seat and one of the pilots explained what all the controls were for and the purpose of the Super Stallion. To end the day, we went to the ISMIT which is like a huge video game to practice shooting a pistol and M-16. I was able to shoot both types of guns and not only did we shoot at targets, but at bad guys in different scenarios. I had a ton of fun and was so happy I was able to get to participate.

Unfortunatley, this was the only picture I was able to take because the battery on my camera died. This picture is two other wives and me standing in the side door of the Super Stallion.

Unexpected Guest

While Joel was in Yuma, I bought two ferns to hang on our front porch. Not long after he came back home, Joel was watering them and he noticed a small bird's nest in one of them. A few days later we found five little blue eggs. Now one of the five eggs have hatched and we have a cute little bird and a dead fern. The proud parents are red-headed finches.