FINALLY!!!!

I know everyone has told me to be patient. I know everyone has told me she will do it when she is ready. Well she has finally decided that she is ready!! Olivia started walking on her own on Sunday. She did it intermitently over the weekend, but really began taking off on Sunday. Each day she has gotten stronger and gained more confidence. Now she is practically walking all of the time unless she is unsure of a situation or she is being lazy. Whenever we see her being lazy, we pick her up off of her knees and tell her she knows how to walk and encourage her.

Today we took Olivia to a park to play in the beautiful sunshine we were experiencing. Chris took a lot of great pictures of Olivia that we wanted to share, but we also wanted to share the video of her walking with you. We are so proud of her!!

464th Quartermaster Company - "The Golden Griffins"

On Monday, April 6, I traveled with my parents to Lapeer, MI to see my sister off as she prepares to leave for Afghanistan. Anne is in the National Guard as a 2nd LT. She volunteered to go overseas with this company to gain experience and due her duty as a soldier. The 464th Quartermaster Company will be providing laundry, shower, and clothing repair support for a Brigade Combat Team. The community of Lapeer had a send off party for the troops. What a moving experience. These first 3 pictures were taken at the high school where the community donated food for a dinner for the soldiers and their families. I was moved at how many people were there. And what I really wished was that I got a picture of the enterance. As we walked down the sidewalk outside to enter the high school, there were veterans lined up holding flags showing there support for the soldiers. I wanted to cry before I even got into the cafeteria. Then when I did get inside, my eyes really did tear up.

After dinner was finished, everyone was asked to head into the gym. There was going to be a brief ceremony for the soldiers and their families.

Here is my dad, my mom, and Anne.

Anne and I

This is Anne with her husband Walter.

When the ceremony started, all of the soldiers marched in and fell into line. I had to take 2 pictures in order to show how big the company was.

Once the ceremony was finished (it only lasted 40 minutes), the soldiers headed out to the waiting buses. The buses then took all of the soldiers to the armory where family could meet up with them once again. (Anne is the 3rd one back.)

The following pictures show you how full the armory was. Time for more tears! Words cannot describe how it felt to be there. It was great that there was so much family time. I think that was important for the families who were there to say good-bye and for the soldiers. People could stay as long as they wanted. Many stayed until it was time for the soldiers to get on the bus to begin their journey. They were headed to WI that night for a month. In WI they will have more training and sometime at the end of April or the beginning of May, they will head over to Afghanistan for about a year (or so).

God Speed Lieutenent Anne Scott. We love you and will miss you. Stay safe.

Visiting Family

I am sorry that our posts have been so few and far between lately. As you are aware, there has been a lot of stress around our house and Olivia has really been keeping us on our toes. She wants to walk everywhere, yet she won't do it on her own. Therefore, at the end of the day I am exhausted and spend just a little bit of time with Chris before I crash for the night. Needless to say, I haven't had the energy to create a new post. I am sorry about that.

We did take a trip to Lansing about a week ago to visit family. It was a wonderful visit and they took us to a local park so we could get out and enjoy the day. We thought we would share those pictures with you.

These first few pictures are of Hawk Island Park. It is really big! There is a boardwalk near the lake to walk on and there is also an asphalt trail in the woods (great for strollers!). They also have a dog park nearby.

This is a picture of a water play area that is open in the warmer months. All of the colorful things you see squirt water in one way or another. The white poles are for tarps to create shade area. It looks like tons of fun!!

This is the play area for the kids. We didn't get to this until the end of our walk and Olivia was getting cranky by this time (nap time!), so we didn't take her there to play. Maybe next time.

We began our walk on the boardwalk around the lake. The lake was a bit flooded, so it came right up to the bottom of the boardwalk. Here everyone stopped to jump on the boards to make the water come up.

This shows you how high the lake level really was!

Even though we had the stroller, Liv insisted on walking as much as she could.

We stopped on one of the fishing decks to take a look out at the lake. Aunt Nan was showing Liv how to throw sticks into the lake.

Not wanting to stay in one spot too long, Olivia took off to explore the rest of the fishing deck.

And we're off again!