THE WHITEST LEGS IN FLORIDA...

...belong to Maddox.

But maybe by the end of summer he will have a little tan.

After all, he wants to stay outside...allll day. And it already feels hot enough to be summer.

This is one of the few moments inside today. Maddox is helping Andrew "baby proof" the fireplace. But every time I turn my back, Maddox is trying to peel off the foam. Tomorrow it's to the beach for the first time - he will get to run wild and hopefully sleep VERY soundly :)

TEN HOURS LATER...AND WE SURVIVED

Our second trip to Florida went much better than the first one. We didn't lose a single tire. There were also no tornado warnings as we drove across the Panhandle. Phew. The worst part was when Maddox woke up almost five hours into the trip and realized we weren't getting out the car until the GPS told us we had reached our destination.

Of course, we had to make one stop...or else I would have gone crazy. This was Maddox on repeat: whine, growl, scream, kick. The one thing that kept him quiet for about ten minutes was me sliding the sunroof open then closed. Yea....I know.

We stopped at the Huddle House off of I-10 because that was pretty much the only building we saw for what seemed like 100 miles (slight exaggeration, but there was a LOT of endless green grass).

Maddox ate his grits and waffle (and coffee creamer) standing up.

About 4 hours later, we were all pretty excited to see our house. I will be even more excited when the last two carloads of our stuff get put away and when the garage is box-free. We spent the day trying to organize the house while Maddox demanded most of our attention. His favorite part of the day: opening and closing our bedroom French doors to the deck, throwing rocks into the pond, and staring at some half-chicken/half-duck thing that floated by our yard.

He picked out this outfit, head to toe, by the way.

favorite part of day 1 in FL: getting out the car
worst part: saying bye. It is Maddox's latest fad word. The whole way out of my parents' driveway he said, half-asleep..."bye...bye...bye."

THE SEARCH FOR HOME IS OVER

I've wondered for a while...where is home?

There is my childhood home, then there is the home we just left. And of course, there is our new home, over 600 miles away...a cute little blue cottage with a duck pond in the back.

It is still a house to me (an adorable one) but it will take some homecooked dinners, tears and laughter to turn it into a home. I'm trying to get used to this new life, the "Air Force life." We will most likely call a lot of places home before we finally settle. And that idea is hard for me to swallow, but I'm trying to remember this quote I came across: "Home is any four walls that enclose the right person."

And that's so true. I have my husband and my son - I have my home with me wherever the Air Force takes us.

We are in the process of kissing SC goodbye and starting a new chapter. It's up to us to use this change for good, to grow in all kinds of ways and to make the best of the ever-changing, quickly-fleeting moment. This blog is meant to capture our journey - the best and the worst of it.

This change is good for us. It's going to be crazy at times, and sometimes sad, but I don't want to ever forget all the little funny things and the things that changed us and made us thankful for each other.

So, enjoy - read up, laugh at Maddox's new antics, follow us through the ups and downs, and be assured that we are alive and well...even 600 miles away.