Our New Favorite Place

We have found our favorite place to go down here in GA.  It's called Callaway Gardens.  It is a beautiful resort with tons of things to do.  There is a hotel, restaurants, cottages, a lodge and spa, a golf course, biking trails, a butterfly conservatory, and a beach on a gorgeous lake.  We have been there a handful of times because we love it so much, and it is free for military families!  The boys love taking bike rides, but their favorite place to go there is the "lake beach."  It is unlike any beach on a lake that I have ever seen.  It is kept so nice and clean!  The water is a clear blue color, and you can actually see down to your feet in the water.  The sand is nice and soft, and the boys could play and swim there all day long!  We will definitely be spending a lot of our summer here.  Here are some pics from our time there:

 Daddy and Ty getting ready to take a bike ride.

 Mommy and Caellum enjoying their bike ride

 The boys loved seeing this old, log cabin

 Ty watching the butterflies in the butterfly conservatory.

 Going swimming in the lake!

These two boys love the water!

Old Friends

Our good friend, Ed, was in town this month for Airborne school. While he was here, we got to hang out with him a few times, went to watch him jump, and we attended his graduation ceremony. The last time we saw Ed, Ty was only about 10 months old, and I was pregnant with Caellum! He was surprised to see how much had changed with the boys in only 2 1/2-3 years. It is always great crossing paths with old friends, and we had a fantastic time seeing Ed again! Hopefully our paths will cross again real soon!

                                             
 At the dirt track race with Ed!

 Waiting for Ed to jump!

 Watching the paratroopers.

 A demonstration at Ed's Airborne graduation

A picture of us with Ed (and his other friend) after his graduation ceremony.  Congrats, Ed!

Turner Field

The last time that Josh and I were stationed in Ft. Benning, we didn't take advantage of the fact that we were so close to Atlanta.  When we found out we'd be here again, we agreed to make sure we took the boys up there to do some fun things!  Atlanta is about an hour and a half drive from the city of Columbus (which is the city where Ft. Benning is located), and we wanted to take the boys to a baseball game at Turner Field.  Of course we didn't want to just watch the Braves play (no offense to those Braves fans out there).  We wanted to go watch the best team in MLB...the Cincinnati Reds of course!!  So we found out when the Reds played in Atlanta, got some great tickets, dressed in our Reds gear (including Joey Votto t-shirts for the boys), and went to the game!  We had such a great time!  Turner Field is a really nice stadium, and while we figured we'd get some heckling from the Braves fans, everyone was very nice and fun-loving!  There were quite a few fellow Reds fans in attendance, and it was fun interacting with them too!  We got to the stadium early enough to watch the Reds batting practice, and Joey Votto, the boys' fave player was within shouting distance.  Ty and Caellum kept yelling his name and waving at him.  And guess what?!  One of the Reds players threw us a baseball!  :-)  The icing on the cake was that the Reds won that game!  Yay!  We are so glad we took the boys.  Such fun!

The boys in front of the Hank Aaron statue

Turner Field

        The player closest to us was the one who threw us a ball! :-)

Having fun at the game (and yes, Ty has a Braves sticker on his shirt...one of the workers gave it to him, lol!)

                                 Ty holding the ball that was thrown to us

          

Go Reds!!

It's a.......

We found out today! Watch the video, and the boys will tell you the news! :-)

God is so good, and we are so incredibly blessed!!!

We are still here...just in GA now!

We are finally (almost) settled in!  We are officially Georgians now.  The past month was full of bittersweetness.  Saying goodbye to family and friends was rough, but we are looking forward to an exciting, new chapter in our Army lives.  Moving went smoothly, but was stressful, as it always is.  The boys are handling all the changes pretty well.  They have been a little unbearable lately, but as things settle and we get into a good routine, they will be just fine.  I finally got around to uploading some pictures to share.

Easter Weekend: 

All dressed up for Easter Sunday

Mamaw with her babies and grandbabies! :-)

The boys wanted Daddy to have a Mickey Mouse b-day cake, so I made him one! :-)

Ornery boys!

Mertz Family Pics

Cousins...aren't they cute?!

Josh still has a couple more weeks of leave, and won't start his school until the end of this month.  We are making the most of this time we have together, and adjusting to getting settled.  We were able to get a doctor's appt scheduled for next week, so we will try to keep you updated on baby news.  Hopefully we will have the opportunity to get another ultrasound soon and possibly find out the gender!  We will also try to take some pics of our new place and post them sometime soon.  Now that we are farther away from most of you, we will try to do a much better job at posting more consistently (no promises, though!).  :-)