Farewells and the Fourth...

Right before leaving for the beach, we said goodbye to two of our very favorite families…

First was the Condrey family, who will soon be making their way (back!) to Alaska.  Meagan was my very first friend here at Ft. Bragg (referred by another friend of mine at West Point, I was told I "HAD to meet Meagan!") and it was pure coincidence that our husbands worked side-by-side in 2-504!  I am so grateful I took the initial advice to find and meet up with Meagan because she became one of my closest friends here-- she's smart, ridiculously funny, and so much fun to be around.  Her husband, Jay, will be taking a command in Anchorage and their four kids are excited about the new adventure.  Meagan is coming around.  :)

That's Holly on the left, Sarah, Meagan in the middle,
Jaque, and me at Meagan's farewell dinner.

A few days later, we had to say farewell to the Palazzinis, which was so very hard.  I'll never forget Cortney calling me two and a half years ago saying, "You're NEVER gonna believe this… but we're COMIN' TO BRAGG!!!" (a very unexpected duty station for him).  We were beyond excited and I went to work finding them a house that evening.  Lucky for them, it ended up being right across the street from us.  We met the Palazzinis at West Point when James and Nicolas were in preschool together so it was so special to have familiar friends reunite, especially since Chris was deployed at the time (shocking) and we really didn't know anyone here.  The Palazzinis have definitely become like family and I can't think of too many days that passed where we didn't see each other multiple times.  Both James and Nicolas AND Henry and Gabby were placed in the same classrooms this past year, as you may remember me writing, so the kids were together constantly.

They will be sorely missed.  

The only consolation is that they are headed to Sacramento, CA
and we have big plans in the works to find a way to visit!

From all of those teary goodbyes, we left immediately for the beach which was a wonderful distraction and happy getaway.  We had high hopes of spending the Fourth of July on a pier at Cape Hatteras with all the other beach-goers until we had to evacuate early… which left us back at Ft. Bragg to celebrate Independence Day.  I have to say, while we were very disappointed to not be at the beach with mom, Megan and Tocco, the Fort Bragg Festival turned out to be a lot of fun.

Good thing we bought this new "sports wagon"
for the Pack Mule aka Chris!  All those chairs
would be heavy!  :)  

How crazy is this?  EVERYTHING was
free!!  Come to find out there were tons of other
eating options that were not free, but we walked
right up here first. 

I think we counted 12 different bounce houses
for the kids to play on!

There were 2 bands also playing.  Since we arrived a little later
in the afternoon, we sat on the opposite side of the
field which had a ton more space. 

It was a very comfortable, pretty night…
since Hurricane Arthur had just been through and cooled
everything off. 

The gang!  And our new lawn chairs… we finally
have 5 chairs that match and are nice!!

BEEF!!!! going for the touchdown!

James never wants his hair cut these days.

Definitely the comedian of our family.

Daddy brought chem-lights for them
which was a great idea!

Not sure how this always happens,
but Pete fell asleep mid-way through
the loud fireworks!  ha ha.

It's been an eventful two weeks around here.  We are looking forward to our good friends, the Campions, arriving this afternoon to stay and play for a few days.  Hope your summer is off to a bang too!  :)