Visit to the Nautilus

There is a submarine base about an hour and a half away, in Groton, CT.  We went up there last weekend.  They have a submarine up there that you can tour, which was awesome.  I got to see what kind of setup Mike would have as an officer on a sub.  To be honest, it made me a little nervous. I'm pretty sure living in that confined space would do wonders for my claustrophobia.  Nonetheless, it was really cool to see.  It's amazing how much they fit into each tiny space.  They also had a museum with all sorts of info about the history of submarines.  I'm sure Mike would have typed up a much better and more detailed explanation of our venture, but I guess you have to miss out on that.  Here are some pictures of us in front of the submarine (called Nautilus).

Oh, and by the way, we FINALLY got our car and got the registration taken care of, which was way more of a hassle than I could have ever imagined.  Happy that's all taken care of.  Here it is. It's an '02 Saturn SL1.  Mike and I still debate over whether it's gold or tan.  Technically, Saturn calls it gold, but I just don't quite buy it. 

The beach

Here's a great capture of Anabelle to start you off...

We made it to the beach on Saturday.  It wasn't quite as nice as Florida beaches because of all the shells and rocks, but it was still fun.  We forgot our memory card for our camera, so here's the two pictures we got.

Beautiful, isn't it?

I love this outfit of hers

Silly girl!

It's now 3:00 in the afternoon, and Anabelle has refused to take a nap all day.  I had to change her poopy diaper twice, then I got her up and fed her lunch.  We're trying this whole nap thing again, but she's just sittin' in her pack-n-play chatting away to herself.  I would just get her up, but if she doesn't sleep for at least a little while, she'll have a hard time sleeping tonight as well (her history has proved this).  One of the times I changed her diaper I decided to have her model this dress I made for her a few weeks ago - since she was already up :)

To read more about this dress, go here

Slew Creations

My craft blog is alive again!  The link is on my sidebar.  I will be posting recent sewing and other creative projects.  Please take a look!

Chapter 2

After getting our rental car, we drove to the second hotel, which was much nicer and had a section of the room we could close off so Anabelle could sleep in her own space (woohoo! #3). We bathed and took naps before setting out to look for a car to buy. (We left our Rav4 in Utah, since I will be going back there in November). We planned on just buying an inexpensive one here to drive around and so Mike would have a car when he leaves for OCS (Officer Candidate School). We started looking online at dealerships, but didn't make it out to any on Wednesday. Anabelle ended up sleeping for about 5 hours, so we didn't really have time.

The next day, still a bit tired and recovering from the near sleepless travel night, we went searching for a car. Most dealerships did not have anything in our price range. After visiting 4 different ones, we decided to take a break. We met up with the real estate agent we had previously spoke to about renting an apartment we liked so we could take a look at it. The owners were there, who were very nice. The apartment is furnished and should have everything we need for our time here. It's a one bedroom in a very good area, close to grocery stores, a YMCA, and Mike's new work. Happy and anxious to move in (not available until August 4th), we filled out the application, relieved to have checked off #5 on our list.

The adventures of moving: Chapter 1

Checklist for moving to Connecticut:

1. Survive the plane ride

2. Make it to Stratford, CT

3. Find a hotel

4. Get a car

5. Find an apartment

We have arrived in Connecticut (well, we did on Wednesday), after a long and grueling night of travel. Anabelle was acting like she'd had a red bull for the first 2+ hours of the flight, so as you can imagine, that was a blast! It would have been much funnier had I not been so dang worn out. So, after only maybe 2 hours of sleep for the night, we arrived at the JFK airport in NYC at 6 am EST (#1: check) and set off to find a way to get to Stratford, CT (about 1 1/2 hours away). We took the airport air tran several stops to the car rental area, which was a large disappointment. Each place either had no cars, no locations where we needed to go, or cost almost $300 for one day. Ha! Scratch that. We took the air tran/trek back to the terminals and found a shuttle bus that would take us to a hotel we thought we might stay in (in CT). By the time they got there to pick us up (and we had bought some airport breakfast cuz we were starving!), it was about 8:30.

We began the drive with our crazy driver. Mike got mixed up on where exactly our hotel was and it took us a while to find it, so after some major complaining by an ornery old lady with a stinky cat who was on the van with us, we finally arrived at our hotel shortly after 10:30 (#2: check). At least we were able to get a short nap on the drive. We were stuck here with all of our luggage for the 4 months we will be living here, which included 2-50 lb. large suitcases, 2 carry-on bags, a car seat, stroller, diaper bag, laptop, stuffed animals, purse, and more, so here we waited until enterprise could pick us up just after 12:00 so we could get a rental car that was a fraction of the cost of rentals in NYC.

The hotel wasn't all that great, so we wanted to check out another up the road a bit. We waited around, checking in with enterprise every 15-20 minutes, until they finally got there around 1:00. (I realize that this wait was only about 45 minutes longer than what they told us it would be, but it seemed like an eternity. We hung out in the hotel lounge area that we weren't even sure we'd be staying in to kill the time. We hadn't showered and had hardly eaten. We brushed our teeth, put on deodorant, and fed Anabelle the remainder of the snacks we had for her while she pushed her stroller all over the place entertaining herself. Then, we waited outside in the sweltering heat and humidity (which Anabelle thoroughly enjoyed, demonstrated by her sweat-soaked head and flaring red cheeks). Eventually we loaded up and made it to enterprise, crossing over the hurdle that would relieve all our transportation needs for the time.

To be continued...

Birthday dinner

We went out to dinner with my sister Laura and her family and my brother Tom for my birthday before we left town. It was a lot of fun and we were glad to be able to spend this time with them.

Anabelle found a way to entertain all of us while getting her "hot & spicy" kick at the same time. We knew she loved salsa, but my goodness, did she like this spicy stuff.

She refused to stop eating, even after her nose was running and sweat dripped down her brow.

And then of course, you can't call it a true Mexican restaurant unless they make you wear a sombrero as they sing "Happy Birthday" to you.