Memorial Weekend in Pensacola, Florida

Did you know that Memorial Day began in Columbus, Mississippi? I didn't either until we moved here. On April 25th, 1866 some women laid flowers on the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers in the city cemetery. There is some debate as to who celebrated it first, but as far as Columbus, MS is concerned, they were first. :)

We had a rare four day weekend from training, so we decided to drive five hours to Pensacola, Florida. We stayed on the NAS (Naval Air Station) Pensacola in the on base hotel. It was the perfect location! We were on a secure military base with a small grocery store, private beach, museum and other historical sites to visit.


Most of our time was spent at the beach. Each day we went there in the morning, returned for lunch and naps and went back in the evening. Our little "fishies" had a blast.

We had some close encounters with Jellyfish. On Friday we saw a big Jellyfish near shore. The guys took it down the beach a little ways, but a few minutes later Mike got stung by another one that skimmed across his knees. On Saturday Mike and Steven both caught little Jellyfish in their nets.

We also visited the National Museum of Naval Aviation, which is the Navy's largest museum. Mike and the kids went from airplane to airplane ooing and aahhing. Admission is free, which made it even better.

There were a couple of old forts from the Civil War era that we were able to tour. The first was the Advanced Redoubt of Fort Barrancas. It took so long to build that it was outdated when it was finished and basically useless. It wasn't open for tours, but we got to walk around and look at bullet holes. (very cool to a four year old boy)

On Monday we toured Fort Barrancas. It was completed by the Spanish in 1797 and was a battle site in the War of 1812. After being acquired by Spain in 1821 it was used in the Civil War by both the Confederate and Union Army. It is open for tours, so we wandered around for a while.

Even though we enjoyed the four day weekend, we wanted to make sure our kids understood the reason for the holiday. We took them to Barrancas National Cemetery on base and walked around. We looked at the different graves and talked to the kids about a few different wars the people served in as well as their ages and if any family members were buried with/near them. It was my first time being in a National Cemetery and it produced a lot of different feelings for me. I felt sad, humbled, proud and thankful. A lot of people were buried there after living a long life, but many lives were cut short because of war. In the middle of the cemetery was a small, old cemetery that predated the National Cemetery. It was the most meaningful Memorial Weekend I have ever experienced.

It's a small, small world

While Mike was attending officer training last fall he met Elder Starley from Holiday, Utah that is serving a two year mission in the southern states. Elder Starley took a picture of them and his parents emailed it to Mike.  

Yesterday Mike received a call from Elder Starley saying that he'd be in our area today on divisions and we invited him over for dinner. We weren't able to do dinner at the last minute so we met up with them at a frozen yogurt shop.

* (this is about a week later than original post) I've realized over and over again what a "small world" we live in and how intertwined we all are. There are a lot of people serving in the military, yet it seems like everyone knows each other from some sort of training or assignment. In church I've found a lot of random connections since I've been here. On Sunday, in Pensacola, FL, I sat next to a guy that lived in the city where I served my mission and knew a few sisters I served with. It helps reinforce my belief that we're all one big, "happy" family. :)

Home Sweet Home

A friend asked to see pictures of our new house, so I thought I'd blog about it for our record as well. We live on Columbus Air Force base in Columbus, Mississippi. It is a small base, but full of beautiful flora. Every time I mention the heat or humidity (Todays high was 90 with 90% humidity) they laugh and tell me to just wait.

This is where we will be calling home for the next 13 months. Our address is really easy to remember because we live on Mississippi Ave in Mississippi. Sarah likes to recite our new address: 4104 Mississippi Ave, Columbus MS, 39705. (the kids love letters, hint hint)

These two are pictures from our front yard. The base golf course is just across the street. *note- I thought the activities on base were free/super cheap, but they aren't. They are a good deal and accessible, but we do have to pay to use the pool, golf course, etc.

We finally have a backyard and to celebrate we bought a tramp. The kids spend a ton of time on it every day.

We set up this cute little playhouse and found the perfect spot for it. The neighbor kids seem to like it more than ours, but it's fun.

This is the beginning of our little vegetable garden. We have tomatoes, cucumbers, Zucchini, bell peppers, green beans and peas. We also have some carrot seeds to plant. If you've gardened before and are thinking it's a lot of veggies for a small area, you're right. :) Seeing the little seedlings come up is exciting. I check the garden every morning to see what has happened over night.

Garden update- Here is our garden after a few weeks. We found out we weren't supposed to plant food in the ground here due to possible PAH contamination, so I had to pull it all up, throw away my plants and start over in a raised bed.

We've heard that this screened porch will be invaluable in July and August when the heat and bugs come. For now it allows our cats a place to go "outside" since they're having a hard time adjusting to being inside only cats.

Here are some of the rooms in our house. We would have put the kitchen table in the semi-formal dining area next to the kitchen, but they laid parquet next to the living room as a dining area, so we put the table there. Sarah has started piano lessons, so we have our "baby grand" ;) by the window.

Living room

The kitchen. Don't you LOVE the great dishwasher we have. Best I've ever seen. ;) One thing I really like about this house is that it isn't big, but there is a lot of storage.

We made the semi-formal dining area into a kids playroom.

In case you've wondered what happened to our fish, Stewart ad Starley, they made it here alive. We felt they deserved a nicer home for enduring so much. Don't they look happy?

Our house is only ~1400 sq ft, but they use the space well. The house you get depends on family size and rank. Single people are in dormitories, childless couples are in small houses and those of us with more kids get more bedrooms. There are three neighborhoods here and ours is the middle in age.