Celebrations

Exhausted after a night of partying!

Grant arrived just in time to celebrate Father's Day, Ricky's birthday and Ricky's farewell from VMAQ-1.  Something tells me this kid is going to be just like his parents, in that he isn't going to miss out on a good time!  If there's a party or a celebration, he'll make sure he's there.

The "Farewell" also known as a Hail and Bail was hosted by our dear friends Chase and Amanda Rose whom we just love to pieces.  Amanda and I went through the last deployment together as Chase and Ricky became good friends flying around the world.  The celebration was bittersweet for us but we truly had a wonderful time.  It was catered by a local Mexican restaurant and the beer and wine was just a flowin'.  Ricky received wonderful remarks from both his good friend Matt Oberdorfer and his CO, LtCol Chandler "Sweet pea" Seagraves.  Both brought tears to our eyes and there was no question, that Ricky "Rico" would be truly missed in the ready room.

Amanda-I just love this girl-a true blessing in our lives.

Grant and his Daddy

World's Best Sister!

Three generations of Burias...three beautiful smiles.

Father's Day was a perfect day for Ricky and his dad.  We ended the contemporary service at church which was light and musical and very relaxing.  Immediately following, Ricky and his dad took off for a round of golf while the ladies and Grant went shopping in New Bern.  We ended up back at the house that evening for a nice Father's Day dinner with paper plates, plastic ware as all of our kitchen items were in the family room in brown boxes.  We're glad Ricky was able to spend this time with his dad and son.  Once we arrived in Maryland, we treated my dad to an evening out at the renowned restaurant, The Grove Market.  It was fantastic and we highly recommend anyone visiting the the Ocean City area to try it.  It is a quant restaurant where there are no menus, you have no idea what anything costs, the chairs dont match, the tables are all different and the food is simply amazing.  

Two VERY proud abuelos.

A happy family, even Luke is smiling.

Despite not having his family around, Ricky's birthday turned out to be pretty special as he had his military family surrounding him as well as his sister.  Grant and I left immediately after the movers took our furniture and headed to Maryland so Ricky spent his birthday cleaning and painting-sounds fun huh?  He was staying with our close friends Matt and Rebecca so Rebecca made sure to make Ricky and special birthday dinner followed by attending an open house for our friend Alex who just opened a cupcake shop.  Ricky was in heaven.  Later in the week, he went to his favorite restaurant called the Chef and the Farmer with Matt, Rebecca and his sister Cathy.  I really appreciate them ensuring that he had a wonderful birthday, since I was unable to make that happen.

Our First Wedding as a Family of Three

It works out quite well when you have a family event occur shortly after having a baby because everyone who hasn't had the opportunity to see the baby gets to.  As much as we love having visitors and going to visit our friends and family, scheduling it and fitting everyone in, gets more challenging every time.  One of the most important people a the wedding was my grandmother, Mom Mom Theresa.  I have been anxious for her to meet Grant since the day he was born, as she truly means the world to me.  On June 23rd my cousin Lisa got married in Ocean City.  The wedding ceremony was perfect in every way and the reception was just incredible.  We are so thrilled for Lisa and Lucas and we know that they will have a beautiful life together.  

Mom Mom Theresa and Mrs. Peggy Layton-these are two incredible women in our lives and we were so excited for them to meet Grant.  We think my grandmother looks pretty proud to be holding that little guy!

Grant in my cousin Michele's arms, quite content.

GiGi and her sweet baby Grant.

Our first wedding as a family of three!

 

The Move

Ricky and I was just so thrilled, blessed and thankful that Master Grant made his arrival a couple of weeks earlier.  Since he arrived on the 20th, we had few more days of breathing room and time for tons of visitors.  When June 1st arrived the real fun began.  As characteristic of the Marine Corps, they tend to request the presence of their service members at the most inopportune times to go to the most inopportune places.  Fortunately for us, they hooked us up on the duty station by sending us to Virginia allowing me to be close to family and friends while raising this new baby.  The downside is that Ricky was given these orders in April for a July arrival.  This seems reasonable, right?  We thought so too pre-baby, until he arrived and we soon realized that making it to the grocery store and finding everything on our list was a big deal or that a 30 minute doctor appointment for Grant literally was a 4 hour evolution.  I found that taking a shower and brushing my teeth may not happen until 11:00am yet before I knew it it was 11:00pm and those were my only two accomplishments of the day (aside from feeding the little guy 10 times).

Ricky's Mom with Grant, rocking away. 

What did we have to accomplish during the month of June?  We had to prepare to move in just three weeks, ensure the house was ready to rent, complete paperwork for our new rental, complete paperwork for our house and all awhile learning how to be parents to the sweetest little guy on the planet.  We were so fortunate that we found tenants to rent our house in May, who requested to begin their lease on June 22nd.  Since we had to attend my cousin's wedding on the 23rd, the timing of them moving in could not have been better.  Our packers were scheduled to begin on June 14th for a packout date of June 19th.  Additionally, Ricky's parents arrived from Puerto Rico to meet Grant beginning on June 5th and stayed with us until June 18th.  They were a huge help but I couldn't help but feel like I was not on my "A game" for entertaining, especially when we realized that the packers had packed all of the cooking utensils and salt and pepper, making it a bit challenging to make and serve black beans.  They fell in love with the baby and looking back, I really don't think they cared as long as they were in earshot or view of sweet baby Grant.

An empty house.

 We spent every day for those three weeks, painting, installing a circuit breaker and switch for the dehumidifier under the house, replacing items in the house that we should have done 4 years ago-like the vents on the floor, washing the inside and outside of all cabinets, purging and organizing every room, making trips to the dump and Goodwill and ensuring that we had all of our paperwork together like our tenants lease and Grant's enrollment in TriCare health insurance.  We successfully completed the move on June 22nd when Ricky remained behind to oversee the professional painters, carpet cleaners and pack out of the remaining items that the moving companies are unable to take.

Our newly painted family room.

We will miss our house in the Taberna housing development, our wonderful friends who have become our family AND the pond across the street. ;)  We spent 4-1/2 wonderful years in the sweet charming town of New Bern and have so many fond and exciting memories that we will treasure forever.  We are on our way to the "big city" and we have high hopes that our little man is going to give us some even better memories in our new home in Springfield.