Colorado

We flew out to Colorado the day Andy graduated from SOS, in Alabama. Andy needed to take a few days off from studying, planning, and just work in general. We had such a great time in Colorado. We visited Andy's family: Papa Bill (Andy's dad), Gigi (Andy's mom), Hallie, Roger, Parker, and Taylor. We had so much fun. The day after we arrived in the Springs it was Andy's dad's birthday. What a great birthday present!! We haven't been back to CO since April of last year. Hallie, Andy's sister, made homemade dark chocolate ice cream....it was amazing. It prompted me to feel like I needed to get an ice cream maker. I've remedied that since we've been back in Korea. Andy's birthday celebration will be the first time I use it: chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream. yummy!!! Sophie had a great time with her cousins and we were so amazed at how much all of the kids had grown up in the last year. Andy's parents were so thrilled to have all the grandkids together, especially on a special day. Our time in Colorado was mostly spent relaxing. We were able to go up to Winterpark for a couple of days and just take in the beautiful mountain air and scenery. Snowboarding really wasn't an option for us in July but we had a good time. We spent out time swimming, playing at the parks, watching tv (World Cup Games), eating, and just laying back doing nothing. Aahhh, so nice. Andy was also able to "visit" his car while we were there. Andy has a little sports car, totally not a family car, but fun nonetheless. We were only able to bring one car to Korea so we shipped his car back to his parents house to store for us until the military takes us somewhere that allows us to have two vehicles. Andy and his dad were able to take the car for a day and drive up Pikes Peak. I think they had fun, it was great for them to be able to get out and spend some time together. I say "think" because I went on my "annual" shopping trip with Hallie. Every time we get together we take a least one day and the two of just shop, well, and go to lunch, but mostly shop. I think we are both suckers for a good sale. I guess that just makes us smart shoppers. Hallie always manages to find out where the good sales are before I get there so she is ready and prepared on the day we go out. It's great, it's like having a Personal Event Planner, but all shopping. I love it. Hallie, you're awesome. Gigi was able to spend the whole day with the three grandkids. Definitely kept her on her toes, but she had a great time and so did the kids. We had a great time as a family spending time with family. We enjoyed having daddy around so much this summer. Sophie adores her daddy and he is amazing with her, and being together so much these couple of months was awesome. Thank you so much for such a wonderful visit in Colorado, we had a great time.

Back to North Carolina

After Alabama, our trip around the USA continued and brought us back to North Carolina. My mom and Grandma hadn't had the chance to spend any time with Andy before Alabama and really had wanted to see him. So...we went back. We had a great 3 days there and a somewhat busy trip. We were able to spend time at grandma's, eat some great food at grandma's, and take Sophie to the zoo again. Last time we took Sophie to the NC Zoo she was only 6 months old and really not that into it, but now....Sophie loves the animals. She gets really excited about them and it was just so fun to watch her. The big NC Zoo is there in Asheboro, where my family lives so it's very convenient. And it's huge, it takes about 3 hours to go around the whole thing. They have, obviously all the animals, as well as great play areas that Sophie loved to take a break at. I think her favorites are the monkeys, lions and elephants. We had a great time chatting and just walking around the park. My grandma even went with us, and she really doesn't like the zoo. Andy was also able to see Daisy, our puppy. We left our dog with my mom when we moved to Korea last year so that she could have a yard to run around in and she loves it, both mom and Daisy do. I think Andy was just as excited to see her and she was to see him. We had another great visit in NC, as a whole family this time.

WOW!! I Need to Catch Up!

I am so sorry that I have been such a slacker on my posts. So many wonderful things have been happening and we have been very busy and yet I haven't shared any of them. So, starting right now I'm going to try to go back and catch you all up on the happenings of the Baumgart family.

Alabama was great. We made some wonderful, lifelong friends, Sophie had her first "boyfriend", we visited some of my family in GA, went to Florida for a weekend, and were we able to spend a ton of time together as a family.
The living situation in Alabama was pretty much one bedroom studio apartments right on top of each other with a park right in the middle of the housing. Sophie and I spent most mornings at the park with the other moms and kiddos and then ran around in the afternoon with our good friends: Ms. Mo, Kennedy, Reagan, and Hunter. They are a wonderful family from Utah that we absolutely adored. Monique and I had a ton of fun running around Montgomery and Prattville (running around being in Target and the Taylor Road shopping center and wherever else shopping was involved).

We also met Lacey,"Q", and Robert. Lacey and I decided one night, around 1000, to go run a race that next day so at 530 on a Saturday morning we jumped in her rental car and made our way to Wetumpka. Really that's the name of the city. It was really nice and the weather was great. Running in AL was a bit difficult, it was absolutely necessary to get up before 800 and go run if you didn't want to have a heat stroke. anyways. Lacey and I ran the 10k, had a great time, set some personal best record times and then went to get coffee afterwards, functioning that early without coffee...that was tough. Lacey and I have been trying to figure out races that we can get together and do, pushing for the Disney Princess Half-Marathon. Lacey's little guy "Q" became Sophie's boyfriend. They adored each other and when they weren't together would talk about each other constantly. Sophie played hard to get though most of the time, Q would try to hold Sophie's hand when they were in the strollers and she would pull away but then we'd be walking up to a restaurant for lunch there the two of them were holding hands and walking in together. We ended up putting Sophie and Q in Lacey's double stroller whenever we went anywhere and Robert in our single stroller. Sophie will still mention Q from time to time with a huge smile on her face. She says, "My Q!"

And then there's Travis, Amy, Isaiah, and Iris. Such a wonderful and very active family. Somehow I've committed myself to doing an Ironman Triathalon in Florida next year because of this family. It wasn't like they tried to talk me into it or anything, they just made it sound like so much fun and do-able. I've tried to talk Andy into it and he just says "Someone has to watch Sophie". I've already been chatting with Amy trying to get my hands on some triathalon training books and whatever gear I may need for this race. Ohgoodness!! All three of these ladies: Monique, Lacey, and Amy have said that they are going to come visit me in Korea so we are trying to plan the damage we can do here next.

While we were in Alabama we also went to Valdosta and visited some of my family: Uncle Jim, Aunt Rosalie, Christina and her new sweet hubby, Brittany and her husband, and James, and my Grandma who drove up from Jacksonville to visit with us. This was the first time any of them had met Sophie and the first time we had seen them since Andy went through some training in Georgia, 5 years ago. We had a great weekend. We wish we couldn've visited longer but we had to get Andy back to school in AL.
Finally, the last weekend we were at SOS we went down to Panama City with Mr. Gus, Ms. Mo, and their family. They had access to a condo right on the beach and invited us to go with them to relax for the weekend. Sophie is not a huge fan of the beach, something about all the sand really gets to her. So, Andy and Sophie didn't spend a long day at the beach, besides the fact that Sophie wasn't really liking it, the US World Cup game was on and Andy wanted to make sure he didn't miss it. As he kept reminding me, "it only happens once every four years". It was beautiful in Florida and very relaxing. It was great for Andy to be able to spend time with us without having to worry about work or school and just be able to relax and enjoy the beach, and Sophie. This wraps up our time at SOS in Alabama. I've only listed a few of the wonderful people that we met as well as only a handful of the things we were able to do. We had a great time and really enjoyed the family time we were able to spend together. The whole 9 to 5 job thing was a new experience for us and it was great. We look forward to seeing so many of these families again throughout our military career.

Sweet Home Alabama

We have finally made it down to Alabama, where we will be spending the majority of our time back in the states. We arrived in AL on Monday and will be here through the whole month of June. We finally were able to get our internet set up today, thus all the blog posts in one afternoon. Andy began his classes yesterday and will be staying fairly busy with them, but there are many spouses here and many kids around Sophie's age that we are able to play with at the park everyday. Even though Andy will be in class most of the day we are so thankful to be here together. TDY with daddy is great for all of us.

Rhode Island

Our trip around the US continues. We spent some time in Rhode Island after North Carolina. It was gorgeous. This was the first time that we have ever been up to New England and I would love for it to be the place we live in the states. After the military stuff is done, I think this is the place I would like to call "home". We went to Jamestown, RI to visit Grandpa, CC and Sienna. Jamestown is a quiet island right over the bridge from Newport. A tourist spot but not overly touristy. The water was "right there" and the port had boats anchored everywhere. It's absolutely beautiful. While we were in RI we also went to Mystic Seaport, CT; Block Island, RI; and Boston, MA. We were able to meet with Andy's cousin, Liz, and her family and tour Breaker's, the Vanderbilt Mansion,
We haven't seen them since before Sophie was born so it was very sweet of them to come to RI to visit with us for an afternoon. Not to mention just great to see them. Sophie had a great time with Grandpa and CC and running around with Sienna. She loved trying everything the "big girl", Sienna, wanted to do. We did, however, have our first experience with something up the nose. Sophie, we thought, put a raisin up her nose one morning but claimed she didn't. The reason I say "thought" is because it happened a second time and I'm fairly certain it was finding another route up there. anyways. One morning Sophie's eating a box of raisins, not the first time she's done this, and then she comes around the corner saying "Ouch" and rubbing her nose. I asked her if she put a raisin up her nose, she said "no". Well, on our way to Mystic Seaport (which by the way is where the Julia Roberts' movie "Mystic" was filmed) she fell asleep in her carseat. At the suggestion of Grandpa, I took a flashlight and looked up her nose. Sure enough there was a raisin. After a phone call was made to one of CC's friends to request advice, we pulled over to try to get the raisin out. Anyone know how to do this? Well, according to the internet...you cover one nostril (the side with out the raisin) and blow in the person's mouth. This worked somewhat but as you can imagine Sophie was not too thrilled. We got it out none the less. She had a terribly tramatic day so I had to treat her to something special from the general store at Seaport. All better! A few days later, at Block Island, with mommy sitting right next to her it happened again. I don't believe she put it up her nose but sure enough round two of the Rhode Island Raisin was on. And wouldn't you know it, blowing in her mouth worked this time. No more raisins for Sophie though, until she can't get them out herself. Our trip to Rhode Island was made even better because this is where daddy joined us from Korea. It'd been a little over two weeks since we had seen him so we were so excited to finally have our family together in one place. Thanks for the great adventures in Rhode Island, Grandpa, CC, and Sienna.

North Carolina

We had such a great time in North Carolina visiting Grandma and GG (as Sophie lovingly calls great grandma), and we can't forget about Daisy. Daisy is our dog that my mom so kindly is taking care of for us while we are stationed in Korea. I don't think we're getting her back though. Mom and Daisy are quite happy. Sophie did have a great time with Daisy. Some children say that dogs say "woof, woof", but after watching Daisy if you ask Sophie "What does a puppy say?", she will open her mouth, stick out her tongue and pant. I guess it's pretty accurate and pretty stinkin' cute. Grandma and GG had such a great time with Sophie too. This little two year old has some amazing energy. She had all of us chasing her at some point, GG was chasing her up and down a sidewalk on a hill, Grandma was chasing her around a bookstore, and mommy was chasing her anywhere else. We had a great time at Grandma's, the weather was gorgeous and even though we were only at a tiny city in NC it made me realize that there is a lot that I actually do miss back in the states, while other things I'm learning I can live without. Family is one thing that we have missed. Nicole, my sister, and her family also came down from VA to visit us. Sophie and her cousin, Emma, were able to play a little together which was very cute. We are excited to go back to NC for a few days with daddy and see everyone before we go back to Korea. Thanks for such a wonderful visit, Grandma and GG.

Good 'Ole USA

After 27 hours of traveling, Sophie and I finally made it to Asheboro, NC. Leaving Korea at 0900 Tuesday morning and arriving in Asheboro around 1145 Tuesday night. Confusing to say the least! I promise you though it was approximately 27 hours. Sophie did awesome!! She barely fussed at all on the first flight, Korea to Seattle, and none on the other two. I guess maybe that's to be expected from such a world traveler by the age of 20 months though. I was still so impressed by her. Neither one of us slept much on any of the flights so when we landed in NC we were exhausted. I definitely believe coming back this way is harder than going to Korea. So, the journey has begun. We will be in NC until the 19th and then it's off to Rhode Island. Andy will be meeting us there around the end of the month. Neither one of us have ever been up into that area of the country so we are excited to see it, not too mention excited to visit family that we haven't seen in over a year. It's great being back in the states but I think I"m honestly going to start to miss Korea soon, it's home. And our whole family is not here yet. We miss you, Andy.
We're excited to see everyone that we can. If you are going to be in the areas of Asheboro, Providence, Montgomery, or Colorado Springs in the next couple of months let us know and hopefully we can get together.