2 Dec 16 – 19 Jan 17; Family Fun, A New Addition, Some Major Changes

Greetings from a very wet and rainy Biloxi, MS.  We are still here in the Keesler AFB RV Park, and will be until March sometime.  A lot has happened since our last post.  This will once again be mostly a photo blog.  I sure hope the photos come through.  I know that in the past couple of posts, some of the photos were not appearing.  Something is wrong with the Google photos interface.

We had a fantastic Christmas and start to the New Year, and hope that you all did as well.  Let’s get started.

Terri and I were each fortunate enough to get up to Wisconsin and see Ashley, Garreck and family shortly before Christmas. More on that later.

LOL!!

We spent a great evening with Jason’s family at the small train museum in Gulfport. They go all out for the Christmas season. Train rides, lights, trees, you name it. What a blast.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with Jason’s family. This is the last good shot of my great beard. I made the mistake of going to the base barber to get a haircut and a beard trim…big no no. Told the lady three times I only wanted my beard evened up…after she made one pass with the clippers, I lost three months of growth. The haircut was even worse. I have not taken off my hat since.

Christmas Morning!

Terri helping the kids bake.

Logan sporting my Badgers hat after their Bowl victory.

And now Logan sporting Gramps’ Packer hat after their first playoff win…and enjoying a cold one.

Fast forward to 10 Jan…we welcomed Quinn Rose Ten Haken into the world.  What a glorious and wonderful day!!

Peyton was at school, so before we picked her up to see the baby, Terri made these for Peyton to give out to her school mates and teachers to welcome Quinn.

One happy Gramps!!

Peyton was sooo waiting to finally meet her little sister! What a blast to be part of this!!

One happy Grams as well!!

I think Quinn is very lucky to have this guy as her big brother!

And the whole happy family!!

We’ve had so much fun watching the other two when we can to allow Jason and Meghan get settled in with Quinn. Logan and I took his car for a spin out to the base Marina.

Terri and I were fortunate enough to be able to attend Peyton’s birthday party at her school.

On the 15th we went to a pizza place in Biloxi for Peyton’s birthday. The guys in the kitchen placed some salami and pepperoni on the inside glass for Logan to decorate.

Happy birthday to a special little girl!!

Logan doing double duty…watching his baby sister and getting jazzed about the Packers win over the Cowboys!!

Earlier this week we went to the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport with Peyton and Logan.  What a place!  Birds, reptiles, fish, gators, stingrays, horseshoe crabs, dolphins and sea lions all at a very affordable price.  We felt like royalty, as we were the only ones on the morning tour.  They have crowds as large as 140 at times.  With just us on the tour, the kids got to do things that you normally have to pay more for, and have to be older to do, like pet the dolphins.  A really neat place and a great day.

Most of the things here have been rescued, like this guy, that loved to talk, play basketball, roller skate and match colors.

The kids got to pet stingrays, starfish and horseshoe crabs.

And snakes!

Peyton was really interested and not afraid at all…well, a little bit when petting the baby gators, but she did great.

This girl is a 39 year old Navy veteran!

The day ended with a great sea lion show.

We all went bowling yesterday. Baby Quinn just watched.

Well, that’s about it…wait…I mentioned something about major changes.  That’s right, Terri and I are going to be going to part-time RVing, as we found a home in Wisconsin. That’s why we each had trips to Wisconsin just before Christmas…Terri to check it out with the realtor, and I went up for the home inspection.  We plan to spend most of the year there, and continue to RV, but not full time.  We love this lifestyle so much, but it just so happens a property popped up that met all of the criteria we have been looking for over the years in the area of Wisconsin where we grew up.  We plan to close on the house in early April.  In the meantime, we are working plans to get all of our stuff out of storage in Orlando and up to Wisconsin, as well as selling the Coach.  Yep, you read that right.  We love this Coach, and would hang onto it indefinitely if we were staying full time, but we are going to look for something a bit smaller for the shorter trips we will be taking in the future.  The whole reason we embarked on this journey was to be able to spend time with our kids and grands and not impose on our kids homes.  We plan to continue doing that, but will also have a place that they can come to as well.  Terri has only asked for one thing since we’ve been married, and that is to find a home with trees and a creek in Wisconsin at some point in time, and that is exactly what we found.  The property is almost three acres, and has over 600 feet of frontage on a river that I used to trout fish in when I was a kid.  There is no doubt we will miss in a big way our full time experiences, but we are looking to turn a page and are looking forward to great experiences in a differing way.

If any of you know anyone looking for a quality built used Coach, please let me know, and I can point you to our RV Trader ad.

Will post pictures of the house at some other time, but here is one shot to give you an idea of what we are looking forward to:

Part of our soon to be new back yard.

So, there you have it.  A lot going on, and truly blessed, as we pray you are.  As always, we hope you are Happy, Healthy, and Living Your Dreams!!!!