I'm Sailing, I'm a Sailor

Two points goes to the folks who can name the movie I just quoted in the title of my blog.

Upon arriving in Atlanta, we were taken in by two families, John, Brea and Brennan, and then Paul, Lisa and Sadie. We are indebted to both for their kind hospitality to us. In addition to housing us, both families also seem to want to hang out with us as well.

Yesterday our good buds, Paul, Lisa and Sadie took us sailing. None of the McNays had been sailing before and it was an awesome day and awesome experience all around. Here are some great pictures.

Here we are, Hadleigh slept for 1.5 hours on the boat. She is under the blanket in my arms. The winds were a bit stronger than we anticipated, which made the time all the better. The only part that was a little scary was when I had to switch sides of the boat with Hadleigh sleeping in my arms.

Here are Hadleigh and Sadie after the ride. Sadie is only 2 months, but already a veteran sailor.

Three Years

On October 4, we celebrated our 3rd Anniversary. Dave's parents watched Hadlegih for us and we went to a nice restaurant in Knoxville for dinner. I didn't get a picture of that, but we also managed to go out without Hadleigh in California. So here is a picture.

Moving In!

We packed out on September 19 and expected our household goods and car to arrive at the beginning of November. Imagine our surprise when we heard they made it to America at the beginning of October! It took just 2.5 weeks.

Because we were traveling around, we had a tough time nailing down a place to live quickly. But through some fun connections we landed ourself a wonderful little rental in a quiet neighborhood in Atlanta. Last Friday our stuff was dropped off and we have been unpakcing ever since. It is a little harder with a baby around, but little by little we are making a dent in things.

Meeting New Friends

During our travels Hadleigh was able to meet some new friends. My best friend, Erica was able to spend an evening with us and even gave Hadleigh a bath.

She was also able to spend some time with Sar and Annie








We also have had fun introducing Hadleigh to her new friends here in Atlanta. Here she is with Brennan Robinson.

Miss Hadleigh Claire Meets the Fam

Since Hadleigh was born in Germany, she has yet to meet her many aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and great grandparents. My mom was the only one able to make the trek to Germany after Hadleigh was born.

Once we arrived in the states she had plenty of folks to meet. We started off with several days in Knoxville with Dave's family.

While there she was able to meet Great-Grandma

Grandpa and Grandma

Cousins Jon, Josh and Jacob, Aunt Angie and Uncle Paul. Here she is with Jon.












After our trip to Knoxville we headed out to California where she met her Great Uncle and Aunt Dan and Diane and 2nd cousins, Chris, Ali and Chelsea. Unfortunately we failed to capture this on film.

She also was able to spend time with Papa Froggy and Nana Patti













As well as Uncle Chris and Aunt Rubie



She was amazing through all of our travels and had a wonderful time with everyone. It was so fun to make the introductions and to see Hadleigh loved so deeply by all of our family.

Doc Dave Says Goodbye

Dave's last day in the clinic they had a fab 80s lunch bash for him. Lots of folks dressed in 80s gear, made 80s food and played 80s music. They even made him a Napolean Dynamite cake and tots "Give me your tots!"

Here is Hadleigh with the Fantastic Four, Dave's fav assistants, Emily, Alene, Jessica and Lucinda. Look at that hair!

Miss Hadleigh Claire Says Goodbye

Goodbyes are the worst. I think that I would just rather not say goodbye. Often times, it seems, we do see people again. The world seems to be smaller these days, and since Dave and I have the travel bug, I just prefer to think that we will see folks again.
But as we left Baumholder, we had plenty of goodbyes to make.

Hadleigh and I ran by the Education Center where I used to work so that I could say goodbye to LaShonda. She and I worked together for a year and was one of the first people to know I was prego. It is fairly hard to keep it a secret at work, especially since I was feeling puny all the time.

We also had a couple special goodbye parties. A bunch of folks from chapel took us out for dinner and Hadleigh got to say all her goodbyes. This is Hadleigh with Miss Carol. Carol's husband was our chaplain and our fav preacher in Baumholder. We hope to see them again since they are from Georgia.


Once in a while a couple of us gals would get together for "coffee". This was because we boycotted the "playgroup" thing and would put our kids down for naps and chat over some tasty breakfast foods. We had one last coffee with Karie and Sara, and the kiddos. At the end I got a couple cute shots with Hadleigh and Ellie. So sweet!

Packing Out

I used to watch the Cosby show. I remember one episode where Cliff was making fun of Claire for cleaning the house before the cleaning lady came to clean the house. The thought made me grin because my Papa Dick used to have a cleaning lady and his wife, Nana Joan used to clean the house before her cleaning lady came. Funny. The night before the movers came I realized I was doing the same thing...who packs before the movers come?

The German movers came September 18th and packed out our entire house. The next day they came back to load everything onto our container (which looks like the back of a tractor-trailer). After they loaded our household goods in, they locked it down with ropes and then put in our car. I was a little nervous that the container said "China Shipping".