New Granddaughter update

Lillianna Grace Fenn was born October 22nd, to Kimberly Fenn and Tim Martin in Seattle. Kimberly has been posting updated photos almost daily via Facebook, but we also wanted to show some of them on our blog as well. Mommy and Daddy are doing well and Lilly is growing more each day. Kelly was able to fly out to Seattle shortly after Lilly's birth to help Kim and enjoy time with our new granddaughter. I hope to fly to Seattle in February to see Lilly and also stop in and see Kristin, Jesse & Landon before heading south to California to see Dad & Sandy, my sister Liz & family and Kerri & Jay in Long Beach. It is very hard to live so far away here in Virginia Beach, while all the family is so far away! I'm hoping to get orders to San Diego or Port Hueneme next year so we can be much closer.

Hey, we wanted to go to Greenbluff too! Kristin, Jesse and Landon (20 months) had to go shop for some pumpkins and apples at our favorite place in Greenbluff. I think they found some good pumpkins and we all wish we could be in Spokane this year to "trick or treat". Send more pictures Kristin!

80's in October!!

What a great Columbus Day! Even though the Indian's were here first and did "discover" America, I'll be more than happy to celebrate and take the day off! I waxed the truck, the girls played at the park, Kelly re-sorted "stuff" in the house and our cat fell asleep while I was working on one of my projects. We hope to make several more trips to the beach, including one more trip to Busch Garden's before the weather gets too cold.

Kimberly is now 34 weeks along with our granddaughter (girl of course) and she is feeling pretty good. She is past the morning sickness and now well into the expansion of her mid-section. She is due toward the end of November and it will be fun to have another girl in the Fenn Family. See ya soon!

October Photos

It's been way too long since we have updated our blog...needless to say a lot has been going on here. The girls now have braces and interfere with the HD TV signal in our trailer everytime they smile! Kelly and I had the opportunity to go to the Navy Ball celebration on Friday night. Doesn't my bride look great? She is so hot that I literally have to disable the smoke detectors in our 5th wheel! Anyway, the distinguised, older gentleman standing by her is me...we had a great time at dinner and the Navy birthday celebration is part of our heritage. The girls had fun when we visited the Outer Banks in N.C. That is only an hour a way from where we are living and plan on coming back many more times. The water was warm and the beach was clean! Well, off to church now and will update soon!

NEW YORK CITY

While staying at the USMA RV park at West Point, NY, we just had to get into see New York City! We took a train that was close to the base and arrived at Grand Central Station, NY to start our journey. We walked to Time Square, then took a Greyline Bus tour of the city on top of a double decker bus! Later in the day, we took a short trip over to see the Statute of Liberty. Unfortunately, by the time we got over there, Ellis Island was closed for the day. We will be back sometime this fall for the tour and as we found out, there is SO MUCH to see and do in New York! We will be leaving NY and heading for several days in the Amish countryside near Elizabethtown, PA.

Westfield, NY

We had the opportunity to stop and stay 2 days at Westfield, NY. This was our stop in order to see the area here as well as visit Niagara Falls. It was a very nice KOA with a pool for the kids and a nice fire pit to burn all the NY wood I could find. When we left, we were going to visit Jamestown, NY, the birthplace of Lucille Ball. However, due to a 3 on 3 basketball tourney, I decided not to take Howe (house on wheels) near any basketball courts. We did stop in the city park in Westfield as they were having a farmers market. Many Amish folks were there and we had the opportunity to buy some homemade bread, real maple syrup, jelly, fudge, strawberries for Lindsay and a homemade lazy susan for our dining room table. We are off now to stay one night at Watkins Glen, NY, then off to a military RV park near West Point.

Niagara Falls

We stayed at a KOA site somewhat close to Niagara Falls, so we decided to stay an extra day to see the sites. The weather was in the 80's and clear, perfect for us to get wet and wild near the falls! After seeing an IMAX show about Niagara Falls, we took a trolley to grab a ride on the "Maid of the Mist". Lindsay wasn't too sure why we would go up to a large falls to get wet, but since there were 50 other wet people with her at the time, she was okay with it. If that wasn't enough, we took another wet trip up the side of the falls and stood on an overlook called "Hurricane Ridge" (there is a reason for that name). We all got wet a 2nd time, even though they give you the gay rain gear. I folded mine up later for a trash bag for the truck. Since we were wet at this point, we might as well go visit the aquarium. We managed to walk around for 45 minutes before they closed, but did get to see a neat Sea Lion show before they closed.

Oh, I do have some sad news to report. My truck has caused the death of a rather slow moving Malard Duck, who decided to cross in front of my vehicle (24,876 pounds) moving at 65 MPH. All we saw was beak, feathers and heard his last "squeak" as he hit my trucks grill. Oh well....

A visit to Laura Wildes Museum

The Fenn girls and 1 male arrived in Walnut Grove, MN pronounced (minnesoda)! Kelly has spent so many years reading these books to our girls, she asked me after baking an apple pie, if I would be so kind to stop at the Wilder museum. Me, being of sound mind (and realizing who is really in charge) said, "that sounds great!". While the girls looked at all the girly stuff, I managed to find an old barn with old tools, old nails, old picture frames and old stuff..we all did have fun and the girls managed to buy some "new" stuff at the store. While we were in the area, we visited Russell, MN as well where Kelly's dad, Noel, went to high school.

Mt Rushmore

While visiting Mt Rushmore, we stayed at a military RV camp at Ellsworth, AFB near Rapid City SD. Lindsay had a great time capturing butterflies and we still have one who came along for the ride on our trip to Minnesota! Mt Rushmore was fantastic, as well as the ride up to the visitors center. This was all of our first trip there and it is just amazing how someone could carve faces in the side of a mountain and show so much detail. We stayed several days here as I needed to get some warranty work done on my truck, then on the 28th of May, we headed on to Pipestone, MN.

Photos from Washington

Kelly with our grandson Landon the day we left Spokane and photos with Chris, Darlene, Alex, Jared and Jackie during our stay at their home in West Richland, WA.

On the road again.

Our family left Chewelah, WA on 21MAY enroute to Virginia. I was able to take 30 days leave from the Navy, so we decided to take a fun vacation while we travel back to Norfolk. We stopped in West Richland, WA to visit with Chris, Darlene, Alex, Jared and Jacque Johnson (Kelly's brother)on Friday. The kids had a great visit and we all stayed up until almost midnight talking! Saturday we headed to Missoula, MT and was able to visit with Nikki's grandpa, Gary Thompson, who came down from Kallispel, MT to have breakfast with us. Nikki and Lindsay last saw Grandpa Gary 2 years ago, so he was very surprised they had both grown so much!
I will post some photos as soon as we get to a spot where we have a better wireless signal. Chat soon...

Pacific Beach Adventure

Before heading back to Norfolk with the Navy, we had to take some time and visit the Washington Coast. Hey, it rains just as much here as in Olympia, so we couldn't wait until the summer to do some camping. We spent 4 days at a Navy operated resort in Pacific Beach. We parked our home very close to the beach for $12 a night and spent some time visiting the area. That treck included numerous gift shops in Pacific Beach and Forks, WA (home of that chic flick vampire/wolf movie). Let's get real, a girl falling for an cute vampire (he really needs some vitamin D)and then is at the same time being wooed by a wolf-boy who rides dirt bikes? Where is Dirty Harry when you need him? Sorry, back to our trip...

On the "only" day it didn't rain, we travelled north toward Forks, making stops at the Quinault Rain Forest. That was well worth the stop and 1/2 mile walk into the woods. Lindsay thought we had walked 6 miles but did have fun looking at bugs, big trees and trying to stay up with Nikki.

In Forks all of the businesses were closed with the exception of the following stores: (2) gas stations with non working bathrooms (that is a big issue with girls), 3 vampire/wolf stores, an Ace Hardware (my saving grace, oh the smell of fertilizer, insect spray and new wood), and the homestyle restaurant with worn out seats! We did all survive and made it back to the safe confines of our 40 foot home (which has 2 working bathrooms).

We are heading back to Olympia tomorrow and have only 3 more weeks before we head east. More to follow!

Disneyland 2010

In March, we were able to fly to California to visit family and have some fun time at Disneyland! Kristin, Jesse and Landon flew down as well and we were all able to stay in the same hotel right across the street from Disneyland. This was Landon's first time in the "happiest place on earth" and did enjoy every minute. I wanted to get some photos on our blog and will also send a link to Disney Photo shop as well. Our family had many photos taken around the park and you can view them and order some if you wish. We also visited with Grandpa Fenn & Sandy, my Sister Liz and family and Kerri & Jay. The time all went too fast and hopefully on the trip back to Virginia, we can stop in for a quick visit again.