Happy Holidays from the
Vollmers 2012!
7536 Rexford St.
Navarre, FL 32566
(850) 939-6771
http://www.thevollmerfamily.com
Patricia's Blog: http://www.thevollmerfamily.com/MajorMom
Dave's N-Scale Juniata Division Website: http://www.thevollmerfamily.com/Pennsy
Hello again! Patricia here! It appears another year has come and gone in the Vollmer household...as I'm sure it has with you too.
Things have certainly flown by for us. I can't believe we're going to be leaving here in as little as six months...but I'll get to that part a little later...
So enjoy a summary of our year, which (as usual) is filled with adventures and explorations!
Shall we begin? I offer you a choice, you can keep reading directly below for the individual summaries, and if you can't get enough of our stories, you can continue down and see more. Click here to skip right to the "more". I think we had an adventure every single month! We had far fewer houseguests than last year (and you can see evidence of that with how messy our house becomes over time...I need houseguests to force me to give my house a once-over every so often), so we did quite a bit of traveling.
Where to next? We can't say! Dave has a lot of verbal assurances for what he's supposed to be doing next (hint, we'll go west of the Mississippi again), but so far there's nothing official. Once he has the official notification, we'll let you know!
Dave has been extremely busy at work; he's in the home stretch of his two-year squadron command tour, and he'll tell you that the work is incredibly rewarding, but he rarely has time to rest. We are blessed to have gotten all the way through 2012 without him needing a surgery of any kind, ha ha! (But he is planning to get the Air Force LASIK procedure in early 2013). Recovery from last year's back surgery has been very slow: while the back problems have been solved for the most part, correcting his back caused some hip problems that he's currently trying to fix with physical therapy.
He's still very active with his model railroad, which you can learn more about through his blog linked at the top of this page or his Facebook fan page, which has over 350 fans and gets more nearly every day. He enjoys being challenged with the improvements to his railroad, thanks to technologies that make his layout more and more realistic.
He is also still active in Cub Scouts, serving this year as an assistant den leader in Jacob's Webelos patrol.
I am still assigned to an Air Force Reserve position at Offutt AFB in Nebraska, although I'm hoping I can transfer to a position closer to home...wherever that may be. We have the options narrowed down pretty closely, but we won't say it on the Internet until Dave has paperwork in hand, which should be any day now (as of December 12th). I pinned on Lieutenant Colonel on September 1st, without any fanfare.
With the promotion to Lt Col, I decided to sign up for Air War College and am just about ready to take my first test.
I continue my involvement with the Hurlburt Spouses' Club, but in a much lesser capacity than last year: I'm the assistant to the publicity chairman...I mainly take care of the club's website, multiple Facebook pages/groups and the Twitter feed. It's something that I can manage whether I'm at home or on Reserve duty in Nebraska. I get to enjoy the club's activities much more than I did last year as Parliamentarian: I had so much work to do at each of the luncheons.
Like Dave, I'm also involved in the boys' Cub Scout pack. I'm Timmy's den leader, although after this year I'd like to find a new way to be involved. Wherever we end up next, I wouldn't mind being a pack trainer, advancements coordinator or even a fund raising chairman for the pack.
I keep up with my running, although back and knee problems have slowed me down. For 2013 I am already registered for two big races, the Pensacola Double Bridge Run 15K, and the Disney Princess Half Marathon.
Finally, this year I became a paid "Core Contributor" for the GeekMom blog I became involved with in early 2011. I don't get paid a lot, but the free products to review have been nice (such as Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac, multiple iPad and iPhone covers, Beyblades, and hundreds of dollars worth of headphones and earbuds). This past May, the blog rolled over to Wired.com and the readership skyrocketed! I'm incredibly flattered that my GeekMom posts bring in nearly 1000 views per day, and still can't believe that my name is associated with Wired and Conde Nast publishing! I never thought of myself as a writer, but thanks to the help of the editors and the advice of other writers, I've been slowly, but steadily improving.
Those activities keep me VERY busy...add to it my involvement with Dave's squadron's families -- which isn't a ton, but I do what I can, and the boys' schools' volunteer needs, where I help out with the Santa Shoppe and Jacob's school's running club.
Jacob lives for baseball. He is currently counting the weeks until tryouts for Navarre Youth Baseball (late February), and being such a math-geek, he's discovered the world of baseball statistics. He enjoyed keeping tabs on Miguel Cabrera's Triple Crown for the couple of weeks leading up to that achievement. Because Jacob played for the "Tigers" baseball team this past spring (because his coach is from Detroit...coaches got to pick their favorite MLB team names), he kept a keen interest in the Detroit Tigers all season and was over the moon at their going to the World Series.
He's in the backyard playing catch with Timmy quite often, and they've really enjoyed our big blank backyard for setting up bases and playing games filled with "invisible men" as teammates.
Jacob also enjoys video games; we try to steer the boys towards the more creative games, and he really took to Portal and Minecraft.
He's a Webelos in Cub Scouts now, meaning that he transitions from the parent/leader led activities to Scout-led activities.
Jacob also is coming along very nicely with his piano lessons. Check out his most recent piano recital performances here and here. (I'm convinced that piano is out of tune, by the way). Jacob enjoys turning seeming happy songs into "sad songs" by transposing them into minor keys...a skill he learned this year.
This year Timmy tried baseball for the first time, meaning our family as at the Navarre Youth Baseball fields 5 days per week! He really enjoyed it, even though his team only won two games this season. Timmy tried his hand at catcher -- because he was one of the two boys who were willing to wear an athletic cup -- and wasn't bad at all!
He enjoy video games quite a bit, like his brother. He is particularly fond of Minecraft, Plants vs. Zombies and Angry Birds Star Wars.
Timmy also is in piano lessons, and you can catch his recent recital performances here and here.
This area is not very pet-friendly at all, I would love to take him to the beach. Sadly, it's been a tough time for local authorities to allow it. There is one dog beach that isn't really on the beach, it's on Pensacola Bay and there's an age restriction to humans at the park.
Fortunately, this year we were spared any major health issues, but his chronic congestion must be so annoying to him.
As many of you already know, we started this year with the Disney Cruise that Santa Claus gave us this past Christmas. That was definitely the most amazing vacation we ever experienced! We happened to book the trip the week of Timmy's 7th birthday, and he got an incredible rock star treatment. I will point you to my blog posts about our cruise if you want to read more.
We enjoyed some fun activities in February, between the boys' Cub Scout Pinewood Derby, a trip to Mobile, Alabama's Mardi Gras celebrations, and my half marathon.
Timmy was a 3rd place finisher for the Tiger Ranks in this year's Pack Pinewood Derby, meaning he could advance to the district finals. He didn't place at districts, but it was still thrilling to root for him. Timmy (with Dave's "help") made a Lightning McQueen car, you can see him in the picture below.
We also enjoyed a trip to Mobile to experience a couple of Mardi Gras parades. Dave and I had enjoyed some Lafayette Mardi Gras years ago when we were newlyweds stationed in Louisiana. I wrote about our family's Mardi Gras experience here. I'm happy we each still have ten fingers.
Then I had the chance to run in the Disney Princess Half Marathon, which is unlike any race you could ever experience! Disney spares no effort to put on a magnificent event. For this race, I dressed up like my favorite Princess-who-isn't-really-a-princess, Mulan. Even though I had visions of running in a long skirt, reality set in and I realized I'd be miserable that way, so I found a hot pink running skirt by The North Face, and made up some sashes and stuck a big flower in my hair :-) I couldn't even run with Mulan's beads of jade, it was too uncomfortable. I blogged about my race weekend here and here. I had such a great time I'm doing the race again this February and this time the whole family is coming with me!
The last highlight of our month of February is our new toy: a 2011 Ford Mustang convertible. I don't know why I don't have any pictures of Dave driving it happy as Gallagher in a farmer's market! But here's the car parked in our driveway. The complete opposite of the Prius that we had for six years.
This was the month that we took a road trip up to West Virginia and North Carolina during the kids' Spring Break. We visited with my parents, my sister, and got to see several friends, including getting to meet my first fellow writer for the GeekMom blog.
We also hung out with the Folzes, neighbors from Nebraska who moved to the Washington, D.C. area. We met for dinner and the kids had a super-silly time! Timmy was sick that evening and stayed at my parents.
We visited with my sister's family for the last part of the boys' Spring Break, and enjoyed visiting our old stomping grounds in North Carolina. Boy do we miss it there...
We also met up with the Goldmans and Warlicks and I got to meet my first fellow GeekMom blogger, Natania Barron and her family.
Our springtime was dominated by both boys playing baseball for Navarre Youth Sports Association...and in this area, baseball is serious business. Timmy was in coach-pitch, while Jacob ventured into "kid-pitched" ball for the first time. In these pictures, Timmy had hit a foul ball, and Jacob is stealing home while the opposing team is fumbling around with the ball.
We also took the family on a dolphin cruise for the first time. We saw lots of dolphins, and of course I was challenged with trying to get good photos:
May was definitely filled with baseball. I had taken an AF Reserve trip to Nebraska during this time and I had to miss about 1 1/2 weeks of their play, including some of their playoffs...it was heartbreaking to miss it, but Dave was able to get the boys to their games and could even text and talk me through the games real-time!
The boys got to see one of the first Pensacola Blue Wahoos games, the region's newest Single A Minor League baseball team. It was Scout Night, so the boys wore their uniforms. After the game, Scouts were allowed to camp on the field, but we didn't stay, it was very late by the time the game ended.
As is tradition, June is the month that the Vollmer head to Pennsylvania and West Virginia to visit families. This year's trip seemed to fly by!
At the Vollmer Family Reunion this year, we were treated to getting to know some Amish teenagers who were hired to help Uncle Jack and Aunt Shirley with their tomato business. They came over with their horse and buggy and gave the kids rides. Jacob is facing forward on the left.
We left the kids up in the northeast, Dave and I drove back to Florida and enjoyed a couple weeks to ourselves. We enjoyed a lovely drive down Scenic Highway 30A and we also took a deep sea fishing trip right at the tail end of red snapper season. It was a lot of fun! Dave and I certainly did spend a lot of time in Destin while the kids were away...
The kids were brought home over July 4th week, first my Mom visited for about a week bringing back Timmy, then Dave's Mom brought back Jacob. After the grandmothers left, we enjoyed the rest of the summer break practically living at the beach, pool and enjoying the local attractions...including parasailing!
We also made the first of several trips to the Pensacola MESS Hall, which is a hands-on science museum that has been working on getting funding to open up a permanant facility in downtown Pensacola. , and I also wrote about the effort for GeekMom.We also made the first of several trips to the Pensacola MESS Hall, which is a hands-on science museum that has been working on getting funding to open up a permanant facility in downtown Pensacola. I wrote about our family's trips to the museum, and I also wrote about the effort for GeekMom.We also made the first of several trips to the Pensacola MESS Hall, which is a hands-on science museum that has been working on getting funding to open up a permanent facility in downtown Pensacola. I wrote about the family's trips to the MESS Hall on my own blog, and wrote about the efforts of Dr. Megan Pratt's vision for GeekMom.
Finally, the kids and I took a day trip to Morrison Springs Park about 2 hours east of here. It's a spring that remains the same temperature year round -- it's super cold in the summertime (refreshing when the Gulf of Mexico is >80F!) and feels nice and warm in the winter: 65-68F. You can read more about the trip (and some history of the park) here. Check out Timmy leaping off the left side of that floating platform as he tries to catch a football.
August was the month of Dave's birthday and our 17th wedding anniversary. We treated ourselves to a new camera and I enjoyed taking the kids out to play, while exploring the amazing capabilities of our new toy!
Just before school started, I dragged the kids out for one more monumental road trip -- I had planned to go with some of Jacob's friends' families, but their football practices made it difficult -- to Tallahassee to see the Museum of Florida History and the Old Capitol Museum.
This year Jacob is in 4th grade and Timmy is in 2nd grade. Here's a picture of them on the first day of school. Dave and I really like both of their teachers, who are great communicators and continue to help challenge our boys. Their grades have been outstanding so far, and most of the time the boys wake up in the morning looking forward to school. I have absolutely no complaints! Again, they have the flexibility of their before- and after-school care to help us when I have to travel to Nebraska for my Reserve duty.
September started with Labor Day weekend, which for our family was a trip to Atlanta. I was invited to participate as a guest panelist representing the GeekMom blog at Dragon*Con, which is the Southeast's biggest Sci-fi/Fantasy convention. I had a chance to meet two other fellow bloggers and I had a wonderful time immersing in my Sci-fi side. The boys also had a great time, although I don't think I would take them again until they were much much older. You can read more about our Dragon*Con adventures on my blog, which will refer you to the four GeekMom posts I wrote about our experience. We really did dress as The Incredibles and march in a parade in front of 40,000 strangers. It was a lot of fun!
We also went to an Atlanta Braves/Philadelphia Phillies game...the Braves lost, but it was fun to see Chipper Jones hit one of his last-career home runs.
During the 7th inning stretch!
Dave and I got to play dress up and go to the Hurlburt Field Air Force Ball, which was so incredibly lovely. Dave and I hadn't been to an event like that in a very...very...long time. A friend took this great picture of us! You can read more about our evening here.
Also in September was Jacob's 10th birthday -- we celebrated with a good old fashioned backyard birthday party, complete with an inflatable slip n' slide. We had about 10 kids come, it was a perfect size. I attempted "golden snitch" cake pops from Harry Potter, but they didn't turn out very well.
I spent the end of the month in Nebraska, finishing up my Fiscal Year 2011 work days. Leave it me to put it off till the last minute!
As a belated birthday gift for Jacob, we paid a visit to the Seacrest Wolf Preserve in Chipley, Florida, which is about 1 1/2 hours northeast of here (near Morrison Springs Park which we visited last July). Jacob was over the moon, getting to play with wolf puppies and then getting to walk among several packs of wolves, learning all about their behaviors.
I had to work in Nebraska again at the end of the month so I missed Halloween, but here are the boys' school pictures and a picture from Halloween. Jacob was Pikachu (from Pokemon) and Timmy went out as Harry Potter.
We have been the spending the fall quite busy with Cub Scouts. With both boys thoroughly involved, along with both Dave and I involved as leaders, we have plenty to keep us busy all season. We've gone to two weekend campouts, and have marched in two parades. In November the boys also earned their religious medals through a Protestant retreat in Pensacola.
For Thanksgiving itself, we flew up to New York to spend the week with Dave's parents. We were nervous that the trip might not have worked out, their community was hit pretty hard from Hurricane Sandy, and they didn't get power back at their house until about a week before our arrival. Luckily, they only had minor, relatively easily repairable damage. It was pretty saddening to see some parts of Dave's torn still pretty hard hit, with power crews still having to restore power 3-4 weeks after the storm.
We visited family, friends and even got to meet up with two more GeekMoms (bringing my count for 2012 to FIVE). I got to go to New York City with my mother-in-law to see Evita on Broadway, which was fabulous, even though Ricky Martin was on vacation that week. It's one of my favorite plays and was saddened to read today that the play is closing after less than a year.
On Thanksgiving morning, Dave, the kids and I hopped on a 5:30am train to take the kids to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We set up shop on the corner of 66th Street and Central Park West and had a great view of the giant balloons and taller floats as they came down Central Park West. Timmy was the only one with a good full view because he climbed up some scaffolding. It was cool to see one of our local high school bands, Niceville High School, marching. They looked and sounded great!
Read more about our Thanksgiving trip here.
That brings us to the present. I'll use this time to talk about each of us briefly:
Best wishes!
Dave, Patricia, Jacob and Timmy
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