Happy Birthday, Chicago Style!

December 14th marked Justin's 27th birthday. This is exciting for two reasons:

1) we are in Chicago to celebrate.

2) Hitting 27 makes him officially OLD according to the Marine Corps. He will now get what is known as 'the old man discount' on any future PFTs - Justin is VERY excited about this! :o)

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Justin spent the entire day playing a few of his new video games, including the new Madden game, which he played with Hunter for quite awhile.

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That evening, he wanted only one thing for his birthday dinner, Giordano's pizza. And it's not Chicago style pizza if you don't have good beer to go with it, so we stocked up on some delicious seasonal brews that we are unable to find out on the west coast!

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Hunter put in some hard work, and not only helped MAKE the cake, he decorated it too! He drew the design in the frosting with a toothpick, and I filled in with a color.

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The Cake:

On the left you have Jay Cutler, throwing a touchdown pass to Greg Olson on the right. The green guys are the New York Jets

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Our good friends Rachel and Eric helped us celebrate, and brought Justin his own keg-thing

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Happy Birthday, Justin!

We Made It!

I might be biased, or we might just have the world's best kids.

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Through 13 days on the road, 8 states, and just shy of 3,000 miles, our kids were amazing. They were peaceful, calm, and sweet through the entire trip! From California to Texas we drove about 6 hours per day, and only stopped ONCE each day! We are seriously, seriously blessed.

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Here is Justin, up ahead, driving the Jeep. I was following in the Mazda with the kids - Justin and I had lots of fun with the two-way radios on this trip! This picture was taken in New Mexico, and yeah I know, photography while driving is probably not the safest of hobbies...

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And here are our two happy kiddos all tucked into bed at the hotel after a long day of driving - these are some seriously good natured children!

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After a fun pit-stop in Las Vegas, overnight stays in Gallup, New Mexico, and Cannon AFB, New Mexico, we reported to Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, TX on December 9th. Thanks to a few kind-hearted, extremely efficient Marines, Justin checked in, and in a matter of 24 hours, was able to check back out on leave!

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We didn't expect to get approval for leave that quickly, but we were staying in the Air Force lodge, and ready to get out of there at a moment's notice. On December 11th, we set out once again, this time to drive through another 4 states. The first leg was San Angelo, TX to Springfield, MO. On Sunday, we drove from Springfield, MO to Alton, IL. The drive to Alton was very short, but we were riding the tailcoats of that massive winter storm, and Alton was a great place to call it a day. The reason we had even planned to stop in Alton was to see our good friends Rusty and Meagan Kallal, and their new baby, Chase!

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Rusty and Justin deployed twice together, and Meagan and I became very close during those deployments. Rusty has since gotten out to the Marine Corps, but we still keep in touch - as soon as we knew we'd need to drive through St.Louis, we knew we had to make a pit stop!

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Here is Rusty, getting to know Morgan

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Rusty and Justin, baby swapping! Morgan kept wanting to touch Chase :o)

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On Monday the 13th, after the major storm had passed, we made it from Alton, IL to Lombard with no stops!

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We are breathing much easier now, as we get to hang out here in Chicago until January 1st-

Merry Christmas!!

Las Vegas II

On Saturday, we all went over to an ice rink where Willow figure skates. Willow was very gracious and gave Hunter some private skating instruction - he seemed to get the hang of things very quickly, and he had the time of his life experiencing it:

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Uncle Josh and Hunter, all laced up!

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Taking in some pre-ice basics from Aunt Willow

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Ready to hit the ice with Uncle Josh and Aunt Willow!

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This was after Hunter had been at it for awhile - by this time he was taking turns pulling Josh and Willow!

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Comin' in for a high five

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Of course we couldn't leave without begging Willow to show off some of her stuff that she's preparing for her upcoming Christmas show!

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This would have been a cool picture of a jump, but the large crowd that gathered got in the way!

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All done skating for the day - he had an amazing time!!

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After open skate was over, there was a youth hockey practice going on, so we let Hunter check that out for a bit

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Here are a few videos of the action:

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Las Vegas I

We are having a great time at our first pit-stop - Las Vegas. We have wonderful hosts, Justin's brother Josh, and his wife, Willow, who always make us feel right at home

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We haven't been out for too much adventure - I think we are trying to re-energize after the craziness surrounding orders/packing/moving... We've done a little shopping, and a lot of hanging out at the house. Last night involved cookie baking, and a little body manipulation by Josh, the doctor in the house.
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Morgan got in on the health and wellness with a personal baby-yoga session from Willow, an accomplished yoga instructor :o)

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Farewell, West Coast

Our time in Monterey, and California for that matter, has come to an end. We've lived here for nearly 7 years, and have had 8 different homes.

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Monterey has been a very memorable chapter in the Batt family adventures. When we came, Justin didn't even know the Arabic alphabet, he is leaving as a fluent speaker. When we came, we were a family of three, we leave as a family of four. When we came, Hunter was learning letter sounds, he leaves as a kindergartner reading at a second grade level.

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This house will always have a special place in our hearts, but at the same time, we are ready for the next adventure.

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So for us, it's on to Goodfellow AFB in TX, but only until the end of May. After that, you ask? Only the Marine Corps can say...

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