McKinley Jane and Grant Alan

Wow...4th of July in our nation's capitol.  Never did I imagine we would have that experience!  Nothing else can make you feel more patriotic than being in Washington D.C on Independence Day!  We didn't try to hit any of the museums or such because of the crowds so we just spent the day walking around and viewing all the monuments and site seeing.  We were told the crowds were going to be horrible but it really wasn't too bad at all! The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  Sunny and high around 78 degrees!  We were able to catch the parade beforehand and then walked around until around 6 and then staked out our spots at the base of the Lincoln Memorial facing the reflecting pool to watch the fireworks...once in a lifetime experience! We also hit a local 4th of July event here in Fredericksburg the prior weekend which the kids enjoyed but it sure was a weird mix of people :/  Train exhibit at the Spotsylvania Stars and Stripes festival ...

For this assignment we took company housing which means they find us the apartment, have furniture delivered and pay all utilities.  Sweet, right?  The risk that comes along with that is you really don't know what you're going to end up with. In general from what I've heard from other people the apartments are usually pretty nice and they always err on the side of safety vs. location to the hospital.  The company was willing to accommodate our need for a second bedroom (we just had to pay a small fee) and then they set us up with two twin beds vs. a queen bed so the kids didn't have to share a bed.  The one thing I thought I would miss was all the pictures we always had hung up so we bought a large digital frame and downloaded all our pics onto it and keep it on during the day.  The kids love sitting and watching it. We were very surprised at how nice the apartment and the facility ended up being!  The complex has several playgrounds, walking trails an...

Once we made the decision to enter the world of travel nursing and take that leap it has been just a whirlwind of activity, nervousness, stress, excitement, happiness, etc, etc. Moving out of our house and trying to figure out what to pack, what to sell, what goes in storage, what goes with us went WAAAAY smoother than I ever thought it would and I think it's because we started so early.  We started selling much of our large furniture months ago and going through stuff and downsizing.  When we started selling our dressers, beds, couches, TV, etc there was definitely quite a few moments of panic and "are we doing the right thing" feelings.  When those feelings would subside it was amazing to me to see how we were able to have a fully functioning house with 80% of our belongings sold.  We as Americans live with alot of STUFF that we would swear is a necessity but really it isn't.  It has been incredibly freeing to downsize like this and get down to the basics. ...