Family

After Wyoming, we headed to Colorado Springs. It was a quick morning drive. Fortunately we had a home to stay in with my cousin Ben and his wife Erin and their two kids Ty and Cole. I am so glad they were willing to put up with our explosion of stuff. We desperately needed to do laundry after camping in Yellowstone, and the car was a mess.

While there we toured nothing! And it was great. We let the boys play. Ty is 7, and was mostly uninterested in the little ones; but Cole is 3 and fit in great with my two. There is a 6 year difference in age between Ben and I which seemed large as kids, but now doesn't seem so insurmountable. It was wonderful to visit with them.

Wyoming

I have a list of states I can sleep through. It includes: the Dakotas, Montana (eastern), Iowa, Kansas, and now Wyoming. With the exception of Yellowstone, this state is a desolate dessert located over 1 mile above sea level. We drove for hours and saw nothing but antelope. When the boys wanted to put in a movie, I couldn't object, becasue there was nothing for them to see.

However, there was one highlight. We got to see Tammy and the kids. Tammy watched Anthony for the first 18M while I worked. It was always such a relief to have him be with someone who loved him as her own. He was totally babied at her house. She is the reason I could work and feel so comfortable about it.

We took all the kids swimming at the hotel pool. Rob had his underwater housing for his camera so here are the pics.

Gavin

Barrett

Me with the boys

Alanna

Gabe and Anthony jumping on the bed

Anthony's Yellowstone

I always love to see Anthony's perspective when we are traveling. Here are a few pics he took while we were in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone

For the vacation part of our PCS, we camped in Yellowstone. I know many of you are thinking, "Heather camping...really." But we had a great time. The boys had a blast. They spent the days running around and climbing hills. We cooked on a fire which they collected sticks for. We even roasted marshmallows for smores. I must admit that there are things we will do differently for camping the next time, but we all had a great time.

Yellowstone was a photographers dream. I saw a ton of buffalo. They were so close to the car on the way out that you could touch them...don't worry, we didn't. We saw Old Faithful as well. There were also elk, a coyote (which the kids still think is a fox), and a bunch of hot springs. And I can't even describe the landscapes.

Below are the pictures.

Did you know?

A Toyota 4Runner gas tank holds exactly 18.5 gallons? Did you know that if you are towing a trailer, you cannot make it from Missoula to Bozeman on one tank? We didn't, but now we do!

It is the journey...

not the destination. Today is the day we leave for KS. Washington is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever lived (remember, I lived in Hawaii and Alaska too). Best of all, this is the first place I could see raising my family. The schools are good, they work to take care of the environment, and the weather is mostly temperate. I hate to leave the friends we made and the life we created...but in the Army, all is temporary.

We have been talking with the boys about KS for months now and they can hardly wait. In the past week, we saw:
- mover pack our stuff (and give us boxes to play in)
- the mustangs get loaded on a car carrier
- friends who just came for one last minute

The boys were troopers through it all. Their resiliance amazes me.

Along the journey, we will see friends in Bozeman MT (Gen and Paul), Yellowstone, friends in Cheyenne (Tammy and kids), family in C Springs (Ben and Erin), and friends in Manhattan KS (Hobe and Amanda). I think we are really lucky to be able to take this trip and get the gov't to pay for most of it. When I think of all the crummy parts of the military, I try to remember these moments where we are getting far more than we deserve.

We were scheduled to leave at 0700...when we finally pulled out at 1630, oh well. No plan ever survives first contact. More from the road to include pictures.

Moving Days

The boys have been great about moving. They spent the last 3 days watching all of our stuff get packed. They even got to watch the cars get loaded onto a car carrier...just like Mac.

Rob's Adventurous Day

Today started out great. Rob and I got up at the crack of dawn and packed for 1.5 hours until the kids woke up. We had breakfast and went right back to it. By 10am we had already packed for about 3 hours and gotten a shower.

We went to the park for Anthony's early B-day party with friends (I'll put that post up next with pictures). The kids had hot dogs, cake, and a piniata. Anthony got a ton of cool gifts and cards .

After we came home and started back to sorting and packing. Rob began disassembling shelves. Seems easy enough right? Rob has the uncanny ability to make even simple jobs look difficult. As he was pulling up on one of the shelf legs, it came up and hit him on the bottom of the chin. With enough force to send him to the hospital for stiches. 4 hours later he is home again. Ugh!

Anthony's Early Birthday

Because Anthony's Birthday falls the weekend after he starts his new school in Kansas, we decided to throw him a party in Jun with his school friends. We even had a pinata that looked like a shark. Yes, we let 3 and 4 year olds swing a bat with other people in near proximity. He had a great time! My neighbors even remembered to bring Gabe a little gift so he wouldn't feel left out.

And yes, I am in a sweatshirt in mid-jun during the middle of the day. Washington is great!

Math is hard!

I am in financial accounting right now. And adding and subtracting is really tough. Now I know why our banking system is so F&%**$ Up!

Technology stinks

Ok, not really. I actually like technology. It is the inability to use it that makes me want to scream.

So it begins...I want an iPhone. Yes, I know, even with all of Apple's proprietary stuff, I still want one. I have an iPod touch and love it. Now I want the phone that will do everything but the dishes (and there may be an app for that).

Rob finally relented and got me one. Well, it isn't here, but he also got himself a new phone so that it will do more than "just call people," which is by the way all he wanted before I started talking about an iPhone. His phone did arrive, and he just couldn't wait. So he activated it. As a result, I lost service. To be honest, I felt this would happen. There were just too many moving parts for it to all go well...and that is about par for the week to have it all go wrong.

After it went wrong, it took Rob 4 hours of phone calls to get my number back and on the Verizon net so I wouldn't be without service. While I applaud his efforts, I do want to scream at the amount of time it took.

Last Adventures

Simone and I took the boys to Lattin's Cider Mill. Simone is one of the first people I met in MOMS Club, and we have really built a nice friendship. Her olderst, Alex, is a year older than Anthony, and her youngest is Gabe's age. It was a really nice, comfortable fit for us all.

We went to Lattin's to feed the animals and just hang out one last time. Here are a few pics of the boys. There are no pics of Anthony feeding the animals because he chooses to toss the food from about 4 feet back.

Anthony's School Graduation

Anthony had his school program and graduation today. The class did a cute little program to show all the things they learned. At the end, Teacher Cindy presented them each with a book of their work through out the year. Below are some videos. The first is him saying The Lord's Prayer. The second is a song he love to sing called the butterfly song. This is the chorus, "He gave me a heart, and He gave me a smile, He gave me Jesus and He made me a child. But I just thank you Lord for making me, me."

Here he is receiving his diploma :-)

Vancouver posts

Ok family, I am trying to get them all done. I have 2 done and 5 to go. scroll down to find them.

Stop interupting me!

This weekend was my Aunt Penny's funeral. The turnout was spectacular. How wonderful to see all the people she touched from such a wide array of life. But it was also painful beyond words. As I have said before, my mom and her sisters are inseparable. Watching them all deal with the grief made me want to scream out, "This just isn't fair! She didn't deserve this...none of them do!" My mom gave one of the eulogies and did a great job. I am always so impressed when she decides to use the courage I know she has. I cannot imagine the pain that is in her heart.

But with every dark cloud there is a silver lining and this one had three.

First, all of my cousins were there. It was wonderful to catch up with them. We don't stay in touch as much as we should, so this was nice.

Second, there was a wonderful lesson in family. When I looked at the family row, I had to smile. Her son Aaron was sitting with his ex-wife's daughter from a new marriage on his lap (she calls him daddy Aaron). There were parents of in-laws in the row. Aunts, uncles, cousins twice removed. What a testament to our family...it is not about blood, it is about love and inclusion. The best part was not one of us would have that someone in that row wasn't family!

And third, as I was listening to one of the men she worked with give a eulogy, he said something that made me re-evaluate my role. He was relating the story of a junior pastor who complained that he would be able to do his job better if people would just stop interrupting him. The response of the senior pastor was, "you're job is the interruptions."

How many times do I treat my children as an interruption to what I am doing...the dishes, dinner, working on school work, talking with friends? Probably more than i would care to admit. My pledge today is to try and give my children more undivided attention. I will still need to do other things (after all, an important lesson in life is also that it doesn't revolve around you), but i will work to give them the time to not be an interruption. I will try not to silently scream when they come running up to me just as I sit down to do something for me. This time is passing too quickly with them...one day they will not want me to hug and kiss them, especially in public. There will be fewer shouts of, "I love you," from the top of the stairs or over the baby gates. I do truly love these moments, and will try to not let them slip away unnoticed.

Now I must go wake my little interruptions from their peaceful slumber :-)

Today is Brought to you by G, A, and C

G...is for Grrr and Gabe. At 5 this morning (as the sun was rising in Washington), I found Gabe crying and wandering around downstairs looking for everyone. It took 10 min to convince him that everything was OK and we were all just sleeping. GRRRR

A...is for AAAAHHHH and Anthony. At 5:30, Anthony woke up with a bloody nose. He was much more malleable and went right back to sleep after I got him a Kleenex and stopped the bleeding. Then I looked at his wall. He had wiped his bloody little fingers on it about 10x. AAAHHHH.

C...is for Coffee which I am pouring right now because it will just be one of those days.