Boise Day 4, Part 2: the awakening

After playing his new game on the waterbed, Coryn decided he wanted pretty toes like mom, Kiki obliged.

Bronco Toes! I told Kiki she needed to learn to make the toes look like the smurf turf then people would ask for it.
Everyone needs a phone...
Carter rolled around on the floor for a bit sans diaper, he seemed to enjoy it, I knew Grandie was a fan of the diaper freedom.

Toes just weren't enough, he had to have pretty fingers too, chose orange, but within five minutes had it taken off. It probably felt weird to him. Here Kiki has him posing in a 'Fabulous' look.

Boise Day 4

Went to church with Grandie and Gpop, then Carter had his first experience with newspaper. Blackened hands!
Coryn played tackle with himself... it started out with Gpop, but then Coryn would throw the ball or catch it with Gpop and then spin around and throw himself on the floor... he had fun.
Tuckered Carter, looks so fat from this angle.
Tuckered Coryn sleeping on the waterbed. When he woke up he played a new game 'bujyaah' with Gpop, now all he wants to do is get thrown or freefall onto the waterbed.

Boise Day 3

Reaquainting with old friends, and playing princess dress up... hehe, blackmail!
Then a visit to Grandie's house, making faces while watching olympic synchronized swimming on the new tv... yes its sitting on the dining table, we got to eat dinner picnic style.

Aww, pretty Bindy, she's so big now.

Coryn: "is she good? or is she bad"

Grandie: "only Fat Louis is bad, Bindy is good"

Boise Break 1.0!

Day 1, roll on floor (recovery). Did you think I crawled through the stool? no..... just managed to roll my legs under it. Now I'm smiling at Grandma!

Day 2, Fair! Having a blast at the first fair which I can go on rides at! Went on a train ride, through a fun house (kind with moving stairs, made me carry him out), kangaroo 'cars', and cars. Mmm, gyro, felt too guilty about my diet of late to get loaded fries :(. Went through the Expo and the petting zoo ('its kind of a little goat').
Grandma has baby duty, nothing like a water bottle for entertainment.
We finished off the day with a ride on the ferris wheel, nothing says 'lets calm down before bedtime ' like an hour wait in line followed by a lengthy walk back to the car in a stroller. Both fell asleep on the ride then thought it was their naptime and stayed up til midnight. Jetlag!

Who me? Surely you mean this guy... Grandpa's beard making yet another baby wary.

Testimony

With bits of Toy Story and podium talks, Coryn wants to be a public speaker.

Cute Stuff

Wearing sunglasses just like Dad (yep, thats the trait he's taken up (along with Bronco gear) since Dad left.
Aww, isn't he cute Kiki?
This one is more along the ugly stuff lines... tried to walk down a rock imbedded cement drainage and face/leg planted.
Brimming with excitement.
Expressing said excitement. (picture arms pumping, legs jumping, little squeal exuding, and yes he's holding two toys and his pacifier)

Play Nice

sometimes they play nice!

Boys and Toys

We went on a tour to the 10,000 Eisa performance on Kokusai Street (main tourist shopping district) and the boys dressed up for the occasion. Here Coryn is dancing along. Technically they match with the same print on different color fabrics... 'I pinch'!
Carter is enjoying it too, and in the back you can see one of the groups getting ready to perform.
Carter sits by himself now, at least for brief periods of time, sometimes for 15 minutes. He also really enjoys chewing on things, no signs of teeth yet, but he's behaving about like Coryn did concerning the teeth.
Coryn really likes playing Rock Band, although he doesn't actually participate in the game he likes to think he does.
Speaking of chewing... he really loves socks. mmm...

Sweet Freedom

Well I actually had this weekend off which will probably the last time I have any time off to speak of until I get my four day pass in early October before I actually head over to theater. Since Ft. Bragg is the "Home of the Airborne" there are a lot of parachute riggers employed here and I have a friend from Boise State who commissioned at the same time that I did who is stationed here as a rigger. I called him up Thursday afternoon to see what he was up to and he and his wife invited me to stay at their house over the weekend so i would get off post and relax a little. It was great to be able to get out of the barracks and not have to deal with anything for a few days. Here are Brad and Melanie, the ones that took this poor vagabond in at Joe's Crab Shack where we ate dinner Saturday night.





I was also able to catch up with Boise State Alum Nick Allex who was a year behind Brad and I and just returned from Iraq.




After dinner we went to the movies and saw The Dark Knight which is hands down the best movie I have seen in a VERY long time. What was even more surprising is that it is a film with a good conservative feeling to it, actually depicting the idea of heroism and sacrifice without making fun of them as old fashioned ideals from a bygone era. Heath Ledger deserves all the critical acclaim that he is receiving for his portrayal of the Joker. his death was a tragic accident but I believe that this will be the defining role of his career. A feel pretty confident that he will win and Oscar for this performance and rightly so.

Brad also took me to the Airborne & Special Operations museum in Fayetteville. Apparently it is "Airborne Week" so there were a lot of WWII re-enactors there answering questions and showing off equipment from the era. I was impressed with the museum. Outside of the re-enactors there were a lot of life size exhibits.

This is the delivering of the infamous "Nuts!" reply to the German request that the surrounded Americans surrender during the Battle of the Bulge.

Air Cavalry soldiers dismounting in Vietnam

Delta Force getting ready to make their rescue of Kurt Muse during Operation Acid Gambit, part of Operation Just Cause in Panama

Oh, and here is another reason it was nice to get off post for the weekend... to get away from the equipment they've given us such as this high speed front loading dryer... for the record my clothes were in the one on the left NOT the one in the center!

Gearing Up

Well, I have now been at Ft Bragg, NC for just over two weeks… though it feels much longer. I am training up to be a part of a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Afghanistan. This is a fairly new concept. I believe that I will be the fourth iteration of a PRT and is really what the Afghans thought the international community would do when they kicked out the Soviets in 1989. We are going in and rebuilding the infrastructure of the country. I will be in the Paktia (or Paktya, depending where you look) province based out of the city of Gardez.

Currently I am living in World War II era barracks that they are in the process of knocking down. Here is what some of the surrounding billets look like. At least they sunk some money in the ones we are actually in and installed window AC units. I’ve been in these types before with just a fan at just one end of the room and that is REALLY not fun.

I am in the “death by PowerPoint” phase of training. Just going through a lot of briefs about the insurgency, the country, its culture and history, about the other governmental and non-governmental agencies we will be working with. Some of it is interesting, some of it is very dry, all of it is hard to stay awake through since they are given to us in 8 hour blocks… every day for about the last six days.

I don’t have very reliable internet access right now so this will be kind of short but I just wanted to share a bit of what I have found out about the PRT. Instead of being gone for 15 months as I was originally told it will actually be 12. 3 months of training and 9 months in country. The Himalayans are going to be in my backyard. Gardez is at 7,500 feet so the air will be thin and when I get there at the end of October it will be cold. The heist peaks I will be able to see are around 21,000 feet. I can expect -20 degrees in the dead of winter. Also, FYI the mission of the PRT as I said is to manage reconstruction projects in the province. We play the “good caps.” We will not be kicking in doors, actively hunting the bad guys. That will be left to the maneuver unit in the area with the 101st Airborne Division. Since I will still fall under them, my combat patch will be the “Screaming Eagle.”

(Above is a Hollywood depiction of E Co, 501st PIR, 101st Airborne Division on 6 June 1944 after jumping into France the night before. The real beginning of the legacy of the 101st Airborne Division)

Wackos Behind the Wheel 7

This just goes to show you that the police aren't above bonehead driving either. Maybe next time they'll pay attention to those "Road Closed" signs and take the time to find an alternate route!

dancing to nightly neighborhood eisa

playing some football

Still Here

He begs me to clean the kitchen... sometimes he actually gets to.
Floor fun, they like to play together.
Coloring himself, he made sure to do eyes, smile, pants, belly, shirt, and sprinkle toes. I'm not sure if sprinkle toes are wrinkley or painted with polish.
Smiley is what they call him, or kawai! (cute) also Gerber baby.

Ah the beautiful ocean.