I'm Home!

Well, after flying from Gardez, Afghanistan to Bagram, Afghanistan to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to Adonna, Turkey to Rammstein, Germany to Baltimore, MD to Charlotte, NC to Fayetteville, NC back to Charlotte, NC, to Denver, CO and finally arriving yesterday in good ole Boise, ID (in about two weeks I get to continue flying going from Boise, ID to San Francisco, CA to Tokyo, Japan to Naha, Okianwa... but for now I am enjoying being out of an air plane).

It's really good to be back. I'm hearing about many fun things that former members of my team are doing as they too seem to be enjoying their return to freedom. I am personally enjoying wearing civilian clothing and not shaving every day. Ah, it's the little things that you come to really appreciate. I'm sure I will be posting more in the coming weeks and months about my time down range, but for now, I'm just going to think about the sandwich I'm going to get for lunch tomorrow at the Brick Oven Bistro!

Odds and Ends

thats right, I can take a good sunset pic every now and then! (Toguchi beach)

excuse me? can I sit there?

dancing with guns?

latest evolution in Coryn's people art... arms and legs and whats that up there? "eyebrows" where did he learn that? "preschool" (I'm purple, Jackson and Coryn are red, Carter is black with "tiny legs")

the new rage in women's summer socks... not fancy hose mind you, socks... they're kind of fanatical about their socks here, you can find toe, yukata, kimono, sandal, summer sandal, ankle strap (as above), toe ankle strap, high heel cushioned ankle strap, high heel cushioned slipper style, and many many other socks. not to mention high heel cushions with an elastic band that has a doodad attached to hide where it hooks onto your toe. amazing!

At the Park

Peek-A-Boo! (Carter)

Not so afraid of the swing, but don't try to push him...

a little help from my friend.

"I'm going to practice my scooter so I can be good at it and then I'll get a skateboard" *gasp with o face*


rooaaaaaar! or... "I'm going to lick you through the floor!"

Baseball... sort of

Go Bumblebees! (not the insect, the transformer (Coryn far left))

He did have some fun...

He liked to hit the ball, and I must say, he's better at it without the tee.

walking calmly to 1st base "thats my spot", and yes, later when he visited the base for a third time that particular hit he cried that someone else was on it.
Carter likes to hit too! (he's better than some of those kids at the tee) :)

Say What?

It is a truck...

send it... me

in the Jr high clothes? maybe even elementary sized... not sure


These last two are not for the faint of stomachs...

signs at the children's zoo
tigers

what? no... surely not

4th of July

Ok, ok, we went back to AmerciaFest! I wasn't going to, but the weather was so great, I don't know, it just kind of happened. This time the kids got to play on the firetrucks.

What do you think? Jealous? Or is he just admiring the kid's shoes? no really, take a close look... they're cars!

Coryn got to play on some more planes, his favorite was "the one with the dead man" meaning, the one that had a stretcher display complete with dummy.

Of course the kids got to ride the rides again, though they still didn't get to go on the trampoline thingies in the back... line was soooo long and Coryn a bit impatient.

and of course, fireworks. nice ones too!

Water Fight

It started out innocently enough... hot outside + water gun = water fight...
they even shared! (Carter makes shooting sounds now)
but then, Carter decided that sharing was for losers...
so Coryn 'took' his turn. (if you think this is sad you should see the whole sequence!)

of course, Mother prevailed and restored order to sharing along with throwing buckets of 'gun-filler' water on both of them!

AmericaFest (p2)

There were a few kiddie rides to go on, Coryn liked this one best, said he was an astronaut in space, the lever you see him holding was for the kids to decide if they were up or down or going up and down.

Carter on the swings, I think it was a bit boring for him...

on the other hand, Coryn looks afraid... he said he didn't want his boots to fall off.
and here's the train.

Coryn's wearing handcuffs from a policeman kit he won playing one of the games. the got lots of cheapy prizes because there wasn't a whole lot to do there, but they did enjoy themselves in spite of the rain, and we got to hear some good music and see some cool planes.

when Coryn got home and took off his wet clothes he said "I have a squeaky butt"

AmericaFest (p1)

so it rained... I mean, it monsooned for about 20-30 minutes just as we were arriving. this is a shot from us in the hanger we reached after that first 20 minute time period during which we were trapped under the baggage check tent, which didn't do us much good since the wind blew the rain under as well... you know, the kind of downpour where about two minutes into it the fields are swamps and the gutters are rivers... our torsos stayed somewhat dry thanks to the raincoats, but everything else was drenched.

The kids got to get in a variety of the showcased planes, this is the AF equivalence of a blackhawk...

this is a bigger one, the kind that they move troops around in. Coryn tells me he wants to be a pilot.
look at the huge crowd! no seriously, at this point in the day I think this is the entire group of people that braved the onslaught of rain and was still at the festivus when Melinda Doolittle of American Idol fame performed.

the crowd tripled at least by the time Gary Senise and the Lt. Dan Band... they're pretty dang good too! We didn't stay too long after they started, it was late, getting dark and cold, and the kids were tired.

Preschool

first day of preschool!

Its a montessori type school called Santa Monica International and they have a branch in Florida. They are good too, not just a glorified preschool they have classes, teach languages, karate (ballet and yoga too), letters and numbers, and a variety of other programs.

I think Carter is enjoying it too, he gets one on one time with me and I'm a little less crazy I think...

here's the kids getting back from a field trip (which happened to be the second day of school for Coryn)
He was really tired... it was at the aquarium, an hour at least bus ride and lots of walking on a hot hot day, I'd be tired too :)

Torii Beach

This sums up the day... Coryn having fun, Carter slipping every two minutes.

When he wasn't slipping, he did have a bit of fun, he tried to steer clear of the water area though, just getting wet enough to keep from dying from the heat.
Coryn learned to have fun in a sprinkler setting, he has never liked getting sprayed with water, but I think he's finally getting over it. Here he found that sitting on the spray is fun.

He liked to pretend to be the lifeguard.
He also got to go down the waterslide by himself... he went twice, the second time he managed to spin around the wrong way as you can see by the orientation of his feet.
we stuck around for some dinner...

it was a beautiful day! (can you see in the back?)