R&R

Sean just headed back this week, and Aurora and I would be heading back to the states as well, but she’s got a bit of an ear infection which I’ve been told numerous times now is not a good thing to travel with when it comes to babies.  So, luckily our friends here are willing to put up with us for a bit longer, and we’re looking at heading back to Virginia in about 2 weeks when Christine will have returned from her trip to Kansas.

As far as our trip went, it was a big adventure for sure!  The day Sean arrived, he was greeted by two sick girls.  Mind you, it was 5:20 am when he arrived at the Frankfurt airport and Aurora didn’t even try to sleep up until about 1 am which means I too did not sleep.  At that point I decided I should just head for that airport, sleep at a reststop along the way by which time Aurora would have been lulled to sleep by the car.  I drove for about 20 min. when I pulled over to sleep for a couple hours.  Then I drove the rest of the 40 minutes, making it to the airport about an hour and a half before Sean’s arrival.  I can’t tell you how glad I was to see him.  Aurora did smile at him initially, although it still took a few days till she was comfortable enough to let him hold her.  By the end though, they were having a great time together.

Sean ended up taking us both in to the Army Health Clinic here (it’s been downsized), where I got some fluids in me by IV, and about a dozen drugs for both me and Aurora.  We were really glad at this point that we hadn’t made any plans to be somewhere in the next few days.  So we took it easy for a few days, visited Speyer and just stayed in the area till Aurora and I were feeling good enough to travel again.  We then began our journey through France.  We started with Normandy, visiting the American Cemetary there by the beaches, and then we headed to Bayeux to see the famous Tapestry.  While in the area, we also went to Mont Saint Michel where we had an awesome view of the sunset and had a very over priced, not so tasty meal at one of the touristy restaurants there.

Our next stop was Paris.  We visited the EIffel Tower of course and Notre Dame, had a crepe with Nutella and banana, and enjoyed some time just walking around a little.

From there we headed south to a place called Mougins (near Cannes, Nice, etc).  We had almost a week there at a time-share we were able to buy from a friend.  We were able to go to church near Cannes in a town called Le Cannet, where I had the chance to bear my testimony in French.  We also checked out Nice, Antibes, Cannes and Monte Carlo while down in the south.  Sean’s friend Mike came to visit us for a few days as well (he lives in Ireland), and he brought a cute Irish Teddy Bear for Aurora which she adores.

On our trip back north to Germany, we decided to go through Northern Italy and Switzerland (which Sean hadn’t been to before).  The drive along the Mediterranean was just beautiful and sunny and when we got to Switzerland, it was much colder, but the moutains were gorgeous as usual and with the cooler weather all the leaves were changing to their fall colors which just made it absolutely beautiful.

We then hung out in Heidelberg for Conference weekend before driving up to Koln to visit Sean’s friend Ben (who lives in Northern Germany).  I managed to go visit the chocolate factory there while Sean and his friend Ben caught up with each other.

Our next and almost final stop was Garmisch where we stayed at the Edelweiss Resort for two nights.  Sean and I both agreed we would’ve loved to have stayed longer if we had known how incredibly beautiful it was down there (and how nice the resort is).  I’ve even been to Garmisch before, but I didn’t remember it like this.  It really was breath-taking.  We stopped by Neu Schwanstein to take a look from a distance because Sean hadn’t been there before.  As we drove, I saw someone paragliding and I told Sean that I would love to do that if I had the chance.  It turned out I did.  They had this great deal through the hotel for paragliding, so I got to take the cable car up the mountain (the Alpenspitz I think it was called maybe, but it’s right next to the Zugspitze anyway) and then after getting hooked up in the harness to the instructor, we started running down the mountain side till the wind caught the canopy and we just gently glided down over the valley.  I’ve now been skydiving (tandem) once, parachuting (static line) twice and paragliding once.  I must say, the paragliding has been the best overall experience and the best $100 I can remember spending.  It was comfortable sitting in the seat, it was a slow decent (lots of time to look around), it was a beautiful location, it was inexpensive compared to skydiving because I wasn’t paying for a plane ride as well), and I didn’t get motion sick at all (but we didn’t do any loopty-loops either).

After Garmisch, we headed back to Heidelberg for our last night before Sean had to return.  Luckily, we’re far beyond the half-way mark.  In fact, we only have about 3 and a half months to go before we are able to finally live in the same house again.  I’m sure it’ll go by much faster than the first 10 months went.  :)

When I get back to the states I will update our gallery with all the photos from our trip.

Best Friend Cousins

I think Max and Aurora are both going to have a hard time adjusting when we head back to Kansas after Sean’s R&R. They had a little bit of a rough start when we first arrived and Aurora didn’t always react so well to Max’s “rough housing”, but now, they can just sit and stare at each other through a laundry basket or from behind a curtain and they think it’s the funniest thing in the world.

Aurora and I are heading out on Thursday to Germany to meet Sean. We’ll have more photos and updates after our trip. We should be back around mid-October.

I did just update our gallery with a few more photos from our time in Virginia with Christine.

Oh, and this next video is just of Aurora climbing the stairs for her first time (at Beaver Island), and walking with the baby walker at Christine and Brian’s.

The Latest

So I know it’s been a while since my last blog, so I just wanted to give a little (or maybe not so little) update about what Aurora and I have been up to.

Aurora and I hung out in Georgia for almost a month (in June), living with a couple of my friends from Monterey, Sarah and Rachel. I actually have quite a few friends stationed there currently.

Around the end of June, Aurora and I took a little trip to go visit Christine and Brian in Virginia. I’d only intended to stay for about 2 weeks, but we liked it so much that we ended up staying a month. While in Virginia, Aurora not only became an expert crawler, she also started pulling herself up to stand.

Max and Aurora got a few baths together, and we helped Christine and Brian move into their new house (well, I guess Aurora didn’t help that much, she just got to be cute.

For those of you who read Christine’s blog, you would’ve also heard about the fire that burned half of the apartment building across the parking lot from them. That was a bit scary, because we had actually been in that building visiting with Christine’s friends just about half an hour before we heard fire trucks racing in the complex to put out the fire. It does get you thinking about the most important things in your life.

Some highlights from our time in Virginia for me were spending time with Christine, having a playmate for Aurora (and a baby proofed house), the new Wii Christine and Brian bought (boxing and tennis are my two favorite games), getting hooked on the Twilight series (Christine practically read the entire first two books out loud to me), getting to shoot an AR15 (M4 equivalent - similar to an M16), starting “quiet books” to help Aurora stay happy during church, and of course making truffles.

After the month I spent in Virginia, I went back to Georgia for a few days, packed up our stuff and got ready for our next adventure which was an 11 day vacation with my in-laws (Sean’s mom, dad and sister Kelly) to Beaver Island, Michigan. It’s located off the northwest tip of Michigan (2 hour ferry ride from Charlevoix). Aurora and I flew (for her first time) from Atlanta to Chicago where we met up with the others. Aurora continues to be a great traveler. She was asleep before the plane took off (despite our 5 hour delay in the airport due to inclement weather) and was out for the first 45 minutes, and very content until we landed. (Our return trip was even easier, because she slept from before take-off to just before landing).

In Chicago, Kelly, Aurora and I shared a room at the Embassy Suites (very nice!) and we were able to visit the American Girl Store, (where Sean’s mom bought Aurora the Kirsten doll), we got to visit with one of Sean’s good friends (Matt), we were able to go to the Shedd Aquarium where we saw lots of amazing animals (including a Komodo Dragon), and we watched the dolphin show from under the water.

We then drove about 7 hours north to Charlevoix where we stayed the night and took the morning ferry to Beaver Island. We stayed in a beautiful cottage right on the northwestern tip of the island, which gave us a great view of the sunset every night and was the perfect place to just relax. We went swimming, kayaking, star gazing, and Kelly and Mom did a lot of heart-shaped rock hunting. Aurora also climbed her first set of stairs.

I learned that Beaver Island was where a group of Mormon dissenters settled down after a guy named James Strang decided he should’ve been prophet after Joseph Smith. He was power-hungry and was even crowned king by his followers (which at one point totaled about 12,000!), but eventually some of them became disenchanted with him and two of his former followers shot him to death.

After our wonderful vacation on Beaver Island, Aurora and I returned to Georgia, said goodbye to our friends there and returned to Virginia, where we’re staying with Brian and Christine again until we head out to Europe to meet up with Sean for his R&R.

Don’t forget to check out our gallery to see the rest of the photos from our fun and adventure! I’ve updated the end of June, July and August so feel free to check any or all of them out.

Aurora’s New Expression

I was feeding Aurora the other day and she just started making this funny expression.  Luckily she kept performing when I pulled out the camera.

First Tooth Coming In and other fun stuff

I don’t know exactly what else to write about on this one besides the title.  Aurora is 7 1/2 months old and I just felt a tooth coming through her gums for the first time yesterday.  I noticed it when she went to suck on my arm and there was something kinda sharp in there.  I think it’s her lower right front tooth.  I can’t believe she’s growing so fast!  Luckily she hasn’t been abnormally fussy or anything up to this point.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed that all of her teeth come through with so little pain, or at least that she’ll keep being a tough little cookie.

I am going to be posting some more pictures to our gallery for June.  They will be in the album 14 - 21 June. There is even a picture in there of Aurora wearing the first part of a hat I am sewing to go with a sun dress for her.  I’m being tutored by my friend Ricki (the one who gave me her sewing machine because she bought a new one).  She’s being very patient to walk me through each step of the process.  I feel like I’m painfully slow at it because I’m so afraid of screwing it up beyond repair.  I think I need to just relax and try to enjoy it more, or I’ll for sure never get more into sewing!  At least if I start with little things for Aurora while she’s small, she can’t complain about the sewing job.  :)

Oh, so today after church my ex-fiance’s wife (her name is April Mitchell) invited me over to their house for a pancake dinner with the missionaries.  I actually had a really great time and it was the first time Tyler and I really interacted since our first shocking encounter at church.  It was really nice because after the missionaries left we were all finally able to actually talk about the bit of awkwardness initially and we all seem to get along really well, so I think things will really feel totally normal now.  Oh, and the missionaries were inspired to teach us a lesson that I had actually read just this morning, hoping to give as an FHE lesson with Shana and whoever else will be here, so I’ve invited the missionaries to join us for that and my roommate and friend Sarah will be here and she’s brining her friend Phil (from the mud run) and my friend Ricki is coming too.  So we’re just having a big get-together tomorrow.  It’ll be fun I think.  I’m making taco salad for dinner and Shana is bringing the refreshments and the elders have the lesson.  It’s perfect!  I’m so excited about this.

On a different note, I’m putting together a slideshow for some of my friends from the Army when we were out at DLI together, and I’m trying to find a good friendship song.  If anyone has any suggestions, I’m open to them all.  Thanks

Basic Training Slideshow

I just put together this slideshow from Basic Training at Ft. Leonardwood, MO in 2005. There are some awesome (meaning ridiculously funny) photos of me in it, and just a lot of photos of people going through the training we went through. Enjoy!

Video of Aurora Eating

Marine Mud Challenge

I was able to convince my roommate Sarah to run with me in the Marine Mud Challenge which is a 4.5 mile race with 17 different obstacles and of course MUD!   You’re supposed to do it in teams of 4 people, but Sarah could only convince one of her friends to run it with us (Phil is his name), so we ran it as a team of 3.  It was a blast.  Rachel was nice enough to watch Aurora for me so I could run in it.  We got to high crawl through mud, crawl over and under logs in a pit of muddy water up to our chests, low crawl through sand, climb over multiple barriers and tall walls, and basically just have a good, fun, muddy time.  I had a great time!  I’ve uploaded the photos to the gallery. I also added a few more photos to the May album.

It’s a Small, Small World!

Aurora and I have made it safely to Georgia, and for anyone who hasn’t heard yet, I happen to be in the ward where not only my ex-fiance, his wife and two kids attend, but his (Tyler’s) two brothers and their families as well all are in this same ward I’m attending too. In fact, his brother is in the bishopric, one of his siter-in-laws is in the Relief Society Presidency (I believe), and his other sister-in-law is in charge of ward activities I think. I went swimming at their place (the three brothers live super close together) this Thursday and we had a good time with only one or two slightly awkward moments (when I didn’t recognize his sister-in-law who “knew me”, and when a girl I introduced myself to said she had “heard about me”. I was too afraid to ask what exactly she had heard. I did introduce myself to Tyler’s wife last Sunday and we’ve actually interacted multiple times since last Sunday (at baby time last Tuesday, and at swim time on Thursday in her back yard). She (April) is super sweet and doesn’t make it seem awkward at all - which I very much appreciate. I’m sure things will continue feeling more and more normal the longer I’m here and the more I interact with not only her, but the other in-laws as well. It would probably be a little easier if Sean was around, but I guess that’s life.

The other connection I made this week at church was that the Bishop of this ward was introduced to the church by Bro/Major Hoffman from the singles ward bishopric in Monterey, who also was the Assoc. Dean of the Middle East School III I attended while at DLI. Pretty cool.

In terms of military connections, I am living with two friends (Sarah Crismon who I went to basic training with and who was in the Arabic class that graduated just before me, and Rachel Ulmer who is in the Navy and studied Arabic and Pashtu back-to-back at DLI). They are both super awesome people and fortunately for me like kids as well. I am also good friends with probably a dozen other people from DLI who came here, including Ricki Greenwood (she’s the one who taught me to make truffles) who just recently bought herself a new sewing machine and decided to give me her old one as well as a sewing “starter kit” with fabric, a pattern for a baby dress and pretty much everything else I’ll need to start learning to sew. (Don’t tell mom about this - I want to surprise her, since I know she doesn’t read my blog). I’m still very overwhelmed by the idea of sewing, but my roommate Rachel also sews, so between the two of them, I think I could give it a shot.

My great friend Shana Pienta from HHS is also here and lives just 15 minutes away, so we’ve hung out several times and I’m sure we’ll continue to have lots of fun times together again.  She was our photographer for the mud run.  I’ll be posting more pictures from our time here today probably.

Aurora 6 Months Movie Magic

Ok, I’ll admit it, I’m quite proud of this one.  I hope you all enjoy it!