April 2012

Both Bill and I had a lot of different events going on over the past month. While Bill was wrapped up with work, I decided that it was a good time to get away from Yuma for a little while and go visit some family back in NY over the Easter holiday. 

Whenever I go home, it always seems that there is a ton going on! This time around, my brother, Shod, had finally come home from Japan. He had been stationed in Yokuska for the past three years and is finally in the process of making a duty change -- to Hawaii, which must be nice!! He should definitely be expecting some visitors sometime in the future! He will also be deploying for the next several months prior to actually settling in to Hawaii, so it was nice that he was able to make some time to visit NY during this process and spend some time with all of us. He was also able to bring his family along for the ride, which meant that I got to spend some time with my little nephew! 

As I mentioned before, there always seems to be a ton going on whenever I make it home as my mom sure does a good job of planning things and keeping us all busy! (It is rare when all of us siblings are home at the same time) One of the highlights from my trip included an Easter Egg Hunt for all of the kids in the neighborhood. This was too cute to watch, here are some of the photos from this event:

Silas scoping out the field

He thought that you were supposed to throw the eggs....

The Neighborhood

Getting the hang of it

He figured out there was chocolate in those eggs!!

This led to stealing other's eggs......

Making friends and sharing.....

Following the Easter Egg hunt, we have a very lively and fun group of neighbors, so we spent the rest of the night eating pizza and playing dice. I actually won one of these rounds, which never happens!

Also during the time that I was home, my parents hosted a Welcome Home party for Shod, his wife, Irish, and their son, Silas. This was special because this was Irish's and Silas' first time to the United States so we got to introduce them to the rest of our extended family. This event also allowed for me to catch up with family members and some old friends from high school that I haven't seen in years. My parents had this catered by one of the local restaurants in town and there seemed to be an excellent turnout!

My Aunt Tracy, Kari, Me, and Stef

Kari and I --Looking forward to Kari's visit to AZ next month!

My brothers and I with our Aunt Colleen!

He loved the balloons...

The following day happened to be Easter, so we spent more time with family as we hosted Easter Dinner at our home. Easter day happened to be beautiful in upstate NY this year, which allowed us to spend some time outside. However, it never fails when all of us cousins get together, we always have to get a good game of something in! This year it happened to be Apples to Apples...love that game!

We are getting too big for our living room these days...

The Cousins

After a couple days full of Easter egg hunts, welcome home parties, and the actually holiday itself, my time at home went by rather quickly. On my last day home, we took Silas to the playground where I got to spend just a little bit more time with him before having to say good-bye:)

Helping him go down the smaller slide after I prematurely
sent him down the big slide moments before. He recovered well. haha.

Loving the big kid swing!

"Zip-lining"

Silas being funny

Shod, Silas, and Irish

I really enjoyed my time home and which makes me wish I lived closer! Living out West has been a fantastic experience, but it sure doesn't allow for many visits home during the year. I look forward to the next trip out whenever that may be!! 

During the time that I was in NY, Bill was hard at work back in Yuma. Again, he has been in the midst of the Spring WTI course and was involved in some planned missions. I try to keep everything straight as to what he tells me he is doing, but I am sure I get it all mixed up! However, from what I understand, they had planned practice missions with the Canadian military where they practiced "assaulting a village" at one point. There is a com cam that takes some photos during some of these exercises and Bill made some of them! 

Bill is in the back with his head down.

Bill is the guy pointing...

Loading up the Huey

I am happy to announce that this is the last weekend of WTI!! I felt that this class went by rather quickly, but I am relieved that Bill will have his two day weekends back starting next weekend! He has had to work almost every day with the exception of Sundays since WTI started weeks ago. I won't know what to do with him when he's around for more than a day!! ;)

Despite our opposite schedules this past month, we did get a chance to fit in my late birthday surprise. My birthday was actually last month, but Bill had planned something special that ended up getting cancelled on my actual birthday due to high winds. However, we made up for it this month and Bill took me on a hot air balloon ride. I have to admit this is the most unique birthday gift I have ever received and we both enjoyed the experience! It was definitely a different perspective as the ride was super quite and calm. It was amazing how much you could hear while up in the air. The balloon had just about every dog in Yuma going nuts beneath us as the balloon operator explained that the noise from the fire bothered them. We floated over the city of Yuma, over the MCAS base, and landed in a field. They ended the ride with the traditional champagne and balloonist's prayer:

May the winds welcome you with softness.  

May the sun bless you with its warm hands.

May you fly so high and so well that God joins you in laughter,

and sets you gently back into the loving arms of Mother Earth.

Here are some photos from our balloon ride:

Setting up

A little dark, but we were inside the balloon.

In the air

Up, Up, and Away.....

Shadow on the trees....

As always, this month went by in a flash and we continue to move forward in the year looking forward to more adventure and visits with friends and family!