The Wallace Expansion!

It is hard to know where to begin! Bill and I had a very eventful past month with lots of adventure and positive changes, so I will start with our most exciting news....

In case you haven't already heard, Bill and I are expecting our first child December 3rd 2012! We have just recently made the official announcement to all friends and family and are extremely grateful for all of the well wishes and support we have received! We are super excited for this new chapter in our lives and look forward to this transition as we go from a couple to a family. However, I would be lying if I said we weren't just a little scared as well ;) At this time, we have no preference for gender other than just a happy/healthy baby, but I do think it would be kind of fun to see Bill with a girl considering he grew up with all brothers! I guess, I could say the same about myself as well! We will just have to wait until July 9th (The big ultrasound appointment) to find out!!

Here is our first ultrasound at 9 weeks:

Baby Wallace

My fancy announcement ( I thought this was kind of creative if I do say so myself!! Thanks Amber for capturing the moment!!) :

Surf City, NC

As we await the arrival of Baby Wallace, Bill and I have decided that we are going to practice our parenting skills by obtaining a puppy. Haha, just kidding. We had actually been planning on getting a puppy for quite some time and since I have just recently resigned from my job, we felt that this was the perfect time as we would be able to spend the time required to make and train a good puppy. With that being said, we have gotten a Golden Doodle, which is a mix between a Golden Retriever and Poodle. We saw one of these on the beach a couple of years ago and ever since have been waiting for the right time to get one. Therefore, we introduce to you; Mr. Boortz Wallace also known as "Bo" for short. Bill picked out this name after one of his favorite radio talk show hosts Neal Boortz. 

Boortz

He loves to play!

He also loves to sleep on his back!! (WEIRD)

Prior to getting Boortz,  as mentioned above, I did resign from my job at the beginning of May. It was a very difficult decision as I really enjoyed my position as a Rehabilitation Counselor with the State of Arizona. However, Bill and I decided that at this time in our lives, it would be best if I stopped working. This will allow a lot more flexibility in both of our lives as Bill often travels. Not to mention, this will allow us to have some quality time together before Baby Wallace arrives and for me to take good care of Boortz. With that being said, shortly after I resigned, Bill had assigned fleet support in NC and a work conference up in Washington DC, which I got to accompany him to, which was nice for a change!

During the time that Bill was doing his portion of fleet support up in Jacksonville, I took this time to revisit my old stomping grounds. I can't tell you how great it felt to be back in NC (I sure have missed that place!!), back at the beach, and in the company of good friends! My friend, Amber, graciously hosted me for three days and during this time we hit up her community pool, downtown Wilmington, the beach, and did plenty of walking!! It was great to visit with Amber and it makes me grateful to have a friend that I can pick up with right where we left off no matter how far away I am or how long I have been gone! Thanks again for having me!!:) Here are some of my favorite photos from our visit!! 

Pool Day!!!

Downtown Wilmington for some Front Street Brewery

Amber, Theresa, and I at the beach! 

Following my visit with Amber and Bill's completion of his work duties, Bill and I drove up to Washington, DC for what was called the OAG Conference. Basically, this conference was held to commemorate 100 years of Marine Aviation. There were several active duty military and retirees attending this event. During the week, this conference was like any other with Bill attending classes during the day. Fortunately, another Huey pilot that was attending from MAWTS brought his girlfriend, Kari, so she and I got to explore DC together.

We visited the White House:

Kari and I

The Lincoln Memorial:

The Korean War Memorial:

And many many others!!!....

Even though the guys were busy during the day with their classes, they were given some time off to explore the city with Kari and I as well. Also, there were special events held in the evening such as the Sunset Parade. This event was held at the Marine Corps Memorial and was a beautiful performance as they had the band and Silent Drill Team participate. 

Sunset Parade Performance

Bill and I

Another event that was held in addition to the classes was the Gala. The Gala was again held to commemorate 100 years of Aviation in the Marine Corps. This was a pretty fancy event and a lot of important people were there so-to-speak. In addition, the ceremony included all of the Marine Corps Traditions, a concert by the band, reflection of the past 100 years of aviation, guest speakers, and an awards ceremony. It was neat to be part of such a profound event!

Though it was great to be back on the East Coast for a short while, I was excited to get back to Arizona as my cousin, Kari, and her boyfriend, Aaron, were planning on making a visit out to Yuma to see us! They came over Memorial Day weekend and we sure did pack a lot into their visit! For instance, we took them to tour the Yuma Territorial Prison (you can't come to Yuma and NOT see it, come on now!). We also spent a lot of time pool side as the weather was perfect (it was actually under 100 degrees for the most part). Last but not least, we also did quite a bit of hiking! We took them out to Picacho Peak State Park, which overlooks the Colorado River and we also took a day trip and flew up to Sedona where we hiked the Devil's Bridge Trail and grabbed some lunch. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get too many pictures from the pool or Picacho State Park Hike, but here are some of my favorite photos from the Devil's Bridge Hike:

Aaron, Kari, Bill, and Myself

On top of Devil's Bridge

Bill and I standing in/on a vortex?? haha. 

We really enjoyed Kari and Aaron's visit and look forward to another visit with them whether it's us traveling to NY or them coming back out to AZ! Either way, we look forward to future visits with family and hope that they had just as good of a time as we did!!

As we wrapped up the month of May, we both feel grateful for the opportunities and blessings we have been given and pray that everything continues to go smoothly as we progress toward December!! We have a busy couple of months ahead of us that will keep us occupied for sure, but will continue to keep everyone updated on our progress!!

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!

                   

February/March

I have slacked these past two months, no posts and no pictures! Therefore, this will be just a very brief all encompassing overview of the past two months....

Last we left off, Bill was transitioning over to the Yankee Helicopter and spending most of the work week out in Camp Pendleton while I held down the fort and my own job here in Yuma. This progressed well into the month of February and is still in the works. This process has taken a little longer than anticipated due to some unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances, but he should get a chance to finish up his final check rides over the next few weeks since a new WTI class started as of March 11th 2012. Hard to believe, but half of the Spring class is complete and they are already moving into the last few weeks of the flight phase. Class completion will be April 29th or 30th, which will hopefully give Bill a chance to breathe since his schedule has been go-go-go since the New Year.

As mentioned above, we did experience some unfortunate events earlier in the year. The Huey shop lost a fantastic pilot, friend, and just an overall good person in the recent helicopter crash that happened in late February over the Chocolate Mountains. This was a tremendous and devastating loss to the Yuma Community, Marine Corp, his family, and to all that knew him. Although it may sound cliche, I feel that this tragic experience has definitely been a wake up call to myself and Bill in that life is short and can be taken from anyone in an instant. This has definitely made Bill and I re-examine our own values and determine what we would like to accomplish sooner rather than later in our own lifetimes. We will forever remember Nate and will continue to keep his wife and children in our prayers.

I also underwent some minor medical procedures, which included getting my wisdom teeth out. I sure wish I had listened to my parents 10 years ago when it was recommended then. It sure wasn't too fun getting them out as an adult! The good thing is that it allowed me to indulge in large amounts of ice cream without feeling guilty about it:)

As for my training, I had been training for a 1/2 marathon in Lake Havasu, but my training plan was significantly disrupted by the above events. However, things are finally settling out around here and I look forward to running more consistently here in the future (I feel like I have been saying that a lot lately). It is REALLY hard to stick to a schedule....I am not very good at it, but I am working on it!

As we move into the last weeks of WTI, Bill and I are very much looking forward to some downtime and visiting our families. I will actually get to travel to NY over the Easter Weekend to spend Easter with my family. Unfortunately, because of WTI, Bill will be unable to accompany me, but I feel that I need to go as my brother has just returned home from Japan with his wife and son and will deploy at the end of the April. However, Bill and I look forward to traveling together to visit Bill's family sometime in May. 

Though the past two months held some tough stuff, we are optimistic that the year will continue to look up as we move into April! Happy Spring!

January 2012

Happy 2012!! We hope that you and your family were able to ring in the New Year with some celebration, friends, and good Champagne. We also hope that January has brought you a good start to the rest of the year!

January was scheduled to be a pretty busy month for Bill in regards to work. Therefore, Bill and I took advantage of the the long weekend over the New Year holiday and drove up to Flagstaff, AZ. This was a much needed trip as it allowed Bill and I to spend some quality time with one another before the pace of the New Year picked up.

Flagstaff is about a 5-6 hour drive north from Yuma, so there was quite a bit of difference in temperature. There WAS snow on the ground, so it was nice to spend some of the winter holidays with a little bit of chill in the air (I never thought I would say that!!).

We drove up on New Year's Eve and got there a couple hours before dinner. We stayed at The Little America Hotel which was an older hotel, but one of the cutest I have ever seen. They had redone it with almost a french/antique feel. Hard to explain, but I would definitely recommend staying here if ever in the Flagstaff area. They put on a fantastic dinner followed by a New Year's Eve party with a Jazz/Blues band. Now, granted, we happened to be just about the youngest couple to attend by far, but it was nice to catch up and share a drink, or two, or maybe several with one another :)

getting into the spirit...

Obviously, we were getting close to midnight

Since we only had a short time in Flagstaff, we got up pretty early the following day and set off to explore. We checked out a couple of places on Trip Advisor and got some good recommendations in regards to top attractions in the area. With that being said, our first stop was Walnut Canyon.

Walnut Canyon is known for the remaining cliff dwellings that were occupied by the Sinagua (meaning Without Water) Indian Tribe more than 800 years ago. These cliff dwellings were occupied for a little over 100 years, but eventually the people of this land moved on. It is believed that they moved onto neighboring villages and eventually integrated into the Hopi Indian culture. Though this was a relatively quick tour, we got to tour some of the cave dwellings, which gave us the opportunity to see how these people may have lived way back when. Let me tell you, I probably wouldn't have survived very long, it looked pretty uncomfortable! However, it seemed they had it down to a science with sectioned off rooms for sleeping, fires, and etc.

Here are some of the shots we took:

Our second stop was the Sunset Crater Volcano. Who knew there were volcanos in Arizona?? I am not too sure of the actual year that this Volcano erupted, but I do know that the eruption caused the land to become very fertile afterward, which later attracted the Sinagua Tribes to occupy the cave dwellings in Walnut Canyon and for another tribe by the name of Wupatki to make its presence. They returned to farm on these lands. 

While visiting Sunset Crater Volcano, Bill and I were able to hike up a cinder cone, which gave way for some fantastic views of the nearby San Francisco Peaks and the volcano itself.

Bill with San Francisco Peaks

Walking around the top

We also got to hike around some of the lava beds at the base, which also gave us a good view of the Volcano.

Sunset Crater Volcano

The Lava Beds

Once we finished our tour of the lava beds, we hopped back in the truck and took a scenic drive through the desert. We have both agreed that the Northern Desert is much prettier than the Southern Desert. It was much more colorful and what you "imagine" the desert to look like, in my opinion. Lots of reds and oranges.

Here is some of our drive out to the "middle of no where":

the vast desert

The Never Ending Road

We did eventually come across an old Wupatki Pueblo and got to tour that as well....

Pueblo

inside looking out

By the time we came across the Pueblo and eventually made our way out of the desert, we were beat. We grabbed some dinner at The Cottage Restaurant, which was very quaint and had received rave reviews. After visiting, I would concur. Another great recommendation if you are ever in the Flagstaff area. They served me my first tamale:)

The Yankee

As much as I hate it when trips end, the following day we had to pack up and head back to Yuma to get on with the rest of the New Year, which will be a fast one no doubt! The day after our return, Bill had to pack up and head to Camp Pendleton. He has been out there pretty much all month converting from the old Huey to the new Huey, also known as the "Yankee". Fortunately, I have been able to make it out to Camp Pendleton a couple of the weekends, which has also allowed us to catch up with some of good friends stationed out that way. Bill was also able to come home over the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend as well, which has broken up the amount of time he has been gone this month.


During his quick trip home, we got to take advantage of some of the area surrounding us and we took a quick hike through the Kofa National Park or Reserve. We wanted to hike Castle Dome, but didn't due to lack of time. We hope to make it back out there at some point before our time in Yuma is up.


Bill challenged us both to hike up a nice steep cliff side....

We made it though!! Here are the views from the top:

At this point, Bill has completed most of his conversion to the Yankee. However, he still remains out of town quite a bit as he is trying to complete all of the necessary flights needed to officially finish the conversion. This week he remains in 29 Palms....

As for my job, it continues to go very well.  The pace has started to pick up a little bit, which makes me happy because I like to be productive when I go to work. Though, I can't deny enjoying a relaxed work environment! 

As we reach the end of the month, I am happy to say I have officially started running again. All's it took was a new pair of running shoes! Also, I look forward to running a couple of races this spring. There are a couple of events up in Lake Havasu that have caught my eye. We'll see where that goes.

For now, I will just enjoy getting back in shape and some "me" time as I look forward to Bill coming home to stick around for awhile:)