WHAT THE HECK ARE WE HERE FOR ANYWAY???

We got here in September 08 for cryin' out loud.... 7-8 months later: Kevin finally started flight school. What has he been doing you say? Well, first, warrent officer school.... three month wait..... leadership school.... two week wait.... survival/pow school.... one month wait.... and here we are. He started into areo-med this last Wednesday where he learns all about the physiological things of flying, then in about two weeks from now or so he'll actually get to start flying, (actually flying - can you believe it?) trainer helicopter.... drum roll please...... the BELL 206!

An Updateroonie of the Idaho Trip

I'll try not to let this get too long... I know nobody reads them if they are too long! So, as most of you guys know, we took a much needed trip to Idaho. One weekish was spent in Boise with my parents and Skip and Elaine. Both of the "southern sets" of grandparents were excited to meet us at the airport at 11 pm on Tuesday the 7th.

Kurt and Jennies new baby Ivy (1 1/2 weeks old) with Chloe (almost 4 months). It was really nice to meet her. Isn't she beautiful?

Claire and me in the Flowers up above Frank and Sonja's. Claire is sure a chatty Cathy and has really changed a lot in the past year.

And here she is crying. She got REALLY sad when I tried to have her pose alone for a pretty picture... So we only ended up with two crying ones instead of a cutsie pose.

Elaine planned an awesome surprise Luau for Skips 60th. Way to go Elaine. You really pulled it off!

We enjoyed Easter and my parents with Amy and Diana joining us on their way back from a wedding in Logan. Then, we headed over to Skip and Elaine's for Easter dinner two. I swear all we did for the two weeks was EAT!!! 9 pm rolled around and we took off to Moscow. Arriving at 2 am at Michele and Jesse's, completely exhausted, left us to get up at 7:30 to visit with Leo and Cina. Then up to Bonners with a quick stop in Post Falls to see Charlie and the gang.

Check back later for week two in Idaho!

Learning to Laugh

Chloe has been trying valiantly to learn to laugh with us. They are usually "ah-ha" or something similar. I was sitting at the computer doing some e-mails and happened to catch this on my phone. Last night, she was smiling at Keri and burped, causing Keri to chuckle which in turn caused Kevin and me to laugh, then Chloe busted out a full belly laugh. Hopefully, it wasn't a one time thing, since she did not do it at all today. But, here you go.

Richard Simmons Would Be Proud

So, Chloe may kill her Aunt Keri in about 14 years or so, and say something along the lines of "I thought you were born in the 80's, not me..." but we thought the little pants were cute. They are supposed to be newborn size, but we couldn't resist since they match this little onsie. Only thing missing to complete the ensemble would be a head band!

Prophet Said to Plant a Garden...

So that's what we did!

Well, we got our seeds started that are for transplant. I found out that the growing season is so long here most veggies have two growing seasons! I do have to plant them in buckets though, as we live in military housing. I'm doing a "salsa" garden complete with onion, tomato, peppers and cilantro.

Also I'm doing lettuces, cauliflower and carrots, though I've heard it's hard to keep the rabbits and squirrels out of those. And the best part is I used about $15-20 in supplies, and I usually spend about that much in one week in produce!

Our Little Swimmer

Last week, a friend of mine, Stephanie, who's got a 4 month old, convinced me it would be a good idea to take the babies to the pool. SO, Chloe got to wear her cute little swim suit and test out the waters.


She was OK with the water. It wasn't really that warm because it is a pool used mainly for lap swimming, as it is in the gym. But she LOVES the warm water in the shower. She doesn't even mind if it splashes her face. Once we got out, it was pretty cold, so we Keri and I dressed her in the sauna. She loved that, and the two Asian women that were in there thought that "he" was so cute. :) Maybe they were saying she, and we couldn't hear it through the accent because Keri corrected them and it still sounded like they were saying he...

Snow in ALABAMA???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Well, I woke up this morning getting ready for church and happened to peer out the window, and we were getting snow flurries! It hasn't snowed here in over 17 years. Of course, it must be because Keri came her to get away from it for a winter and it decided to follow her. This is Chloe's first snow. I didn't think she'd see any til she was two. Not that she will remember this anyway. The crazy part is that we had 70's yesterday. This is in our back yard. It just flurried for a while, but we had a storm yesterday and everything is still wet, so it just melted.

People at church were crying today, especially ones from Idaho/Utah area because it reminded them so much of home... I just told Kevin if it sticks or the roads get icy I'm not going anywhere because while I can drive in it, no one else here can.

Kevin starts SERE tomorrow. 21 day survival/pow camp. No contact. Which will suck, but it'll be nice to have Keri here while he's gone. Just pray he doesn't get any snow while he's trying his best to evade the enemy out in the Alabama jungle. And as you can see, I cut off like 14 inches of my hair this week. I feel like my head is very light on my shoulders!