A.T. is OVER!!!!

We got a surprize phone call from Chris yesterday afternoon saying he was released from AT a day early and that he was waiting for a ride ASAP, which was crazy since it is about an hour away. It was a great day, we loaded up kids, some of ours, plus Jori and Logan and headed up there. I saw this view of the Tetons and had to take the picture!!! I just held the camera up ( and snaped a few in succession and managed to get this one through the windshield ).This isn't a great picture, but the the important element is the "person" in the bottom left hand corner. Logan called it "a Daddy", but Olivia came completley unglued and screamed and carried on, especially after Chris drug out the thing and kicked it and it didn't move. It didn't help any needless to say.

The only pic I got of Chris that day, and he is making a face, but WELCOME HOME !!! He had to take his PT test and was only 6 points from a perfect score, it was something like 12 seconds short on his run. He is happy with the score of course but is now wanting to make a personal goal of getting it perfect. Good idea for a guy that is going to run the Army Ten Miler in October huh !!!

We headed towards home and although the light had changed Chris snapped this pic through his window. Sorry the only pictures of the Teton Valley we took were of the actual Tetons, but it is all houses and golf courses now, and a few chain resteraunts with store fronts to look "rustic" and "historic". Very irritating.

Pops came to visit!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Pop surprized us with a visit from Missouri last week! The kids were really excited. Olivia decided to call him Popsie. It was really good seeing him, it was just too bad that Chris was out of town with the Guard.

Oliva and her adopted cat "George" Just a pic of one of my flower pots.

Blue skies!!! Finally!!!!

So I learned where the term "going the whole 9 yards" and "Hell hole" came from, both from WWI lingo.

Yesterday morning, I grabbed the kids, and hauled them to the Rexburg Air Show with my parents and Russell. We were a little late, but it was still fun to see the airplanes. Dad's brothers were there, with some family. Ryan told Mom he wanted to introduce her to his "...soon to be fiance' - wife". She has a son that I am guessing to be about the same age as one of his boys. It was good seeing them. Of course he had to be a stink and cover his face with the paper.

Dad found out they were hiring out a ride on one of the airplanes, and got all the information on the trip, and then talked himself out of it. BUT after all was said and done and he was home relaxing he changed his mind and WENT on the ride!!! How cool is that!!!

I also got a picture of the type of air plane that he will be going in this fall for a considerably longer length of time. It is a smaller aircraft, and was used for training during WWII. I would have to ask Dad for the right names.

The kids had fun, but the two older ones are reaching the ages that I will probably need to start bringing their friends along, their most fun was running into the kids they knew and breaking away from the family...... And it begins....... Sigh.

Chris and a couple of guys from the unit went to McCall today for breakfast and then drove to the head of McCall Lake to kind of revisit the 2000 fires they were called up for crash rescue support for.

When the kids called Pop tonight to wish him Happy Father's Day, he told us he is taking a run to Jackson Hole on Mon/Tues and will be picking up a load in Idaho Falls after that, so he will be stopping by to say hello Mon/Tues. The kids are so excited!!!

This is video of the airplane Dad went on last night.

What we did last weekend for "FUN"

We went to Downy last weekend for an Equine 1st Aid clinic put on by the University of Utah. It was kind of complicated trying to take care of Logan and Olivia, but Braden learned a lot ( some of which was a little uncomfortable to do for BOTH him and the horse!).

Marie and I had to take turns sitting in the Suburban with the kids due to the fact that it was COLD, RAINY, AND WINDY, making playing in the park etc. impossible. So while one of us was pulling out hair out with the pair of 2 year olds, the other was sitting through lecture.

What I got to sit in on, I learned a lot from. For Marie I am sure it was a refresher course.