Monday, June 21, 2010

Travis and Jen

Travis, Jen and their four kids Sierra, Forrest, Sunny, and Caroline arrived on Saturday. They came early before the family reunion to do some climbing. So today we headed out to do some climbing. On our way we stopped at a Dinosaur Museum and had fun looking at fossils. The kids had fun playing in the play area where they got to pretend they were digging in the dirt for fossils and some fun other things. After we stopped for lunch and then headed to the climbing area. It was off of Shelf Road (I don't like that road as it is what the name says; a shelf). The climbs ended up being along a cliff with no real level spot so after about a half an hour I climbed back down to the flat area with Ellie so Ellie could play. The others had fun climbing and I figure when the kids get older or we are at a safe place for Ellie I will climb.
On our way back we stopped at a watering hole to swim with the kids. It was fun and the kids enjoyed it. Even the big boys (Todd and Travis) had fun. Johnny went in a little and then decided that was good enough for him. Billy finally walked across by himself with Uncle Travis' encouragement. And Katie fell in right in the beginning and was soaked from head to toe which made her cold so we ended up just taking off her shirt. Ellie had a blast. She played in the water the whole time and splashed and giggled. She is cute when she giggles. On our way home we grabbed pizza for dinner. One of the things I like about the woods and mountains is the smell. It smells fresh and woodsy (for lack of a better word). Now I am off to bed as we have another fun day of climbing tomorrow at the garden of the Gods.

Military Ball

Todd's Battalion had a ball this month. We helped decorate the tables for our company which was fun. I also ordered the Beer mugs for the souvenirs. They turned out pretty good. They would have looked better in black writing which i will remember next time. It was a fun evening. Since Todd is the company commander it has been fun getting to know some of the other soldiers and their spouses. I have never been able to see Todd at work like I have being the FRG leader and I like it. I get to see a different side to him. Plus i like helping out and getting to meet the spouses.
I had a good time at the ball. It had a good program and the food was good too (which isn't always the case). We danced a couple of dances and then headed home. It is always fun to get dressed up. I especially like seeing Todd dress up!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Camping

We went camping for Memorial Day this year. It has been over a year since I have been camping. Todd went with the kids last year but I stayed home since Ellie was only a week old. Went to Chalk cliffs area to do some recon for the family reunion. Todd got his jeep running again so we took it with us. The first day he took it on one of the trails and it worked great until it wouldn't stay in four wheel drive. So for the rest of the weekend it sat on the trailer. I am glad he got to drive it a little. He has been working hard on it.
The second day we took the truck up the one trail we want to do for the reunion. It is steep and rocky so may do a different one as we will have four wheelers and motorcycles for the reunion. We shall see. We went up as far as we could to the lakes and hiked the rest. We didn't make it to the mine on the top due to snow but it was a very pretty hike. Katie was bummed. She is all into mines now. We went to one the first day and she found some cool rocks. Now she wants to go to more. Even though we didn't make it to the top we still found some awesome rocks.
So camping was fun for the most part. It would be a lot more fun without a one year old. I stressed most of the time. In the evening we made a fire so I had to watch her like a hawk as she kept trying to go to it. At night she had a hard time falling a sleep as she wasn't in her crib and she kept the other kids awake crawling all over them. The second night she woke up at least 10 times crying and nothing we did calmed her down. I think her teeth hurt again. Plus it was really cold at night so I worried that she was warm enough. She kept trying to throw her blankets off but it was too cold. she only woke up twice the third night. Other then that it was a lot of fun. We made smores, roasted hot dogs, sang songs and tried to tell ghost stories. Katie loved them but we didn't come prepared with stories so we will prepare better for next time. We sang the whole song of 100 bottles of beer on the wall only we changed what was on the wall. Each person got turns picking what was one the wall. We did 50 one night and then the last 50 on the drive home. The kids loved it.
We had a great camp area. The sights were large and so it didn't feel like there were a lot of people. There was a river nearby so we couldn't here are neighbors at night and hopefully they couldn't hear us. We brought the kids bikes and they rode them on the road and had fun. It was nice to get away from everything and just enjoy each other. Plus it was nice checking the place out for the reunion. I am looking forward to it!
Todd also turned 33 on Saturday. His parents were heading back home so stopped by for the night Thursday night. Since we would be camping for his birthday we made a cake and celebrated his birthday that night. I bought him two off road books that have jeeping trails for Colorado. He is getting old:)

Fundraisers and Deployment Fair

The Deployment fair was this week. Each Battalion had a day. Ours was Tuesday and for the day we had the opportunity to do a fundraiser during it. No one was fundraising for Monday so we took that day too. Since it was an all day thing and each company only has a few active volunteers three of the companies worked together. This was we took shifts. I made most of the brisket. It is easy to make but can get time consuming when you are making a lot. I cooked three batches over the weekend and then another batch Monday night. Monday night I ended up in the ER due to my eye. All day it felt like I had something in it but I could get it out. I tried drops, flushing it out with water and nothing helped. By late afternoon I could barely see out of it it hurt so much. So after wrapping up the fundraiser, buying more brisket and dropping half of it off at Monica's I then went to the ER. I think since it was my eye I only waited two hours before being seen. I was home at midnight cooking more brisket. There wasn't anything in my eye and it wasn't cut so the doctor believed it was a stai so gave me drops to clear it up.
Tuesday was busy. Monica and I were in the FRG room to make sure we had all the information we needed on the soldiers and their families. It went from 9:30 till about 6:30. It was fun though. I like getting out and being with people. Plus I have gotten to know the other FRG leaders better and it is fun swapping stories and ideas. We made good money from the fundraisers and split it between the companies. It was a lot of work but we got a lot done. I also ordered the beer mugs for the Ball. I hope they look good.