My September 11th Story

Everyone who was alive has one, even the tiniest baby being born that day. One thing happened but we all had very different experiences with it. Most of you may not care where I was but I want my kids to know, just like I know that my parents were going to get their marriage license when JFK was shot. I remember the neighborhood moms standing in the driveway talking about Elvis the day he died and seeing it on the news (we lived in Memphis). I remember being in 3rd grade CLUE when Reagan was shot. I remember being in 8th grade science when the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up.

We moved to Fort Riley, Kansas in June of 2001 from Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Robert was a Captain and was assigned to the First Engineers as the Brigade Engineer for 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. A portion of the brigade was on a six month deployment to Kuwait so the staff was heading over that September to assist in a training exercise in the Kuwaiti desert. On September 10, 2001, I took him to the brigade in the middle of the day so the first group could head out to Kuwait. For the first time ever, I made him give me his flight information. I had just figured out you could track flights online and wanted to give it a try. They flew commercial from KC to Chicago that afternoon and then Chicago to London overnight. I tracked until I knew his flight had left for London and then went to bed.

I got up about 7 (Central) on Tuesday, showered, went downstairs, grabbed a bowl of cereal and turned on The Today Show. It would have been right about the time the first plane hit and they broke in and showed the building with the hole in it. They weren't even sure yet what it was that hit the building. A small private plane, perhaps. I remember thinking what crazy person would hit a huge building with a plane. I mean, they could see it, right? I turned off the TV, went to the computer to check and be sure Robert's flight had left London, and then finished getting ready to leave the house.

As I left my house about 830 for PWOC my neighbor stepped out and said, "Did you see that a plane hit the WTC?" Me: "Yeah. That's crazy, " and on I went. I headed up to Morris Hill Chapel for PWOC. When we got there, the chaplain came in and said two planes had hit the WTC and maybe one the Pentagon. OK, now it's more than some crazy guy who can't fly right. We prayed. I asked him if he knew anything about international flights because now I'm thinking back to June, when we first arrived at the 1st Eng and they needed a warm body to go be the unit terrorism guy and Robert was the new guy and got stuck going to terrorist training. You know, how to thwart terrorists, hostage situations, what to do if you are on a plane that has been hijacked, those sort of things. I admit thinking had he been sent to that class to be prepared to be on a hijacked plane that day. Kind of like when that plane crashed that time in the midwest at a small airport that had just done a big emergency drill the week before which meant they knew exactly what to do and everyone survived. Did God prepare him to be hijacked that day? Should I be thankful for that? No one knew anything about international flights.

We had a break and a bunch of us crowded in to the DRE's office to watch his small TV. When I saw the second plane hit the building for the first time, I finally understood that saying "my blood ran cold." It did. I could feel the cold throughout my whole body. We went on to study and spent the time kind of studying, mostly praying and watching a fellow sister wait for her phone to ring with news of her brother who was in NY (he was not killed that day we later learned.)

I went home alone after that, turned on the TV, and just sat there. I watched the replays. We waited on those last few flights. I flipped through all the channels just to see everything but the news stations and networks without programming. The local news came in and said if we saw a vapor trail in the sky it was Air Force One headed for the bunker in Omaha. I cried.

All the family had called while we were gone so I had to get on the phone and let them know I was fine. I laughed because my dad wanted me to come to Atlanta and stay with him. I was on post at Riley, locked in and guarded. I lived across from some barracks and they had armed guards circling the buildings for the next three days. I would have had to drive alone for two days to get there - no planes. He lived close to two AF bases. I was probably safer than he was. I called my neighbor whose husband was on the same staff but had not yet left for the training exercise to see if she minded if I bugged her to bug him when the plane arrived in Kuwait. Later that afternoon I went over while she called him to ask. They had landed and were safe. A few hours later I did get a call from staff duty with the same information. It was a couple of days before I got to talk to Robert himself. It was deathly still and quiet that night on Fort Riley. No cars, no planes, no trains, no helicopters. Just the armed soldiers circling the buildings across the street silently.

I kept a TV on for about 5 days straight. I felt like if I turned it off, I was giving up hope on finding someone alive. It was on downstairs all day and in my bedroom all night. I couldn't bring myself to turn it off. I held on until everyone admitted there was no hope. I stayed home for about three days because to leave post meant having your car searched when you returned, which meant spending an hour waiting in line. I didn't have to be anywhere so I didn't need to be in that line. The next day we were all standing in the courtyard chatting when a helicopter came low overhead. We froze before remembering we lived close to the hospital and that's what it had to be.

As I said, Robert's flight had left London right before the attacks started. They had no idea anything had happened until they were landing. The British Airways pilot came on and said they wanted to express their condolences to the Americans for what had happened that day. They still had no idea what it could be but a British passenger commented that it must have been bad for him to say that. They got off the plane and through customs to be met by some soldiers telling them to get on the bus out front NOW!! Once on the bus and underway they were told what was happening. He really didn't get to see much of the coverage on TV while he was in Kuwait.

Robert was supposed to be gone about a month. More of the staff was supposed to follow on later days. They didn't go but worked nearly 24/7 there at Riley for a week or two. Those in Kuwait decided to go ahead and do that training exercise as best they could. We had no idea when they would make it home. No planes were flying anyway. In the end, they made it home as planned but it was a while before we knew if that would happen or not. I have to say I was very happy to have him home.

That was my September 11, 2001. My prayers to those who lost so much that day and to those who have lost so much since then because of that day.

Northwest Trek Family Camp Sunday Morning

 Our campsite

 Walking the back trails to breakfast

 Back area tour. I did not like the way that cougar was looking at my baby.

Sunday morning camp early at family camp. She was set to ring the triangle at 7 but the amazingly loud birds woke us all up about 630. We got up, got dressed and tore down the camp. We headed back to the cafe in the park via some closed trails for private breakfast. It was great - pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, cocoa, coffee, etc. They gave us each a picture of our family they had taken on the first day, plus a NW Trek postcard and poster.

After breakfast we met up with a zookeeper for a behind the scenes tour. We went in to the back area and saw where the animals stay when they are off exhibit, how they clean the areas and what they feed the animals. We walked about a lynx, porcupine, cougar, beaver and got a look at a few other critters. The zookeeper tour was our last activity of camp, ending about 11. After that we were free to stay in the park all day. We chose not to do another tram tour but we could have. We looked at the few animals we hadn't yet seen, ate lunch and visited the activity building to make the crafts. By then we were all getting tired so we left. I was trying to leave while it was still good but on the last visit to the barn owls, Sam fell down and that was it for him. He cried all the way to the car and then ate a quick snack and fell asleep for the drive home.

We all had a good time - the camp was very well run with the right mix of fun and education and activities. We were busy the whole time. Camping's not too bad when you don't have to worry about the food. Yep, that's my kind of camping (at least when it's just me.)

Northwest Trek Family Camp Saturday Evening

 Helping out

 Making our nametags

 Making enrichments for the animals

 The NW Trek moose

 Hanging the enrichments on the beavers' glass.

 Sam and a bear

 Gabby and a wolf

 We played hide and seek using wolf howls.

 S'mores time

Lights out

The kids and I went to Northwest Trek's Family Camp this weekend. I thought it looked like my kind of camping - the kind where you don't have to worry about food or building the fire.  I admit this took a little bravery on my part. I would never have tried this last time. But Sam's out of diapers and getting bigger and Gabby has become very helpful so I thought it might work this go 'round. I worried most about rain and it being too cold to sleep (imagine in August!) In the end, we had a great time and the kids did well. They helped and stayed with me and listened (mostly). We were not without mishap and I admit Sam left the park crying today (falling down + being worn out) but it was overall fun and good and I would do it again alone.

Northwest Trek is a zoo that only has animals native to the NW. They try to present the animals as naturally as possible. I like it better than the full fledged zoo. They do a few of these camps each summer, this being the last one for this year. The camp was not full but had a good number of people - 18 folks from 6 families. It might not be as fun if it were full (crowded). You go on Saturday afternoon and set up your campsite, make nametags and animal enrichments, and then have a camper meeting. After the meeting there is time for supper, either in the cafe in the park (which we did) or bring your own. They did build a fire in case you wanted to cook on it. We took a tram ride at 615, after the last ride of the day. It was nice b/c we could take a little longer than normal and also because it was late in the day and lots of the animals were out. We saw everything they have in the free roaming area, including three of the four moose. Animals around every curve. 

After the tram ride we went to the wetland area and hung our enrichment items on the glass in the underwater/downstairs part for the animals - beavers, otters, fishers, etc. They were starting to wake up for the night and we were now the only people in the park. After enjoying them for a while we went to the theater for a quick talk about wolves and how the communicate. We learned to howl and yip and bark like wolves. Then we went out in to the park for a wolf hide and seek. One of the leaders hid and the rest of us had to find communicating like wolves. It was getting dark in the park and it was kind of creepy howling and going through there. Sam got a little spooked but it was lots of fun. We finally located her in front of the wolf exhibit. All of our howling had woken them up but we never could get them to howl with us. Since it was now nearly dark, we headed back to the campsite and enjoyed some s'mores before turning in for the night about 10. One benefit to being the last group of the summer was that we could have as many s'mores as we wanted. Not too helpful for sleeping, however.

Christmas Eve

 Making the birthday cake

 It was fine until Daddy decided to help...

 Cake Wrecks, here we come!

 After church came the Christmas Eve present

 New jammies and slippers

 You don't think they are excited, do you?

Cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer

Christmas Eve is always busy. We have to get everything ready for Christmas Day, cook our Christmas breakfast birthday cake, try not to bust with excitement, go to church, open one present. Lots to do. Gabby nearly made the cake by herself this year. She loves to cook - so glad she does. Sam jumped in at the icing part and Robert decided he was needed at the decorating part. Except he dropped the icing container on top and messed it up. In the end, I hope the "joyful noise" principle applies to birthday cakes too.

We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church where Gabby read part of the scripture during the service. She did a great job.  We came home and opened our Christmas Eve present and put out the cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer and then got the kids off to bed.

Christmas Crafts

Somewhere along the way, I think by way of too much Amazon Christmas shopping, I decided to make snowman kits of friends around here for Christmas. I found the white bags at Micheal's. Gabby painted them all by herself.

 I ordered a pack of 6 Melissa and Doug carrots from Amazon (I did see something similar at Micheal's but I had already ordered them). The fleece I used to make the scarves I had in my stash. Since fleece doesn't fray, I just cut it the width of the fabric and cut fringe in the end. No sewing, no tying, nothing. The hats are foam and I found those at Micheal's, along with the red ribbon I tied around them. The "coal" came from a bag of stones I also bought at Micheal's. One bag gave me enough for all 6 bags. I bought a package of assorted buttons (Micheal's) and pulled the big black ones out. I never came up with anything for a pipe but that's no longer PC anyway so I didn't worry about it.

 The finished products! I put a short explanation with them and we gave them out to friends. Yes, we kept one for ourselves. Later you'll see where we used it.

 My second craft was aprons for the kids. I found these monogrammed handtowels at Kohl's on super clearance. I turned down the corners and sewed across them, leaving about an inch or so casing. The kids picked a ribbon from the ribbon box and we fed it through the casing. I used safety pins to attach it since I figure they will grow and we will need to adjust them. Sam's is obviously long but he'll grow fast. I didn't get a good pic of Gabby's from the front but her's has a cute "G" on it.

More December Fun (and Not So Fun)

Gabby and Daddy going to The Nutcracker

Fall Brownie badges and patches

 Sickness aftermath

 December is always so busy. We had our last Brownie meeting of the fall and the girls got the badges and patches they earned during the fall.

This December was even busier while we were trying to close on our NC house. It was a huge crazy mess, mostly due to the horrible law firm the buyers chose. They single-handedly delayed the closing nearly two months.  

There we were, the Friday before Christmas week, running all over town trying to find an open notary to help us and then trying to get the papers faxed and then overnighted back to NC so the house could close. I suppose to didn't pay much attention to the signs. We dragged the kids into Applebees for supper after all that. Sam was tired and fussy and didn't want to eat and kept thinking he needed to go to the bathroom. Yeah, I should have known but I was also tired and fussy. Finally I had had enough and I was holding him trying to finish up the check and all that when Mount Samuel decided to blow. Unfortunately, I was holding him inside my coat facing me when he puked and it went all over me, including straight down my shirt. I snatched him up and ran out of there only to get to the van with no change of clothes for him and it being 34 degrees. Poor baby. It was a terrible ride home in the van with him throwing up again and again. And sure enough, as soon as we finally all settled down for the night, Mount Gabby decided to join in the fun. Needless to say, we haven't been back to Applebees (no, we don't think they caused it - we just had a bit too much of it that night.) The next day Robert and I didn't feel so great. He had to spend the day at the battalion open house. I stayed home with the kids and did laundry. Gabby recovered quickly, as she always does. Sam spiked a fever, as he always does, and was sick all through Christmas. The bottom picture was taken the day after Applebees. He plopped down on those pillows behind the couch late in the afternoon and fell asleep.

Busy Sunday in December

Sunday School Christmas program - 3 year olds

 Sunday School Christmas Program - Elementary kids

 Chehalis Steam Train

 Santa

 Making gingerbread houses

A busy December Sunday held the Sunday School Christmas program where both kids sang and Gabby had a part in the elementary play, the Santa train at the steam train in Chehalis and then home to make gingerbread houses. December can be like that, especially when Daddy is going to be gone two weeks of the month.