Deployment Camp Video One

I'm sorry - these kids are so cute! Here they are at the Redeployment Ceremony.

Deployment Camp, Day Two

Coming back on the field

Saluting the colors

Getting her award

Enjoying the party afterward

Gabby had fun on Day Two of Deployment Camp. They spent most of the day playing games and learning about the Army - the Army Song, the alphabet, etc. They took the field back about 2 for their Redeployment Ceremony, all looking a bit weary but doing much better in formation. Each child received an award and certificate and then they enjoyed a pizza party to finish it off. Gabby learned , first and foremost, that her daddy works really hard and that it's not always fun to be a soldier, even though she enjoyed Deployment Camp.

VBS

Crazy Hat Day

Sam singing

Gabby singing

After the program

Crazy Hair Day

Both Gabby and Sam got to go to VBS this year! The preschool Sam will be attending in the fall allows the three year olds that will be coming to their school into their VBS. What a huge blessing! They had a wonderful week, enjoying the themes each day. Gabby came home the first day with a very good understanding of the Parable of the Sower. Really, she can explain it better than I can. Sam even recalled the story of the lost sheep the second day with a good three-year-old understanding. Their program was on Thursday night of the week.

(Yes, I know I have one more day of the Cali trip to post, along with the visit from the Davis clan. I am behind. What's new?)

Deployment Camp, Day One

Eager recruits

Enlistment Ceremony

Casing the colors for deployment

Last hugs from brother before deploying

Robert's unit has a Deployment Camp every summer for the kids of the unit. I thought about sending her last year but they camped out overnight and I just wasn't sure about that so I didn't send her. This year they aren't doing the overnight but are going to camp for two days. She started the day with an enlistment ceremony. Actually, I seriously considered starting her day with a drill sgt.'s wake-up call but I wanted her to be in a good mood so I didn't. The got their gear and headed to the field to form up and be sworn in. After that they did some marching and looked at all the Engineer vehicles. Before lunch they cased up the colors at their deployment ceremony and then headed out, enjoying MREs for lunch. The paintball range was next. They did target practice with marshmallows. After that they did a land nav scavenger hunt before final formation and release.

Tomorrow they will return to the FOB where they will head out to the mock city for games. It will end with a redeployment ceremony tomorrow afternoon.

Air Show/American Lake

If you look very closely in this pic, you can see my kids in the tube (ok, that part is easy to see), above the island to the right is a bald eagle, and above the island left of center is two airshow planes. The best of all worlds!

The McChord Air Show is this weekend. While the thought of an airshow is fun, we think of being hot and tired and waiting around a whole lot when we really think about it. And traffic. Lots of traffic. Since we can see the planes landing normally on McChord from the lake we decided to give it a try today and see if we could see some of the show from the boat. We saw a good bit - enough to make us all happy and no one miserable. I didn't get tons of pictures b/c while watching the kids were swimming and tubing and we were forcing Jordan out in to the water to cool off. Not the best times to be taking pics. We let the kids tube together for the first time and let Sam tube alone (very slowly) for the first time. Two summers ago and last week he went with me. There weren't that many people on the lake today since it was cool and the day started out very cloudy - and maybe they were all at the airshow. In any case, it was a good day to try Sam out without me.

California Trip Days 10 and 11 - Driving

I finally got an In-N-Out burger on our last day in CA

Mount Shasta

Day Ten of our trip was driving from San Diego to Modesto. Farm land and hot temps. We were also all tired and cranky so there was no picture taking that day. Nothing unusual to take a picture of.

Day Eleven we drove from Modesto to Medford, Oregon. We finally managed to find an In-N-Out at the right time and place for lunch and got our first (and last) meal there. It was yummy! Sometime after that, we picked up Mount Shasta through the clear skies and were able to see it for a few hours as we passed it on the interstate. We got to our hotel in Medford and hit the pool before heading to bed.

California Trip Day 9 - "June Gloom"

Gabby made a friend.

The waterpark

Sam coming down the red slide. Does anyone look cold in this pic?

Running the race cars

Face painting

Things got a little silly...

Sam driving his mommy around.

Gabby driving her daddy around.

Aquarium

Bye-bye, Legoland.

I admit, this day did not start out that well. It was cold and cloudy, we got off late, traffic was bad, and there were more people in the park than we wanted. The whole reason we came back a second day was to spend some time in the water park. We couldn't have picked a worse day for that. Our two other SD days were sunny and warm but we saved the waterpark for today. A friend said in SoCal they call that "June Gloom." It was.

We did our best to shake off the gloom and went to the waterpark anyway. It was cold. Even the lifeguards were cold. Good thing was that it wasn't crowded. But it was cold. Sam was a trooper and went down the kiddie slides as long as he could stand it. Gabby is always a water trooper and tried all the big slides. She wouldn't do the lazy river b/c you had to sit up on the raft. In the cold and wind. The lazy river was cool, though, because you can add soft legos to your raft to "build your own". Sam was contemplating it when he tripped over his big ole feet on the flat sidewalk. Because he was wrapped in a towel to stay warm, he fell all the way over on to his head. I have now made a visit to the First Aid station in an amusement park. It wasn't that bad - no bump, no bleeding - but Sam loves an ice pack like most kids love a band-aid so we had to go to First Aid for that. And answer the questions and fill out the forms. That was the end of the waterpark. Everyone was cold and tired.

We took a little rest and headed back in to the regular park and did finally manage to shake off the gloom and enjoy the rest of our day. We went through the Aquarium, which was small but very well done in my opinion. We weren't really planning on doing but were glad we did. The park cleared out in the afternoon (oddly enough) so we could do the last things we wanted and go home happy.