An update...

May 4-5: We had our things packed up and moved for the third time.









May 8: We drove to Houston and stayed almost a week visiting friends and family. I took shamefully few pictures.



May 14: We jumped in the car and drove to San Antonio on the first leg of our road trip to our new home in Colorado Springs.



May 15: We drove to Carlsbad, NM and arrived that evening in time to go to the natural entrance of the cave there in order to watch the bat flight as they leave for their evening meal. Unfortunately Evie got too tired and we left before seeing the bats. I remember seeing the bat flight as a child and was disappointed that we couldn't stay to see it again, but it will just have to be something we save for when the kids are older.



May 16: We went back to Carlsbad Caverns to take a quick spin around one section of the cave. Since Chokydar waited for us in the facility's kennels and we had E in tow, we took the elevator down the 750 ft decent, saving us a 1.5-2 hr hike down the natural entrance. The cave was just as impressive as I remembered. Of course, pictures were difficult to take, but to give you an idea...

Still May 16: We headed out from Carlsbad and drove through Roswell, NM, which was larger than I expected and full of funny signs and billboards regarding alien encounters. We stopped for lunch (didn't see any aliens...) and then carried on to Santa Fe that evening.

I was really surprised by Santa Fe; I thought I would like it, but I hadn't realized how very beautiful it is there! I imagined that it was located in a flat expanse of desert, but it was outlined by gorgeous mountains and full of art and color, despite all the stucco architecture, which was also quite charming. We decided to dine at a local steakhouse listed in the hotel's restaurant guide...the guide unfortunately did not list prices and the restaurant ended up being a high end (read extrememly pricey) place that we all decided was good, but fell short of oh, say, Texas Roadhouse and cost nearly 4 times as much.

May 17: We arrived in Colorado Springs and stayed the first night with Justin's good friend Eric, who had been along on our roadtrip up from Houston, although he'd moved to Colorado Springs a few weeks earlier. He showed us around town, helped us orient ourselves and pointed out a few of his favorite local finds. We were able to drive by our new home, but weren't able to go inside that day.

May 18: We moved into our extended stay hotel. Our house isn't scheduled to be completed until as late as June 30, so we've got about 6 weeks in a hotel. Thankfully I was able to find one with two bedrooms and a kitchenette, so althought things are cramped and we're still living out of a suitcase, we have a bit more normalcy while we wait. I'm still impatient.

So that's where we are! Day 9 of 42+ in Colorado Springs as we wait for our home to be finished. Justin is In-Processing on post and I was able to be seen at the hospital and get our ultrasound scheduled for the second week in June. We will both be excited to learn more about B2!

More pictures of the house to come, as we have been able to get inside and have a look around...

Biscuits, Gravy, and Giraffes

his is a bit of a catch up post as I just uploaded the pictures from my camera and have several rather unrelated things to share. They do all involve Evie, so I suppose they're not that unrelated after all. First of all, we have a picture from one Sunday afternoon when Justin was holding Evie after she woke up from her nap, and she fell back asleep on him for another half an hour:

Next, we dyed eggs for the first time this Easter. It was a lot of fun; Evie mostly colored on hers with the wax crayon and then we dipped them in the dye. Sadly, I did a really poor job capturing the whole event, but here's proof that it happened:

And finally, we took a trip up to Oklahoma City this past weekend. The weather was just so gorgeous, we slapped on our sunscreen and climbed in the car. As our weeks dwindle here in OK, we had to take in breakfast at one of our favorite finds in OKC, Pioneer Pies. They have an amazing selection of fresh baked pies on hand all the time, but I must admit, as wonderful as their pies are, my favorite thing they do is breakfast. It is huge and hearty with choices ranging from fruit topped waffles to pancakes, eggs and sausage, bacon, french toast, omelets, breakfast burritos, country potatoes, and the best biscuits and gravy I think I've ever had.

We headed over to the zoo after breakfast and had a great time seeing the animals. I think Evie's favorite might have been the ducks in the pond, although the giraffes gave the ducks a run for their money.

There and back again

We got back Sunday afternoon from our "vacation" (i.e. lots of enjoyable hard work) to Houston and New Jersey/New York. The trip included treacherous icy road conditions, snow storms, family, the best of friends, catching up, Evie's first encounter with stairs, excellent fondue, wii golf and bowling, a diverted excursion to Menlo Park mall instead of West Point, Cinnamon crunch bagels (with hazelnut cream cheese) from Panera, the NJ Transit, taking the wrong train for the first time ever, Ragtime on Broadway, fantastic Greek food on 56th and 7th, and the flight from hell, and much, much more. Well, nevermind...after hearing of the debacle at Newark airport this week, suddenly our trip didn't seem nearly so bad.

And through all of that (or perhaps because of), I somehow managed to take only a handful of pictures. Thankfully the drive back up to OK was the best we've had in months and we're using the week to unpack, settle back into routine, play with Christmas toys, and welcome the new year!

Hope yours has started well!

Do you have tickets?

detail from "Tickets to the Gun Show" Collage by Katrina Cristobal

Last weekend we took a trip up to Tulsa with friends to go to the Tulsa Arms Show. The photo above, sadly, was not from the show. Cameras were not allowed at the show, which was a real pity, as the place was PACKED with priceless photo opportunities. I can only recount for you tales of the Cape Buffalo hoof ashtray (I'm not kidding; it was going for $50), the Tactical Girls selling calendars (of themselves--scantily clad, but with firearms of course), and innumerable old-timey mustaches that would make Yosemite Sam green with envy.

I have to say that when we first arrived on the scene, I felt maybe more than a bit uncomfortable by the line of people waiting to enter with their rifles slung over their shoulders. Once on the inside the fairgounds, however, I think the sheer number of weapons saturated and short circuited my senses, and I have to say that I had a really enjoyable time at the show. There were, as mentioned, many funny and amusing sites to see, but also lots of very interesting historical displays and collector items that I found really fascinating. I also was tickled by the handful of jewelry displays strategically placed near the exits, as if to remind a gun-laden fellow that he might want to bring something special home for the little lady as well. Either a diamond ring or perhaps a semi-automatic pistol with pink mother of pearl grips.

Have I mentioned lately how much I'm enjoying Oklahoma? God bless America.

Let me e'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

I haven't had a chance to sit down at a computer for more than 10 minutes now for nearly a month, so please forgive me for the long absence! There is too much that has happened to capture, but I will try to give you a highlight reel:

The flight back home had some memorable moments--including 1) the moment when we thought we'd forgotten the bolts to secure Chokydar's kennel for the flight after having to split it in half to fit in the rental car; they were in Justin's pocket after all. WHEW. 2)A Chuck Norris look alike who played peek a boo with Evie on the flight for at least 10 minutes 3)the realization that Evie's "sleepy noises," a guttural grunt "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuungh" which we know and love is, in fact, annoying to some fellow passengers 4)getting 9 hours in to the flight and resorting to choreographing "Surrey With the Fringe on the Top" from Oklahoma for Evelyn's entertainment.

All in all, it was as good of a trip as we could have expected. Upon landing, we creeped everyone out by how happy we were by completely mundane things. "Oh look! ENGLISH!...traffic signs...etc, etc."

We flew into Dallas, rented a car and drove to Houston the next day to visit family. We went to church at St. Paul's on Sunday and bought our new car, a 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan on Monday. I'd done TONS of research and we had such a pleasant car buying experience, it kind of unnerved me. Ours is silver with black cloth and the panoramic sunroof. I couldn't be happier with it so far!

We did lots of visiting and a good deal of window shopping in Houston. We made it to the zoo and the terracotta figure exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science. And we ate a LOT of good food...Starbucks, Panera, Le Peep, Ruggles, Coldstone, Chick-fil-a, Saltgrass Steakhouse, BJ's Brewery, Outback, Blue Bell ice cream, and Brown Sugar's BBQ just to name a few. Now we are fat and making our recovery.

We got to visit with some good friends, including the beautiful Jennifer Gilbert, and The Boy and family. SOOO good to spend time together!!

We drove up to Oklahoma on Wednesday--the 8+ hour drive was maybe even more exhausting than our transatlantic flight. We left around 6:30 am from Houston and didn't arrive in Lawton until nearly 4 pm.

We're in guest housing now (aka a rather crummy hotel), but it does have a (barely) passable kitchenette, so at least we've been able to start weaning ourselves from fast food. We're hunting for a home to rent now, and have a likely prospect that we hope to secure in the coming days.

I can't get over how excited I am to be back in America, how overjoyed I am by little pleasures, seeing family and friends, and by having a drive-thru Starbucks that's new in Lawton since the last time we were here.

Life is so good.

March 2008- Normandy

I know--it's May not March. I'm behind. I never got up my past travel pics from March or April. I'm trying to play catch up, because some of these are really lovely pictures and I want to revist them myself and also share them with you.

Last year--wow, it seems crazy that it was last year; it seems a lifetime ago--before the guys deployed we went on a trip to Normandy with our very good friends the Blythes. Justin and I had been to Normandy with my parents the previous October, but on that trip we traveled more widely in the area and thus did not spend as much time focusing on the WWII aspects of the region. I am so glad we got to take two trips there. I would definitely go again. I love France and that region is so full of history and beauty.

The morning we left for the trip last year, we were hit with a snow storm. We sat in traffic trying to get to the autobahn for a good while. Cars were stuck in the snow trying to get up hill and traffic was seriously backed up. Thankfully, once we got to the autobahn things cleared up considerably, and we didn't have to deal with snow again until we made our way back into Baumholder on the return end.

I was pregnant during this trip (6 months along or so) and thus I just looked enviously as the guys raved about a local rose wine at a restaurant we stumbled upon, Le Crabe Vert. We bought a bottle actually, now that I'm remembering...I think we'll have to break that out to celebrate their return in the coming weeks!

The Blythes are adorable. We love them.

Le Crabe Vert was actually SO good (they had all kinds of AMAZING specialty pizzas) that we visited it two nights we were in the area. It was that good.

It stood out in stark contrast to another restaurant we stumbled upon one afternoon when we were taking a break from a long stretch of driving and were all starving. I was the "French speaker" of the group. I took two years of French in highschool and one brush up semester in college, but that's all starting to be very long ago now, and while I can get by, we've had some funny experiences that definitely prove I am no where near fluent. (I don't think I've told the story on here about accidentally ordering 6 orders of escargot at 12 euros a plate...) The escargot story and this experience, forever remembered as The Cold Duck Pate place are two of the funniest (and most costly) errors. This restaurant, as you can see from the linens and decor, was nicer than just a pop in lunch place and should have tipped us off that we might not be in for a bargain. Most restaurants in Europe have a "fixed price" menu, where, for a flat rate you get to choose an appetizer, main course, and usually a desert. This restaurant had the option, but no prices were listed on the menu, and we got nervous that we'd be way out of our price range to go that route. Plus, many of the choices listed were beyond my limited vocabulary. I don't like seafood, and typically recognize and stick to chicken, rabbit, or duck from French restaurants.

After much diliberation, we--did we all?--I think maybe just Julia and I--I can't remember...well, we got duck something or other with pears in a sauce. If I remember correctly it was 17 euro, and thus we assumed it was a main course. Wrong. It was an appetizer. They brought out the plates with this cold miniscule lump of duck pate stuck artistically on top of a pear soaked in liquor and drizzled with sauce. As you can see, we were less than thrilled:

We went back to the car afterwards and dove into a box of Cheese-Its.