To preface this entry, I should say that I got so far behind with blogging that I struggled a lot with whether to pick up and start with what is going on most recently or try to go back and recap this amazing summer. I decided to attempt the recap, but that being said, this entry will be quite lengthy and may not be interesting to anyone but me! I had every intention to blog regularly throughout the summer (as this summer was certainly one to remember). However, the summer ended up taking on life of it's own and was so busy and exciting that I never seemed able to find the time. Go figure, now that I am back in Altus, I have a little time on my hands! So where to start? I will break this (long) entry into two pieces: Itinerary one and Itinerary two.
Itinerary one: OK->AL->GA->AL->AZ->OK
Summer began with Eric and I making a road trip from Altus to Maxwell, AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. Eric was at JASOC (or JAG school for us lay people) from early July until early September. I rode with him, dropped him off on base, and went on to Tybee Island, Georgia for my annual family reunion at the beach. We had a great week at the beach this year! The most memorable event of the week was my mom being attacked by a Portuguese Man O' War (let me know if a separate post about that event is desired). But the best part of the week was all of the fun we got to have with our huge, extended family.
My mom, Gila, and I shared a condo and it was great to have the much-needed and long overdue girl time. I meant to document the whole week through photos, but for some reason the two cuties above monopolized my camera's attention! This was my favorite shot of the adorable duo, Janet and Reed. Our family is so fortunate to have a mother/grandmother who gives us the gift of time together (not to mention in such a beautiful place) each summer. We come from different places in the country to reconnect every year. And I know I speak for all of us when I say it is something we look forward to all year long. We can't thank you enough, Grandma.
After a lovely week at the beach, I got to spend a weekend in Maxwell with Eric before going onto my next destination. We ate a delicious Thai meal and explored the city of Montgomery by foot, which I actually found to be qutite lovely. It is nestled aside a beautiful river. There is a fun little downtown area with restaurants and bars. There is a lot of neat architecture and the city is heavy with history. Within only blocks from one another, we saw where the Montgomery Slave Markets were located and we visited the site of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Here is a picture of us standing where Ms. Rosa Parks once stood. It was truly moving to be in such significant places of our country's history. On Monday morning, after our weekend together, Eric dropped me off at the airport and I was on my way to visit my sister-in-law, Kelly, and her family in Phoenix, AZ.
I had not been to Phoenix to visit Kelly since my freshman year of college. At that time, I was only 18, Eric and I had only recently begun dating, Kelly lived in a different house, was not yet married and Mia and Mason were, in the words of my mother, "just a twinkle in their parents' eyes." Needless to say, a lot has changed!! I had a great time meeting little Mason and being able to visit with Kelly, Rick and Mia. I got lots of snuggles in with five-week-old, baby Mason! I was able to see where Mia went to pre-school, see her do gymnastics (she's a star!), see her performance at the end of vacation bible school, and do a ton of arts and crafts! Here is a picture of Mia in her fabulous "Rapunzel crown" that we created together. Kelly and I did some shopping and ate at some awesome restaurants. One Saturday morning, Rick and I woke up early (but not early enough) to hike
Camelback Mountain. It is the coolest hike I've ever been on, but it was extremely hot that day. Rick and I made it to the summit, but I definitely would not have been able to do it without him. I wanted to give up a bajillion times along the way. Rick just kept dumping cold water on my head and saying, "keep goin!" It was definitely worth the effort. It is incredible to be 2700 feet up in the air and right in the middle of an enormous city. The views are breathtaking! We had such a great time that at the end of the week, Kelly and Rick invited me to come back to AZ in August! Of course, I accepted their invitation, and returned to OK knowing that I would be home alone in Altus for just TWO rather than FIVE weeks! This was such a relief! I still can't thank Kelly and Rick enough for adopting me this summer!
Itinerary two: OK>AR>OK>AZ>AL>OK
While home in Altus, I made a trip out to eastern Oklahoma to attend the Kihehah Steh Pow Wow. I was so excited to be able to squeeze in some more family time! I enjoyed a delicious lunch with my Aunt Gayle and Uncle Vince at their home in Tulsa and then spent a long weekend at my Uncle John and Aunt Kim's house. My grandmother was there too. We had fun trying different restaurants and playing games. In fact, my grandmother, Aunt Kim, cousin Jack and I faced off in a fierce, two-day Taboo battle. It was intense, but now I can't even recall who won bragging rights! I was able to take my grandmother to a gathering of all her old buddies who were getting together for a quilting bee. They were so happy to see her (and she them)! It was also great for me to be able to visit with all the familiar faces of my youth on my grandparents' farm. After lunch, Grandma and I hit to road and enjoyed a short roadtrip from Skaitook, OK to Fayetteville, AR. My Aunt Carol had invited a bunch of the family over for a delicious dinner and then later that night I was able to enjoy an evening out in downtown Fayetteville with my cousins, Nicole and Mike. The prospect of being able to do things like that more often make living out here in Oklahoma all the more appealing. It was so much fun! I returned to Altus the next day. The highlight of the weekend in Altus was a trip with my friend Sarah to the Miss Altus Outstanding Teen pageant. Let me tell you, this was the real deal. The talent competition was fierce! I am now on the lookout for future local pageants because it made for some great entertainment! A couple of days later, I packed my bags for my return trip to Phoenix and then paid $250 for a cab ride to the airport! Such is the life of a country girl!
I flew back to Phoenix and spent a little over two more weeks with Kelly and clan. During this time, Mia started Kindergarten, Mason discovered his hands and how to blow bubbles, and Kelly and I indulged our sense of taste! Kelly cooked a bunch of delicious recipes that I wanted to sample and we tried out a numerous fabulous restaurants. I enjoyed every second of it! Since moving to Altus, I have developed a whole new appreciation for interesting restaurants and cuisine. I also had the great opportunity to meet a lot of Kelly and Rick's friends. When you live so far away from family, friends become all the more important. It was great to be able to meet their family away from family and to put faces to names that I've heard throughout the years. They had a cookout at their house one night and on a different night, I had the privilege of participating in Ladies Night! It was so much fun and a pleasure to meet such wonderful people. Kelly and I were also able to hike together once during this trip, which was really a treat for both of us. We hiked the
Pinnacle Peak Trail, which was really cool because it offered great views of some of the biggest and fanciest homes in Scottsdale. The time in AZ just flew by! Kelly and I celebrated my last night in AZ by going out for drinks and a nice dinner together. We had so much fun just talking and laughing. It was fabulous! Before I knew it, it was time to say goodbye, again. I will forever be thankful that I got to spend so much time with them this summer! And I look forward to future visits!
I flew from AZ back to Maxwell, AFB to meet up with Eric. I stayed with him for the last two weeks of his time at JASOC. On one of my first nights there, a group of us attended a
Montgomery Biscuits game! It was an intense showdown with the Mud Cats, tied for almost nine innings, which ended with the Mud Cats conquering the Biscuits by 3, or 4, but who is counting? Whatever, Go Biscuits! We spent Labor Day weekend exploring more of Montgomery. We visited the
First White House of the Confederacy, the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, and walked around the state capitol. It was amazing to us to see the proximity of all these places. Incredibly, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott just a block or two away from the state capitol. I am sure I've read about this in the history books, but it is an entirely different experience to actually see these places with your own eyes!
I was so fortunate to be able to be with Eric through all of the closing festivities of JASOC. I got to pin on his new rank during the ceremony when he was promoted to Captain. Several other JAGs promoted on the same day so we all went out to celebrate that night. It is tradition for the Airman who promotes to host a promotion party. Someone organized to have a party bus pick us up on base and take us downtown. Needless to say, a lot of people turned up to celebrate and we had a really fun night! The next night was Dining Out, a formal dinner party, steeped in tradition, that families and spouses are invited to attend. All of the Airmen wear their Mess Dress, which is equivalent to a tuxedo. Participating in this dinner was truly a unique experience. On the next morning, the 2011 JASOC class graduated. The picture to the right is Eric and I on the morning of the graduation. During the ceremony, The Judge Advocate General, General Harding, addressed the room, awards were given, diplomas were handed out, and with that it was over! I had such a great time in Montgomery, I was pleased to be able to meet all of Eric's classmates and many of their families. To hear about where they live, where they're from, and what they're doing on their respective bases was interesting, inspiring, and really gave me the sense that there is a greater AF JAG community, even family. They are truly a wonderful group of people who I hope to cross paths with again. I felt that spending time at Maxwell and having the opportunity to meet Eric's fellow JAGs as well as instructors allowed me to gain a better perspective about why we are where we are and where we are going. Altus is just one little piece of a much bigger puzzle. It is valuable in its own way and there are many interesting places ahead!
Immediately after the graduation ended, Eric and I loaded up the car and then met a large group of friends out for one last lunch at Dreamland Bar-B-Que in downtown Montgomery. We took a lot of abuse from one very nice and boisterous gentleman that worked at the restaurant about the "ugliness" of the Maryland football uniforms. Eric and I made the mistake of admitting that we actually liked them. This man proceeded to ask every single patron of the restaurant whether or not they liked the uniform and continued to proclaim, "those are the UGLIEST uniforms I've ever seen!" All in good fun, of course! After lunch, we hit the road toward home. We stopped for the night in Monroe, Louisiana and I, of course, was determined to "have an adventure" and to eat dinner at a restaurant that was interesting rather than a chain. Eric indulged my request and we spent well over an hour searching for the perfect spot. Finally we found it: Athena Greek & Lebanese Restaurant.
This place was complete with a gigantic fountain right in the middle of the dining room. Eric and I ordered our dinner and sometime in the middle of consuming it, the music got really loud. We were practically the only people sitting in the restaurant. Naturally, we started looking around trying to figure out what was going to happen or what we had won! Out comes this belly dancer! She pretty much gave us a private performance, make that three. It was definitely the most interesting dinner out either of us have had in quite some time. The food was great, we couldn't stop laughing, and we certainly got our adventure!
The next afternoon, we drove into Altus on one of the most beautiful afternoons I've seen in a while. The temperature was perfect and the sunset over the mountains was exquisite. I mean it when I say that I was absolutely ecstatic to be back home. I was even loving on Altus! After such an on-the-go summer, it is great to be back in our quiet home, together. Yes, it has been a few days now...turns out Altus is still Altus, but as I said before, I have new perspective. Each place is what you make it, and I am determined to make this great. If you have read to this point, you are probably exhausted. I promise, you, diligent blog follower, that I will not procrastinate to this extent again!
After a lovely week at the beach, I got to spend a weekend in Maxwell with Eric before going onto my next destination. We ate a delicious Thai meal and explored the city of Montgomery by foot, which I actually found to be qutite lovely. It is nestled aside a beautiful river. There is a fun little downtown area with restaurants and bars. There is a lot of neat architecture and the city is heavy with history. Within only blocks from one another, we saw where the Montgomery Slave Markets were located and we visited the site of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Here is a picture of us standing where Ms. Rosa Parks once stood. It was truly moving to be in such significant places of our country's history. On Monday morning, after our weekend together, Eric dropped me off at the airport and I was on my way to visit my sister-in-law, Kelly, and her family in Phoenix, AZ. 
I had not been to Phoenix to visit Kelly since my freshman year of college. At that time, I was only 18, Eric and I had only recently begun dating, Kelly lived in a different house, was not yet married and Mia and Mason were, in the words of my mother, "just a twinkle in their parents' eyes." Needless to say, a lot has changed!! I had a great time meeting little Mason and being able to visit with Kelly, Rick and Mia. I got lots of snuggles in with five-week-old, baby Mason! I was able to see where Mia went to pre-school, see her do gymnastics (she's a star!), see her performance at the end of vacation bible school, and do a ton of arts and crafts! Here is a picture of Mia in her fabulous "Rapunzel crown" that we created together. Kelly and I did some shopping and ate at some awesome restaurants. One Saturday morning, Rick and I woke up early (but not early enough) to hike Camelback Mountain. It is the coolest hike I've ever been on, but it was extremely hot that day. Rick and I made it to the summit, but I definitely would not have been able to do it without him. I wanted to give up a bajillion times along the way. Rick just kept dumping cold water on my head and saying, "keep goin!" It was definitely worth the effort. It is incredible to be 2700 feet up in the air and right in the middle of an enormous city. The views are breathtaking! We had such a great time that at the end of the week, Kelly and Rick invited me to come back to AZ in August! Of course, I accepted their invitation, and returned to OK knowing that I would be home alone in Altus for just TWO rather than FIVE weeks! This was such a relief! I still can't thank Kelly and Rick enough for adopting me this summer! 
With much excitement, we set out on a mission to bring home Eric's new baby. We visited all three places where purchasing grills is possible in Altus: Sears, Wal Mart, and Atwoods. Sears won. After much hemming and hawing over whether we needed a smoker, charcoal, and gas grill combo spaceship OR a regular grill, Eric decided a regular grill would suffice. He selected this beauty. Getting her home was a struggle as both Eric and I drive compact cars. This experience only added fuel to Eric's "we live in Oklahoma so we need a big truck" fire. Thankfully, our friend let us borrow his jeep, and we got her home in one piece. Later that afternoon, after we confirmed that we could provide the grill, some friends joined us for a 4th of July cookout. Eric made his (and his dad's) famous hamburgers and our guests each brought side dishes.
We enjoyed barbecued shrimp kabobs, homemade pasta salad, potato salad, and fruit. Delicious! For dessert, we had big plans to roast marshmallows and make s'mores. Our belief that the "bigger is better rule" would apply to marshmallows was misguided. We each had one s'more and ended up covered in marshmallow goo (with the exception of one very skilled s'mores eater who came away spotless). Definitely an idea better in theory than in actuality. But here is proof that these actually were the biggest marshmallows that ever existed. You may have museums, restaurant variety, rooftop decks, walking paths, live music, crowds, and excitement, but we have the biggest marshmallows. So there. The number one reason why living here is better than living there. 
While I promise I will not use this blog solely to poke fun at Altus, I had to share this with you. We received the most awesome gift from Eric's sister Kelly and her husband Rick; a puzzle of a map of Altus with our home at the center. Can you see the little house-shaped piece!? First of all, I LOVE puzzles so this was the perfect gift for me. Second, once I start them, I can't leave them alone. Despite it's small size, this one kept me busy for days. Take a look at this picture and I think you will understand why. Our personalized puzzle is primarily composed of white puzzle pieces with little brown lines. Anyway, here is a bird's eye, zoomed in view of our hometown. I hope you find it as humorous as we did. It was such a thoughtful and creative gift! Now that I've completed it, I think I'll frame it. I think it would be fun to have a puzzle of each of the places we live over the next few years. And don't be surprised if whenever you move, you get one of these nifty gifts from us (we're totally stealing this idea from you Kelly and Rick)!
We moved into the house on the 27th of May, which was a very exciting day! We spent hours walking around the empty house, admiring every room. Our household goods were not scheduled to arrive until June 1st so we geared up for a good 5 days of indoor camping. The first night, we slept on a pile of blankets, but on the second day, a colleague of Eric's let us know they were selling a mattress. We scooped that right up, and we were happy as clams for the next few nights. Just in case you didn't catch on, this means we now have a mattress for every room! That's right, folks, TWO whole guestrooms for the hoards of visitors we are expecting! We had a great time in the days before our belongings arrived and we got right to work on projects that we knew would be easier accomplished without furniture in the way. We painted the living room, our bedroom, and the master bathroom. It was fun, but it was a TON of work! Eric and I got busy watering our gardens and grass and trying to keep the green things alive in this intense heat. We kept finding ourselves doing the chores and routines we've watched our parents do our whole lives and joked that we had turned into them overnight. We feel like real, live adults and it's great! 
