CRAZY

Snow again! It started snowing last night and still has not stopped! Nothing makes me wish we were back in California like snow in May. Tomorrow I am helping with the Harvest Springs table at the National Day of Prayer setup downtown…of course it is supposed to be outside! I am praying the sun will come out and it will be an amazing day, although I am sure it will be anyway if my focus is in the right place and not on myself and the weather. It is only Wednesday and it has been a crazy, but wonderful week. Saturday I learned how to make baklava from Jackie Pappas who is Greek, and I got to learn with Dana! While we were baking, the dogs had a play date, and we were totally worn out by the time we got home. Not done yet, we went to a Garry Allen, Jack Ingram, and Josh Thompson concert that night with another good friend of ours. We had church Sunday where we had the privilege of watch our two friends, a husband/wife couple, get baptized and then go out to lunch at Fuddruckers to celebrate. A great workout and a meeting about our booth for the National Day of Prayer on Thursday started the day Monday, and the rest of the day was filled with making poster boards for the NDP and invitations for my sister Sarah’s bridal shower. Monday ended with getting together with girl friends and putting ribbon on bookmarks for Thursday while sipping white chocolate hot chocolate and eating brownies, with the wind howling outside. Last night we had our squadron spouses meeting at Macaroni Grill! What a fun week and it is only half over!

So proud of my baklava!

Dana and Jackie making baklava

Dana, Heather and me and the concert

Holiday Travels

We had a very Merry Christmas and are so blessed to have wonderful family everywhere. Christmas this year was in Idaho with my mom’s family and we had so much fun. I rode the train for the first time on the way there, we went on an old fashioned sleigh ride, and had fun playing broom ball and kick ball on the pond by my grandparents house. The big damper to the trip was that at the last minute Matthew had to work on Christmas and was not able to get to Idaho until the evening of the 26th. It was too short of a trip but we made the most of every moment.

We hurried home from Idaho just in time for New Years Eve which we celebrated with the Marlow’s and Dana’s immediate family that was in town for the holidays. We were able to get about four hours of sleep before Scott and Danae Dueck (Some of our best friends from Littleton) showed up at our doorstep for a weekend visit. The photographers took some amazing pictures by the river. We all decided that next time we hope it is above ten degrees outside before we decide to go out for a couple hours. Scott and Danae gave us a refresher course on the game Settlers of Catan and we played all weekend! I think that is the next game on our list. In short we are blessed with great family and friends.

Fun In The Fall

Fall is upon us and I can’t believe that we are already nearing the end of October. This past month has been filled with so much fun and activity I don’t know where to begin. I guess I will start at the very beginning, which is always a very good place to start.
The end of September I had so much fun making my first solo trip to Idaho to spend some time learning how to make jelly with my grandma. My grandpa was out of town so we got to have some quality girl time, and we definitely made the most of it. We made 64 jars of crabapple jelly, which if I do say so myself, is delicious. We went shopping for hours, and I got to go to a very fun CAL (Community Assistance League) meeting, a program that my grandmother is very involved in. We also got to spend some time just hanging out and talking with a wonderful glass of wine in our hands.

While I was on my trip Matthew had his first official alert. What is an alert you might say? An alert is a 24 hour shift in a missile silo about 60 feet underground where Matthew and his crew partner Ella control and monitor the missiles. All said and done Matthew is usually gone about 30 hours for one shift. During the time that he is not in the silo they are in briefings, getting updates, driving to and from the silo site (which is between 1-3 hours away), and debriefing. We get his schedule the beginning of each month, so although we can only plan a month at a time we are finally starting to get into a routine here in Montana. Matthew usually has about 8 alerts a month and the rest of the time he is taking tests and doing various other training.

At the beginning of October, we had a blast going through a corn maze just outside Great Falls with our good friends Brian and Dana Marlow. We had some rain that morning and a little bit of hail while we were in the maze but it made for a very fun trip and a great adventure.

Last but not least I just got home a couple days ago from my second trip to Idaho. This time I was up there learning how to quilt! We didn’t have as much time this trip so we worked from dawn until dusk sewing our fingers to the bone, but we still had so much fun in the process. I finished my first table runner when I was there; my grandmother and I had to complete it together due to the mistakes I made while attempting to do it myself at home. I also completed my fall table runner all by myself just this morning and I love it! I now have two other projects that I am actively working on. I am a little nervous not having my grandma here to correct my mistakes BEFORE I make them. It is so wonderful to be only six hours away from my grandparents, and I plan to take advantage of it as much as possible.

Easter Weekend

Happy Thursday! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Matthew and I enjoyed a very active weekend with something planned every day. Good Friday we spent the evening with friends dyeing Easter eggs and playing games. We didn’t get home until just after midnight. After sleeping in until 10:00am Saturday morning we went bowling where I had the very rare pleasure of beating Matthew our last game of the night.

Sunday morning we went to church not once but twice at different churches! It was a busy morning with one service ending at 9:30am and the next starting at 10:00am with a 25 min drive in between. We barely made it. In the afternoon we sat down for a fantastic Easter lunch with the McVay’s, Marlow’s and Arun Chittur. After lunch we enjoyed the beautiful weather outside playing Corn Hole, my competitive side tried to stay calm when the game was boys against girls. Dana, Jen and I put up a fight but the boys won every game. We finished the night talking and eating delicious homemade strawberry shortcake made by Dana. All in all a great Easter weekend!

Matthew aced his test on Monday and has a big trainer ride today. He gets to practice the all important key turn for the first time. Yikes, scary! But at least from now on he gets to wear his flight suit. YAY! I love the flight suits.

This weekend we are going to try our San Diego trip again barring any unforeseen traffic citations from Italy. Oops.

Enjoy the slide show below showing our Easter fun!

Seal Beach

A few miles north of Hearst Castle there is a beautiful beach where Elephant Seals like to come and hang out throughout the year. It was so fun to go see the seals in the wild with some good friends of ours, Stephen and Jen McVay. See the slideshow below for pictures!