Home Sweet... Florida

Well, here we are! The weather is hot, the sand is white and the bugs are plentiful. So far, so good. Yes, we are now moved to our new residence in Panama City, Florida. We are still waiting for our HHG (household goods) to arrive from overseas. It is estimated that it'll still be another 3-4 weeks before they arrive. In the meantime, we are sleeping on an air mattress and eating off of paper plates. We were very content with our situation until about the second night, when we realized our new home... is infested with fire ants. All of a sudden sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of our master bedroom meant sleeping with a can of Raid in one hand and a Dustbuster in the other... sweet dreams! :)

Besides looking in your shoe and seeing about 3 dozen fire ants, life in Florida appears to be fairly promising. They call our neck of the woods "The Redneck Riviera" because well, there just isn't much around... we have to drive a good 25 minutes to find a good restaurant and shops. However, the up side of this is... we have miles and miles of beautiful sandy beaches, basically to ourselves. Pretty sweet exchange, if you ask me.

Over one of our first days here, Kurt and I took a drive to Pier Park in Panama City Beach: Such hard decisions:

You can walk or fish from the pier, eat at one of the many beach side restaurants, see a movie in the 3D movie theatre or shop in the outdoor shopping plaza. Whatever you do, make sure you're carrying a couple bottles of water, cuz it's mighty warm out! Under the pier: Introducing "Bella". She is our new 2010 Ford Fusion and she is classy... much better than our clunkers we were driving in Europe (which weren't even worthy of names). However... it did give us the opportunity to save up for this sharp beauty, so it was worth it.

Here is our new home. After weighing the options, we decided to move on base. We still think we made the right decision.We went to Bonita Bay, which is a little cove right outside base. This sign will make you think twice before jumping in (at least for newcomers like us):We also checked out the beach on base and Kurt stepped foot in the ocean for the first time since we arrived to Florida:

Not too crowded! It's perfect and awaiting you guests! (I guess we should just wait until the fire ant situation is resolved and our furniture arrives... I'll keep you posted)

Colorado and Wyoming

After seeing Grandpa in Arizona, I flew back to Colorado with Jim and Kristine. Jim took me mountain biking and I had a blast. It was beautiful country and the workout was phenomenal! Stopped for a short break to take in the scenery (and so I could catch my breath)...

Then it was back on the road again...

That night Doug and his girlfriend, Ali, came over for dinner. Jim made some amazing Tuscan soup, grilled corn on the cob and steaks. It was SO delicious!Jim, Doug and I:Then, Jim and I headed for Wyoming to go camping with Dad in the mountains. Doug couldn't make it because he was doing his RA training before school started. Here is Dad, leading our pack horse:

It started to hail (yes, this is Wyoming in August)... and to make a long story short, we encountered some obstacles in getting one of the horses up the mountain and we didn't make it to our campsite until well after dark. By the time we got there, we all just wanted to curl under a tree and fall asleep. Instead, Dad and I fumbled around to get the tent pitched while Jim hurried and made some dinner.

The next day was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky and we were well rested and ready for the day. This was where we camped, on the edge of Rapid Lake.Dad and Jim at the campfire:Dad and I hard at work under Schistler Peak:Jim decides he's ready for some fishing ;) So, we gathered up our poles and bait and headed around the lake.

Here's Dad fishing:

I have an AMAZING story to tell you about one of the fish we caught. Dad caught a fish, got it off the hook, knocked it out and was climbing over the rocks to get it to me since I had the fish chain hooked on my belt. As he got to my rock, it squirmed out of his hands and fell between the rocks. We were both clutching for it, catching it, having it get away again, finally, it was a goner (or so we thought) as it swam sideways to the bottom of the lake. About 15 minutes later, this fish comes full throttle toward me, with it's head held out of the water like and alligator, as if to attack, right at me. I couldn't believe it! Since the edge of the rock I was standing on was under water, I threw down my pole and tried grabbing it with my hands. It was a circus! It kept getting away and then attacking again! I tried everything as I was lunging my arms into the lake... I could hear Jim and Dad from where they were perched, laughing as they watched in disbelief. Finally, I caught it and made sure we had it dead before I tried hooking it on a chain. We don't know who finally ate the magic, attacking fish but I sure wish we had that on video tape! Jim fishing. Isn't this some of the most beautiful country you've ever seen?!

Our chef. No one cooks fish like Dad! They were so good for breakfast the next morning!

We spent three days in the mountains before heading down. It sure was hard to leave!

Dad and I on a little hike, exploring the country:

Dad and Jim, deciding which way home was? :)

We had a great fishing trip but it sure was nice to get a warm shower, clean clothes and to sleep in our beds again that night! :)

Jim and Dad replacing the water pump and all it's connections... this was a BIG job and took a lot of time and work to do but they did it.Jim headed back to Colorado and I stayed the rest of the week on the farm with Dad and Jan.

Dad, Jim and Jan. A gate on the farm had caught and flung back, hitting Jan right above her eye. She had a black and blue eye for a long time but she was a trooper.

Outside my window the next morning, right in Dad and Jan's yard, I saw this little white tailed buck: My brother Phillip and my nephews: Canden and Creston:

After the weekend, Dad drove me to Rawlins where Jim and Kristine picked me up to drive me back to Colorado. We took a scenic trip home stopping through this little town (that I forget the name of). Kristine saw this cute antique/retro shop called "the Hoopla".

The next day, Doug and I climbed Horsetooth. This is the very same mountain we tried to climb a few summers back. That time, we didn't have enough water, got lost, I ended up getting heat exhaustion, almost passed out on the side of the trail and couldn't hold anything in my stomach for the rest of the night, after we finally got down. This time, we prepared ourselves with camel backs full of water and tried it again. We mastered it in no time at all. Here is Doug... being Doug (I think he was "scouting for mountain lions" :)

Making the ascent: Here we are at the summit. We still aren't sure how we got so turned around and in trouble a few summer's ago but this time, the trip was a breeze and we were feeling great!

When we got down, we met up with Jim for lunch in Fort Collins, who seemed to be quite happy not to have to send Search and Rescue after us this summer. :) That night, Doug and I made a huge dinner of Lemongrass Chicken and Pad Thai Shrimp stir fry over rice noodles for dinner with apple crisp for dessert. Yum!Jim, Kristine and Doug at dinner: The next day, I spent some time with Jim at work (which was super exciting, as always) and had lunch with Kristine at Mimi's Cafe (they make an amazing strawberry lemonade)! That night, Doug, Kristine and I went shopping at Centerra and went out to dinner. Then Jim and Kristine drove me to the airport that night so I could catch my red-eye flight to Florida to meet up with Kurt. I had a great time with everyone, thanks for taking the time to visit and I can't wait to see you again soon!

Phoenix, Arizona to see Grandpa Mines

We had all of our furniture and belongings boxed up and put on a ship to be moved back to the States and I had finished my last day of work at Landstuhl. Kurt and I decided that it would be a good time for me to make a trip back to see my family that I hadn't seen in a year and a half. My first stop was to Phoenix, Arizona where I saw my Grandpa Mines who will be celebrating his 92nd birthday in September. Here we are eating breakfast on his patio. We had to get up extra early to beat the Arizona heat!Here is a letter that President Bush wrote to Grandpa regarding Grandpa's time as a POW in WWII. Thank you for your help in this Uncle Gary! You can double click on the letter to read it better: While I was in Phoenix, I also got to see Aunt Carol, Uncle Lee and my cousin Luke! It was great to be able to spend some time with them. Jim and Kristine were also able to make it out to Phoenix and we made a trip to the cemetery to see Grandma's and Uncle Denny's headstones.Jim, Kristine and Grandpa at Grandma's gravesite: We heard and told many stories, visited with family, ate a lot of food and had a wonderful time! Thank you for a wonderful time Grandpa!

Drew in Germany

Drew came to Germany for some training and we were grateful to be able to spend some time with him. We took him to our of our favorite local restaurants for dinner, showed him around base and caught up. It was great!

Kurt and Air Force One

If you remember, Kurt had an assignment at the beginning of July that he wasn't able to say anything to us about before he left or while he was there. All we knew, was that he was in Italy. It turns out that Kurt was chosen to help arrange for the protection of Air Force One during the G8 summit! Pretty amazing! A higher ranking officer is typically selected for this duty assignment, but as many of you know... Kurt has a way of standing out and apart from anyone else.