getting closer to deployment...

August is almost over, and my October deployment is rapidly approaching! We are in full force with our planning for the upcoming year. It has been really tough for us to try to make the right choices about what our family should do during the deployment. As I have said on this blog approximatey 1 million times, Cris and I are beyond blessed with the awesomest families EVER! i can't imagine what these last 2 years would have been like without our families, who have done everything from fly to Vietnam to help bring home Juneau, to living in a tiny hotel room to take care of newborn Nova while i was stranded by myself in Michigan for 2 months.

This fall things get really complex. Cris is currently in Hawaii getting the school year started off, then he will come back to colorado until i deploy in October. He will then move back to Hawaii to teach until I am back from Afghanistan in April/May. We had originally planned for the girls to stay with the Matus gang in Ohio from October until December while Cris was in Hawaii. I loved this plan. The girls adore Aunt Coral and their cousins. In fact, today Juneau tripped and fell pretty hard and when she stood up she said "I didn't even cry! I'm tough, like Alex and Lyndsey!". It seemed like the perfect plan until Cris' last trip to Hawaii, when Nova pretty much melted down while her daddy was gone. This girl LOVVVEEESSS her daddy. It was really pitiful to see her completely stressed out, not eating much, not sleeping much, and spending a lot of the day crying and irritable. When i realized how much it was affecting her to be separated from Cris, I had to re-evaluate our initial plan. I am already devastated to have to be away from the girls for 6 months, and i suddenly couldn't bear the thought that they would be separated from both Mom and Dad. As much as i know they would absolutely love 2 months with their cousins, i just wasnt sure how much it would affect them to be away from both parents. and I know cris woudl be unbelievably lonely by himself in Hawaii without any of his girls (not even his huskies!). We decided that we really wanted to keep our little family together as much as possible while I am deployed, so I started to pray hard about options. Just about that time, my sister Becky told me about an awesome young couple at their church in Florida.

Meet Nelson and Katy....our new nannies!

Nelson and Katy sounded like a perfect fit from the start! They love kids, and are super involved in the Children's Church that my sister and her husband lead. They seem really fun loving, adventurous, and easy going! Becky called Nelson and threw the idea out there, and after talking to Katy they accepted our offer to move to Hawaii and watch the girls while i am deployed!!! we are so excited about this answer to prayer, and we hope Nelson and Katy love Hawaii as much as we do!

life on the road...

the girls have spent lots of time traveling around with us this summer. they have become experts at taking full advantage of the hotels along the way...
Their usual routine starts of with "testing" out the bed. A good bed for jumping is a definately mark of a great hotel...bonus points if there is a nearby chair to launch onto the bed from.
next you have to check out the pool...

swim time is followed by some delicious pizza.

and the perfect end to the night...cinnamon sticks

I am finally getting to go through some of our pictures from our trip to texas. Nova found the perfect spot for a little bed in Tesa's fireplace :)

The girls had soooooo much fun with Tesa. They even spent the night sleeping in the living room with her and watching Monster's Inc.

there was lots of giggling and snuggling

and round 2 of "Don't you kiss me while i'm sleeping" was a big hit

Finally, a couple more pictures from Uncle Casey and Aunt Carmen's visit. Nova bundled up at the summit of Pike's Peak

Uncle Casey and Aunt Carmen were tons of fun. The girls are still talking about their visit!

This week with Uncle Drew has been awesome for the girls. They LOOOOVE getting spoiled all day, and Drew has been fearless in taking them out and about for various expeditions. He is really doing an amazing job of keep the household running smoothly while Cris is gone, and i love being greeted by 2 excited little girls every day who can't wait to tell me about their adventures.

!!!!Uncle Drew!!!!!

Meet Uncle Drew..... Drew is in college in New England, and was happy to visit us in Colorado this summer to watch the girls for 2 weeks while Cris is in Hawaii. The idea of taking care of 2 crazy two year olds didn't even phase him. The girls, of course, adored him from the first minute they met him, and Drew has taken this crazy house all in stride. Today was his first day watching the girls, and I had a 12 hour shift! He was brave enough to take them to the playground, the mall AND to see a movie!!! I was soooo thrilled that by the time I finally got out of work at 8 p.m., Drew and both girls were happy and having a great time.

I'll finish off this post with some unrelated photos of the girls from a trip we took to Garden of the Gods with Becky and Hope...

L-O-V-E

san antonio....round 2

well, we are continuing to have a fabulous time here in san antonio. it is H-O-T and super humid, but it is not preventing the girls from living it up at Sea World again. It just means they can drink their "Blue Ice" (slushee) in about 3 minutes flat.

My training has been absolutely awesome. It's not often i can really say that about the various army training i have to do, but this course is really amazing. There is nothing in the world that can compare to trauma medicine on the battle field, and i have learned so much at the course. The simulation training we are doing is the real deal...even down to a "smell simulator"! seriously! I have to admit that i don't love dragging around 200 pound manequins with amputations and sucking chest wounds while under simulated active fire in 100 degree heat, but i am learning so much it doesn't really even matter. I have gained some serious appreciation for all members of the combat medical team...especially the Medics who are treating soldiers with life threatening injuries in field under fire. those guys are definately heros, and i will be proud to be a part of the medical team working along with these guys and taking care of soldiers.

i would love to upload some pictures, but we have seriously the SLOWWWESTT internet of all time at our hotel. remember when you had to connect to the internet through a dial-up phone line using your modem.....well, imagaine that....only SLOWER!! it's hard to complain too much, though, because we otherwise LOOOOVEEE our hotel. The army hooked us up this week, and we are in a great suite with a separate bedroom and a pull out sofa in the living room. No more little girls sleeping on the kitchenette floor! i also got a rental car for the week....which was promptly rear-ended on my way home from the course yesterday....uggghhhhh!!! anyway, all that to say we won't have any pictures until we get home and can log on to some 21st century internet.

an inspirational story...

John Wayne has toured Afghanistan and Iraq, hunted griz­zly bears in Alaska and earned the Sil­ver Star; and as of July 16, John Wayne is the first one-legged sol­dier to grad­u­ate the Spe­cial Forces Sniper Course.

Staff Sgt. John Wayne Wald­ing of Groes­beck, Texas, that is.

In April 2008, Wald­ing and nine other Spe­cial Forces sol­diers from a 3rd Spe­cial Forces Group (Air­borne) assault team were attacked by the Hezeb Islami al Gul­badin while search­ing for insur­gents in Afghanistan's Shok Valley.

Wald­ing, one of sev­eral team mem­bers who were injured, took a bul­let through his right leg under his knee.

“I ripped off my boot lace and lit­er­ally tied my leg to my thigh to keep it from flap­ping around,” Wald­ing said.

Over the six-and-a-half hour fire­fight, more than 150 insur­gents were killed. The mem­bers of the assault team were each awarded the Sil­ver Star in Decem­ber 2008 for their coura­geous actions in Shok Valley.

Walding’s no-quit atti­tude has taken him from Wal­ter Reed Army Med­ical Cen­ter in Wash­ing­ton back to Fort Bragg, N.C., where he’s become the first amputee to grad­u­ate from the Spe­cial Forces Sniper Course.

Dur­ing his ini­tial recov­ery at Wal­ter Reed Army Med­ical Cen­ter in Wash­ing­ton, Wald­ing set up short-term goals for him­self. He was a run­ner before the inci­dent, aver­ag­ing 50 miles per week. Dur­ing recov­ery, he would get up and run a lit­tle more every day, always keep­ing his focus on that next step.

“I’m John Wayne, born on the Fourth of July. This is what I was meant to do.” Wald­ing said.

I heard about this soldier today in our trauma training, while we were learning about effective use of tourniquets. pretty amazing story....

we obviously made it to san antonio. i am the first to admit there is lots and lots of rather pointless army training, but this 5 day course is so far one of the best i have been to. 11 hours/day of trauma training, that is super applicable to my upcoming deployment. i am learning a ton of practical knowledge about field medicine, and getting excited about broadening my medical horizons this fall.

we spent an amazing day at Tesa's house in austin. we love austin, and the girls think tesa's house is just about as good as it gets.

i will post some pictures if i can find the motivation to hook up the camera one of these days :)

Goodbye Aunt Becky and Hopie.....

and HELLO Uncle Casey and Aunt Carmen! Cris' brother and his wife have been on an amazing road trip adventure out west, and are now making their way back to the eastern U.S. They made a special stop in Colorado Springs for a visit, and the girls are loving having their Aunt and Uncle in town. And the other big news of the day. DADDY IS HOME!!!!
We spent some time playing at a local park while we waited for Cris' plane to land. The girls had tons of fun...mostly getting "underdoggies" on the swings

"higher Uncle Casey!!" We wanted to take Casey and Carment to Casa Bonita...although i'm not sure that my stomach agreed that 2 trips to Casa Bonita in 1 week was a brilliant idea. The Sopapillas are always so delicious it almost makes it worth eating an entire plate of food smothered in Cheez Whiz just to get the Sopapillas.

A couple more days of fun with Casey and Carmen and then we are off for San Antonio road trip round 2.

finally some pictures!

i finally got around to uploading some pictures while the girls were napping today. This first picture demonstrates Nova's make-shift bonnet skirt... while i am on the topic of embarrassing Nova, this is what i found when i went into the bathroom the other day...Nova on the potty with an ear of corn!

she thought it was hilarious!

We drove up Pike's Peak this week, and it was COLD! we even got to play in a tiny patch of snow!

Juneau and Nova with their cousin Hope

the whole gang

Nova "skipping" rocks like daddy

it was a beautiful, clear day on Pike's Peak

Hopie and Nova

The girls at America the Beautiful Park

Of course i HAD to take Becky and Hope to Casa Bonita in Denver

The girls with the Little Einsteins in their front packs

Juneau thought this motorcycle was sooooo cool

Juneau at Frontier Days in her bonnet....a true pioneer girl :)

Nova showing off her pioneer look

riding on the ferris wheel...Nova LOVED it!

Hopie and Becky were brave enough to ride the SkyMaster

Nova settled for the little motorcycles...and loved it!

The girls tried Rock Candy for the first time...a big hit as you can see

Hopie was wiped out! running around after two 2-year-olds is hard work!

sweet Nova