Trip to Austin

Monday i had the day off, which was fantastic! Because the course i am attending is a 9 week course, consolidated into a 2 week course, we are working long days and through the weekends, so having the day off on Memorial Day was really a wonderful break. We headed back up to Austin to spend the day with Tesa! Juneau is especially in love with Tesa. She was still talking about Tesa, and her kitties, and the bouncy balls at her house.
This time i DID get some pictures of the girls with Tesa....however, Tesa does happen to be in her pajamas in every single one! Fortunately she is a good sport, and hopefully won't mind :)

as you can see, they became fast friends

even nova, who is usually a bit stand-offish, warmed right up and had a wonderful time playing with Tesa
This is what was SUPPOSED to be going on in the living room....

but the slumber part quickly turned from snuggling into giggling....

and then into outright craziness...

there was lots of kissing, tickling, slumber party games, and good times...

The next morning Juneau helped tesa make eggs and special "coffee" drinks

then they snuggled up and watched Monsters Inc (for the 3rd time!)

Juneau is always a bit scared during the first scene

Later that day Tesa took us to a magical little place in Austin. I didn't really get any good pictures myself, so i "borrowed" this one off another website. A beautiful little hike leads to this amazing natural springs swimming hole complete with waterfalls and wading pools. We all had such a great time swimming in the cool water after the hike. It was perfect for the girls, who had so much fun they both fell asleep in their bacpack carriers on the hike back to the car!

We are continuing to enjoy our time here is San Antonio. Cris has located all the little parks on post, and has been taking the girls all around to play. Poor Nova inherited Aunt Betsy's super-sweat gene, and has basically been drenched in her own sweat from about 8 a.m. until 5 p.m every day. :)

Juneau at the bottom of the slide waiting to "catch" Nova

I have been able to meet up with Cris and the girls on most days to hang out for a little while at lunch time, so i have been able to see a couple of their favorite play-spots.

Memorial Day

The greatest glory of a free-born people is to transmit that freedom to their children.
-Rev. William Havard (Chaplain to the Armed Forces during WWI)
This afternoon we were able to observe Memorial Day by taking the girls to the Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetary. It was an honor to be able to stand among the graves of the men and women who have served our country.

Juneau and Nova both know the Pledge of Allegiance, and almost always immediately put their little hands over their hearts and say The Pledge whenever they see a flag. The cemetary was full of flags, and we looked over to find them saying The Pledge several times this afternoon as we strolled through the cemetary.

The afternoon sun was beautiful

Cris and I were both quite moved by the opportunity to pay respect to the servicemembers. This particular grave marked that of a soldier just one year younger than Cris at the time of his death less than a year ago.

We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them. - Francis A. Walker

4 down, 10 to go

well, i've completed 4 days of my Captain's Career Course. Overall, it's a pretty good course. I'm not sure if i went into any detail about it, but basically it is critical part of getting promoted from Major to LTC. I didn't really have to take the course just yet, as i won't even be promoted to Major until next summer, BUT, the coures is usually 9 weeks, and they are doing a trial of a 2 week version of the course. The 2 week course was really being promoted by a lot of the supervisors (which makes sense as that means i will only be away from the hospital for 2 weeks instead of 3 months), and i was "Strongly Encouraged" to attend :) So, here i am. There are actually a lot of really useful things i'm learning here. And even things that aren't necessarily pertinent to me are still pretty interesting.

The hardest thing about the course is really just the logistics of all of us living in a hotel room for 2 weeks. The room is certainly meant for 1 person, not 4, and so we have had to find ways to make it work. The girls sleep in the tiny little kitchenette area, but there is really no division between that area and the rest of the room, so we have to be very quiet after we put them to bed, and again in the mornings so we don't wake them. It is DEFINATELY worth the extra effort to have them here with me. I would be truly miserable if i was stuck here by myself without them, so i don't mind working around the little issues, but it has certainly made for an interesting week.

The girls are adapting well, as usual. Well, except for the fact that Juneau has de-potty trained herself AGAIN (she was fully potty trained in March, then depotty trained herself while we were in Hawaii, then re-potty trained about a month ago, and now has de-potty trained again). for instance, she didn't have a SINGLE accident during the entire 2.5 day road trip from colorado to texas. then we arrive in texas and it's like she completey erased anything having to do with pottys from her mind. oh well, i guess there could be worse things :)

oh, funny little Juneau story. The other day we were eating ice cream, and she took a huge bite and then said, "i better watch out, or i might get Head Burn". we were like "head burn?", when we suddently realized she must mean "Brain Freeze!" ha! so now we have been calling it Head Burn and it cracks us up!

Finally, i will leave you with this lovely picture of my right heel...

There is supposed to be a shuttle that picks us up at the hotel and takes us to the conference center, but in typical Army fashion, sometimes it just doesn't show up :) The first day i didn't really mind the 2 mile walk in my boots/uniform, but by the end of the 1st day my heel was getting a little blister. I had to take my PT test on the second day (which i rocked, by the way!), which didn't help the old blister problem out too much. On the 3rd day the shuttle again didn't show up at the right time, and so i trekked the 2 miles back to the hotel. by then there wasn't a whole lot i could do about the fact that all the skin had completely peeled off my heel. Fortunately i am married to an awesome athletic trainer, which has been great for the treatment of the blister, however, not so great when i am looking for sympathy :) He reminded me yesterday that in the same way i get frustrated with women who are miserable from being pregnant at 39 weeks, and there is nothing i can do to fix their misery, my little blister situation is kind of the same thing for him. There is not a whole lot he can do to fix my misery, and eventually it will just resolve itself :) oh well, i guess i will just post the picture here in hopes of getting some sympathy from my blog buddies!

Teamwork!!

Our girls are growing up...and learning new ways to get themselves into trouble. This week they are delighting in playing and teasing for at least an hour everyday here in the hotel when I try to make them take a nap. I generally barely get them to sleep before Emilie is done with class and ready for us to head back out and pick her up.


But, they've also become quite the team...we have been frequenting the McDonald's playlands around Texas this week and while the tiered stair-step climbs up to the tunnels and slide are manageable for Juneau's 36 inch frame, Nova's towering 33 inches is JUUUUUST a bit shy of being able to hunch her tiny little self up to the next level.

After giving Juneau a little pep-talk about it being her job as the big-sister to look out for Nova, they came up with this...

Juneau gives a helpful assist...

While Nova finishes pulling herself up...

...Juneau jumps up to the next level.

Repeat as necessary...

Nova thinks the system works GREAT!!!

This has also caused Nova to become absolutely OBSESSED with "I'm the LITTLE sister!!"

It has been pretty crazy hot this week so far in San Antonio but the girls and I have been braving the humidity and enjoying the warm weather that Colorado has been soooo lacking to this point.

And finally...over the last 9 months we have been accused of being overly indulgent "yuppie" parents several times when people would notice on the blog that Juneau was wearing a pair of Air Jordan's and give us some heat about it. (Let me assure you, these were a once-in-a-lifetime find at a thrift store). Unfortunately we won't be helping quiet those rumblings with our latest find. Juneau was growing out of her Air Jordan's and Nova has been anxious for awhile to get her hands on them (I'm proud to say they both will enthusiastically say they have "Michael Jordan" on their shoes when asked).

In another stroke of luck, we stumbled into Kids Foot Locker last night and what did we find on rock bottom clearance but a pair of last year's Lebron James Nike shoe in a size 8...SCORE!!

Cousins Alex and Lyndsey are reportedly very jealous of Juneau's new kicks!!

Texas

Well, we have left the cold and dry for the hot and humid! I am attending a 2 week training course in San Antonio - the Captain's Career Course - and we decided rather than Cris and the girls staying behind in Colorado, we would all make the trip to San Antonio. It seemed like a pretty good idea until we got a call today that it was so windy at our house today, the fence in the backyard blew apart, and the dogs were in our neighbors yard....luckily it seems that everything is back under control, thanks to some pretty awesome neighbors.

Rather than our usual driving marathons, we decided to split the trip to texas up into 2 days, and it worked out very nicely. Here the girls are enjoying a lovely Texas sunset at a rest stop. Nova at about 12 hours into the road trip...enjoying the ride!
our first night's stop

part of what i was sooooo looking forward to about this trip to texas was seeing my dear friend, Tesa. Tesa and I met in my first year of medical school, and quickly discovered we were kindreds. We spent a lot of time studying at the local coffee shop, hiking, rock climbing, and trying to maintain our sanity while making it through medical schoo.

She is a beautiful, kind, and an overall unique and amazing person, and after not seeing each other for 5 years, it was amazing to get to spend some time together. She was, of course, on call this weekend, because that is just the life of an OB/GYN :) But we still got to spend some time together, as i tagged along with her to her little hospital whens she got called out to deliver a baby. UNFORTUNATELY i somehow did not get a single picture of Tesa on this trip, so i stole one of my favorites off her facebook!

Tesa has loved my girls since the second she heard of their existence. She has been Juneau's biggest fan since day one. She followed us through our lost referral, and then stalked the blog while cris was in Vietnam getting Juneau. She still watches our adoption video to this day. I love that she loves our girls from afar, and that she keeps up in the happenings of their little lives through the blog. It was like she already knew them when we arrived, and so they hit it off just perfectly, even though it was their first official meeting :)

Nova thorougly enjoyed bathtime in Tesa's tub!

lookin' cute after bath

We loved Tesa's hip little house!!! It is all about the windows and the natural light, and i couldn't stop taking pictures!! Unfortunately i took all of these pictures on Monday, while Tesa was at work, so she is not in a single one of them!

try to ignore the fact that the girls have choking hazards in their mouths....they were having so much fun with these balls i had to get a picture of them!

ok, ok, enough with the choking hazards.

they absolutely loved all the space in Tesa's house...especially this long hallway! the ran around like little crazy people after having been in the car for 2 days straight!

This morning we woke up and drove to San Antonio. Sea World offers 1 day free admission to active duty members and their families, and so we got to hang out all day with Shamu!

The girls both LOVED the shows!

but they had the very best time of the day when we found the little waterpark area

It took Nova a while to warm up to the concept (notice she is still dry!!) but eventually she decided it was actually fun!

Just as we were getting ready to leave we came across this obstacle course. we thought it would be to challenging for the girls...but, they were up for the challenge!Cris reallydidn't have to help them too much at all, and they were up the ropes, and across the mesh bridge without even thinking about it!

I though they might be scared once they actually got into these mesh tunnels, but they loved it!

finally we arrived back to our hotel room, and spent some quality time jumping on the beds! tomorrow should be a pretty light day. i just have to check in, get my paperwork together, and then get settled into the lodging on post. i'm hoping my days won't be too crazy busy. fortunately, there seems to be a lot for cris and the girls to do to keep themselves busy around san antonio while i am doing my training.