The High One

Whew! I think it all caught up with us. All the traveling and sight seeing, that is. It seems we've been pretty sluggish since B-man left. I've been trying to update the blog, but have found myself lounging on the couch after putting the kids to bed at night. But, I'm feeling renewed now that Lil Bit is SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT (knock on wood)!! Hallelujer!

So, we made it up to Talkeetna to do the flight seeing tour. I just kept checking the webcam of Denali and the weather and it looked like we were going to have a clear day, so I called and made reservations. It wasn't really the best time in the world, but we wanted to get it in while we could. So, the movers came on Thursday and we dropped everything and drove up to Talkeetna on Friday. ha!

Our flight wasn't until 5 p.m. so we took our time getting up there and enjoyed the tiny town before we checked in for our flight.

Mt McKinley
AKA Denali
 AKA "The High One"
AKA  The highest peak in North America!
Elevation is 20,320 ft!

Pikes Peak has nothing on this one!

Resident Mountain Man in Talkeetna! With his ale from the lowing brew house.
Remember him from our last Talkeetna post?

Dog sled photo op.

There's the Alaska train, again!

Happy Bit!

Happy Boo!

Pre-flight warm up!

Boo Bear!
Boo did really well on the way out. But, got sick on the way back.
I must say, I was on it! He started getting whiny and I was thinking, "what's up with this??"
And then I thought...Oooh! I bet he's going to get sick! So, I quickly fumbled for the air sickness bag and put it in front of him. He immediately tossed his cookies, but IN THE BAG!! Not a drop got on him or the plane! It might be my proudest parenting moment to date! I rocked it! hahaha! And, he was totally fine after that one toss.

Bit fell asleep before we took off!
This is not her new carseat...just a loaner from the airport.

Beautiful views!!
The clouds did roll in, so we didn't get a good view of McKinley from the plane. But, it was still awesome and we had already seen McKinley earlier in the day as shown in the previous pics.

We took a TON of pics, so this is just a sampling.
This pic is taken from the plane and these look like little puddles, but they are more like ponds, on the glacier.

Landing on the glacier.
Umm...mountain ahead! :)

Standing on Eldridge Glacier

She's awake!!

Skis and wheels!

Boo had a blast!

And got to go up and touch the wheel.

Bit squealed and played with her socks on the way back to the airport.

Afterwards, we ate supper at this place. The food was soooo good!

B-man took this video of another plane landing while we were on the glacier.
It was a busy place!

Flightseeing!

Boo went out to dance with some little girls at the pizza place.
They're not in this video, but this was the cutest video of him dancing.

It was a great day!!! Something I'll cherish forever. I feel like I'm forgetting something I wanted to say. Hmmm...If I think of it, I'll add it later.



In other news: Lil Bit has another tooth and Lil Boo is officially signed up for preschool on post. B-man is doing well in LA. They've been doing a lot of language training this past week. The inside of the house is unpacked and I haven't even touched the garage! haha! I did cut the grass though. I don't think we'll be winning yard of the month anytime soon. ha! It's been a LONG time since Mama's had to cut the grass.

8 Months!

Well, it's that time again...where I say, "I can't believe our baby girl is..." 8 months old!!!! I really can not believe it!! I'm so sad that she's growing so quickly!! She's just the best little baby and I just want her to stay like this. She really is a doll and I am in love with her! She warms my heart and makes me smile EVERY day. She continues to have an easygoing personality, but gets frustrated now when we take something away from her that she can't have. She loves to watch Boo play and also loves his trains and cars (Boo does not love this about her). She loves to take a bath. She's doing well with her solid foods, having gone through all varieties of fruits and veggies and is now onto combinations. She can get around by army crawling. I just love her so much! We all do! Here are her photos this month.

She's into yoga, liker her Mama and BeBe!
(she's better at it than Mama and BeBe too)

She was very intrigued by her picky sticky this month.

It's bow time!

"What? I thought we were finished with the photo shoot."

This is how I get bath time done while B-man's out of town.

Boo loved this jumpy when he was itty bitty and Lil Bit is following right along.
She loves it too.

If you need someone to find minutiae, Bit is your girl.

Army Crawl

Train ride.



We love you Lil Bit!!!

Airborne!

We were very excited when we found out we were moving to Alaska. But, B-man's excitement grew even more when he discovered that he would be coming to an Airborne unit. He's in 4th Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division. And it is an airborne unit. In fact, he had to sign something saying he knew it was an airborne assignment and he agreed to go to an airborne unit. If he refused the airborne assignment, they would have taken away his wings!

Anyway, it's been a l-o-n-g time since he went to Airborne School. Let's see, that was the summer after his junior year in college...1997. Fourteen years ago! What??? OMG, that makes me feel old! Airborne school is grueling, to say the least. But airborne school in July in GA, is something else. I'm always amazed at his airborne school tales. After going through the course, you have five jumps on your record and if you haven't jumped since then, you're called a "five jump chump". Basically, this means that you've been to airborne school but you've never been to an airborne unit (if you haven't been to airborne school, you're called a 'leg'). Anyway, when we arrived here in Alaska, B-man found out he would need to go to a BAR (basic airborne review) course before jumping. So, they did that on Monday. He called me afterwards and said they were going to jump on Tuesday! But, they didn't make it onto that jump.  Long story short, too many people showed up and there weren't enough chutes. But, while they were there they got on the manifest to jump on Thursday. The Thursday jump was going to be out of Blackhawks AND they were going to have a German jumpmaster, so they would earn German jump wings too! Can you believe it? B-man's first jump in 14 years and he was going out of a helicopter and was earning foreign jump wings at the same time!? Most people have 20+ jumps under their belt before doing something like this. He was really stoked to say the least.

Here are the photos from the day...
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B-man and three of his team members (only 4 of 6 jumped on Thursday).
The yellow line wrapped on their chutes is the static line. That is hooked up to the chopper and is what pulls out their chutes!

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While we were waiting for the choppers to arrive, this Sherpa was also doing a drop.
If they had jumped on Tuesday, it would have been out of a Sherpa like this one.

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They have their arms over their reserve shoots. Once you're geared up, you have to keep it covered so that it doesn't get caught on something and deploy.

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Here come the choppers!!!!

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B-man's team will be getting on the second one.

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Landing to pick up the guys.

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Loading!
B-man is the first guy in line with a kevlar on.

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Going around to get in on the other side.

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B-man is on the other side.
But some of these guys are his teammates.

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There they go!
B-man is in the second chopper.

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And, there he is!!!!

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It was so cool to be there!

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All of the guys from his chopper. He's on the far right.
There were six guys on each flight.

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Landing!

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Coming in off the drop zone!!

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No longer a five jump chump!

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We were so happy to be there and share this with him!
Of course, Boo wanted to do it too.
I told him he had to wait until he grew up to be a man, like Daddy.
So, now he keeps asking me to help him be a man.
I tell him I'm helping him become a man everyday! :)

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B-man telling his team that he's an expert now!
I guess they think that's funny! ha!

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Getting his German wings pinned on by... a German Major.

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Kind of scruffy looking, huh?

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Post jump photo.

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:)

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Bit wouldn't look at the camera. I guess she was watching the drop zone.

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His German wings!

This is a video of his jump.
I was taking pics in one hand and taping in the other. And, I could NOT see the choppers through the view finder on the video camera b/c of the bad glare. So, of course, I missed the moment he jumped out, but I got the rest of it. I hope it doesn't make you sea sick! The quality is terrible!

It was a GREAT day!!! B-man was awesome and we were/are so proud of him. I'm so happy we were able to share this with him (again, another reason to come along to AK).

He really is our hero!

...and is no longer a five jump chump!





P.S. B-man left Friday morning to go to Ft Polk for a little over a month. BeBe arrives in a couple of weeks. I'm almost done unpacking the inside of the house. I think I have three boxes left. And then it's on to the garage, which really doesn't look too bad. I have more adventures to share, but that'll be another day. And, someone turns 8 months old this week!!!

We're Back Online!

We've been busy bees unpacking all of our things that we I couldn't live without. We did really good purging the house before we moved, but I'm at it again. It feels really good to get rid of stuff.

And late this afternoon the cable guy arrived and now we're back online and can rewind live TV! We've really been spoiled by that one! I'm so tired from unwrapping everything so I'm keeping this short. But, I wanted to say a quick hello.

B-man is back at work brushing up on his airborne skills. There are several jumps planned for this week! I'm hoping we can get out to the drop zone to see one. He's very excited. I am too.

I had to share this tidbit from Boo as well:
Boo: "Mom, I want to go up to heaven to see Jesus."
Me: "You do?"
Boo: "Yeah, I think we're going to need a ladder."
Me: Smile