Uniform Changes

As B-man prepares his gear for his upcoming deployment, it's getting harder and harder to be in denial about him leaving. But, as long as he's home, I can be in denial a little longer.  He pretty much has to go through all of his gear every time he goes somewhere to pack what is needed for the environment where he'll be. So he usually lays everything out in the garage or den and filters through it all. They were just issued new uniforms and gear in Multicam (the pattern of Army combat uniform that is worn in Afghanistan). So, it got us talking about all of the different uniforms that he's had in his twelve years of Army life.  Take a stroll with us down memory lane.

He started out in 1998 in woodland camo BDUs (battle dress uniform).

He deployed to Kuwait in Nov 2011 in DCUs (desert camo uniforms).

When he got back from Kuwait in May of 2002, it was back to woodland camo.

And when the war with Iraq started, he deployed in DCUs again from April 2003-March 2004.

Upon their return from Iraq, they switched into the woodland BDUs yet again.

And then, the world got crazy with digitization and pixels. The powers that be jumped on board and adopted this digital ACU (Army combat uniform) pattern. The theory was that it would provide efficient camo in desert and woodland situations.
He wore them during his second tour to Iraq in November 2005-November 2006.  And this has remained the daily uniform since then.

Earlier I mentioned that he was issued new uniforms/gear. This is multicam. It's the approved combat pattern for the Army in Afghanistan.
We both agree that it's our favorite pattern so far.
But, when he gets back from Afghanistan, it's back to the ACUs. Darn it, we really like this one.


So, you can imagine how much 'stuff' he's had over the years in all of these patterns.
He's pretty much gotten rid of all the woodland and desert pattern items. He just has a few keepsake pieces.
But, now we have a pile of ACU and Multicam stuff.

Just thought it was interesting and blogworthy.

Camping!

B-man has spent a lot of time camping in his life. I've heard many stories about boyscout camp and family camping trips throughout the years. He has such great memories of camping and always talks about wanting to go.

We did go camping one night together at Clemson (he camped a lot at Clemson, but I only went one time). A bunch of us got together after a football game and camped one night. No tents though. I think we brought beer and sleeping bags. And, that's it! Oh, and ONE flashlight...for like 8 of us! I do remember that part. Lol. 

We even bought a tent when we lived in Colorado and B got me a really nice sleeping bag for my birthday one year. But, we only camped in our living room in Colorado. It just seemed like the timing was never right to actually get out there and do it. We also wanted to take Murray and Sandy, but campsites usually require them to be on a leash the whole time. Which would not be fun for us, for the pups, nor for our camping neighbors. And then there were the moves, the deployments, traveling, pregnancies, infancy, etc.  I digress. Well, B-man's been talking about it a lot since we moved up here. And we're surrounded by all things camp-y, so I finally gave in and said, "okay, let's do it".  Don't get me wrong. I'm not against camping. And I am up for adventure, but all I could think about was all of the stuff we would need to bring with us for two small children, for one night. Would it be worth it?? Hmm...
But, B-man took the lead and made a list of everything we needed. We went to the store and checked off the list, which included a bigger tent b/c our family has definitely grown since our CO days. He packed and loaded up the truck with all of our 'essentials' and off we went! We drove up to the Eklutna Lake campground and found a spot. I had a eureka moment when we discovered that we were going to be able to drive right up to the campsite. We weren't going to have to walk in all of our gear. Woohoo! And, once again, Brian took the reigns and was totally in his element setting up camp. I, on the other hand, stood around with a baby on my hip! Lol. Boo was excited to drive his trucks around in the dirt. After getting unpacked and getting the tent set up, we had a wonderful time! It was totally worth it! I look forward to doing it again. And now we can say we've been camping...in Alaska!

Lots of stuff! The bed has quite a load in it as well.

B-man setting up the tent. He knew exactly what to do!

They thought it was hysterical inside the tent.

Collecting wood for the fire.

Getting the fire going.

We grilled hot dogs for supper.

Boo said it was the best hot dog ever.

S'mores and roasted marshmallows for dessert.
These were GIANT marshmallows (really, way too big).

B-man even brought a hammock and set it up in mere moments! He really is a rock star, y'all! And he's mine...swoon!
Oh yeah, Boo loved the hammock.

This was the next morning.
The worst part was waking up to the cold!
But B-man quickly got up and got this fire going for us!
Lil Bit has socks over her hands b/c her mittens wouldn't stay on.
She ended up in my sleeping bag and Boo ended up in B-man's sleeping bag during the night.

We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast.

My handsome fella.

Lil Bit taking her morning nap in the tent.

"The best pancakes and bacon ever."

Makes me smile.

Time out tree stump.
Just keepin' it real.

Lil Bit had a turn in the hammock too.

We really did have a great time and B-man totally rocked the campsite and made it so easy on me. Thanks Hon! Boo was so excited that we were going to sleep in the tent all night. He said that was his favorite part. I had a little trouble with my sleeping bag...my feet were quite cold and I finally realized half way through the night that the bottom of my sleeping bag was unzipped. Doh! And then when I tried to zip up the top around Bit and me, I got the zipper caught on the fabric. You know what I'm talking about...the catch of the zipper that makes you think you're probably going to have to throw away whatever it is you've destroyed b/c there's no way possible to get that fabric out of the zipper. It was a total camping foul!  haha! I loved making these memories with our family. It was a great time. And, we didn't see any bears! Oh, and I did get the fabric out of the zipper.

10 Months!

The previously scheduled camping trip post is being interrupted by some breaking news! Lil Bit is TEN MONTHS OLD today!! What?? When did this happen? Sniff. Sniff. It's getting harder and harder to get her monthly photos with her lying on her back. She won't. be. still! So, there aren't that many to share this time. ha!

Lil Bit has 7 teeth now and is crawling everywhere (on her hands and knees) now. She even started cruising this weekend! She thinks baby food is so last month! She wants whatever we're  I'm eating, and usually wants it off my plate. She must think it tastes better that way. Lol. We're getting better about sleeping through the night, too. After several rough (read: she and I were up crying 2-3 hours)nights of tough love, I think we can say she's finally sleeping through the night from about 6:45 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Thank you, Lord! It was so hard for me to not go in there and nurse her. But, I knew I had to stick with it or she'd never sleep through.

She's still our lil doll and she makes us smile every day!

Below are a couple of pics from game day on Saturday. We had a great time watching the Tigers play! They beat FSU! Woohoo (sorry Aunt B)!

(look at our Lil Boo...so grown up looking in this one)

Video of Lil Bit cruising.

B-man built (as in cut the wood and put it together) a bike for Boo before we left Texas. He used our friend's bike over at The Masini Family as a template (thanks again!). It's a balance bike, which means that it has no pedals. It's supposed to help them learn to balance the bike, without worrying about pedaling. Once they get the balance portion down, you add the pedaling component with a regular bike. In theory, this takes out the training wheels phase. Well, B-man finished it right before we moved, so Boo didn't get to use it much in TX. And, when we got here, the seat had broken off during transit. We also needed air in the tires. So, I finally got air in the tires Friday and then just decided to tape the seat back on, knowing that B-man didn't really have time to make a new one at this point. Anyway, here are a couple of videos of Boo riding it this morning. It's a beautiful day here and he's really improving his skills.

Oh, we even had a date night this weekend! I think this was our first date since Lil Bit was born. Am I right?  B-man's LTC offered to babysit for us. He's here on TDY before the deployment. His family is back in D.C. So, he's missing some time with his kiddos and offered to come spend some time with our babes. It was awesome to have such a qualified sitter! ha! Boo was so excited to have him come over. He couldn't get us out the door fast enough. I put Lil Bit down before we left.  So, B-man and I went to get ice cream and to the movies. We saw an Alaskan celebrity at the theater, Shane from R5 Sons! We also had time to go have a drink afterwards. It was nice to have some time to talk, just the two of us.  So, we had a great weekend...just doing normal stuff!

C-17 Jump

Holy cow, it's taken forever to get this post up for y'all! I think it's worth the wait, though. The guy behind B-man in the plane last week had a camera on his chest. So, he recorded from inside the plane! The trouble with posting it was the format and length of the video. After multiple attempts to convert and edit the video without success, I finally decided to just play the video on my computer and then use my camera to record it off the screen. I then edited it and spliced it together so you're not watching 5 minutes of them just standing there on the plane waiting to get to the DZ.  And that's finally how I got it to work. Whew! So, please, please watch and please, please comment! haha! Just kidding...not really. Please comment! :)


The kids and I went out to the drop zone, but B-man's flight jumped earlier than expected, so the video that I took is most likely of another group of paratroopers.

A guy behind B-man jumped into his parachute risers, causing an entanglement (they were stuck together and the guy above couldn't get out of B-man's chute). In this situation, the guy up top tried to work his way out, but he wasn't able to free himself. B-man monitored their rate of descent compared to the other guys around them and decided that they weren't falling too fast. They were just slightly faster than those around them, so they decided to ride it out instead of cutting their main chutes and deploying their reserves. B said he was pretty calm throughout but the guy that had entangled with him was kind of freaking out and kept saying, "I'm sorry, sir... I'm, sorry sir..." B-man tried to calm him down and assure him that they were going to be okay. Right before they landed B-man said, "Just try not to land on me..." and then they braced for their landing. And, they were both just fine! Whew!!!! This mama, and I know B-man's mama does not like to hear about entanglements. I'm so glad both B-man and the 'other guy' were safe. This is the second time that someone jumped into B-man's chute. The first time was at Airborne School. Yikes!!!

The C-17 is a beast of a plane!
Huge!!

Do you see the door open and the guy starting his jump?

There they go!

There were so many of them!

After the jump.
They've packed up their chutes on their backs and they're holding on to their reserves in front of them.
The guy in the far left of this picture is the guy who got tangled up with B-man.

The long awaited video!
It's pretty awesome.
Viewing TIP: Click play and once the video starts playing, click in the main body of the video. It will take you to the private youtube where the video is stored. Once there, click on the four arrows in the bottom right corner to see the video in full screen.

Things to look/listen for in the video above:
-the guy you see is B-man

-hooking up the static line

-equipment check (the guy with the camera will check B-man's static line and give the 'all good')

-B-man says hello

-countdown (1 minute, 30 sec, standby...)

-THE JUMP!!

After B-man goes out the door, you can't see him anymore. He's entangled to the left of the view of the camera.

 


This is the video I took from the ground of another group.
B-man had already landed.

We're so happy that we've been able to go out to the DZ to watch B-man's jumps! It's quite exciting!
I hope you enjoyed the videos.

Game Day

I'm still working on the post with the pics and videos of B-man's C-17 jump. I'm having to convert the video file to a usable format. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to do it. So, in the meantime, here's a little taste of our weekend.

We woke up at 8:00 a.m. to watch the Clemson Tigers take on the Auburn Tigers. We're ecstatic that the Clemson Tigers were the victors! It was a great game to watch.  Boo isn't in to having his picture made much lately. Well, he wants to have his picture taken, but doesn't want to stand still to do it. So, we just got one of him that was blog worthy.

Clemson shirt and moose jammers!

Rah! Rah!

Go Tigers!

Cute Bloomers!

Watching the game with Daddy.

The good thing about an 8:00 a.m. game time is that we have the rest of the day to do something else after the game. So, we went camping! I'll post pics of that after I get the C-17 jump up on the blog.



Get Your Popcorn Ready!

Okay, I know I said I was going to post videos and BeBe gently reminded me in her last comment to do so. So, here they are. They're probably clips only die hard (read: family) lowcountry fayes fans will be interested in, but I'd be delighted for all of our friends to stick around and check them out as well.

We now have a gate at the top and bottom of the stairs.

 

She can crawl now, too!

She does it this way about 25% of the time.

Who needs toys, right?

 

She's moved up to a big girl tub!

She is like this every night for the entire time she's in the tub!

I'm thinking we might see her in a future summer olympics doing the butterfly!

Boo and I started this game today. He loved it!

I love it too, as it works on his LISTENING skills!!

And now, for the latest installment of Boo says the darndest things:

So, the other day Boo wanted to watch some more shows on TV. I told him he could not watch more shows. I told him that it wasn't good to watch shows all day and that he needed to use his brain to do other things. Well, two days later, we had this little chat:

Me: Boo, it's time to go potty.

Boo: (very matter of factly) Umm, I think I'm just going to use my brain for other things. Okay, Mama?

Me: Boo, Go potty (Lol).

We had a special treat today.  B-man got to jump out of a C-17 airplane!!!

I'm waiting on some clips and pics from friends before I post about it. Stay tuned...