Back in the Groove

Well, we finally made it through our three weeks of total confusion and chaos. Now that we are back into the swing of things I wanted to let everyone know what we have been up to for the last month.

Going back to the start of our month of craziness, 15 AUG 09, when Garrett left Bracken and I in Utah to travel to Cuba for the Air National Guard. Our last day together was 14 AUG 09 because Garrett left us early in the morning on the 15th. While in Cuba he had the privilege to work with other Air Force members (remember Garrett was previously enlisted in the Army Reserves out of Kansas) and was surprised when they were informed that they would get some free time if they kept working hard for that first week. They had enough of time on their hands in the evenings and on the weekends that they were able to hang out, go fishing, snorkeling, and have BBQ's. Garrett was in Cuba for 2 weeks and returned 29 AUG 09. When he returned he went back to work for 4 days and then would join us in Vegas to visit with our friends and relax some for the long weekend.

While Garrett was in Cuba, I was here in Utah getting things ready because my unit was going TDY to Nellis AFB, located near Las Vegas, from 22 AUG 09 to 4 SEP 09. That week I was busy cleaning the house and packing for the next two weeks to come. We visited some friends the thursday and friday before we left and left our new house the next morning around 7:00 am. While in Vegas Bracken stayed with Matt and Gayle Morrow, friends who lived in Utah and recently moved to Vegas, while I worked my 12 to 13 hour days. I went to visit as much as possible but I rarely had time to stay for long periods of time. These short stays made it harder for Bracken but he did realize that I had to go to work and by the time he did realize it was almost time to go home. My 2 week TDY was not as eventful has Garrett's was in Cuba; when I did have time to myself I either went to visit with Bracken or relaxed in my room. On the weekend all I did was hang out with Bracken at Matt and Gayles but going over there was the best times I had while I was there. Thanks Matt and Gayle for allowing Bracken to stay and me to visit.

Bracken had a good time Staying at Matt and Gayles and he got along pretty well with their two boys but mostly got along better with Cooper, their oldest boy. Bracken and Cowen, their youngest boy who was 3, got along for the most part but they are both at the bossy and I know everything stage, which did not go over well when one would tell the other no or to stop it. By that point the nasty look was in both of their eyes and you could tell that they were going to start fight, you would have to stop it quickly or they both would get mean. They eventually did get used to eachother being around and stopped fighting so much but by that time we were getting ready to take him with us and head out.

Garrett arrived in Las Vegas on 4 SEP 09 just after lunch and visited with Matt, Gayle and other friends they had staying at the house. I was not able to get off work real early so i met up with everyone later in the evening, after I had packed my stuff up and moved to the room that Garrett, Bracken and I were staying in for a few nights. That night we just hung out, had a couple drinks, and headed back to our room to rest for the night.

On Saturday we HAD to go to Buffalo Wild Wings (we dont have them in Utah and Garrett needed some because it was actually close) for lunch. Bracken enjoyed watching the races, Garrett enjoyed the environment, and I was just glad to have all of us back together again; It was awesome. After lunch Bracken needed a nap but when he woke we were on the move again.

We had been invited over to a friend (Poppe and Lyndi) of a friend's (Matt and Gayle) house for a BBQ. We watched the Oklahoma vs BYU college football game and celebrated Aden's, Poppe and Lyndi's son, birthday. Poppe is an AWESOME cook and had smoked some Tritip and Boston butt roast, so good! We had cake, he opened presents and then the guys had to try and figure out how to put a basketball hoop together (very interesting, I heard they put it together backwards at first). We headed home and slept for a while.

The next morning we headed back over to Matt and Gayles for their son's, Cooper, birthday party. It was cute, we had gotten him some Wii games and he didn't want to stop playing them the whole time we were there, he didn't even want to stop to cut the cake, eat pizza, or open presents. We didn't get to stick around for the whole party; we eat lunch and had cake with them but we had to head out so we wouldn't arrive back in Utah to late.

It was a 6 hour trip so nothing too terrible. Bracken did great, he didn't get much of a nap so he ended up sleeping the most of the way home. We eventually made it home and unpacked the blazer wanting to do nothing more. The next day, we sat around and watched movies; it was a nice feeling, not having somewhere we had or wanted to be.

OK, Well that is the run down of pretty much everything that was going on for those three weeks. Now it is back to the normal riff raft of work and finding time for everything else.