So there's this big gap in the blog and I never got caught up. I'm going to try to now.
After the east coast we went to New Mexico. Aaron had his fini flight and then a ceremony the following morning to hand over command of his squadron to the next commander as he moves on. The kids enjoyed the fini flight - standing on the tarmac at Canon waiting for Aaron to fly in while Predator drones did touch and goes and an Osprey rolled by. The pilots doused Aaron with fire extinguishers when he stepped off his aircraft and then Gage and Logan got him with a fire hose.
The ceremony where he handed over command was formal. Even to my civilian ears and even though I didn't get most of the military acronyms, it was beyond doubt that Aaron had done a fantastic job as commander. They had been to numerous dangerous places in various parts in the world (many where we aren't officially at war) and he and his people had saved many lives, rescued many people, and done a good number of bad guys in. Congratulations, Aaron, and best wishes to your continued success and for what you and your colleagues do. In the photo below, I captured the moment that Aaron took a salute for the very last time from his squadron.
The last time Aaron was fini flying it was the F-15 in Florida back in 2007. Vivian isn't in the photo (below) because we didn't want her to lose her hearing. So she and grandpa chilled in the car. And everyone looked a good bit younger.
After Clovis we spent a few days trying to return to normality in Austin. We have been away from home more or less since the beginning of July. Ava had taken care of Crazy who was in much better spirits than usual. May be we should see if Crazy wants to move next door? Or offer Ava a more permanent position.
Jo and the kids played a marathon round of Monopoly. In the end she beat them both. But Vivian and Evan played very well and Vivian makes a pretty good banker.
One hot afternoon we got Simran and the kids and drove to Costco to buy lemons. It was Simran's very first trip to the land of Utter Consumerism and she was quite wide eyed. The kids spotted a very large stuffed bear and instantly wanted it. I told them they could move into Costco instead. So they satisfied themselves with trying to hug it or strangle it as you can see in a photo above.
The reason for our trip to Costco (does one need a reason?) was to buy a hoard of lemons. Vivian had decided that she was going to be the Lemonade Queen. Then she decided to go into lemon popsicles instead. She even came up with her brand/tagline "Pop Goes the Flavors" spelt badly.
Another hot morning I took the kids to the Thinkery. We spent too much time there with each other and without Jo's temperate temper we got grumpy. But on the way out we ran into a Google self-drive car and Evan and Vivian were instantly cheerful and interested.
"So I can't get a driver's license till I am sixteen but if I get one of these cars then it can drive me around, right?"
After the east coast we went to New Mexico. Aaron had his fini flight and then a ceremony the following morning to hand over command of his squadron to the next commander as he moves on. The kids enjoyed the fini flight - standing on the tarmac at Canon waiting for Aaron to fly in while Predator drones did touch and goes and an Osprey rolled by. The pilots doused Aaron with fire extinguishers when he stepped off his aircraft and then Gage and Logan got him with a fire hose.
The ceremony where he handed over command was formal. Even to my civilian ears and even though I didn't get most of the military acronyms, it was beyond doubt that Aaron had done a fantastic job as commander. They had been to numerous dangerous places in various parts in the world (many where we aren't officially at war) and he and his people had saved many lives, rescued many people, and done a good number of bad guys in. Congratulations, Aaron, and best wishes to your continued success and for what you and your colleagues do. In the photo below, I captured the moment that Aaron took a salute for the very last time from his squadron.
After Clovis we spent a few days trying to return to normality in Austin. We have been away from home more or less since the beginning of July. Ava had taken care of Crazy who was in much better spirits than usual. May be we should see if Crazy wants to move next door? Or offer Ava a more permanent position.
Jo and the kids played a marathon round of Monopoly. In the end she beat them both. But Vivian and Evan played very well and Vivian makes a pretty good banker.
One hot afternoon we got Simran and the kids and drove to Costco to buy lemons. It was Simran's very first trip to the land of Utter Consumerism and she was quite wide eyed. The kids spotted a very large stuffed bear and instantly wanted it. I told them they could move into Costco instead. So they satisfied themselves with trying to hug it or strangle it as you can see in a photo above.
The reason for our trip to Costco (does one need a reason?) was to buy a hoard of lemons. Vivian had decided that she was going to be the Lemonade Queen. Then she decided to go into lemon popsicles instead. She even came up with her brand/tagline "Pop Goes the Flavors" spelt badly.
Another hot morning I took the kids to the Thinkery. We spent too much time there with each other and without Jo's temperate temper we got grumpy. But on the way out we ran into a Google self-drive car and Evan and Vivian were instantly cheerful and interested.
"So I can't get a driver's license till I am sixteen but if I get one of these cars then it can drive me around, right?"
The next afternoon when it was even hotter Jo took the kids to Deep Eddy to swim and I stayed home and "packed" instead, falling asleep into a deep long nap in minutes. But I eventually got my packing done and on a hot Saturday morning we took the kids to the Magellan back to school picnic and then they dropped me off at the airport.
I returned from Alaska 10 days later. And oh, when I opened the fridge it was mostly full of Costco lemons.
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