random pics and ramblings

It's 8:07am, and (miracle of miracles) both boys are still asleep, so I thought I'd go through some of our pics from the last few weeks/months and blog until the boys wake up (which, since I actually started to try and accomplish something, I'm sure they'll come out bleary eyed any second now).

The boys continue with their unfortonate head/facial injury streak. 

The squadron here is closing  down this year, which has been YEARS in the making. Honest to goodness, one year after we got here we started to hear rumblings that the squadron may close, and quite honestly, I totally doubted whether it was going to happen, but low and behold, here were are a couple months away from shutting the place down. Most of my friends will head out of here before the first of the year, which will be a total bummer since they are my sanity here. When we come back from Christmas break our squadron commander's wife said that there will about 5 families left! Life of playdates and dinners with friends will be at a minimum but hopefully we'll find life slowing down and family time increasing! Here's the boys at one of our play dates out at White Sands. It's been a total joy watching these little guys grow up together! We are in a completely unique situation, and the Air Force is basically closing the squadron here, picking up all jets, pilots and maintainers and plopping us down in a new building in FL. So, that means for the most part, we'll be moving to FL with our group of friends.

I ran another half marathon and did it in some good company! 8 kids among us and Taryn (459) rocked the half marathon while pregnant. What's your excuse for not running? ;)

They have a local gymnastics place that has open toddler gym on Saturday mornings, and last week I took the boys for the first time. It was a blast and we plan to head back to burn off energy on the weekends! 

Welp, that was good while it lasted. Happy Friday everyone!

Happenings this week

* John and I went on our first date on November 12, 1999 so we celebrated our 14 year

 date-aversary this week. Here we are at the ripe not-so-old age of 17! Those of you that knew the 17yr old john, doesn't that beanie and black hooded sweatshirt bring back memories. 

*The boys had their first put put golf experience this week, and it was a blast. The whole idea was lost on Bram initially and he chucked his golf ball towards the parking lot and yelled "catch mom." We narrowly avoided paying for golf ball damage on someones Volvo. He quickly figured out the idea that he was supposed to get the ball in the hole, but the boy cheated every step of the way. I had to pose him for this picture.

*The next day I took a visit to my hair lady (the one that fixed Brammy's hair-tastrophy) and was jonesing for a change of some sort. I opted for a dark all over color, and after a day of uncertainty, I am now solidly thrilled with the color. 

* For the first time in John's AF career, we had the chance to get our picture taken near the jet, so we jumped on that. It was super informal, BYO camera, and of course, there's the monumental task of getting both boys to look in the same direction at the same time...  so we'll see how they turn out, but at least we tried. 

Pre pictures

* Here's one we took with the phone. 

Boys club

*John's job has tons of traditions, some more fun and crazier than others, but one of my favorites is a piano burning. There's probably a reason why they burn a piano, but I have no idea what it is. I do know, that it's always recipe for a good time.  

Sorry it's so dark, but there it is. The giant fire ball in the background is the piano...on fire. 

*last but not least, John shot an oryx. Normally, oryx are found in Africa, but at some point, ages ago, someone brought them over here to the desert of NM and they can be found here. Any who, the state issues a set number of tags each year, and John and his friend were lucky enough to draw one each. It took a few weekends of them traipsing through the dessert from 5am-6pm, but he got one. The meat is fantastic and hands down the least gamy meat of all the big game animals I've tried. We are so excited for the grocery bill break that it will bring (however, now that I type that statement, it's a total lie. I've quickly come to find that hunting is the most expensive "free" meet you'll ever eat....).

Pumpkin patch

I'm writing this in the car from my phone. All hail technology ( or not so much, because publishing this post from the car didn't work....whatevs.). We are headed up to the mountains to do some bike riding and fishing, which would be all around awesome, except bram is running slight fever (100 degrees) . Bram has been begging to go all morning ( since we told him yesterday of our fun plans), so I'm Hoping the hour long drive up and down the mountain will count as down time for him and he won't break out in the plague later this afternoon.

So, on to the reason for this post....the pumpkin patch.

My texting thumbs are already cramping, so this post will be many pictures and few words.

Here is how Bram approaches all things new, fun or otherwise.

Once you nudge him  throw him in the deep end, he usually realizes it's not so bad, but getting him to that point usually involves a significant amount of screaming.