Giant Catch-Up Post, Picture Edition

Oh, mercy.

It has been over a month since I last blogged. I love writing in ye olde blogge shoppe, but once it's been a little while, I feel so overwhelmed by the prospect of properly detailing all of the recent events, that I just put it off over and over again, until here we are! A month and a half later, and way too much to catch up on. It has been a whirlwind of events since I last posted about our new assignment.

 Before the photo-palooza commences, I feel I should at least give my loyal audience the Reader's Digest version of all that has happened in the last month and a half. Last time I blogged, Cary had just received his assignment, which in case you already forgot, is a KC-135 to Fairchild AFB in Spokane, Washington. We expected to sit around Del Rio and bask in graduated-from-pilot-training-bliss for a while, but this was not the case. Graduation came and went, and it was delightful, and a week later we were moving our household goods into a storage unit, packing up everything we'd need for the next 6 months into our cars, and saying goodbye as Cary flew up to Spokane for a lovely SERE vacation (survival school), while I hopped in the car with Abby and drove up to Colorado. Cary is almost done with his training (hallelujah... it's been rough) and we are meeting in LA on Saturday to hop aboard the good ship Disney Wonder for a cruise with my family! Hooray! After that, we are coming back to Colorado for some more vacationing. Cary will then fly down to Del Rio to finish up some paperwork and whatnot, and I will stick around CO to attend by BFF's wedding! And then, I will drive from Denver and Cary will drive from Del Rio, and we will meet at Altus Air Force Base in Altus, Oklahoma for a hot and boring summer, where Cary will complete 5 months of training for the KC-135. AND THEN, at long last, we will pick up our stuff from Del Rio and drive a moving van (towing a car) and another car up to Spokane where we will FINALLY settle down in beautiful Spokane, buy a house, find me a job, etc.

As for my time in Colorado I've been busy watching Ellie, trying to find a swimsuit for our cruise that won't scar young children, dealing with getting my credit card information stolen, trying to figure out where to live while we're at Altus, running a lot so that I can eat Chipotle and Chick-Fil-A to my heart's content, worrying about my husband, losing at every single card game we've played, taking pictures of Ellie with my iPhone, loving the Colorado mountains and weather, and enjoying lots of time with family. It's been great, but I'm ready to see my husband again.

Boy, that was not a very condensed version at all, now was it?

Now that you are up to speed, sit back, grab an ice cold beverage, and warm up your scrolling finger, because here comes a random and plentiful assortment of pictures, to delight and astound you.

The task of putting these in chronological order is just too much for me to bear. I tried for about 15 minutes, but became overwhelmed with the desire to chuck my computer out the window, so deal with it.

We went on a Valentine's Day lunch date to the new Fuddrucker's in Del Rio. It was sexy. 

Chloe, Josh, and Abby were best friends while they were in town for graduation. 

Oh hi, baby! I've been watching Ellie while my sister works since I've been in Colorado, and I love this sweet baby! We have a pretty good routine going on: She sleeps, eats, and giggles the whole time I watch her, and then Katie comes home from work and Ellie cries and blows out her diaper.

Snuggling the afternoon away

Abby was very depressed when we were packing and moving. She just wandered from room to room, sighing and looking forlorn. Poor dog. 

But now she is in heaven, frolicking around with my family's 2 black labs! I tell you what, 3 dogs is a lot of dogs. Especially when you are in the kitchen and they are all right under your feet. But they are so funny and cute. 

I felt so much anxiety as we closed the door to our storage unit, containing the large majority of our earthly possessions. I hope it all survives the summer in Del Rio! I can't wait to be reunited with our things in September! 

We went to our friendly neighborhood Chili's on one of our last nights in Del Rio. The table next to us was having some sort of party, and they brought along this statue to sit at their table and watch them eat. Del Rio is a strange place. 

More Abby being weird. Why do I love that weird dog so much? 

This is me on my last day of work! I was much more excited about this than my face in this picture might suggest. Sayonara polos and khakis! I about danced a jig as I gave away all of my old uniforms to the poor unfortunate souls who still work there. 

Silly baby. Why do babies look so funny when they are mad?

Oh hey, time for some graduation pictures! Way to go, husband!

Breaking the wings. The tradition:

The Breaking of the Wings

Since man started flying, he has taken to the air a certain amount of risk. To counter that risk, a tradition was established years ago when the Army Air Corps first started issuing pilot wings to their young aviators. This tradition is called "BREAKING OF THE WINGS."

At every UPT graduation, the Air Force issues the pilots their pair of wings. As tradition has it, the pilot should never wear that first pair of wings. To bring good luck, the pilot should break the wing into two parts. The pilot should keep one half, the other half should be given to the pilot's best friend or relative. To preserve good luck, the halves should never be brought together while the pilot is alive. After death the two halves are once again united with the pilot for good luck in the next life.


Cary bought me a sweet plaque to mount my half of the wings, along with the explanation of the tradition. He's cute. I think I'll keep him. 

Aw.

Trying to be all artsy with the whole holding-out-the-broken-wings-and-kissing thing. This was about the best shot, which is sort of pathetic. Whenever we kiss for pictures, we look like a pair of 7th graders kissing for the first time. All we're missing is the headgear and acne. Yikes. Our wedding photographer had us "eskimo kiss" by touching noses instead of actually kissing, because apparently we are really not very attractive kissers. Oh well. 

Hahaha. Perhaps you thought I was exaggerating, but this picture is proves that our awkwardness knows no bounds.  What is wrong with us?

At the graduation banquet with my cute mama!

My studly pilot... Although, if I'm being honest, I have to say that I find mess dress to be strangely reminiscent to those monkeys playing the cymbals. 

A blurry picture of Cary giving me my necklace with my own pair of wings.

And now we're in Colorado! Last weekend, my sister-in-law Lauren came down to Colorado and we had a fantastic girl's weekend at her family's cabin in Keystone! It was my Mom, Katie and Ellie, Lauren, and me, and we had a blast! Here are riding the gondola at Keystone to go tubing! It was so fun. Especially when Katie fell down, and a super hunky ski instructor came over and gave her some candy to make her feel better. 

Hooray for tubing!

We spent a lot of time in the kitchen... We made muddy buddies, caramel popcorn, enchiladas, smoothies... It was a delicious weekend. 

And now we're at Ellie's baby blessing? We thought this book shelf with the ladder would be a great place for a saucy librarian photo op. 

Of course Brent had to show me up. Look at that booty. I know what you're wondering, and yes ladies, he IS single. 

Siblings, minus Ryan and Josh. 

I love my family!

Well, there you have it. I wanted to add some more pictures, but blogger keeps freaking out at me and I'm getting very angry so I'd better wrap it up before this devolves into minor swear words and temper tantrums. 

Here's to blogging in the future: Mo' posts, mo' good, and mo' bettah. 

I say that every time, but this time I mean it! Maybe.