Drew's Day in the Army!

The local VFW and Ladies' Auxiliary co-sponsored (with Fort Huachuca's Child and Youth Services) an event this past weekend called Operation Junior Heroes. It was designed as a mock deployment exercise for children of Soldiers. The "recruits" would in-process, be issued gear, be bussed to a field site, and tour the various locations within that field site, before returning back to a Welcome Home ceremony. Although we haven't told Drew yet that Daddy is going to Afghanistan at the end of March, we still thought this would be a very useful tool for us in helping him to understand some of what Daddy does when he isn't at home. Part of the intent of the program was to familiarize kids with the different settings that a Soldier might be in either during a field exercise or downrange in Iraq or Afghanistan to facilitate communication and understanding during times of separation. Although Drew was the youngest participant and there were parts of the operation that were a bit over his head, he truly loved the experience and Bill and I were glad to be able to share it with him. After returning home Drew told me "I like being in the Army with my Daddy. That's my favorite." My heart melted.


Here's a bunch of the pictures that I took from the day (it's a minor miracle I didn't need my extra camera battery).

We left our house at 0700 and started inprocessing at 0730. Here's Drew getting fingerprinted by SVPD as part of inprocessing. He was also issued a backpack that you'll see him wearing in the other pictures with all kinds of military kid resources and goodies.


Drew taking his "medicine" (M&M's). He also got "shots" that were really pens they got to keep.


Drew & Daddy waiting to board the bus


Drew and Dad following our squad leader after having arrived at the FTX site

Drew & Dad at the company tactical operations center (TOC) that also doubles as sleeping quarters for Bill and 1SG. They're sitting on Bill's cot--doesn't it look comfy? We got to see some of the battalion HQ tents too and see some of the computers and VTC equipment and such.

Mountains in the background of the FTX site

This was one of Drew's favorite parts of the day--sitting in "the big big truck."


Close up in the big truck--Drew could have used the steering wheel as a hula hoop.

Drew and Daddy listen to one of the sergeants explain the vehicle's GPS system

Drew wearing one of Dad's hats in the driver's seat of another vehicle

Drew getting his hands washed in preparation for chow

Drew & Dad in line in the chow tent

Drew enjoying some snacks in one of the eating tents

Drew at mail call

Drew with a very tasty-looking sloppy joe MRE

The Patriot Guard motorcycle escort for our bus as we approached the building for our "Welcome Home." Love the Patriot Guard--they do so much for our soldiers.

After we were welcomed back to the original site, there were still several other stations to visit. One station had a ton of different types of explosive devices and ammunition. Here's Drew holding a grenade.

Drew holding a big gun (an M4 maybe?)

Drew looking through the gun's sight

Drew waiting his turn on top of a truck. I love the expression on his face.

Drew on top of a vehicle looking through another gun's sight

Drew and Dad check out the UAV

Drew shooting targets with a paintball gun. He thought this was fantastic! Couldn't stop laughing.

Family shot

Drew's certificate for the day

Drew enjoying a welcome home goodie--of course he picked the cupcake with the blue frosting

The military police canine handlers were also at the site giving demonstrations and this is Bill's 1SG with an arm glove on being jumped on by the dog. This was Drew's other favorite part of the day. We watched the dogs for at least 30 minutes. On the way home he told me "Someday we will get a dog Mommy." Way to lay on the guilt kid!

Drew using his new MP canine poster as a telescope

Drew and Dad getting ready to say goodbye for a few more days

Hugs at the car

Like I said, we haven't yet talked to Drew about Daddy's deployment. Even at 5 months, it's too far out for Drew to really understand. We intend to start the conversation in January, probably when Daddy gets ready to go to Afghanistan for the week-long pre-deployment site survey. We bought a globe sphere puzzle for Christmas that we're hoping will help with the basic questions of where Daddy is going. We've been laying the groundwork in general terms with the various field exercises Bill has had, stressing how important a job Soldiers have, and that sometimes Soldiers have to go other places to help people. We know as the time gets closer that events like this one will be invaluable in communicating with Drew about Daddy's separation from us. I'm eternally grateful for all that the Army has put in place to help Soldiers and family members deal with the stresses of everyday military life and deployment separation. We truly feel the support of our Army family.

Veteran's Day

On Veteran's Day morning we met some friends for McDonald's breakfast bright and early along the parade route. After some delicious hotcakes and yogurt parfaits, we parked ourselves along the street to watch the passing bands, cars, Soldiers, motorcycles, trucks, and even horses.

Here's Drew in the big chair by himself

Mom & Drew

The members of the B Troop Cavalry Regiment (Memorial) closed the parade so I snapped a quick picture of Drew. Though Bill is in the Signal World now, after all of our great memories in Germany, the Cav will always be #1 in our hearts.

Unfortunately Bill couldn't join us at the parade because he was out in the field for a training exercise. But Drew seemed to understand that the parade was to thank Soldiers like his Daddy. More than one sight during the parade brought tears to my eyes and I wish there were words to fully express how proud I am to be married to a Soldier in our great Army.

Last Fair of the Season

Last weekend was the last three days of the Arizona State Fair and the weekend before Daddy's field exercise. Since they would miss the day off for Veteran's Day while in the field, they were given Friday the 6th off to make up for it. So we decided to go up to Phoenix that day, hit the fair, stay overnight at a hotel (one of Drew's favorite activities), and do some Christmas shopping on Saturday.

Bill had to clean out some Army gear from his car before we left and Drew took a liking to Bill's binoculars.

After a short shopping and lunch break in Tucson as well as a nap by Drew in the car (thank the Lord for small miracles), we arrived at the fair around two in the afternoon. We headed for the animal barns first. Here's Drew feeding some goats. He thought it was quite hilarious how eager some of the goats were, including these two that kept jumping all over Daddy.

This is Drew petting a baby chick that was hatched just that morning.

And Drew with a larger bird. He kept talking about how he saw a turkey just like the ones they drew at school with their hands.

After seeing (and smelling) enough livestock to last us until next fair season, we headed for some rides. At the mini bumper cars, it was no surprise that Drew chose the blue #4 car. His favorite color and his age? What other choice could there have been?

Drew looking very focused driving his bumper car. It's serious business you know.

Here's Drew and Dad on the Skyride that took us from one end of the fair to the other.

Mom & Drew on the Skyride with some of the very healthy (insert sarcasm) treats to eat in the background.

On our walk back to the other end of the fair we stopped to get a little snack near the kids' play area. Drew jumped from the hay bales to the big blocks for a good 30 minutes. Who knew it could be so much fun?

Drew had gone down the regular Super Slide by himself as one of his first rides, but when we saw the "super big" slide he and Daddy took a ride down that as well.

I'm not much for rides, but the Merry Go Round I always enjoy. So here's us on the carousel.

Drew & Dad on the Dizzy Dragons

Drew on the mini swings

A very excited Drew waving to Mom & Dad

When we had seen the very tall "Freefall" ride earlier in the day Drew had asked if he could go on it. We explained that it was only for big people, but near the end of the night when we saw the mini freefall ride, Drew put on his brave face and asked again if he could go on it. I was afraid he wouldn't like it, but there was no telling this boy no. Here he is strapped in and ready to go...

And here he is screaming "DADDY, IT'S SCARY! DADDY STOP IT!"

After he got off he softened a little saying that it was only a little bit scary but also a little bit fun. I suspect he won't be too anxious for a repeat ride on one of those for a while.

On our walk to the car we saw that the Ham Bone Express show was due to start in a few minutes, and really, what fair experience is complete without greasy food, mullets, and racing pigs? So we watched a couple of races and then said goodbye to the fair for this year.

Here's Drew waiting at a crosswalk on Dad's shoulders. Shockingly he managed to stay awake and be quite a little gentleman when we decided to have dinner down the road from our hotel at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. It was a delicious meal and a great way to end our day.

Dinosaur Drew

This year I figured Drew was old enough to weigh in on the decision of what his Halloween costume would be. He sort of decided last year but this year I knew he would have strong opinions. I found a few pictures of costumes I thought he would like and showed them to Drew on my computer. His options: a train engineer, Mickey Mouse, and a dinosaur. He first selected a train engineer and then I discovered the store was out of them. He took that pretty well and said he would like to be Mickey then. So we ordered a kids size 4-6 Mickey costume and anxiously awaited its arrival. Now, I know our kid is pretty tall, but this costume was at least 4 inches too short for poor Drew. So that went back to the store. Then I happened to be shopping for myself and saw costumes in the Children's Place, including this absolutely adorable dinosaur costume. When I got back from Tucson that day Drew ran out to the garage and asked me "Did you buy me a costume?" Good thing I had! Poor kid hadn't had much Halloween luck so far. As I took it out of the bag in the trunk Drew's face lit up! He tried it on immediately and really wasn't very inclined to take it off, though we did manage to get him out of it before dinner that evening.

I assured him there would be plenty of opportunities to wear his costume and as the pictures below will show, this was very true.

Here's Dinosaur Drew before school on the 30th

Drew trying to be ferocious

Every dinosaur needs a backpack

Drew and Miss Lupe at school

The kids got to trick or treat by walking through the school to go to all the different classrooms and had a party in their class that day.

Then the night of the 30th, my moms' group had a Halloween party. Here's Drew at the photo area a couple of the moms set up.

Drew with some of his buddies--we got them to stop chasing each other long enough to semi-pose for a picture

Then on Halloween we met a group of friends in one of their neighborhoods.

Here's Drew ringing the doorbell at the first house for Trick or Treating

Drew, patiently waiting for his friends to return with their candy, poses with Daddy

We borrowed this house's front yard for a photo op

Drew and his best friend Nemo head up to another door for some treats

After we reminded him at the first couple of houses that he needed to say "thank you" to the people who gave him treats, Drew ran back from every subsequent house screaming "Mommy I said thank you!" I eventually had to take a picture of this...

Drew sorting his loot

Drew is pretty happy with the results of his evening of trick or treating

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of ours was considering borrowing one of Drew's old Halloween costumes (the monkey), so I sent her a picture of Drew in it and I realized just how little he was when he wore it. So I thought that, because this blog has only been around for the last year and a half or so, in addition to this year's pictures I'd post pictures of Drew on Halloween through the years.

1st Halloween, 2 months old. A tiger.

14 months old, Monkey

2 yrs old, Elmo

3 yrs old, Firefighter

I am not a Halloween person, but even I get into it when viewed through Drew's very excited eyes.

Vegas Visit

I've been out of the blogging loop lately. A few big things to catch up on. First, a couple weeks ago we went for a quick trip to Las Vegas. Drew and I flew on Thursday and Bill joined us on Friday. As soon as Bill and I found out U2 was playing in Vegas on a Friday night, we were in! We hadn't seen them since 2001 and that concert still stands as the best I've ever seen. It worked out that some girlfriends of mine from Sierra Vista were going for a girls' trip the same weekend and my parents graciously agreed to take care of Drew while I hung out with my friends. The grandparents, Drew and Bill had a great weekend and Bill was able to help my dad get his new office furniture set up.

Bill and I enjoyed a delicious dinner at P.F. Chang's before the concert and then sat in traffic for a LONG time on the way to the stadium. The concert was supposed to start at 7, but as we were walking into the stadium at 7:30 we heard the Black Eyed Peas (the opening act) come on with the first song. We ended up being glad we didn't miss any of their songs because they put on a really good show.

Here's a picture of the stage--it was huge and the lighting and other special effects were really incredible! Unfortunately the photos of all that amazing stuff didn't turn out the best.


Here's Bono on the big screen. I had to take pictures of the big screen because we were in the second to last row of the stadium. We may not have been able to see the band that well, but we could hear them just fine. And I've said it before and I'll say it again. I could listen to Bono sing all day every day.


Here's a short video of Bono and The Edge singing the end of "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of." My favorite duet of theirs.

And, for any other U2 fanatics, a longer video of the whole song "One." My favorite song ever.


Saturday night I went to the "O" Cirque de Soleil show with my girlfriends. O is a water themed show and it was just fantastic. Synchronized swimmers, acrobatics, just amazement everywhere your eyes turn. This is us outside the Bellagio after the show.


Sunday afternoon we borrowed my parents' friends' golf cart and took a short drive over to the club house pond to visit the ducks.

Here's Drew and Dad throwing bread to the ducks.


Drew & Dad again

Mommy & Drew in the golf cart

Drew pretending to drive on Dad's lap

Drew and Grandma in the backyard

Drew and Grandpa at the dinner table

We're looking forward to our return visit in December. Halloween pics coming soon!