Driving back from the Combat Training Exercise

I haven't ridden in a convoy since Afghanistan, so I wanted to have the experience again. So on the way out to Hastings and back I rode in the lead HMMWV for the fourth section of the convoy. Elizabeth thinks it is weird that I have an assigned driver. This is a picture of him, Private First Class Jantzen. He's actually the armorer for the unit, but he used to drive big rigs, so I had no issues when he was assigned.
As we were driving back, we were running next to a train. I took a number of pictures for Benjamin. I would never have taken pictures of it if I did not have a three-year-old who loves trains. I made sure he knew we were totally safe while we caught up with the train.

Ryan Tests for His Orange Belt

Tonight I tested for my Orange Belt at Taekwondo. I thought they were going to have us each individually perform the form and defensive steps. However, they did it as a group. I was sweating it for nothing. As you can tell from the first photo, Benjamin kept getting on the floor. I'm still trying to figure out how to keep him off. I've been taking him to my Taekwondo stuff to allow Elizabeth some time to study her school stuff.
This is the standard position of attention. Hmm, fairly similar to the military except your toes are touching instead of in a "V". You can somewhat see in this photo that I have a number of black stripes on my belt. That signifies that I have mastered in practice sessions a number of techniques required for the form. I was the only white belt that broke boards earlier in the week. I was also the only white belt with four black stripes.
This is a high knife hand block. It's near the beginning of the form.
This is a great picture, Elizabeth does not think so. It looks like it should have Carl Douglas wailing "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting" in the background (even though it was actually Taekwondo).

Benjamin's Artwork

I learned my lesson about leaving Benjamin alone with Alexander while he has markers in his possession. I was in their room organizing Alexander's clothes while they were next door in the toy room. I heard Alexander start fussing and this is what I found.
Apparently, Benjamin ran out of paper. He amazingly didn't get any marker on Alexander's clothes, but I started stripping Alexander to get him washed off before I thought to take the photo. I love technology because I e-mailed it to Ryan at work right away and he got a kick out of it.This was what Benjamin colored before he got to his brother. He said it was a track and Thomas is the blue spot in the middle.
This is a tree Benjamin made by having his arm traced a the Early Childhood Center later that day.

The Chaplaincy Again

Ryan is pursuing the military chaplaincy for the 3rd time. There's a lot of paperwork involved in the process and our photo is one of the things they needed.
8 Sep 09. This was our first attempt at a photo. After Ryan submitted it, he was told we needed to be in "church dress" because a "General Authority" would see it.

We were going to have a professional take the photo but then decided we just needed to get it done.
20 Sep 09. Benjamin tried to be in the photo.
I don't think this is the one that made it in Ryan's chaplain packet, but the one that did looked really lame as Brother Clawson kept flipping past it in Ryan's interview. It was printed in color ink really big on the front of Ryan's packet. Maybe we should have gone for the professional photos after all.

Colorado Trip 10-16 Sep 09

Benjamin, Alexander, and I made a somewhat random trip to Colorado. On Monday the 7th, I checked the price of airline tickets to Denver. A one way ticket for four days later was $75. (A great price especially less than a week in advance!) I had been planing a trip out to see my parents at some point, but just hadn't picked a time to go. That weekend was Stake Conference at church and I figured it would be easier to send Ryan to take good notes for me so we didn't have to find a babysitter for the adult session and sit through 2 hours of church on Sunday with the kids and I also wouldn't have to find a substitute to teach my Young Women's lesson that Sunday. My mom offered to drive us back to NE with a load of furniture they didn't need since they're trying to sell the cabin.
The flight attendant didn't make me remove Alexander from the Baby Bjorn until landing. Benjamin could have spent HOURS on the tram at DIA and was sad we only got to take a short one way trip, but my parents were waiting for us. He got a seat at the front of the tram with a couple other kids and didn't know to hold on when it started going. I had all the luggage and couldn't get up to where he was. Luckily the mom of the other kids put her hand behind Benjamin so he didn't fall over. I'm missing some of the photos my parents took so I'll have to add them later.I didn't pack very well and it was cool up at the cabin. Alexander had to wear Benjamin's sweat shirt, Benjamin wore mine, and I wore one of my mom's.

We went to Casa Bonita for lunch and didn't get a photo out front as tradition would dictate because it was cold and rainy. A diver climbed the rocks right by us while we were eating and had quite the conversation with Benjamin. We thought of capturing the moment after the fact. Benjamin liked the puppet show, but was not happy that I carried him through "Bad Bart's Hideout". He was also a little nervous around the "gorilla" in one of the diving acts. I'm not sure if we'll go again when he's older to appreciate it more because we had a crazy experience down in the caves. Alexander was asleep in the stroller with my dad. My mom, Benjamin and I went down to explore the caves where there's more dining areas. It was empty other than two waitresses who were carrying on a conversation. My mom said, "there's a mouse" and then I saw it scurrying across the floor. The one waitress screamed and the other one stomped on the mouse. Benjamin was quite disturbed by the situation as the mouse was still twitching on the floor. How do you explain that to a 3 year old?! When we related what happened to my dad, he was sure he was going to get food poisoning and he might have slightly. I think the mouse was a kind of a fluke because I talked to a friend who used to work there and she said they clean the kitchen nightly and fumigate monthly. It's such a big place, so it's probably hard to keep it pest free. The all you can eat sopapillas are still awesome!
This is a staged photo. I remember hiding under those same chairs when I was little.
On my birthday, we took Benjamin to a "sculpture zoo". At first the road to it looked closed because there was construction all over, but the construction flagger waved us through after we asked. I'm glad we asked.
Benjamin was intrigued with the bus. He looked through the doors at the steering column for a long time. He also really liked a VW Bug that looked like a giant spider. We stopped for Blizzards and then went to McDonald's for lunch. I'm not sure why it happened in that order other than we saw Dairy Queen on our way to McDonald's. The DQ was for me and McDonald's was for Benjamin.
My mom made me pose in the Birthday Chair at McDonald's.All I wanted for my birthday was a Magill's Ice Cream Cake and Strombolis. We ended up making homemade strombolis (Yummy!!!) and invited the Trlica's over for dinner. My parents bought me TWO ice cream cakes! We had cake almost every night we were with them!!!!

Benjamin rode in the passenger seat while Alexander and I were in the back of the extended cab on the drive home. Benjamin loved being up front and enjoyed waving at the semi drivers who would honk back at him.

Car Show at the Childrens Museum

Benjamin was very surprised/scared when the Lobsters started singing and bounced up from the hood.

Ryan took the boys to the Children's Museum so I could study. It was one of the first times Ryan took the baby out without me. Alexander doesn't want to be held by anyone but me when he's tired; especially in the evenings. In the morning he's a lot happier and he LOVES watching Benjamin. The outing went very well.

Alexander is 7 Months Old!

Alexander is able to climb the "mountain" at the Early Childhood Center. It's a bit scary because he's very precarious up there.