Hi everyone, and thanks for checking the blog. I haven't been very good with this blogging thing, but now that I have decided to quit Facebook I will hopefully get better. So here is the attempt of putting into a few lines what has happened in the past 6 months since Liam's first birthday.
Lance was selected to go to the United States Air Force Weapons School which is the AF version of the Navy's Top Gun. It is a very demanding school with lots of difficult flying involved and I am proud of him for his accomplishments. If you are interested in reading more about it you can also check his blog at www.ourjourneyintotheblue.blogspot.com and catch up with what he has been doing. My husband is much better with updating his blog too. The 6 month course takes place in Las Vegas, so he had to pack his bags and say good bye to us in South Carolina! I only stayed in SC for a couple more weeks before Liam and I boarded a plane to Munich on August 21st. I was a little nervous how Liam would do on the flight as he is not the ever sleeping infant anymore but has turned into a super active, strong willed toddler. Everything was good though and he slept for over 5 hours in his fully reclined business class seat! Spoiled child. I did not sleep of course and looked accordingly when we arrived. I was so happy to see my mom, brother and "sister" Susi at the Airport. As if my mom knew what I had dreamt about a couple weeks earlier, she brought me a Butter Breze to eat (a soft butter pretzel). It turned out to be a mistake to eat it because it did not stay with me. That was only the second time during my pregnancy and thankfully the last one. I am so blessed not to have any sickness like so many other pregnant women I have talked to!
To make this a little shorter, I had a wonderful time in Germany and truly enjoyed being around my family and especially spending time with my Grandparents at Lake Chiemsee. I almost forgot how much I loved this country of mine and how great it was being able to take the bike (with Liam in the back) and cycle to the local bakery for some delicious bread and rolls in the morning. WOW! There were 3 things in the previous sentence that I could not have done in SC. And no, it does not compare to taking the car to the closest Walmart to pick up some cinnamon rolls. I do like living in the States, however, and I am excited about the places where life has brought me...even though military life is not always easy it continues to be an adventure for our family. In a way I am happy that I moved away from Germany because it made me appreciate it that much more and I rejoice about the little things now (like taking the bike to the local baker) that I have always taken for granted.
One of the highlights of my time in Germany was our family vacation in Austria! (that sentence did not make sense but never mind!) We all got together for a long weekend and stayed in a farmhouse nestled in the mountains by a lake. We have not done this kind of family trip before, but everyone really enjoyed it. It was great to see Liam getting so excited over exploring all the different animals and riding tractors. He loved it! Late September it was time to say goodbye again, but the fact that Susi was going to travel with me to the West coast made the departure so much easier. As you can imagine it was a looong flight but we finally made it to LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) and checked in the Marriott. Fancy! Thanks Lufthansa for all the undeserved benefits. (-; We spent 2 weeks travelling with the Amtrak Train (yes! there are trains in the US) along the Pacific Coast right next to highway 101 and had the best time together...at least until Liam got his stomach bug. So hard to see your beloved child so sick! Makes me wonder how people that have chronically sick children or even worse terminally sick children deal with the situation. I am so thankful to God for my healthy boy! How often do we take our health for granted?! We stayed with our good friends, the Chandlers, in Monterrey before we ended our time together in San Francisco! I am so thankful to have a friend like Susi. To have a good friend is one of the biggest blessings in Life.
From SFO I boarded for a short flight to Las Vegas to finally see Lance again!!!! I really had missed him in Germany while traveling and could not wait for Liam to see his daddy again. It was a long 3 months without him, but I kept showing Liam pictures and we were able to video Skype! Thank God for Skype! He is always so happy to see him. In particular one time when he discovered a picture of his father at my grandparents house. He looked up on the wall and his face just lit up when I wondered what in the world he had just seen. Being a family again was great!
Unfortunately I was not able to stay with Lance because he is required to stay in a tiny dorm room on base while he does his training. Liam still wakes up at night, which would have made it tough for Lance to get good sleep in preparation for his flights. Thankfully some good friends that we know from our time in Italy gave Liam and me shelter. It worked out good! They have a little girl Liam's age and the two loved doing everything together. It is so nice to have people offer their help (i.e house) so many times and one of the great things about the military is that you meet people you know and like everywhere you go. Having said that, however, I need to also write about how ready I am to have my own house back and being there together as a family. Staying in Las Vegas (have I mentioned that besides the weather i do not really care for this city) and having a weekend relationship with my husband has not been all that great and I am happy that it is almost over. Since I have been to Las Vegas we were able to do a couple of really nice trips as a family. The first one took us to San Diego where we stayed on a Navy Base on pretty Coronado Island. On a short day trip we went to Red Rock Mountain right outside Las Vegas which was really enjoyable. The best experience however was our trip to Arizona to see the truly grand Grand Canyon and also the picturesque town of Sedona! Very impressive sights that I will remember for the rest of my life. Spending Thanksgiving with some good friends made the whole experience even better. I feel so fortunate having been able to see so many great sights of the United States.
While I am writing this I am sitting in the tiny dorm room and Liam is sleeping right next to me. I will be here for the remaining 2 weeks before we get in the car to start our monster trip back to the East Coast. We will stop in Colorado to spend some time with friends and then make our way to Michigan to spend Christmas with Lance's family which I am excited about! Apart from that we will probably make approximately 1000654342 more stops for me to use the rest room but will hopefully, eventually arrive in Sumter, SC and will stay there until our big move in April. It is hard to believe that we will then be a family of 4. As many of you know already, we will be moving to Rheinland Pfalz in Germany in April next year! We recently found out that Lance will be stationed at Spangdahlem Air Force Base for hopefully 3 years. Needless to say that we are thrilled about the news! We will live about 5 hours from my hometown Munich and only about 4 hours from Paris in the beautiful wine region of the river Mosel. We are already looking forward to many visitors.
Lots of Love to all of you!
Lana