Sean 16.5 months

Sean is 16.5 months old. He is running around, and talking more and more each day. He loves to play outside and loves to play with his sister Sarah. Sean enjoys reading, playing with Lego's/blocks, little people, cars, etc. You can tell how tall Sean has gotten with the picture of him standing near the bookcase. Enjoy the pictures!

On Friday March 13th, I was invited by my employee to come to Andrews Air Force Base for an employer appreciation flight for the Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve (ESGR). He is a Air Force Reservist with the 459th Aerial Refueling Wing. His job is on the communications side, but since he is part of the unit, he was asked if he wanted to invite his boss...of course I said YES! We were invited to go fly a refueling mission on an KC-135 out off the coast of Norfolk to refuel F-16's that are apart of the 113th Wing DC Air National Guard that patrols the skies over DC. Essentially we fly a racetrack pattern out over the coast, and as the planes need to refuel, they fly to their designated racetrack. We had a second KC-135 doing the same ESGR flight about a mile trailing behind us. We each refueled 3 F-16's. As it was also training, each F-16 refueled twice, with multiple captures and disconnects each time. There were about 22 people on each flight, 2 pilots, a boom operator, and another who was mainly there for coordination. To see the refueling, we laid down on our stomachs and looked out a small window looking out behind the tail. The boom operator laid down in the middle, and had controls to move the flaps on the boom (with the 459 AFW written on it), and moved it in and out of position. Regardless to say, it was very cool. The only thing that was actually a disappointment(bear in mind a VERY SMALL ONE!) was the original mission for the day was to go refuel F-22's...I've seen F-16's up close and personal before, but very few people have seen F-22 Raptors. It was snowing that day, and they had been grounded just out precaution. I have included some of the best pictures, but the entire set (112 pictures) has been loaded to snapfish, and here is the link:http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=277670136/a=46738142_46738142/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

I also got to spend some time talking to the pilots, and actually spotted the F-16's off in the distance and then race past us before they joined up.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Sarah was being a ham for the camera, so I had to include all the pictures I took with her in her Shamrock hat! Enjoy!

St. Patty's Day Party

I helped out with the St. Patty' s Day party at Sarah school. We had fun planning and helping with the party. The leprechaun left footprints to the rainbow where the pieces of gold, gold coins and lollipops were waiting for the kids to find in a treasure hunt. We then ate snack that included a green fruit salad with marshmallows, green jello, and green pudding snack. After snack, the kids made shamrocks with a smiley face. We ended the party with a bean bag toss into the pot of gold. The kids had a great time!

Snow playdate at Ice Rink

Sarah had a field trip to the ice rink to play in the snow. They roughed up the ice so that everyone could walk on it and made a snow pile to play in. There were buckets, shovels, balls, ice hockey, basketballs, bikes and more to play with. Both kids did great and had a great time! I didn't bring a camera b/c I didn't know how I was going to juggle the camera plus Sean at once. A classmate's mom took some pictures that I have posted! After they played in the snow, they had cookies and hot chocolate, while they listened to two books. We met Sarah's classmates at Chick fil A for lunch afterwards! We all had a great time!

More Snow Pictures

We are having fun with the snow! Enjoy!

Snow Storm!

We woke up to 6 inches on the ground! It's really pretty out and the snow still coming down. We are expected to get 2 to 4 more inches before noon. Mark and Sarah have already been out in it. They went sledding and Sarah played with Nathan and Daniel. Sean is teething, so he decided he would rather take a nap. Enjoy the pictures!

More Space to play!

Our futon that was over 10 years old broke this past weekend. We had gotten good use out of it. By removing the futon, it opened up so much more play space. Don't worry for those who visit, we have a blow up mattress or we have really comfortable couches to sleep on. In the meantime, we have new added space!