Thanksgiving Vacation

We spent four precious days with Brad before we came home. This will be the last time we see him for several months. We rented a home through VRBO.com - and had a wonderful experience.

The owners were amazing - they called to check on us as we had several hours of driving to arrive - and the property manager called to see if we needed anything while we were there.

There were quite a few memorable moments...

Getting up the hill into the garage the first night on an icy driveway....we slide back, into the snow...and had the good luck to have someone drive by that helped us push it out. We ended up using the water hose as a 'rappelling' rope to get the girls and I into the house before Brad attempted the driveway by himself.

Listening to Tori tell Sarah: Look Sarah - those are mountains!! And that's SNOW!!!
And then pointing out every bit of 'snow' for the next hour...

Listening to Brad tickle the heck out of Sarah...and then Tori ...and listening to Tori try NOT to laugh in the usual 'teen angst' manner...

Walking in the snow in Taos...

Enjoying warm soup with Brad and Sarah (Tori was still snowboarding)..

Stretching a 7.5 hour drive into a 12 hour drive because of frequent stops on the way back... finding a park and playing for half an hour...

Watching Brad say goodbye to a sleeping Sarah....telling her he loved her...hugging Tori, and telling her to not grow too much....the drive back to the military facility, holding hands...and hugging him tight before driving off in tears.

I'm just one of several thousands of families who told their soldiers goodbye the last few days.

I was recently asked, by Kat Cooper who writes a blog at the Chron.com, to give her one word that I thought of when I thought of "Deployment"... my response: Sucks.

It does.

It sucks to have to remember to take out the trash, cause he always does it. It sucks to have NO one to hand off the boisterous 2 year old to at the end of the day. It sucks to have to go to bed at night and miss him.

It sucks.

But I support his involvement in the United States Military. We re-enlisted just a short time ago - and it was done after very long, careful consideration to what it would mean. He might have been the person putting the signature on the paperwork, but being part of the military is a 'family' issue. We knew a deployment was a very likely possibility - but there are some men & women who were created to defend our country. I think my husband is one of them. He is an amazing man, a wonderful father, and an incredible husband....and he is an American soldier.

I'm going to be working with our military unit's Family Readiness Group in collecting care package items and sending them to the soldiers in the early part of next year. If you would like to participate - please contact me directly - my information is at the bottom of the blog.

Here are SEVERAL photos from our vacation, in no particular order: