Busy Summer!

It's been a really long time since I posted anything, my apologies! Since I have been home from Afghanistan, we have been busy. I have tons of outings and fun things to post about since returning home, hopefully I will get them all in this one post. Ok, let's see if I can get caught up on all the happenings around here since my last post.

Well, I ended up having almost an entire month off work after returning home so I took Connor camping and then, two weeks later Connor and I took Lillers on her first campout. Both times we went to Devils Den State Park

We did a little hiking, a little biking, and a lot of swimming! One of the reasons the kids chose Devils Den was because it has a really nice pool.

My little "waterbug"

I thought this made for a great photo of Lily with the waterfall in the background...of course she gave me her fake smile, but hey, I'm her dad so she's still cute to me!

No first campout would be complete without roasting some marshmallows!

Lily was very excited to sleep in a tent and actually got in her sleeping bag around 6:30 in the evening. It was pretty warm that day and she quickly got back out...crazy girl!

I was playing with my camera and trying to get Lily to pose but I was cutting into her bike riding time and she was rather annoyed with me so...here's what I got!

I guess I was successful in wearing her out, she was asleep before we ever drove the 10-12 miles out to the interstate from the State park.

So, June 14th rolled around and I had to go back to the real world and get back to work, shortly after we had drill weekend and for all those that deployed we had to attend a Hometown Heros salute followed by a weekend of briefings also known as a Yellow Ribbon Ceremony. During the Hometown Heros salute we all recieved a very nice framed certificate and medal as well as a bunch of other stuff. It was nice but it wasn't well advertised which I guess is a good thing since most of us don't do what we do to be recognized, personally, I would've rather stayed home. The Yellow Ribbon ceremony was a bunch of briefings about benefits and entitlements for serving in Afghanistan. We also had to speak attend meetings about Stress Management, Combat Stress Related problems, and Anger Management. They were pretty good programs for the most part but were probably geared more for the guys that deploy for a year or longer or for those that are actually going outside the base perimeter. Don't get me wrong, I didn't like getting rockets shot at me one bit, but I don't think it messed with my head. I could see how a guy in the field who is watching his buddies get shot, might need to talk to someone when they get home...the soldiers going outside the wire, and especially the ones who give their lives...those guys are my heros!

So, here is a couple photos from Hometown Heros Salute:

Me shaking hands with my Wing Commander

Andria and I after accepting my award

Not long after drill we decided to go to Tulsa to the zoo. The kids had a good time and it was nice to get some family time after going through all the mandatory briefings to make sure I was properly re-integrated into society. I guess the nicest way to put it would be that it was a veeeery long weekend. (Feel free to insert any word/words you choose such as waste of time, waste of money, ridiculous, etc. really, go ahead, I've already used all the words I can think of to describe it! ha ha) Ok, so back to the zoo...

This cute little guy loved my camera...he posed for me for a long time and got reeeeally close!

Lily and Connor at the entrance to one part of the zoo, the rainforest section, I think?

Connor in the Rainforest exhibit

I got them to be nice to each other long enough to get this photo of them together!

Lily at the Bald Eagle display!

Connor at the Bald Eagle display, Amazing that those birds are bigger than my kids!

"Lily had a little lamb, his fleece was white as snow, and everywhere the lamb went Lily was sure to go!" Ok, I know, I had to change it up a little, but Lily did follow this poor little guy around for quite a while...I'm sure he was tired of being brushed!

The kids have been participating in the summer reading program at the library and as part of that they have craft time. A couple of weeks ago, they made pirate costumes to go along with a book they read...Connor makes a pretty good pirate!

I've been messing around with my camera some and took this shot with the shutter open, I just like the color and the way it turned out, reminded me of a painting or something. I'm sure to a professional photographer, it just looks like a blurry photo! ha ha

Just thought I would throw that random photo in! I have been playing with the camera and trying to learn all I can about it when I have time. A couple weeks after the zoo, we had Lily's birthday party. She actually had several birthday parties during the week of her birthday but we capped off the week by heading to Chuck E Cheese, woohoo!

Me just chillin at Chuck E Cheese for Lily's birthday party. My man Munch is jammin on the keyboards in the background. I wanted to get up on stage with him but I thought it would be bad form to get thrown out during my daughters birthday party.

I have also taken up a new hobby/excercise routine by going Mountain Biking a couple times a week. I must be doing something right because I've lost about 20 pounds! I bought a Giant mountain bike when I got back from my deployment and I have really enjoyed going riding. I did my first ride over 10 miles this week and I think it was all uphill...I have been going with a couple of guys and we always have a good time. I'm hoping to get to some new trails later this year but for now I'll stick to Springhill Park and Ben Geren park, both have pretty good trail systems that are challenging and fun. I bought Connor a Diamondback mountain bike so that he could go with me sometimes and he seems to really enjoy it to, I hope it will be something we continue to do together. Speaking of doing things with Connor, I'm afraid I'll have to dust off my golf clubs in the near future. Connor decided that he didn't want to play football this year, which didn't hurt my feelings because, truth be told, I hated sitting at practices 3 nights a week from the time I got off work until it was dark! Anyway, Connor has been wanting to sign up for First Tee, which is a golf program that also teaches the kids life skills. I get to go play golf with him and I think it's going to be a lot of fun! Guess I need to find a hobby I can do with Lily? I already play dress up and let her put makeup on me, oh yeah, and we can't forget playing babies! I usually have to feed them and rock them but I make her change all the pretend diapers! ha ha

Now it's already time to start thinking about going back to school...I think the kids start in 3 weeks. Fortunately for us, we have a vacation to look forward to in September. We are going to Disney World! It should be a lot of fun!

So as you can see, it's been quite a summer around here! I am truly blessed to have had so much time with my family this summer, it's been a blast seeing the kids go camping, and reading and doing so many activities. So as the end of summer gets here, I'll leave you with a parting photo that I took one evening!

Kinda sums up the end of summer, doesn't it? "Sunset on another summer"

~Mike~