Summer 2011

Summer 2011 got all mixed up.  The plan was for the kids and I to head to Utah while Jason had a business trip planned to Misawa, Japan and Dayton, Ohio.  Jason was going to hop down to see us after his trip to Dayton.  After spending a week with us, he would return to Okinawa to work for a bit and then Space-A out to pick us up and bring us back.  In all, he would only be home without us for a couple of weeks, and we wouldn't have to go a whole month without seeing him. But, the Air Force struck again, and Jason's trip to Dayton was cancelled at the last minute.  We were happy to have him space-A out to us early, but I'm not sure he was happy to use so much leave.  We weren't much on taking pictures over the summer.  We fit in doctors' and dentist appointments.  We tried to visit family as much as we could and see as many different friends as we could.  We took the kids to This is the Place Heritage Park, camping with the Joneses, eating at all of the places that we miss so much, tons of shopping (to fill in the holes left from shopping at the base exchange), and up to Logan.  I also took the kids to the Hill Aerospace Museum where they have a new interactive section.  The kids were able to dress up in flight suits and sit in some simulators.  They had a blast.  Carston says he want to go back there.

Even though we were in Utah for a month, it still seemed like a whirlwind of activity, and we didn't have a chance to see everyone that we wanted to see or do everything that we wanted to do. 

Our trip back home was a Space-A mess.  We had planned to leave Utah and drive to Travis AFB in California when we could see that a large flight was going out.  There were no rental cars available for one way travel, so instead, we booked a flight.  When we got to Travis, we found that the flight that we were waiting for was a C-5, which is notorious for break downs.  The flight was delayed coming into Travis and delayed in Travis for four days.  It was four days of back and forth between the terminal and a hotel, and one night spent in the terminal.  The kids entertained themselves playing Chinese jump rope, watching movies, running around outside, DS, and driving mom and dad crazy.  Finally, when we gave up on that flight, we got a good hotel room for a night, had a good nights' sleep, and went to the Jelly Belly factory for a tour before we returned to the terminal to try for a different flight.  Success.  We got a hop to mainland Japan, but we were stuck there for four days.  What a mess getting back.

  This is the group of kids that gathered to play Chinese jump rope.  I'm glad I took it.  Sitting around in those terminal chairs all day can make kids stir-crazy.  They had quite a large group gathered before it was over.