Better Late Than Never

Brig here. I am about to return home from Iraq and have been naturally been thinking about home and vacation. Well, one of the things I thought about was the last time I was home and our vacation then. That was six months ago--Christmas time--and I agreed to chronicle my December "R&R" leave with a post or two on this blog, since Shayla posts all the other times. Well, I kept part of the bargain with a post about the first week I was home. It took so long to post because of the internet speed here (loading one picture can take 15 minutes or so at times) that I joked then that I might not be up to finishing recapping our vacation. I wrote then, "I had no idea blogging was so demanding. Hopefully I'll still have a desire to post about the rest of my R&R time. We'll see!"

I kept putting it off, and as time passed I forgot to finish up...

So, here I am trying to keep my end of the bargain with my wife. It is small and trivial at this point (who really cares about what we did last December?), but it is still a promise--and a promise kept late is better than a promise never kept.

At least you might get to see some pretty pictures and possibly get some vacation ideas.

Here goes nothing...

For our little Christmas vacation, we drove from Provo to Southern California with a two-day stopover in Las Vegas.


Max discovered what a buffet is while we stayed at the Luxor. After the looks from the waitresses and the increasing number of used plates, we felt like we should have paid full price for him!

Checking out the Christmas decorations at The Bellagio.

There is no grass in Iraq where I am, so after eight months, I couldn't resist.

After seeing some sights in Vegas, we headed off to California for our stay on Catalina Island. We spent Christmas out there and it was really peaceful and relaxing. It certainly wasn't a traditional Christmas holiday, but it was just what the doctor ordered.


Here is the boat that took us out to the island. It was about a 45 minute ride and Max had the time of his life.

Here is where I go off on a little tangent, so bear with me. An interesting thing happened while we were waiting to get on the boat. While we were eating a quick lunch in the waiting area, this guy next to us started talking to Max and laughing at him. I thought he looked really familiar, and he was acting a little strange and his behavior was somewhat outlandish. He was strangely dressed--red flannel jacket, jeans, UGG boots, and a ball cap over his bleach blonde hair that was in a pony tail. He also had a brown moustache, piercing blue eyes, and a dimpled chin. Anyway, I couldn't figure out where I had seen him before. Then it dawned on me: he was John Travolta! I kept staring at him out of the corner of my eye while he played with Max and I noticed that the hair was a wig, and that his jeans had a crease in them--brand new jeans. Then, I thought, who wears UGG boots when the rest of their outfit is that of a lumberjack? It was a disguise! He was trying to look like some regular guy. I put all the pieces together...I had always heard of celebrities who went out in public in disguise so they could be "normal" again. He really avoided eye contact with us and just kept acting so weird--he was just doing his day job. While he was playing with Max, I discreetly wrote "That's John Travolta!" on the back of our receipt and showed it to Shayla, and her surprised face as she took a better look confirmed what I already knew to be true.

Anyway, this is starting to drag, so I'll try to wrap it up. There were other things he kept doing as we got on the boat, during the ride, etc. that just fueled our suspiscion fire. Then, when we got off the boat, he waited until everyone had left and then stood there waiting on the dock. Meanwhile, we waited at the top of the ramp because we wanted to see his eyes and face directly. While we were waiting, a little boat came and picked him up and took him somewhere on the island, presumably to his vacation home there or something. How come all he had was a small backpack if he wasn't John Travolta with a vacation home on the island?

We later saw the guy who came and picked him up and Shayla even asked him about it and he acted kind of strange and denied it all. But, after I finally googled John Travolta, I realized it couldn't have been him because that guy was my height (6' in shoes) and according to various trustworthy internet sources, Travolta is 6'2". So, we were a little disappointed, but it made for an interesting time. The sad part of this story is that not long after, Travolta's son died.


"John Travolta" is the guy on the right...

Here are some pictures of Catalina Island for your enjoyment...It is a great place to go, just check it out online if you want to know more. I'm tired of blogging! :)











Almost finished. On Christmas Eve we ate dinner at a place on the beach called El Galleon. You can see that we had to turn Max around so he couldn't watch us eat because he was eating so much that his eyes were crossing...




The next day after our little Christmas morning, we went on an underwater tour and saw fish and sea lions. We also goofy-golfed and took Max to a movie in the old Casino building you see in all the pictures. Max was worn out! At least he had some energy to help me drive back to Utah.




P.S.
If you are looking to save gas $, consider Catalina. Most people ride bikes, walk, or drive golf carts. Here are a few neat ones we saw.



That's it. I'm finally finished. We'll see if I have another one in me in about six months or so...

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Need I say more?

The realization of just TWO HANDS

When we got to our new place, Max found comfort in keeping Elmo and Amel with him at all times, just in case, we were to leave again to another place. The only problem, if he wanted to check out a new toy, he couldn't pick all three things up. I got a kick out of watching this go on for minutes at a time... I told Brig about it, and he said, "Video it!"

and now HOME...

We are finally HOME. Each place we have been during Brig's deployment has been memorable, but nothing has felt like home. It's still missing something but we are glad to be back and in the last few weeks of the 15 months. At times, it seems like it would never come, and now that it is getting closer, it feels like that again! We just can't wait for Daddy...

I grew up in Kansas, but the humidity was still a shock. It has been around 100 every day, and it has felt like we came from Alaska to Iraq! (Brig, I know we still aren't close to the 120 degree weather - I was told to experience Iraq I needed to take the blow dryer on high heat with one hand and throw sand in my face with the other and I would experience the desert in the Middle-east and this isn't even comparing.) Max still loves to be outside but he loves the water. The other day, I pulled him out of the middle of a puddle lapping up water like a little puppy. He has no fear. We have a neighborhood pool and he gets in the baby pool and runs around and I have to stay by him the whole time because he gets running and goes under about every 2 or 3 minutes, and still it doesn't keep him from doing it again and again. They have a Spray Park on base that is awesome. The last picture is of that. He was right by the large spraying gun and the kids were just drilling him and he didn't care, but as his mother I still had to go over and tell them to quit attacking the helpless baby!

We went to the neighborhood garage sales the first Saturday here and hit the jack-pot!

The bubbles with the water were like cookies with milk to Max,

he has yet to experience something better.

His little friend Emma

The Trip...

Great-grandma Skinner
Max and Reece

Could those blue eyes be any more piercing?

Max chased around Reece's little dog, Daisy and tried to eat her

food and drink from her water bowl.

Slobbery baby kisses

Little Grandma (my mom) came with us as far as Wichita, Kansas. We stayed the first night in Cheyenne and met up with Aunt Josie. (She drove from Laramie to stay in a hotel with us.) We got there at about 11:00 that night. Max had slept the entire four hours so that leg was quite pleasant. When we got to the hotel, he loved seeing Josie - and spent a good hour and a half entertaining her... jumping on the bed, and giggling. By 1:00, we were all asleep... but Max. He was standing up in his crib saying, "Mommy, Ma, Dosie?"

Our day started off pretty eventful when I stumbled out of bed to put my contacts in... I thought I was the first one up and at 'em but when I got to the bathroom, I noticed that the cup I had used for my contacts was empty... I asked if someone had had a drink already and my mom said, "Yes, I took some Tylenol with a little bit of water in one of you guy's cups, why?" I told her that I couldn't find my contacts and began to laugh... her only comment besides an apology was that she wondered why they had used so much water softener... I thought it was so funny, I laughed for the rest of the day. She told me later that she was just getting me back because I ate her hard contact when I was about 2 years old.

We got to Wichita late that night and stayed two days with my grandparents, while my mom flew from there to Denver to join my dad to go to Europe for their 30th. We ate Cinammons's Deli, Spangles, and more yummy Mexican food. I also got to meet Reece, my best friend's sweet little baby. We traveled to Oklahoma City with my grandparents and then on to Lawton...

Max was a trooper... even if we did load him with sugar to keep him happy!

Leaving Wyoming

More Good-byes...

I owe the world to Odessa and Jeremy for

letting us stay for a month in their place. We had

such a good time with them and the rest of my

family. No one can take the place of Brig, but

family comes as close as it can get, and I am grateful

for their support.

We still love Mexican food and hit Las Margaritas on our way out of town.
Pictured here is Aunt Jewls, who when seeing Max got in his face and said, "Hi Baby!"
He didn't forget it, and she became Aunt HiBaby.

It was freezing in Wyoming when we left... little did we know what was coming.

Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Odie, and Bridger

Max's new favorite pal 'Bidger' taught him all sorts of tricks.

In just a month, Max learned how to firmly tell someone 'NO!'.

He also begin asking me 'Why?' when I would ask him to do something,

even though I am sure he doesn't understand the whole meaning of it.

He learned what time-out meant and that a big boy used a spoon on his own (now mealtime is such a mess!) He also tried walking down steps with short little legs and

learned the hard way. His favorite toy is now a dump truck, just like Bridger's. I miss seeing the little busters play together. They would even wrestle and one day Max even pinned Bridger and made him cry. We had to laugh because Bridger had been picking on him for weeks up until then. He is such a cute little kid, he prayed for Uncle Brig in Iraq and took care of Max.

Just another side-note: Max calls Uncle Corde "Terd" and it still cracks me up... The Uncle Cord without an e didn't get to experience that.

Wide Awake in Wyoming

Brig, I can't sleep. I said that I wouldn't count the days this round because it made it miserable the last time. My mind works against my will sometimes and I feel as if I have a clock counting even the quarter-seconds. The day of reuniting after a long 15 months is drawing near. We will get to have YOU back - and this time it is for good! Max and I miss you like crazy. Just wanted you to know that we are thinking about you - even in the late hours when we should be sleeping! Pretty impressive that you can still find a smile... and paint in the rain when you have to.