Sam's latest...

We were playing with some video editing software and decided it might be fun to show you Sam's latest exploits. Enjoy the cheesiness, we thought it was pretty funny.

We thought both of these songs were appropriate for the videos.

Peter Cottontail visits Sam

Even though this was Sam's second Easter, it felt like his first. Last year at this time our heads were swimming with all that came from being rookie parents. As such, we decided to spoil Sam yet again with toys and the like. Maybe next year we can really focus on what Easter is all about, the spiritual side of things. Until then, happy playing Sam!

Dan decided to play with Sam, and dumped grass all over him, what a pair of goofballs. Even with all the toys Peter Cottontail brought, Sam found interest in only one thing: plastic eggs. He rolled them all over the house just for fun. However, if he spotted us with chocolate he was more than able to let us know he wanted some. Nope, too bad, none for you little boy, maybe next year.
The traditional family Easter photo. Honestly, the matching outfits were not intended. One of Sam's toys was a goofy little life-like duck that squawks and moves when you feed it a bottle. The movie shows how Sam reacted to it. Maybe we'll hold off on any real ducks for a while.

The last 10 years of my life...

In my ongoing preparations for leaving military flying and getting on with my civilian career, I input all of my flying into a computerized logbook so it is neater, more organized, and easier to maintain. A great benefit to this is a visual depiction of the flights I have flown. So family, you always ask what I am up to, here it is. It all adds up to about 989,336 miles straight line distance/3400 hours. Of course, we rarely fly straight line, so I would add several thousand miles if I were to guess accurate distances. Don't mind the lines from Hawaii to Australia or Alaska to Japan, we really did not fly the long way around the world. This is just a limitation of the program. The rest, however, are legit.

My favorite. 95% of my time has been in the C-17, I will miss flying it full time (but I won't miss the deployments).

Party at the Stromberg's again!

This time we celebrated Dan's 35th Birthday!

I don't think Sam could really care what is inside the box, but if he can manage to tear apart the paper into as many pieces as possible he is a happy little boy.

Sam does manage to find one present he likes of Dan's, $$$ of course! This became a difficult one to take away without having him tear this apart as well.

Per Dan's request, he wanted me to surprise him with his birthday cake. Normally it's the standard yellow cake, chocolate frosting with sprinkles. So for his surprise I made a Ghiradelli Chocolate chip Cheesecake, with whip cream frosting! I wasn't too sure how it would work on the first attempt, but luckily it was delicious! Dan was extremely pleased, it tasted great!

Happy Birthday to my Danno! Thanks for being such a good daddy and the best husband! Now stop teasing me about being older than you, old man.

Year One = Party!

Saturday March 8th Sam turned 1! We wanted to celebrate, but at the same time we didn't want to make it too big of a deal. So we decided to keep it a smaller, family affair. We started off by inundating him with presents. In our feeble minds we associate love with presents, so we basically dumped a ton of gifts on him. The main present was a Radio Flyer wagon, so we built the entire day around that. Not only was it a classic wagon like I had, Laura got the all-terrain version with huge off-road tires. Super cool and definitely a fit for Sam. He also got a bouncing pony, retro rocket scooter, several books, cars, clothes, and shoes. Pics below are of our little party.

Sam finds protection from the overwhelming amount of stuff behind daddy's back. At first he wasn't sure what to think of it all. He quickly warmed up and had a great time destroying wrapped presents and playing with his balloons.

That night we had my parents meet at the Bean house to do a video chat. While online we had Sam open presents from our families and then we did the obligatory cake thing. Laura made an awesome wagon cake with cupcakes but unfortunately (or fortunately, however you count it) Sam didn't really get messy at all. He wanted nothing to do with the cupcake, not because of the taste which I can attest to, but probably due to the fact that he hates touching things that are sticky or messy. The other half of Sam's party at the Bean household in Orem. The next day Sam sported some of his new clothes, including his bean sprout shirt designed by uncle Andy and nice black Chuck Taylor Converse high tops from G/G Bean. He also played with his "action figure/not a doll" that Laura so kindly made for him.

I'm a punk rocker yes I am...

Forgive the reference to The Teddybears/Iggy Pop, I had to do it. Laura and I were getting Sam ready for a bath the other day and I decided to have some fun with his hair. I noticed it was getting a bit longer on top, so I wanted to see how much fun we could have with it. My friend Bryan warned me that this may come back to haunt me when I am old and senile and Sam is in charge of my well being. Oh well, for now I will have some fun. These are the results:

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

Whenever I step into an ice cream parlor you would think I was making a life altering decision, there are just too many good choices of flavors to decide on. That is what this is like for Dan. Today was a great day for our family, but first, some background. Dan went to Houston on Monday to interview with Continental Airlines.

Needless to say we were both excited and nervous. He is done with the Air Force in the coming months so he was stressed over finding another flying job. The actual interview was on Thursday, with a simulator evaluation in an airplane Dan has never even been in before, then an interview in front of a panel of airline Captains. Very stressful for both. He studied a lot for the past month in preparation for the big day, so I wasn't worried for him, I knew he would do well!He got back last night and as expected was exhausted. He said they both went well, that he flew really well in the sim (a 737 I am told, smaller than his current airplane) and the interview was good. Of course, he was hard on himself and second guessed just about everything he did, which is par for the course. I think maybe all pilots are like that, at least it seems that way. Well, whatever he did it must have worked. A friend of his that already works at Continental called this afternoon with the news that Dan had been hired. The chief pilot from Newark called him and asked if he would like to call Dan, which he did. And of course, he had to drag it out for Dan. I was glad to see him get teased, it is what I would expect him to do to someone else! He was offered Newark as a base, with two airplane choices. Right now he is in the Boeing 757 class that starts training in mid March. Unfortunately he can't get out of the AF until April, but he is going to try to talk to his boss to get out early. If he can't, he will fly...

the Boeing 737. It is a bit smaller, but is a great airplane also from what Dan says.

Right now he feels like either way he has won. Just like me choosing my favorite flavor of ice cream, we feel that Dan can't go wrong with this choice. I am proud of Dan and his hard efforts in achieving this goal.

A Little Update

So this is the latest on our happenings. It snowed. Finally! We got a whopping 3" the night before last. No snow the entire winter, then we get hit this close to March. It was crazy out here, they cancelled school for most of south Jersey and Philly. I wish we had Utah type snow, and I know, everyone there is sick of it. Whatever, I am still jealous.

Sam stands guard at the door, waiting for daddy to shovel the walks and wonders what all the fuss is about.

Sam and daddy in the snow. About 2.4 seconds later I gave him some snow to taste, sparking what I would consider a mild meltdown. I can't wait to be someplace where it snows a ton so we can go sledding etc...

We also went to a Church party. We don't associate these with what we would consider typical Saturday night fun, but it actually didn't turn out that bad. Each table had its own theme, and we were invited to sit at at the Luau table, so we dressed in our favorite hula skirts and ate all kinds of good food. Sam even got into the act with a nice new party shirt and a grass skirt. Not much else is happening with us, I am still getting ready for the big airline interviews (Continental next week, Delta in April) and Laura is still keeping everything together for the family.

Coming Home pictures

My friend at work gave me a disc yesterday with over a hundred pictures of our arrival home from the desert so graciously taken by another one of our friend's wife (thank you!). I had no idea they existed, but I really liked some of them so I thought I would post them here. I know it is totally out of sequence being a month and a half removed from that wonderful day, and it is killing my need for strict organization. But hey, they are pretty cool so I wanted to share them regardless. They may not all be of me and my family, but I think they still did something for me, and I wanted to show what it was like that night as families got back together again. And we were only gone four months, imagine the poor troops who are gone for a year or longer. And to think this is happening to military families very frequently. I try not to be all cheesy, but it makes me wonder what it will be like when we return to our heavenly family. Another cheesy thought, as we came home it was the families who were there to greet us. Sometimes I feel that we get caught up in the materialistic side of this world, where the house, the flat screen, or the super cool and trendy clothes become more important than what truly should be the most important thing in this world, our family.

Laura pre-reunion with Sam. He was already tired at the start, how would it go for him?

Right off the plane. I love this picture even though I look like a doof (pretty standard for me, but you do have to cut me some slack, 24 hours travelling on a cramped airplane will do that to you).

The "happy" family reunited and on the way to the terminal. At least Laura and I were happy. As for Sam, he just wanted a bottle and sleep.

In the terminal and Sam is still not quite sure who the guy to his left is, luckily it all worked out and we're buds once again.
Talking to my mom and assuring her I am really home. Sam has finally calmed down. Next, I get to go give blood to ensure I haven't brought any nasties back with me. But trust the Department of Defense, they would never do anything to harm us. And gulf war syndrome, it is all in your head. BUT, JUST IN CASE, we'll take your blood and run it through a trillion tests then hold it against you if we need to. Love the military.

D. Bates with kids. I loves this picture especially, seeing them mauling him.

Dave Manning and wife. The picture says it all.

Our Director of Ops Lt Col Moritz. Classic.

Ryan Vander Veen and his daughters. Yes, if you look closely you can see him tearing up. Again, it says it all.

Bratton and his daughter.

Percy and his wife.

Our friends Doug and Annie Hulse and Lexy. He kept me sane for four months, my church partner.

Valentines Day fun!

The first Valentines Day for Sam. Not really a big deal when you think about it. I am still of the opinion Valentines was developed as a marketing ploy by a major flower and chocolate conglomerate to prey on the innocent. I am guilty. Did I buy chocolate for Laura? Yes. Flowers? Usually. But this time instead of dumping money into flowers that die, I got her a dress she wanted. Scored big for that one I believe. My friend at work was not so lucky, he spent $160 on flowers for his wife. Yes, he bought them Valentines morning, so that is what you get. Back to Sam. Something as simple as a box or paper would have made him happy. That of course would not work. G-ma Stromberg sent a delightful little book for him that started things off. Laura then put me in charge of buying Sam a small token for the day. I think I was 50% from the field (1 for 2) on that account. Here Sam surveys the loot.The "good" present was a set of foam letters and numbers. He thoroughly enjoyed them all day.
The "bad" present may have been a bit contrived. I figure, Nerf guns are fun. So what if it says 6+ on the box. I thought if Sam didn't want it now, he would surely want it later. AND, he would probably let me use it until he was ready for it. Watch out mommy!

Here Sam enjoys his letters. He also likes standing now, what a cute little guy (he is using the wall as a brace, but we'll take what we can get for now).The day started well with present opening, and it ended equally well. I raced home from work, changed, and off we went to Brio Tuscan Grill in Cherry Hill. Very good food, and surprisingly kid friendly. We then walked across the parking lot and picked up some cheescake from the Cheesecake Factory for dessert. We got home and put Sam to bed, then started watching a movie and devouring our cheesecake. I was then promptly called to the hospital to give a blessing to one of our friends, but obviously that is much more important than a movie. In the end, it was an awesome day, definitely good to be home with family at last.