Back in the saddle

It's been a while! An interesting past two months, leading up to a sunny afternoon here in beautiful Monterey, CA. Language classes don't start until October, but between now and then Nate will be putting in personal time to learn the Arabic alphabet, and basics to get a head start and hopefully stay afloat as he goes through this next phase of training.

We have housing set up, Bren and the kids will be moving out here within the next two weeks. We don't know when our things will come down from Washington, but we're eagerly anticipating having a home again. And in a few weeks Nate will be able to move into the house and off post! (Goodbye free food in the chow hall, hello morning commute...)

More good news in the form of Christmas exodus - the post here will be shutting down for two weeks, giving an opportunity to go back to Utah for Christmas! Lynn and Rachel will be back in town as well, it will be fantastic to see everyone yet again.

Mom, Andrea and Bonnie were able to make it to Lackland AFB for the Airman's Coin ceremony and the Honor Graduate ceremony, and have pictures to prove it. Here's hoping they'll share, and we can post some of the better pictures here. (nudge nudge) Brenda, her mom, and Cameron were able to make it late that afternoon, after those ceremonies but before Parade. Nate's flight performed drill movements very well in both ceremonies, with a perfect score for Retreat and only a handful of demerits for Parade. Again, hopefully some pictures will show up soon.

On the homefront, Dylan is putting his mom through the wringer. Every time he gets his hands on some form of writing utinsel another piece of furniture bites the dust. Too much energy trapped in that little body! He points to Nate's picture often and says, "See tomorrow?" to which Bren replies, "Nope. In two weeks." Dylan has now taken to pointing to the picture and saying, "Miss daddy. See in two weeks." Needless to say his dad misses him very much! Almost three months is a long time to not see the big guy.

That's all for now! Please be sure to keep in touch - phone numbers haven't changed for Nate or Brenda, neither have email addresses. We love all of you!