Winter Blues

Now that the holidays are over I really don't see a point to winter. It's just cold and no fun! We've had record cold days here in Dayton and without any snow it's just cold and miserable.
This Saturday John and I went to the Columbus Temple to see our friends, the Hollands have their little boy sealed to them. What an amazing experience to witness a family be joined together for eternity. Gabe stayed home with his first official babysitter "Grandma Jan." I was worried about leaving him and being so far away, but he did great and it was nice for John and I to enjoy the morning alone and attend the sealing.
We drove to Cincinnati for the afternoon and took Gabe to the Aquarium to look at the fish. He had a ball just running around and banging on the glass at all of the fish (I'm sure the fish loved that!). It wasn't really a relaxing day, but nice to just spend time together as a family.
Gabe has learned all sorts of fun stuff the past few weeks. He is signing all sorts of new things like: cracker, juice, water, bird, hat, & airplane. He hears the planes from the base flying over our house and signs airplane without even seeing them. It amazes me how smart he is! He also is great at sustaining people in church, although by the time he gets his hand raised it's usually time for the opposition vote, so adorable! He is talking more too. He of course says, "no, no, no." Hmmmm. . . I wonder where he's heard that before? He also says Mom, Dad, Dog, Diaper, and "Burrrrrr!" when it's cold. He also gives great kisses!!! True, they are usually slobbery and really gross, but I love them! John and I compete for kisses from him (and just for the record, Mom gets more kisses!).

Happy New Year!

We brought in the new year by driving to Washington DC on New Year's Eve. Asleep in our hotel before midnight it wasn't much of a party, but we needed our rest since we had a big day ahead of us. New Years Day we left our hotel in the historic Foggy Bottom district of DC and boarded the metro to go do some sight seeing. Gabe was a fan of the metro and quickly learned the sign for train. It was a beautiful day to be outside so we decided to tour the monuments on the mall. We saw the Washington Monument, the new WWII monument, Korean and Vietnam memorials, as well as the Lincoln Monument and White House. From there we headed over to Arlington to see the Changing of the Guard. Exhausted and hungry after a long day of walking and being out in the cold we headed back to our hotel, but not before stopping to have dinner at the George Washington University Hospital Cafeteria. I know what you're all thinking . . . "yuck, hospital food." But, it was really good! And affordable! After paying $5 for a hot dog in all of the touristy places it was great to have a meal we could afford to eat . . . and actually get full!
Wednesday was cold and windy so we hit the museums. I drug John to the Natural History museum to go see the Hope Diamond and he loved the museum and could have spent all day there. But, with so much to see we headed off to the Archives to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Gabe loved the sound of his voice echoing in this building . . . enough said? We then went over to the Air and Space Museum which after being in so many awesome Air Force museums this one was kind of disappointing. However, the one cool thing we really liked was seeing the original Wright Flyer. (Gabe and I also enjoyed Boston Market in the food court!)
Thursday we visited the Holocaust Museum. This was a first for both of us so we took our time there. After grabbing some lunch it was back on the metro and over to Arlington to see the statue of the marines raising the flag at Iwoa Jima.
Friday was our last day in DC so we sent on a tour of the Capitol building. Wow, I actually got to see more of the capitol than just the basement and Brigham Young's back this time!!!
We really had a great trip and made some good memories. What a great birthday present, thanks John!!! Oh, and thanks to Dad and Cheryl for your Christmas gift - I think the GPS may have saved our marriage while driving in DC!

Merry Christmas

We hope you all had a happy Christmas! We enjoyed a quiet Christmas at home here in Ohio. We woke up and opened our presents and then enjoyed lounging around the house relaxing. Gabe enjoyed pulling the bows off all the gifts and unwrapping them too! He got a bunch of new toys that kept him occupied most of the day. John and I missed being with our families, but enjoyed the time together at home. Thanks to all of you who sent cards and gifts, it sure helped to make our Christmas nice. I love looking at our fridge and seeing all of the Christmas cards and photos! We love you all and hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Okay, we are home safe in Ohio after our trip to Alabama and Utah. I wrote a huge long detailed description of our trip home to Utah, but it was huge and long and boring so I just trashed it. I just want everyone, friends and family, to know how much we love you and enjoyed our time with you! Thanks for all of the efforts you made to spend time with me and Gabe! We love you all and hope you can come to Ohio and visit sometime!!!

He Speaks!

It's official, Gabe has spoken his first word! DIAPER! True, kids usually start with a simpler word, but other than Mama and Dada this is the only word he speaks that means something. It's so stinking cute! (No pun intended.)
It's been a quiet week for us so far. Gabe and I are both getting over our first colds of the season. Best to get them out of the way before we come visit! I am anxious to see all of you and leave the South! You know this is an interesting spot when John (who has lived in Ukraine in some pretty scary places) says, "You know this isn't the worst place in the world, but it's a close second." We are not sad to be leaving. Poor John has to stick it out another two weeks. Ohio never looked so good!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a very relaxing Thanksgiving Day here in Alabama. We had our turkey dinner courtsey of Cracker Barrell. It was actually very good. However, it just doesn't feel like Thanksgiving without being with our families. We sure missed all of you today. So keeping with Thanksgiving tradition here are our 5 thankfuls (well, mine at least, John is being difficult...)

Rachel's thankfuls:
1. My boys - there isn't a day that goes by that I am not thankful for John and Gabe. They are what keeping me going. I am grateful for their "enthusiastic" attitudes. Their happiness is contagious and always brightens my day.
2. My family - it was hard moving away from home this year. I miss seeing all of you and I wish you were closer to see Gabe grow up. However, I appreciate all the effort that has been put into visits, phone calls, packages, and emails. It's nice to still feel connected to you at home. I sure love all of you!
3. The Gospel - I am always thankful for the gospel in my life. I am thankful for the light and direction is gives in this crazy world. It gives me the hope and comfort that I need. Without it, I think I would find this world far too scary! I am grateful for my Savior, for His Atonement and for the chance we've been given to repent of our sins and be forgiven. What would I do without second chances?
4. Freedom - I love America! I am so proud to have a husband that is serving our country. I know he would give everything he has in order to preserve our freedom. It scares me sometimes to know how dedicated he is to this service, but I couldn't be prouder.
5. Eternal Families - I know I already listed John and Gabe as a thankful, and I already listed the gospel. However, this one is important enough to me to list by itself. I am grateful for the principle of eternal families. The other day John, Gabe and I spent the day on a beach in Florida. It was such a peaceful day and I felt absolutely content and at peace inside. As I watched my husband and son playing I think God gave me a glimpse of eternity. It was a moment I wished would never end. But, it did. However, it's one of those moments I'll never forget. I was in my own personal "heaven." It couldn't last, but I know we'll be there again someday, and we'll be there together, forever. And until then I will continue to hold onto those glimpses of heaven that God blesses us with in this life.

Birthday Boy

I am floored that a year has gone by so quickly! And what a crazy, eventful year it has been for us. But, it's true. . .my baby is a year old today! We celebrated last night by opening presents and having cake and ice cream. Gabe was a pro at unwrapping his gifts. The only problem was once he got one open he wanted to play with it instead of opening the rest of his gifts. We invited two of the families we've made friends with here at Maxwell over for cake and ice cream. The Fish's have a little boy who is 15 months old and Gabe plays with him every day on the playground, and I go walking with his mom every morning. The other family is LDS and they have a little girl who is 14 months old. So they all came over for cake and ice cream on Sunday night. (They were all impressed that I was able to pull off baking a cake with the limited supplies we have here in the kitchen.) Gabe had chocolate smeared all over his face, in his ears and up to his elbows by the time he finished with his piece. (He even kept his party hat on all night!) What a good boy he is! John and I feel so blessed. We are constantly in awe at how fast he is learning and growing. And we're always appreciative of his cheerful countenance and easy going demeanor. He is such a good kid! We are truly blessed.

The Officer's Club

Wednesday night we got our first taste of the Officer's Club. This was a recruiting event trying to get all of the new lieutenants to join the club. The Club itself reminded me a lot of the Riverside Country Club, very nice, very elegant. I even asked John if I needed to wear a dress. (We always had to wear dresses when we went to the Country Club!) But, tonight was casual. So we go and I'm a little nervous to be taking Gabe to the club, but as I ask around it seems like there will be a few other kids there too. We get there, get in line for the taco bar and find a place to sit amongst the throng of new lieutenants hooting, hollering, and cheering at the "jausters" who are in the middle of the room hitting each other with sticks on a giant blow-up boxing ring looking thing. (It reminded me of the TV show American Gladiators, only there were crystal chandaliers in the room.) Remember how I was going to wear a dress to this thing? Right. We eat our tacos and watch the jausting. Gabe loves every minute of it! (All the other kids are crying because of all the yelling and the Jock Rock that is blasting over the speakers.) But, not our Gabe! He's jumping and clapping and would probably be in on the betting if I gave him a little cash. So anyway, that was our O'Club recruitment. It was actually fun, but I thought it was probably a slight misrepresentation of what the O'Club is really like. But, I guess the Air Force thought this is the best way to get a bunch of slightly intoxicated new lieutenants to join the club!
It has been so hot here the last few days. The other night it was 80 degrees outside and in our room for that matter. They have shut the A/C off for the winter so there is no relief from the heat. We try to sleep, but you just lay there sweating. It feels like it's summer and not the middle of November! Tonight it is supposed to freeze though. All of the housekeepers are walking around in winter parkas today and it is a wonderful 60 degrees outside. They think it's freezing. I think it is fabulous!!!
I finally got the balls to leave base by myself yesterday. I'm getting stir crazy. I figured I would risk getting shot. Gabe and I drove over to the mall and picked up his pictures. (We had his picture taken last week for his 1st birthday.) They turned out so stinking cute! Can't wait to show everyone!

Ol' Alabama Town

We toured downtown Montgomery today. We were a little worried about going downtown since the areas we've experienced off base so far have been pretty rough, but it was actually really nice. We rode trolleys around town and saw several historical places, such as the Alabama State Capitol building where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as President of the Confederacy. We also saw the First White House of the Confederacy, a church where Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor, and the place where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. Montgomery is a very historical city and it was amazing to see the places where so many events took place in the Civil Rights Movement. We were hot and exhausted after our day of sightseeing and all we could think of was getting a coke. We are sure glad we are here in Novemeber and not in the middle of the summer. It would be unbearable!

Life's a Beach

Well, it was for us anyway this weekend. No, really, we spent Saturday on the pristine white sand beaches of Florida. We drove about 3 hours from where we are staying in Alabama to Eglin AFB in Florida where we spent Friday night and all day Saturday. We spent Saturday near Destin, FL where the Air Force has a private beach on the Gulf of Mexico. The water was a little chilly, but it was probably one of the most beautiful beaches we've ever visited. The sand hurt your eyes it was so white and we practically had the beach all to ourselves. I'll post pictures as soon as we get home. It was a great day at the beach! There's nothing better than a beautiful day spent with your family in paradise!We had lunch at a little seafood place where John downed a dozen oysters on the half shell. Maybe downed isn't the right word, he tolerated a dozen raw gooey oysters. I tried one and it was enough for me! I was just grateful they provided horseradish, cocktail sauce and saltines to eat with the oysters so you actually didn't have to taste it if you put enough condiments on it!

Gabe has started signing really well since we have been here in Alabama. He now can sign: milk, mom, dad, dog, all done, more, diaper, and fish. It was amazing to see him start signing. One day he didn't do it and the next day he did! He's picking up new signs all the time. It's cool to see him communicate these words to us. On Friday when we walked into our hotel room in Florida there was a framed picture of a fish on the wall. He looked at the fish, looked at me and signed fish! Wow! I didn't even have to point it out to him, he just recognized it and showed me! So cool!

Sweet Home Alabama?

Well, we're here in Montgomery, Alabama and there is nothing "sweet" about this place. The area around base is really a rough area and we basically don't leave base unless we have to. And then we drive several miles to get out of this area. Just recently they had a marine shot at a Taco Bell and another Air Force guy shot while going to get diapers for his kid at the store. At church on Sunday we were informed that just this past week all 9 air conditioning units had been stolen off the building. Yikes! Oh, and they still fly the confederate flag. Interesting.
However, it's not all bad. Maxwell is a very nice base and we feel perfectly safe while on base. We are staying in a tiny studio apartment. There is a great playground right outside that Gabe has had fun playing on. There are a couple of other kids his age here too so it's been nice for him to have some kids to play with outside. He fell yesterday while he was playing and since it was 80 degrees outside he was wearing shorts, so we officially have our "first skinned knee" bandaid and all! It was very tragic and devestating to Gabe. He wouldn't stop crying, that is until he saw all the fun things to play with inside of the First Aid kit, so he played happily while I doctored up the knee.
On our way to Montgomery we stopped and stayed one night in Nashville. We had a great time walking around the city. We were travelling with another Lieutenant from Wright-Patt and he really wanted to go see the "night life" of Nashville so we tagged along. I felt like the lady in the movie "Sweet Home Alabama" where Reese Whitherspoon walks into the bar and sees an old high school friend and says, "you have a baby, ...in a bar..." Yeah, I felt a tad bit out of place pushing my baby around all the bars and clubs on Broadway Street in Nashville, but we really had a fun time!

Thanks for the visit!

Jenny and Lexi,
Thank you for coming to visit us! We had such a fun time with you guys and we miss you already! Can't wait to do it again with Philip and Adyson too! We especially want to thank Philip and Adyson for sharing your wife and mother with us for a week! We had such a good time with her and Lexi!
Come see us again soon!
Love,
John, Rachel and Gabe

Highlights from Jenny and Lexi's visit:
1) Hiking at John Bryan State Park
2) Bodies Exhibit: check out the website...this was sooo cool! http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/intro.html
3) Dublin Irish Village
4) Longaberger Homestead: yep, we saw the world's largest apple basket!
5) Berlin, OH - Amish Country!!!

My favorite holiday

Columbus day. Yup, it's my favorite. Wierd, I know, but it's only because my birthday is on Columbus Day. I had a fantastic birthday, thanks to my hubby and my sister, who both worked hard to make my big day special! Jenny and I spent the day shopping for new curtains for my family room, something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but needing someone elses opinion on the matter. She helped me select some beautiful drapes that really transformed the family room. I love it! When John got home from work he suprised me with his birthday gift which was a trip to Washington D.C. over New Years! I am super excited to get a Do-Over in D.C. since the trip I took in 1998 went so horribly wrong. My birthday truly was wonderful and I love my family for making it special for me. I feel loved. Thank you.

Gabe's 1st Haircut

I'll admit this was a hard thing to do. I loved Gabe's wild curls, but it was time. He suprised us by not minding having his haircut. In fact, he had a great time playing with the cape, watching himself in the mirror, and having Nemo to watch on the TV didn't hurt either. I got teary eyed watching my baby turn into a little boy. John thinks I'm being ridiculous, but this was a BIG emotional mommy moment that I don't think I was quite ready for. I kind of wish I'd held out a little longer to do this, but it's done now. And Gabe still is adorable, he just doesn't look like BABY Gabe anymore. He looks all grown up!

Everybody nose what Gabe's up to!

Big milestones! GABE'S A WALKIN'! True, we are still in the phase where we are counting the number of steps he takes, but he's doing it all on his own! It won't be long before he's up and running full speed. I can't belive my baby's walking. He is getting too big, too fast!
He is also teething right now. He has had just his two bottom teeth for so long now, we were starting to wonder if he would ever get more teeth. But, they're here. He has at least four coming in on top, and two on the bottom. It's like we went to bed one night and the next morning he had a full set of teeth. Wow, can't imagine that feels great, but he's no complainer.
A couple of my favorite things that he's doing right now is: 1) Using our kitchen chairs as a walker by pushing them around the kitchen wherever he wants to go. 2) Climbing up and down the stairs. It's so cute to watch him come down the stairs. He has to very carefully position himself in front of the gate to come down backwards. Once he is through the gate he always has to shut the gate which can be tricky for him, but he won't come down until it is shut. Once it's shut he has to give it a good violent shake to make sure it's locked and not coming open, and then finally he can descend. He comes down and what seems like 90 mph to me, but he's only fallen once so far, so I guess he's got it pretty well under control. 3) And last, I love when he puts his finger up his nose! Really cute, but now that I have a picture I think we are going to have to break this habit.

A Week in Virginia

John was sent TDY to Langley AFB in Virginia last week. Gabe and I were able to accompany him, and it sure beat being home alone for a week! The Air Force put us up at the Hilton Hotel (your tax dollars hard at work) and we were just minutes away from lots of fun things to see and do. Our first night there we drove to Buckroe Beach and Gabe experienced the great Atlantic for the first time. He was scared at first of the waves, but by the second night when we went back he was enjoying playing in the surf and of course the sand.

While John was in class at Langley Gabe and I would go do a little sightseeing and touristy stuff. One stop we made was at the Berkeley Plantation: Site of the First Official Thanksgiving in America in 1619, birthplace of William Henry Harrison, 9th U.S. President and Benjamin Harrison V, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, ancestral Home of Benjamin Harrison, 23rd U.S. president, “Taps” was composed here in 1862. Quite the historical plantation and very beautiful! There is actually a cannon ball still stuck in the side of the house from the Civil War. Very cool!

Another favorite that John was actually able to visit with us was Colonial Williamsburg. Once the capital of Virginia this is one historic city. It's amazing to walk the same streets that Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and so many other famous Virginians walked too. One evening we even enjoyed a "Ghost Tour" of the city. For this we went to the Govenor's mansion after dark and heard myths and legends from the time period. I'm sure it was really good, but I only was there for about half of it, since Gabe apparently doesn't like ghost stories. . .

We also visited Jamestown Settlement. Very cool museum and reconstructed fort and ships as the settlers would have built/used. We learned a lot of history about how the English lived and tried to survive, as well as how the Indians lived at the time. It was real "woodmansy" stuff, the whole time we were there we were thinking it was something that John's dad would really enjoy seeing.

I think our favorite stop had to be Monticello. What an incredible place. Beautiful, ingenious and 100% original from the construction to the furniture and paintings on the walls. If you ever have a chance to visit - do it! We are so glad we stopped here! Jefferson was such an amazing man, the house really gives you a sense of who he was and what was important to him. Besides the framed copy of the Declaration of Independence that he kept on the wall, he actually kept a rough draft in the house for his grandchildren to read.

And finally another favorite stop was Virginia Beach. Gabe and I spent all day here and John, Matt and JC (the other Lts. from Wright-Patt) joined us in the evening. Beautiful sand, great waves, and a "noisy atmosphere." (There were Navy F-18s flying overhead all day long making quite a rucous, but with John's love of jets he was in 7th heaven!) We loved the beach and wished we'd had another day to spend there. I even saw a family of about 7 or 8 dolphins swim by while I was there. It was so exciting to see dolphins in the wild, I just wish someone else was there to see it. . .Gabe just didn't appreciate the moment.

Labor Day Weekend

Checked out the Columbus Zoo this weekend. Loved it! This is a zoo we will be going back to. Watched an RC Airplane show on Saturday for a couple of hours, too hot to stay any longer. It was neat to see 7 or 8 planes up at one time, kept waiting for a crash, but left disappointed. John loved the jet planes (yes, rc planes with real jet engines) as well as the choppers. Monday we just hung out around the house and spent the evening with our neighbors, the LeMaires. Katie made awesome hamburgers. . . probably the best homemade burger I've ever had. The secret? Some special creole seasoning she gets at home in Louisiana. We played several games of Bocce and we learned how to play Corn Hole. Never heard of Corn Hole? Neither had I until we moved here. But, it is very popular here and everyone seems to play it. It was fun evening and a great way to end our long weekend.
Gabe's latest "funny" is taking off his bib while he is eating. John and I have gotten so tired of puting his bib back on him that we've just stopped making him wear one. So now he trys to take off his shirt while he is eating. He hasn't succeeded in getting his shirt off yet, but boy does he try. We're not sure why he has this obsession, although I'm thinking maybe it's not a bad idea to let him eat in the nude. . . less laundry for me in the longrun!
Today we got word that Gabe and I could accompany John next week while he is TDY. So I am excited not to be home alone all next week. As well as now we have the chance to do some sight seeing in Virginia. We will be in Hampton, VA at Langley AFB. Lots of fun historical things to see in this area as well as the fun of having the beach near by. Hopefully, John will have enough free time to enjoy some of it with Gabe and me.

Too Cute!

This picture is just too cute not to share. I think Gabe looks very grown up.

Lions and Tigers and Bears. . . Oh, My!

Visited the Cincinnati Zoo on Saturday. It was a great zoo and Gabe enjoyed watching the animals. Yep, that's a baby rhino behind me and Gabe in the picture. So cute! We also loved seeing the Giant Anteater, the Polar Bears, and John loved the insect display, personally it made me sick.

Gabe has started climbing the stairs and spends a good chunk of time each day going up and down the first three stairs. He has also discovered the toilet paper and loves to unroll it any chance he gets. He is getting so big and doing so many things now. I went visiting teaching this morning and the lady I visit has a 10 month old baby boy. Gabe basically ran circles around this kid, (as well as running over the top of him). It's amazing how different kids are!


John finished the 3 week long training he's been in on Friday. So he is back to work on Monday. Sounds like he may be going TDY for a week in Septemeber, but we haven't heard final confirmation on that yet. We'll keep you posted. We're also talking about the possibility of me flying home for a week or two in November while he's in Alabama, so we'll let everyone know dates for sure when we get that scheduled!

Home Sweet Home

Many of you have asked to see where we live. So this is it, home sweet home. Hope it helps you to picture where we are.

Newport on the Levee

Saturday we took a day trip to Cincinnati, Ohio. Well actually we crossed the river into Kentucky and spent the day at a place called Newport on the Levee. It's an outdoor shopping mall that is located right on the river. It also has an aquarium which is where we spent most of the day. The shark tank was the highlight of the aquarium. It was neat to walk through a glass tunnel and see all types of sharks swimming around you. They also had a cool hands on pool where you could touch some of the sharks. Gabe loved watching all the fish!
Cincinnati was interesting. . . It's an old city and you can tell by the roads and architecture that it's pretty dated. If anyone wants to go to a Cincinnati Reds game when you come to visit we'd be up for it. We passed the stadium and it's pretty cool as it looks out over the river. I think it would be fun to go watch a game.

Life in Ohio

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here. I've got to get back in the grove of keeping this site updated. We've been in Dayton just over 3 weeks now and really are enjoying it. I just thought I would share a little bit about what life is like for us here.
HOME: We moved into a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath townhouse. It has a garage and a small yard, both of which are firsts for us. The walls are cream, the carpet is a little darker cream and my tile is cream. But the big excitement comes in the bathrooms...they really got crazy there and put in white tile! Yes, it's military housing so everything is pretty blah. However, we love the space - it's bigger than anywhere we have lived so far. We hung pictures on the walls this past week and that has made it feel more like home. I also got my "graduation" gift (you know for putting John through school). New living room furniture! Our yard was a mess when we got here. So we've spent several hours outside trying to get it looking nice. It's already come a long way. Our grass is infested with weeds and is really splotchy. There are just chunks of grass growing amongst all the weeds. It's ugly. So we've put down a bunch of grass seed to help fill in the holes and it's helping. Once the new grass matures a little will hit the entire yard hard with Weed & Feed and hopefully that will get it looking nice. I think you should be able to walk on grass without your shoes on, and this is definately not barefoot grasss yet, but hopefully we're getting there. Oh, we also water our grass! What a concept. People out here don't water there grass and water is free! I know we get more rain than most of the country, but still watering has done wonders for greening up the grass. We found that really interesting... There is also quite a bit of wildlife in our yard. We love watching fire flys in the evenings, as well as the bats that come out of the trees. During the day we often see cardinals in our yard, as well as a few other really neat birds, but I don't know what they are. We also have a rock chuck that lives in the backyard and we occasionally have jack rabbits too.

CHURCH: Funny story about church... We logged onto LDS.org to find out where we met for church. The site listed a whole bunch of wards, and by looking at the map it looked like we would attend a branch in downtown Dayton since it was the closest one to our house. So John went to the branch the first Sunday we were here (yes, I was home in bed) anyway, he went downtown, hard a very hard time finding the building since it wasn't a regular LDS building...just a door on the street. He finally finds the door and it's locked! He could see people inside, but he couldn't get in. So he knocks on the door and someone lets him in and he asks why the door is locked? Oh, you know...it keeps people from coming in off the streets and stealing things... Right. Did I mention that downtown Dayton is scary? Ya, pretty much it's not a place you feel real warm and fuzzy inside when you are driving around. This branch downtown has hired a security guard to stand in the parking lot to watch over peoples cars while they are in church. Crazy, huh. Anyway, we come to find out that we don't go to the branch! Thank goodness!!! What a relief. We drive about 20 minutes out to a rather large ward in a town called Beaver Creek. It's a beautiful area, nice houses, nice people, warm fuzzies... Our ward has been so friendly and welcoming! We've had dinner with a couple of the families that live just around the corner from us, and there are two other families who we knew from Logan since they were in the ROTC with John.

WORK: John is working in the Propulsion directorate of the AFRL (Air Force Research Labratory). He will be working with scram jets once he actually starts working. Right now he is still doing in-processing and has a lot of training ahead of him. We just found out that six weeks of his training will be in Montgomery, Alabama from Novemeber 1 - December 14. He will be gone for Gabe's 1st birthday, Thanksgiving and his own birthday. I am thinking about going with him since he'll miss so much while he's gone, but I'm dreading spending six weeks cooped up in a hotel room. Anyway, work for me consists of taking care of Gabe and continuing the ongoing project of making our new house feel like home. I've also started going to a "Mommy Bootcamp" class at the gym on base. It's great being able to workout and have Gabe with me. I thought it would be kind of a push over class, but the guy teaching it is tough on us! It's been good for me to get up and go in the mornings!
Okay, this is long, so I'll wrap it up now. Love ya'll and we'll do better at keeping everyone up to date on what's going on.

We're Here!

Okay, so we are finally in Ohio. After day #1 of our trip we've had no internet access until now so we have felt very disconnected from the world. But, we're up and running now, so life is good. Here is a brief synopsis of the rest of our trip out here. After leaving Denver we travelled to Topeka and spent the night with our friends Steve and Jenn. The drive from Denver to Topeka was painful and dull! Thank goodness we had Harry Potter on CD to listen to! The only two things we saw along the road that day were a 30 foot tall replica of Vangough's Sunflowers and the Freak Farm. Yep, we visited a farm in Kansas that had a 5 and a 6 legged cow. (I'll put pictures on snapfish, you have to see it!) We finally got to Topeka and were really impressed by how pretty Topeka is. I've always pictured it as an ugly prarie city, but it was greeen and beautiful. The next day Steve and Jenn tagged along with us as we visited Kansas City, Independence, Liberty Jail, the RLDS temple, Adam-ondi-ahman, and Jamesport. After saying goodbye to them in Jamesport (an Amish community) we continued on up the road to Nauvoo. We arrived in Nauvoo after dark and were very impressed as we came around the corner to see the temple all lit up and beautiful. It's an impressive site! We spent two full days in Nauvoo and enjoyed our time there! It was definately the highlight of our trip. From Nauvoo we drove all the way into Dayton and arrived here early early Friday morning. We got a hotel room and a few hours of sleep before we met our movers at our house.
So far we have really enjoyed being here. We've had some interesting experiences already, but things are good! John has started work and has been busy doing all of the inprocessing and security measures the Air Force has for him to do. He's been assigned to an area in the AFRL (Air Force Research Labratory) however, I can never remember the name. He'll be working with engines that compress air to make them go really fast. (Speeds of Mach 3 and above). One of these days I'll remember the proper name for it. I'm doing great. I've just been working hard at home trying to get our house put together. Gabe is doing awesome as usual. He has mastered the art of crawling and is even faster and into more things than he was before. He has also started climbing up on things like his bed, our furniture, the toilet. Just this morning I walked into the bathroom to find him sucking on the toilet seat. YUCK!!! He also has one tooth now that is so cute. He is learning to feed himself little foods like cheerios and it is so fun to watch him try to use his fat little fingers to get the food into his mouth.

Traveling to Ohio - Day #1

We've finally said goodbye and are on the road! We left Orem this morning at 10AM and made it to Denver by 8PM. It was a long drive, but we enjoyed the beautiful drive through Glenwood Canyon. We stopped and had dinner in Vail and walked around the Village for a while. Gabe has been an angel in the car today and has made friends where ever we have stopped. He had the hard-core Harley Davidson bikers cooing at him at Wendy's, the chefs at a pizza bar ringing the "order up" bell to make him smile, and he even made a little friend in the pool at the hotel tonight.

Our trip to Sheridan

This past weekend we took a trip to Sheridan, Wyoming to visit my grandparents. My mom, dad and brother, Dave all came along too. Saturday, we took Gabe on his first fishing trip to my favorite place in the whole world, Piney Creek in the Big Horn Mountains. The water was high and the fishing okay. I hate to admit it, but I was outfished by both my dad and little brother. Gabe was a great sport and didn't complain all day, he must love fishing too!!! He really seems to love being outside. After fishing, we met my mom and grandparents for a picnic that evening at Story Fish Hatchery (my second favorite place in the whole world). We played games at the hotel that night and I destroyed my parents and brother at Samurai. I challenge anyone to take me down... I am the greatest! (Chuck, I'm talking to you.)

Sunday we went to church at a small branch in Ranchester. This was the smallest church building I have ever seen. Perhaps a glimpse of things to come for us. The chapel probably seated 60 people max. There were probably only 25 people in the congregation and our family was four of them! It strangely reminded me of my mission in Ukraine. After church we took a quick trip to the cemetery to visit the graves of my Grandpa Heaton, Grandma & Grandpa Bell, and my namesake John Edwin Bell. Later, Grandpa Roy took me back and showed me where Grandma Charolette's ashes were burried. We then went to lunch at Grandma Heaton's and fried the trout we caught on Saturday. It was fun to have all the grandparents join us again for lunch. Everyone was there, my Grandma Heaton, Grandma Blanche, Grandpa Roy and his son Mickey. We got some yardwork done for my Grandma Heaton and took a trip out to the Dry Farm to pickup a water tank.

Grandma Heaton came with us, it was a special trip since this is the first time she's been out there since my grandpa passed away last April. It was extremely green and I haven't seen the water that high in the resevoir since I was a little tike. There were antelope and deer everywhere, I sure love it out there! We went back to the hotel and went swimming that afternoon. It was Gabe's first time in the pool and he had a ball! We had dinner at Sanfords and Grandpa Roy joined us. It was pricey, tastey, and our waitress was horrible. We ended the day by playing games again. Yes, I killed everyone at Samurai again. I am the greatest!

Monday, we got up and went to breakfast at the traditional spot, Perkins. Grandma Heaton joined us and it was nice. Grandma Blanche didn't feel like getting dressed so she didn't come. We got checked out of the hotel, picked up my old highchair that I used to sit in at Grandma Blanche's house from Grandma Heaton's house, said our goodbye's and we were off! On the way home, we stopped at Independence Rock. We saw the names carved in the stone, a rattlesnake and I climbed to the top.

We also stopped at Martin's Cove. Went through the Visitor's Center, musuem, and took a small trek were me and Rach pulled mom and Gabe in a handcart. Couple more quick stops for diaper changes and food and we were home, late! It was an eventful, enjoyable, rockus time!

Memorial Day Weekend

What a busy weekend! The zoo, Pirates of the Caribbean, TGI Fridays, Iggy's, "Andra's" Bed & Breakfast, a birthday BBQ, family pictures, mini golfing, games, games and more games! We had a great weekend thanks to all of you who took time out of your busy lives to play with us. We love spending time with our families and sure made some great memories this weekend! Thanks!!! We sure love ya!

6 Months Old

Gabe turned 6 months old on the 19th of this month. I can't believe how the time has flown! We took him to the doctor today for his 6 month check up and immunizations. He weighed in at 16 lbs. (23rd percentile) and is 27 inches tall (75th percentile). Looks like we have a tall skinny kid on our hands. He is so full of energy and is interested in everything right now! He has perfected rolling over and rolls all over our apartment. He also scoots on his tummy and will be crawling any day now! He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks in place. It won't be long!
He continues to delight us with his shrieking and squealing and an occasional chuckle at some absurd thing we've done. John and I are constantly amazed at how much Gabe seems to learn and grow each day. We love playing with him, reading to him and showing him new things. I don't think we'll ever grow tired of watching him discover and explore the world around him. What a fascinating life this is!