This is my goodbye to the Thunderbirds and good bye to the B-1 post.

I was overwhelmed with the amount of love

and support our squadron family showed us throughout our

3 years there.

Cam and I developed deep lifelong friendships with

many amazing people that we will always treasure.

And there was no shortage of love shown to us

 at our fabulous going away party.

They pulled out all the stops  to make sure

we had a proper send off!

Like: 

Preparing the squadron Tbird for us so we

could arrive to the party in style,

and the awesomely(yes, that is the word I am using)

humorous albeit embarrassing slide show of us.

And we can't leave out the delicious food

but most importantly all of our friends who came to the event

and left Cam and I humbled beyond words. 

THANK YOU!

Cam's last day in his office.
He obviously never let me come in and jazz up the place for him.  MEN!  ;)

Saying goodbye to his flight locker

The THUNDERBIRD! Sweet ride huh! Thanks Loaner.

My Mandy girl!

Mandy and all her "sister wives" aka Mormon friends....long story.

Friends like Susan are one in a million!

some of my pink lady comrades!

great friends the Stephens and the Sauleys

of the many nice gifts given to Cam

and Susan saying obviously untrue nice things about me and forcing me to cry hysterically.  And I can't
leave out the gracious fact that they gave me nice gifts too.


See....
Being a 34th thunderbird is pretty awesome!

Fini Flight

It is tradition that when you leave a flying squadron you get a "fini flight"

or final flight.  To add more onto an already full flight

I was able to do a spouse taxi. 

Which meant I got to get up at 5:30  to be to the base by 6:30

to get my life support gear and participate in all

the "excitement" that goes on before the jet actually takes flight.

 I had the privilege to sit around and wait for a couple of hours for our

first jet which ended up being broken for a second

jet which ended up getting stolen from another poor crew.

During all this pre-flight and waiting I got to sit on the potty.

It was a wonderful aroma filled experience. :)

When we were finally ready it was my turn to climb into the pilots seat

and taxi the plane to the edge of the runway so the qualified

crew could take off and do their mission.

my flight suit may be just a tad big.

After I ejected the jet I went home and got the boys from a wonderful babysitter who

had to start her job REALLY early to come back out and

do what all families look forward too.

Spraying down Cam with the fire hose and champagne.

In our case sparkling cider!

It is alot of fun the whole squadron comes out to the '

runway to welcome him back and participate in a

proper hose down.

Our Crazy Crazy Horse Hike

Don't let all the grins fool you, this hike wasn't all giggles and smiles.

But it was worth it! 

Our friends Jonathan and Susan however, might not agree.  

But I sure am glad that I was able to do this hike before we moved.

Once a year, Crazy Horse monument has a Volks March

and they allow you to actually walk up

onto the arm of monument.

A total of 6 miles, and the kids did great.

We even made it in record time to race back for baseball pictures and games.

Memorial weekend fun!

I am going to be playing a little bit of blog catch up over the next few days while sitting

in a Temporary Living Facility (TLF) at Fort Belvoir VA as we await the

arrival of our household goods so we can finally get settled in our new home.

Mack's baptism happened over memorial weekend and these are some of the things we did

while the family was in town.

A little bit of fun down at the ol' fishin hole....

Aunt Sara having fun with the boys

Cam arranged for us to do some B-1 flight simulation

Mackguire might be a tad bit into Diary of a Wimpy Kid...

Of course Story book island is a must stop on any fun filled weekend!

 I am not sure why it is so hard to get these particular 5 kids to sit and take a  picture together.

8 is great!

Saturday was the big day, the day our oldest got Baptized a member of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints . 

It was an extremely surreal moment in my life. I have attended a lot of batisms over the years 

but to actually have it be my own child was precious beyond words.

I am very proud and honored to be the parent of such a great boy and his decision to take this important step.

We were even more blessed on this day to share it with some of our beloved family and dear friends.

(and just for good measure, the boy was dunked twice....there just happened

to be an error in the first prayer.  coincindence?!?)  :D

 His Primary class (Isaac and Kimberly)

 Some of our invited guests (Wyatt, Lexie and J.T.)

 The Shirley Cuz'

 Grandpa and Grandma Shirley

 Grandma and Grandpa Terry

Here he is trying to rescue the many moths that were trapped in the building.

 John and Kathy and the Sister Missionaries

Andrew,  Rachel, Candice and Neil

Ophelia,  Aunt Brittany and  Mandy

Isaac,  Kacee and Graham

 The Kid table! (Poor Lucy...ugh those pesky boys)

 Megan and Scott

Ethan,  Sharlene and Kimmy

 Grandma and Aunt Sara

and seeing our friend "Walter" in a suit was worth the whole event.  ;)