Australia

Crossing the equator for the first time.

Amazing sunsets in Darwin.

In the Officers' mess there was a painting of the Japanese attack on Darwin. More bombs were dropped on Darwin in this attack than in the one on Pearl Harbor.

Huge termite mound, this was the inspiration for the aliens on Attack of the Clones that gave the plans for the Death Star to Dooku.

They call them magnetic termites because their mounds are on magnetic headings, but really it is because of direction to maximize heating from the sun. In the southern hemisphere you have to face north to get the most sun.

We saw an emu on the side of the road and pulled over to take its picture.

Yeah, I'm not swimming here. Note the different graphics for the fresh and saltwater crocodiles.

Wangi falls is a beautiful swimming hole at Litchfield national park in the Northern Territory of Australia, the same territory where Ayer's rock is, but you can't swim in it when its closed for crocodiles... I thought about going to Ayer's rock, but it was 1300 miles away and I didn't have that much time off. While this one was closed, there were two upstream that were open, and I did go swimming in Australia. Something I never though I would do. Some of the guys that were with us had water proof cameras and I will try and get some of their pics and post them. It was really fun, and the water was clear, spring fed and fresh with a slight emerald color to it. It was great fun and the best part was the park was free.

Odds are high there are crocodiles in there.

No joke, almost every day we were there the front page headline was something about crocodiles.

If you think this is impressive, watch the video.

At the Humpty-Doo pub we had lunch. I got mini burgers of (from left to right) crocodile, water buffalo, and baramuni (a fish).

We went to see an Aussie Rules Football game. We paid for the cheaper tickets and got to sit on this hill across from the bleachers, but the view was incredible.

It took a while to have the rules explained to us. If I were explaining it to someone else I would say that it is rugby mixed with ultimate frisbee.

On Thursdays there is a big open air market at Mindle beach where you can get food from all over the world, didgeridoos, boomerangs and then watch the sunset.

We got to refuel Navy F-18s off the boat pre and post fight.

The Adelaide, the same river from the jumping croc tour from the air.

The billeting they put us in looked kind of like Darmaville from Lost.

Aerial view of the harbor.

Fruit bats all over the place in Litchfield national park.

They call these guys "freshies" instead of "salties" since they are freshwater crocs, as seen in their narrow snouts. They are supposedly scared of people, but I don't want to go swimming with them.

Moving purses.

This is half the reason you have to be careful in the water in this part of the world, the other half is huge sharks!

So which draws your focus more the chops or the chompers?

I got to hold a baby crocodile, and it was heavier than I expected.

Not the best looking sea turtle habitat, but they seemed pretty happy.

Kangaroos are active at dusk and dawn, the rest of the day they just lay around.

How about that water print left on the cement? The female is in the top left with her mouth open. These are the breeders that have gotten large enough to just eat and breed. Much better than the ones that become purses, wallets, and hamburgers.

Aussie money.

Nightcliff beach.

Everyone gathering on Mindle beach to watch the sunset.

Sunset over Darwin Harbor

The beautiful sunrise on the morning I left, knowing that I would in fact make it home before our second son arrived. It was a good feeling.

Texas and Oklahoma City (Stuck for 2 weeks)

I have been gone for so long, that now I am here and have a moment, as we are stuck in the hospital waiting out the typhoon (all pregnant women past 37 weeks have to spend the typhoon in the hospital as they close all the roads...but that is another post) and I wanted to talk about the TDY that just wouldn't end. It was supposed to be over the weekend and then took two weeks.

They augmented our crew, giving us a 24 hour crew duty day, allowing us to fly from Okinawa to Oklahoma straight (that's a 14 hour plus flight). The craziest thing was we went so far north that even though we were going east, this is the darkest it got over Alaska.

We went to Chevy's in Austin on our drive back to Tinker. We flew into OK, spent the night, then flew to San Antonio and drove up to Dallas. We spent the night in Dallas then drove up to OKC. There we sat for two weeks as the jet we were supposed to pick up was still not crew ready.

My good friend and member of the posse Joe, came and picked me up, since he's stationed in Enid, and I got to see him and his beautiful family.

It would have been one thing is they had slipped us for two weeks at the start, but we would get up every morning and find that we had slipped another 24 hours. My stubble started to become a beard, so I had to document it. I finally got to come home, spend 4 days, and then I left for Talisman Sabre in Darwin Australia.

Summer Fun

Our summer has been filled with baby preparations, class and school registrations and saying lots of goodbyes and welcome homes to dad. However, we make sure to squeeze in the fun. Here are just a few photos capturing some of our happier summer moments so far.

Our diva is going through a fabulous phase of wearing gloves, curtsying and addressing us as "your highness". Our son not to be outdone insists on his full Sunday best, requesting tie, vest and all (this includes cologne, of which he has his own).

Swim lessons have definitely been one of the great highlights of the summer. Our daughter was fearless in the ocean but a little more timid in the swimming pool. This all changed after two weeks. Now she is just fearless, swimming pool or ocean.

Our daughter still isn't sure how she feels about floating on her back, but she is no quitter.

That is our daughter under the water. Jumping in was terrifying for her, now that is all she wants to do. She concurred the diving board and with every trip to the swimming pool begs to jump off the diving platform. It has been amazing that the more fearless she becomes in the water, the more fearless she becomes in other parts of her life. Although I have yet to capture it on film our son took one look and our daughters leap into the swimming pool and has decided not to be out done. One of these days I will capture his grand leaps into the water. Although the bellowing growl he lets out before he jump is really the best part.

Of course our boys favorite spot is the beach, he isn't much different from his mom. Of course the water is as warm and clear as the swimming pool.

As great as a swimming pool is, it just doesn't have sand and our son definitely goes for the sand. He only runs in the water when he just can't stand the heat any more. I am convinced that if we left him on the beach for an entire day there wouldn't be a spot left with out some kind of sand structure on it or something buried in it.

The club here has a children's disco night with a dinner buffet once a month. My husband takes our children and they love it. My favorite part is watching my cute husband dancing with our children.

These are the two coolest boys on the dance floor and they are both mine.

Oh Cookie!

So we had a experience not too long ago that I thought was worth mentioning. I would have posted it earlier, but I wanted to wait until I could add the photo documentation. A couple of weeks ago we decided that for family night we were going to take some time to teach our children about being kind to others. So the children and I spent the day baking what seemed like a years supply of cookies to take around to the many people we have been thinking about but haven't had a lot of time to get to know. On this same day was the birthday of a friend of mine. I thought I would attempt to surprise her with a cake. I knew with the time crunch and the heat this was not going to be easy. However I made it work, I made room so we could put each layer of cake in the freezer before and after frosting so the heat wouldn't melt my project. That evening as soon as my husband walked through the door we loaded up the cookies and the cake and set out on our planned adventure but of course the adventure did not go as planned. The children were at first so excited to surprise new friends with goodies, so much so they fought over who got to walk to the door with dad to deliver them. Unfortunately very few people were home, including my friend who I had baked the cake for. After hours of attempted and failed visits, my family (who was trying to convince me they were going die of starvation at any moment if they didn't eat dinner) pleaded for me to give up and go home. I remained determined to teach my children the joy of doing something nice for someone else, especially after spending all day baking. When my determination had officially sucked the joy out of the evening and it was well past my children's bed time, we returned home with the cake and an endless supply of cookies. While my husband got the children ready for bed, I gave my self a little pep talk while fixing supper. I tried to convince myself that the children and I would have the time and energy to try and deliver all the goodies again the next day. It was only seconds after my son had his bath that I heard his sweet little voice begging and pleading for yet another cookie to stifle his starvation. I reassured him that as soon as his father and sister joined us we would eat dinner and I expressed my confidence in his ability to endure until then. He was undeterred, and only more persistently pleaded his cause. It was then that I made the mistake of taking my eyes off him. I turned to put the cookies away completely forgetting about the cake that was sitting of the counter. I had delicately covered my creation with plastic wrap in an attempt to preserve it until the next day, but alas that was not to be its fate. Almost in slow motion I heard those horrible words slip through my sons lips in an almost lustful manner, " Oh Cookie". There before him was what he thought was the biggest cookie he had ever seen and he was sure it would satisfy his hunger. I turned, also in what felt like slow motion, in just enough time to see his tiny little hands diving into the three layer lemon blueberry cake. Then shocked by the plastic wrap he pulled his hands back, but it was too late, the cake was destroyed. It was then that my son was distracted from his hunger by the strange yet appealing feeling of squishing cake wrapped in plastic wrap through his fingers. All at once he came to his senses and gave me a look I have never seen on his face. A look of, I'm sorry mother, I don't know what came over me I must have been suffering from temporary insanity. He had actually shocked himself with what he had done. The whole experience left me speechless, with bits of laughter when I look back on the moment. However, I did take pictures, so feel free to laugh along with us or at us, what ever the case may be.

Toes, Friends and Sunsets

One of my favorite treats since moving here is going with friends to get toes painted. It is not like the pedicure you get in the states, not even close, this is amazing. You get to sit in one of the most comfortable chairs invented and have your feet treated like a delicate work of art by what are in my opinion fabulous artists. After amazing messages and treatments and being pampered you then get a design and color of your choosing, (from a huge selection) delicately painted upon your toes. Here are some photos of the art work my friends and I had painted on our most recent venture.

Excuse my pregnant swollen feet. I normally stick with more traditional colors but in order of our baby boy soon to be born I went with blue.

I am amazed at the tiny scroll work they were able to do even on my tiny toe and the way they place small bits of glitter in precise spots. Click on the picture to enlarge it and see the detail, not that any one wants to see the details on my feet.

These are the designs my friends had painted upon there little footsies.

We had the pleasure of getting to visit with our former neighbor and dear friend from North Dakota. We have all moved on to different bases so it was a treat to see him. Because he broke down in our neck of the woods we got to have a fun visit, but I'm sorry that breaking down caused him to get back to his family later than planned. We know what it is like anxiously waiting for dad to get home. These are just some beautiful sun set pictures that my sweet husband took from our house. I feel it is hard to feel forgotten by our Heavenly Father when he takes the time to bless us with such beautiful sunsets as these. In a world currently fill with such devastation, cruelty and mayhem it is nice to stop and look and the beauty that sits right in front of us.

Last but not least, this is currently our pet, well it was until we set him free, all tho I'm sure he will be back. This is the gecko that lives in the artificial greenery in our house.

So there you have it, our most recent tidbits. Maybe not the most exciting, but they are the little adventures that make up our days.

Operation Deny Anniversary

So my wife is letting me do a post here, since it is kind of a painful subject. A typhoon came through, and, as we hear is always the case, it was going to hit on the weekend. Instead of having our anniversary date, I had to typhoon evac to Guam.

And this is the horrible place I had to spend the long weekend.

Fellow travelers at the hotel.

Everyone did fine back home. The only damage we suffered was dents in the car door from the neighbors trash can. 120 knot winds did hit the island, and some people had windows blown out, roofs ripped off, and trampolines blown away. All the leaves were gone from the jungle, and the beautiful canopy that was full of flowers was completely stripped away, down to the bare branches. It's weird, looking like winter in summer.