Field Medical School

Sean's Graduation!!

a proud wife!

retiring the flag

marching in- Sean is in the first row

the school building

Sean's platoon at attention

it's official!

Finally it's graduation day! Sean has been at Field Med for 2 months, he was trained in medical procedures during combat- among other things. He did awesome, of course! I couldn't be more proud of him and all his accomplishments. I am the most proud when I think of the men he will save that have wives, like me, who are proud of their husbands too, and waiting for them to come home safe.

Congratulations Sean!!!

Here are some pictures that Sean sent me the first week he was at school. These are all of the barracks that he stayed in.

the racks... 3 high

with some nice privacy curtains...

everyone got a bed and a locker... here is his locker

the "bedroom"... those are the rows of racks

Hanging with my Mom-in-Law

Vivian came to keep me company while Sean is at Field Medical School (ok... so she had the trip planned for a while to come see us both, but Sean's training ended up being at the same time.) Anyway, we had a lot of fun site-seeing around San Diego and we even went to Disneyland!! It was fun to spend time with her, I had a great time!! Here are some pictures from our week:

Disneyland was decorated for Halloween

Vivian got into Disneyland for free because it was her birthday. Awesome way to spend your 50th huh?!

The next two pictures are good examples of how the week went... it's hard taking pictures of yourself... we were trying to document that we were both there but it didn't always work out very well!

watching the sunset at Sunset Cliffs

we kinda failed on this one...

I'm so glad she got to come!! It was too bad Sean missed out on most of the events, but I am happy that I got to spend some quality time with my mother-in-law. It was good to get to know her better. I told Sean after she left that she knows me well now and either a) understands where Sean is coming from with loving me. or b) thinks her son has lost his mind for marrying me. I like to think it's the first option... :)

At the Temple

While Sean's mom was here visiting we went to the temple to walk around and take some pictures...

Visiting Sean

Pumpkin Patch

We went to Bate's Nut Farm to get our pumpkin. There was a festival there with hay rides, a petting zoo, and booths of random things to buy. We went with the West's. It was hot that day (it usually is in California) We walked the entire pumpkin field trying to find the perfect pumpkin, and I think we came pretty close. It was a fun time, as always.

Sunday drive to Julian

We went for a drive to Julian this evening. Of course we took the West's... It was good to drive to the cold weather and have proof that at least somewhere it was fall. It was freezing...

Visit from the Wallaces

Brad, Tifani, Cade, Makinzi, and Cody came to visit us... Once again we slacked in the picture taking area! Why do we always do that?? We had a blast hanging out with them though. The first night we went to Hodad's for some famous hamburgers. It was awesome. Brad was the only one (in the whole place, I think) that ordered a double bacon hamburger with cheese and a basket (which meant that it also came with a mother load of potato wedges)... it was huge. HUGE! You can't even begin to understand... but the picture will help you. The waiter even said "wow, good for you!" when he ordered it. We didn't know what that meant until he brought it out. We were all laughing when we saw it! Brad definitely struggled with that burger, but was able to defeat it... and was a hero to us all that night!

On Friday we watched the kids while Tif, and Brad went to a wedding in L.A. We took them to La Jolla to see the seals, the library to get some movies (our movie choices were boring to them), and took them swimming. The pool at our apartment was their favorite part of California... they are low maintenance. We had a lot of fun with them!!

We spent a lot of time at the pool and a little time at the beach. We went to Bj's for dinner one night, oh man, I love that place! We went to IKEA. We vita-mixed a lot. Sean and I took their family pictures for them (that was interesting trying to get three kids to look at the camera at the same time while smiling!) Mostly we just hung out. It was a fun weekend for sure! Thanks for coming guys! We miss you already...

Green Valley Campground

Labor Day weekend camping trips are pretty much mandatory. So we went. And we loved it. We choose the Green Valley Campground in Cuyamuca State Park and stayed 3 nights and 4 days. Fun? Definitely! Since our little group of camping friends were either out of the state (Wests!) or having a baby (Coxs!) we went by ourselves and it was still awesome.

We packed all of our stuff and left on Friday around 2 when Sean got home from work. We got up there and picked our spot. The ranger said that spot had a nest of "meat bees" in it we figured it was no big deal since if you leave bees alone, they leave you alone.... We made tin foil dinners that night and had s'mores for dessert.

Saturday morning we wake up excited to have blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Remember the bees?? Well, we figured out how "meat bees" worked that morning... they do leave you alone (like any other bee) if you leave them alone, unless there is food involved in that case, they have zero respect for your personal space!! Before we even got our first pancake in the pan, there were seriously 349 zillion bees swarming the small little bowl of pancake mix. Yep! They were EVERYWHERE! We couldn't move. They would follow. We couldn't cover the food. They would wait. Bug spray? Tried. I think they actually liked it. So we ate our breakfast in the car that morning (I think I may have eaten a couple of bees as well.) While in the safety of the car (so much for camping, huh?) we brainstormed a plan of attack for those evil little insects! We put our camping trip on hold for a little bit and headed to wal-mart in search of a mesh shade tent. We succeeded! We got back to the campground and set it up in time to try it out for lunch. It worked like a charm! The bees were still swarming but they were flying right into the side of our mesh screen! Sean thought it was necessary to rub it in the bee's faces by saying to them: "That is why I am man, and you are bugs!" and I agreed with him. Lunch was peaceful, and so were all the meals after that! We hiked to the waterfalls that day and the swimming hole. It was awesome! For dinner we had bbq ribs in the dutch oven and rice-a-roni.

Sunday we had mess for breakfast (bacon, eggs and potatoes scrambled together). We walked down to check out the river and hiked to the waterfalls again. This time we got in! It was freezing, but fun. We hung out and played games, most of which I won. We had chili dogs for lunch. Dinner consisted of french bread pizza and strawberry/peach cobbler for dessert (I love dutch ovens!)

Monday we explored for the last time and took some pictures. We packed up our campsite and then drove to some of the other ones in the area to scope out some options for next time. When we got home we were feeling good from a fun weekend and really dirty... And we were already talking about going again!