Garrett is home!

           Welcome Home Garrett!! I can't believe that my baby brother is finally home from his mission in Baltimore. Two years really does go by so fast. Jared and I got married while Garrett was on his mission, so we haven't really spent that much time together with him. We are so happy you are home little brother...you were missed!

Robyn, Mom, and I stayed up late making signs for when Garrett walked into the airport. Everyone at our house was very anxious to see him.

We were watching him get off the plane. He flew into the Twin Falls Airport..IT IS TINY! This wasw the only gate.

Jared & Garrett together again

Kate & Garrett

This is the sign we made for the grandkids to hold. We got each of the grandkids a balloon to tie around their wrist...it was a great idea (kept them distracted!)

 

Welcome home buddy!

        

John is the only one missing from the family. He had Jury duty in Las Vegas, so he wasn't able to make it until Friday. It has been a while since all 5 kids have been together. I love our family!

                                     

Great picture of Garrett & Dad

 

Mom is tying the balloons to the grandkids.

 

         

Super cheesy we know..but Idaho really did miss you G-Baby. Oh and by the way, Angie is TOTALLY a Papa's Girl!!

Waldo Canyon Fire

This is the most stressed I have felt in a very long time. North Colorado Springs is almost too devasting to look at right now. Going to work everyday at the Hampton by the fire, hearing all the horror stories, and families crying to me is almost too much for me to handle. My heart just aches for this beautiful city and the people in it who are suffering. Every hotel in 60 miles of the fire is completely sold out. I pray for people to be comforted and protected during this time.

This was the first picture I took on Saturday, June 23rd in the afternoon. I was running to Wal-Mart real fast, and I noticed all this smoke in the air. I heard rumors of a fire, but  I just figured it was a small fire (since it is fire season right now). I honestly wasn't too worried about it...how wrong was I. It never really hit me until I was driving to work on Monday morning how bad of a situation this really was. This picture was taken about 30 minutes away!

    

I took this picture on Tuesday afternoon about 2:30 when I was leaving the hotel. It looked about the same. Still worried, but had no idea that the wind/weather was going to have a shift the wrong direction. Take note that the heat is almost unreal here. Colorado Springs almost NEVER reaches the 100's and this was the week that we got those tempertures.






This one is taken in the early evening on Tuesday night from my back portch. Remember, this is taken about 30 miles from the actual flames!! I had no idea what I was getting myself into for the next morning at work. It was so I just feel very blessed right now to have my home and my family safe.





Going into work on Wednesday morning was at an all time high for EVERYONE...guests, staff, and the community. Tuesday night, there was a massive change in the wind. Figher fighters were not planning for the wind change or the stregnth of it. The fire had tripled by the time I got to work the next morning. (I couldn't even sleep the night before because of how worried I was for everyone) The phones at work were NON STOP FOR 24 HOURS!!! I kid you not. Families were everywhere at the property crying and devasted. We have a policeman in house right now who watched his own house burn to the ground. Every hotel in 60+ miles is completely sold out. I was trying so hard not to lose everything inside of me. It was a very emotional day for everyone...words to do not come close to how on felt on this day. I now feel like I have a glimps of how the people of New York City felt on September 11th. The second I got into my car that day I just lost it. My heart was aching for those families who are left with nothing. We had 27 people sleeping in our MEETING ROOM ON THE FLOOR. We felt like it was the right thing to do to help our own people. MOST people were very gracious with us and thankful for the help...there were definately some I wish I could have taken outside for beating though (selfish, stuck up, bitches...after a super long day, they are lucky to still be alive) I have also listed below some of the pictures going around on the news. It is so devasting to look at. Colorado Springs is such a beautiful place to live, and it is horrible to see it all up in smoke. This is going to be a week I will not forget. It has made me realize that I can't take life for granted. I know no one was lost in the fire, but just seeing the devastation, and fear in people's eyes is enough to make you think twice about how precious life really is.



Drive-In Movie

It has been probably 10-15 years since we have been to a drive in movie. We saw that there was one in Pueblo, so we decided that that was going to be our Friday night date night. There were two movies playing...Snow White and the Huntsman & Prometheus. We popped some popcorn, bought some milk duds, packed mt. dew, blankets, pillows, and sleeping bags and loaded it in the truck. The parking lot was surprising really full when we got there. Of course, if anyone knows me, I slept through most of both movies. It was a really fun night though, just being with Jared. We are trying to do something every Friday night just the two of us. It is a great feeling knowing he is home for good now.  

Memorial Day 2012

I hadn't seen this picture until this Memorial Day. It hit too close to home, but I thought I would share. And everyone thinks Memorial Day is about BBQ's? I would like to disagree. We did actually get together our Army "family" this year. It was really fun to be with military families, because it made Memorial Day seem like it had a purpose.  We love AMERICAN holidays where we can express our patriotism!!

Crazy as this sounds, ALL the litte kids love Jared. All the girls think he is just the coolest guy of all time. Every time we get together, they attach him...as you can see. He is usually pretty tired when we get home. For someone who is not that baby hungry...he sure holds a lot of kids!

Finally Home

It honestly has been so great having Jared home. We both agreed that during the deployment, time dragged on and on, but now looking back, we can't believe that a year has already passed. We made it through our first deployment together while being married. I actually feel like this deployment made our marriage stronger. We had a lot of trials to work through....it is not always as easy as you would think to have a relationship through a computer. We feel very blessed to have the people in our lives who helped us get through this deployment. I will always be in debt to my parents and Robyn (I either talked to one, or all of them on a daily basis).   Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers on Jared's behalf this past year. He made it home safe, and now we are just going to cherish the time we have together...until the next time he has to leave!

All the soldiers in Jared's platoon received End of Tour Awards. It is always nice to see a smile on Jared's face while being deployed. There are not too many pictures like this, so I have to cherish the ones I get :)

This picture was taken a few weeks before he left Afghanistan. One of the guys actually took it because of how great his smile is. I thought that was hilarious. Jared has always been known for his cute smile, and his "lady killers".

One of the Army wives hired a professional photographer for her family for the welcome home ceremony. I didn't even see that she took this picture of Jared and I until a few days later when she tagged us in it. That was such a great feeling running towards him!!! Jared and I experience things like this that not a lot of people get to feel. Granted at this time, it had only been since January since I had seen him, but I still had butterflies ALL NIGHT LONG! His ceremony was at 4:45AM, so the night before I got only about 2 hours of sleep. The anticipation was killing me. I kept thinking about how amazing it is going to be to have my husband home on a daily basis. No more phone calls in the middle of the night, no more worrying, no more being alone.

We had our countdown written on our white board at work. Luke is my boss's son-in-law. He was also serving in Afghanistan, but he is in the Air Force. We changed it every morning, and we always tried to beat each other in changing the number. It was WONDERFUL seeing that number go down every day!

Idaho plates?

It has officially happened...Jared got his Idaho license plates! I am not going to lie, I was really surprised that he would even consider giving up his Utah plates, but he did! It was time for him to register his truck again, and Utah's registration is just so expensive!! So I told him how much easier and cheaper Idaho's registration is...so we converted Layla over to IDAHO! It is only $65/year for the plates, tags, and registration. What state can beat that? (Ok, I'm sure there are a few others, but Idaho is just awesome)

Rockies Game

Jared and I just went to the Rockies-Mariners baseball game this past weekend with his dad. The weather was really cold and rainy, but we still had fun. Our parking pass was more expensive than our actual tickets. We only paid $12 for all three tickets combined. The Rockies either played horrible, or the Mariners were just really good. The score ended up being 10-3. We love going to Denver anytime we can get a chance.