Gary's Visit Home

It was really nice to have Gary home for a couple weeks. He flew in from North Carolina on the 2nd and stayed until the 16th. It was really nice to have some time together. His family came out for a quick visit and it was fun to have them come. Josh was a little nervous when he first saw his Dad, but it didn't take long at all before things were back to normal and they became pals again. I got some cute pictures of them.

Josh, Dad, and Snoopy getting ready for a nap

Dunking Oreos in milk together

Josh earned his first trip to the U of U burn clinic while Gary was home.

Josh snuck up behind Gary while he was grilling and tripped over the lid to our little portable BBQ. We immediately stripped him down to his diaper and let him sit on the kitchen counter with his legs in the sink and ran cold water on it. He was quite content to play in the water for quite a while and as long as the water was running on it he wasn't in much pain. Eventually he got cold and wanted to get down to play and that was when he started screaming. He cried for a couple hours and then I was able to distract him with toys. After that the only time he was upset about it was when we changed the bandages. We took him to the doctor, and the doctor sent us to the burn clinic. It was a second degree burn, but they think it will heal ok without any surgery. I take him back in a few weeks to make sure. I was really glad Gary was here when it happened because he's much better at dealing with things like that than I am. His EMT skills were put to good use.

We took Josh to the zoo. This is a white alligator. More pictures from the zoo

Better Late Than Never

I've been meaning to post something for a while, but I have been rather busy. The pictures Gary sent were scrambled a little and I haven't had time to sort it all out. I thought I'd post some of his pictures and give an update on him.

This is Gary and Micah Sampson in their dress blues for mess night. Gary got picked on quite a bit, which I am sure he asked for, and he had a lot of fun. I never made it to Camp LeJeune while I was in North Carolina, but Gary took me on a tour of his room with his web cam. I told him to take a picture of his neatly made bed, because as long as he lives with me he'll never see one made like that again. It would take me an hour to do that and then it would take about two minutes for Josh to mess it up!

Gary was able to have his own room the entire time he was at Camp LeJeune. His roommate, who was from another unit, was on leave until October, so it was nice he was able to have a little privacy. I'm sure he won't have that luxury again during this deployment.

This is another view of his room at Camp LeJeune

This is Gary and Micah again. I can't tell you much about this picture other than that, because Gary didn't send captions with the pictures with names and explanations.

I don't know who these guys are. Maybe Gary could enlighten us when he's home in September for two weeks. I just thought the vehicles look interesting. Gary is now at Fort Polk, Louisiana. They are being hosted by the Army now, so he says the food is better. He's been in Louisiana for about a week and a half and will be there for two more weeks. Then he will come home for two weeks before he heads to Iraq. I'm getting rather anxious to see him. Hopefully nobody has sent him any mail since he left for Louisiana because I sent him something two weeks ago and he still hasn't gotten it. His mail is supposed to go to Camp LeJeune still and then they forward it from there, but I'm not having much luck.

We're more limited now with communication since he doesn't have Internet access and doesn't have as much time to talk. He kept pretty busy at Camp LeJeune, but his last few weeks there he had a little more extra time, and I really enjoyed that. We got our web cams hooked up so we could see and talk to each other over the Internet and were even able to play battle ship together once in a while over the Internet. I guess that is our version of "date night." In case you're wondering I beat him almost every time and got quite a kick out of it.

Hopefully while he is home he'll post more pictures with better explanations, and give a better update than I could on his training while at Camp LeJeune and Fort Polk. Some of it has been really good, and some of it hasn't been very good. I guess he's had his ups and downs, but we're looking forward to spending some time together in a couple weeks.

A few more pictures from our trip... This is outside the aquarium we went to. Most of the ones from inside didn't work out as well, I guess because we couldn't get the fish to hold still while we took the pictures. Josh and his daddy feeding goats at a zoo we went to. Monkey #1

Monkey #2

More While We Were In North Carolina...

This is on the River Walk in Wilmington, NC. Right on the river, who's name I can not recall at the moment. I really like Mel's smile and little Joshie's expression in this picture.

Melanie got this picture of Dad and son when we parked our car to go down to the River Walk and try one of the local restaurants there. Poor little guy had a hard time some days with his schedule mixed up with different time zone (NC being 2 hrs ahead) and the flights he and Mel took to get out here. He fell asleep on the ride from the hotel to the river, which was only about 10 minutes away. He was tired, but like most things he does, he does them with style and looking good! So Melanie snapped a picture of her two good looking men... ...I'm the one holding the baby...

Here is Joshie and his very first visit to the ocean. Like the previous posting said this is the Atlantic Ocean, and I hope my mother forgives me for it. I think Mel wrote some where that if took us three visits before we actually took Josh in the water or even attempted it. Melanie was very careful to introduce Joshie slowly to the water and the waves so that he would not be traumatized or afraid of the water. He loves the water and going swimming in the pools at various places we've been that we weren't too worried, just cautious as new parents. These are more great pictures of mom and baby. I love them both... (the pictures and those in the pictures)

Next, I'd like to illustrate a comparison I ran across recently...

This is how things started, dad and baby having a good time together...

(How it started.)

Then one thing leads to another and a little wrestling match begins and dad starts chewing on baby's fingers a little bit because baby has to stick his fingers in your mouth for some reason. That's how babies like to wrestle I think, I'll show you what I mean...

Oh, and dad is just man-handling the boy, because that's how dad's like to wrestle.

(Who started it..)

Then we move in to the revenge slash opportunity for baby to get back in to the wrestling match and lull dad in to a false sense of security thinking that baby is just being cute for the camera and the pictures mom is taking of him and dad... So I think baby had an accomplice, especially if this was documentable!!

(The Opportunity!)

Then we have the retaliation, and/or counter attack, from baby on dad.

(THE VICTOR!!!!)

Here is the comparison....

Mom and baby, same idea and same activity as dad and baby above. Baby getting a ride on shoulders.

(How it started.)

Baby looks as if he has about had enough fun on mom's shoulders and is looking for a way down. I'd dare say a little rambunctious. He may even be licking his lips a little bit... that's how I see this picture... He's getting ready to strike at any moment!

(The Opportunity!)

Then this is how the engagement ended. What is this all about?! Mom gets a kiss and dad gets his thumb almost bitten off. Something ain't right here.... So this is the illustration of the difference between how mom and baby like to interact and how dad and baby like to interact together.

(MOM IS ALWAYS THE WINNER AND BABY IS LEARNING THIS AT A GOOD AGE!!!)

Then I wanted to leave you with this picture that shows a little mischievousness in Joshua's face. I read this as if him saying to me (because he bit me but gave his mom a kiss), "You might think I'm only 15 months old, but boy do I know who is in charge around here!"

That's how I take that little grin of his. Plus he is a cutie too!!

Some Stuff

Melanie usually gets to pick the pictures that get posted and I've been trying to figure this thing out so that I could post some too. So this is me trying to do that... So here is our son and the little cutie that he is. These two pictures have been added to my all time favorite pictures of Josh. The top picture is of Joshie at Carolina Beach on the Atlantic ocean. Which is down near Wilmington, NC. His first trip to the ocean happen to be to the Atlantic, I hope my mother forgives me for that. Then the other picture is what I saw when I came back from the base Monday morning the 2nd of July. I had to spend a half day on the base that morning and got the weekend off prior and then a 96 for the 4th of July holiday and wasn't charged any leave. So I parked in the parking lot and was walking towards the front door when I heard some one pounding on a wall. Well it wasn't a wall and it wasn't just some one. It was our son pounding on the third floor window of our hotel room trying to get his dad's attention, and it worked. I was lucky enough to have my camera on me from showing off other pictures of my handsome son to some of my Marines that morning and snapped a shot. Melanie probably wouldn't post something like this so I will. That's 20mm deck gun on the Battleship North Carolina. She looks so cute in her Capri's and flip-flops!!

"UP LADDER!!" That's what you say and that's how you do it.

Joshie would make his Great-Grandpa proud the way he maneuvered around while on ship. The only thing he didn't try was the 'peanut-butter sandwiches and the coffee', while we explored the ship.

Family Vacation

I didn't think we were going to get a family vacation this summer, but Gary ended up having some time off for the 4th of July, so Josh and I got to fly out to North Carolina for a visit. We flew out on the 29th and then came back on the 5th, so we were able to spend almost a full week together. I ran out of memory on my digital camera pretty early into our trip, so most of the time we used Gary's camera. I've been waiting for him to send me the pictures before I posted some, and today I finally gave up. I may as well post what I've got and hope I don't have to wait until he comes home in September to see the rest.

This is Gary and Josh on the USS North Carolina. It is a battle ship that was used in World War II that is now docked on the Cape Fear River and you can tour the ship.

Josh learning how to shoot

Me and Josh inside the turret

Josh's first view of the ocean.

Josh was a little nervous his first time to the ocean. I got a little too close to the water and wasn't paying attention, and got hit by a wave. I squealed and it scared Josh, so he clung to me for dear life but didn't cry. Our other trips to the beach he rather enjoyed.

Josh and I in a medical helicopter in downtown Raleigh on the 4th of July.

There were lots of buttons for Josh to push! This is at the Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh

Hats

Josh's latest thing is hats. He thinks everything needs to go on his head. He loves to wear his dad's hats.

Most often Josh uses Tupperware for his hats.

Josh even tried to convince his cousin, Jordan to put the bowl on his head. Jordan wasn't too appreciative and started crying.

The boys insisted on playing in the Tupperware even though there were a lot of toys in the other room.

Here's a great image of Gary to keep in mind while he's gone.

Gary hard at work at Camp LeJeune. This is in a buddy's room borrowing a laptop, but he now has his own laptop. It has a built in web cam, so hopefully we'll be able to see each other while he's in Iraq.