Beaver

Typical Beaver afternoon- sitting around the pond having a great time! Only thing missing in this picture is one of the guys jumping off the rope swing. The parade this morning was amazing. They gave out candy, popsicles, cheese and potted flowers. Fun times!

Lights, Camera... Water

Lance decided to test our new underwater camera by throwing it in the pool with the record button on. Here's the video from the 9 foot deep end.

Flower Power

Our volunteer flower

Family picture frames

An awesome present from Rachel. These are the coolest picture frames decor I've seen. Now that we've got it hanging up we need to take some new pictures.

Happy Birthday Lance!

A big Happy Birthday to Lance. Yesterday we had a joint party with a butterfly/motorcycle theme. It was very last minute since this week has been full of hospitals and doctors again, but we had lots of friends make time to come over. Buffy made the cake and Lance helped by drawing the white lines on the road. We had some fun party games too. Lance made pin the tail pipe on the motorcycle and Buffy came up with the idea of "Hidden Minis." We hid 16 mini motorcycles around the house and the guests had to try and find them. It was fun watching everyone search for the minis, so much fun that we barely took any pictures. At least we got the important moments, presents and cake. Thanks mom and Josh for the nerf gun, our animals really appreciate it.

Independence Day

We had a great Fourth of July on base. We met up with a few friends to enjoy the festivities. The Charlie Daniels Band played and shortly after Little Big Town performed. The 82nd Airborne parachute team dropped into the middle of the field. My favorite part was the flag ceremony and canon salute. Each state, U.S. territory, and base headquarters's flag was presented along with a canon boom. My ears are still a little sore from getting close to take pictures. As the flag ceremony ended, a thunderstorm began moving over the field. The 82nd Division Band was suppose to play for an hour but when it began sprinkling the fireworks were moved up (and cut a little short). Back at home our neighbors had a great time lighting up the street with their own fireworks show. Time to rest up and get the house back in order for Lance's Birthday this weekend.

We set up a small spot in the huge crowd.

Buffy holding the twins.



The Charlie Daniels Band and Little Big Town.


The 82nd Airborne Parachute team. Lance watching the canon.


Yay California! The canon salute during the flag ceremony.



More of the flag ceremony and artillery.

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. I decorated my cake in the morning. Right after I finished I heard a knock at the door and received a beautiful flower bouquet sent by mom and dad Hartung. I love flowers!!!!! Lance is great about bringing me flowers, but I think that's the first time I've ever had any delivered to my door. Definitely made me feel special. I've been researching the area and decided that for my birthday I wanted to go swimming in a lake. There's a state park about an hour away that looked pretty in the pictures and said it had a swim area and canoe rental. Lance and I got lots of snacks and drove out to the lake. Turns out the lake had a tiny tiny swim area. The canoes were huge and the sun blazing, so we opted out of that.

We got back in the car and headed towards another lake that we've heard about. Well the second lake is completely commercialized and surrounded by trailer parks and houses. There was no public beach access so after driving around for an hour we headed home. In total I think we spent four hours driving around, at least we explored that area. Now we know not to go back there. On the drive back home I was telling Lance how I just wanted to find a beautiful area when we past by a large pond. Lance pulled over so we could look at it and almost immediately we heard a helicopter close by. A huge yellow helicopter with a bucket dangling flew over the pond and scooped up water. There's a few fires out here and I guess they were using the pond to fight the fires. We had a very up close view, which was the highlight of the trip.

In the evening Lance took me to dinner at the southern buffet restaurant that we visited a month ago. We came home and had a few friends over for cake. Nice relaxing evening. Next time we go out I think we'll skip the lakes and head straight for the ocean.