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Monday, June 16, 2008

Busy Bee

It was another busy weekend, but this one started on Thursday for us. John and I packed up the car and headed up to Vegas on Thursday for the Thursday night festivities of Patch Night. You see, the Weapons School teaches pilots (and even some Intel guys) to be the absolute best at their jobs upon being selected to go to the highly competitive and sought after school. After six months of intensity and sleep deprivation, the celebrations are almost as intense. This Patch night that we came for was the kick off party since the new graduates had just received their coveted patch just hours prior. So the Nellis O'Club became the place to be once the formality and private celebration for just the graduates was finished around 9pm. I've never seen so many men in flight suits in one place in my life!!! Most of them, of course I've never seen and did not know but there would be the occasional (actually happened a lot) familiar face popping up out of the crowd! Among the best surprises, we got to see a good friend from John's B-Course days, "Dubs" Lord. And for my own pleasure, I was able to reconnect with some of the wives that I haven't seen in ages! I wish I had more pictures to show, but unfortunately I must have been a little camera shy that night. It was quite the experience and I've heard about it and finally got to see what all the hype is about. I went back to our room around 1:30am with the party still going strong, and John didn't join me till after 3am! I think he had a good time catching up with all his "bros."

Our stay was only a short one and we drove back home Friday morning. Saturday was filled with errands, which by the way... our cell phone numbers are about to change since we're finally (and thankfully) dumping Sprint and joining the Verizon network. I may do a separate blog on that later. We held an impromptu barbecue that night... Why not?? We love our back yard! So we got to visit with friends, which is always a good time! Sunday was our lake day. Our buddy, Fuge has an awesome ski boat and goes out every Sunday. We got the invite and luckily everything worked out perfectly since my girlfriend from college, Andrea was in town as well. Fuge had a couple extra seats so Andrea and her friends she was visiting in the East Valley met us at Lake Pleasant for a day in the HOT sun surrounded by COOL, clear water! We got to the far end of the lake when we were so hot (seriously, it was 113 degrees out) that we all unloaded off the boat to jump into the water that had been calling to us. As we were happily floating about, Fuge went to start the boat back up when the ignition switch busted. So the guys spent some time, tools out, trying to fix the switch- when I heard whining coming from the shore nearby. Fuge's dogs are great boat dogs and go with him every time.. In fact, they are such experienced boaters that they have learned that when they have to go potty, they actually jump off the boat, swim to shore and do their business there. Well, Black Dog (really is his name) was wandering around on the shore when some Cholla Cacti found his paws. When he came into view, he had a ball of cacti on his nose, on his front right paw and back left paw (as well as in the mouth from trying to bite away some of the needles from his paws)! Poor guy! So the boys jumped off and swam out, pliers in hand to help him out. They were working on Black Dog for a good 15 minutes as we watched from the boat. Reece, the chocolate who is in love with Fuge, had to be beside him so she swam out and watched with a front row view, which spelled disaster. She ended up stepping in the cacti that they pulled off of Black Dog, then nipping at it and swatting with another paw, also got needles in the nose and toes. So as soon as they were done with Black Dog, then it was Reece's turn to get the attention... So needless to say, we got a lot of floating time. And unfortunately, by the time they were done with picking needles out of dogs, the friendly boaters nearby who saw our trouble offered to tow us back to the doc. As much as it seemed to be a disaster, we all still had a good time (well with exception of the dogs, I presume) and I was able to bring Andrea and her friends back to my side of town, cook up some burgers, take a dip in the pool and send them on their way!


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

(1) You knew that your mom and I met at the O-club at Nellis. I'm glad that you had a chance to go.
(2) I think you can keep the same cell number if you want to, even though you're changing systems.
(3) What was Andrea doing in Phoenix? did she come to visit you?
(4) Cholla are the nastiest cactus of the bunch. Even though it's painful to be covered with cholla pods (or prickly pear paddles) it still strikes me as funny (in a Wiley Coyote sense). It helps improve your memory ... you remember not to do that again.

Anonymous said...

Wow! What a surprise to see Andrea! She looks great! And do I see 3 dogs?? Is that Cana with John? What a BUSY weekend! I really feel for those poor dogs - I watch Sam stop and pull goatheads out of his paws. They slide into skin slick as a needle but have a little 'grabber' on the end and don't come out near as easily!

Kate said...

I'm so jealous Kevin got to see you all pregnant and I didn't! Sounds like Patch Night was lots of fun.

This Crazy Cross family said...

You're so brave sportin a Baby bikini! Only you can pull it off with that fit body of yours!! Only two more weeks on this end! We miss you guys!Hope your still feeling like a Rock Star.