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Friday, September 25, 2009

Home again!

Gray and I arrived safely back home in Jacksonville just in time to pick Josh up on Tuesday. Everyone (Silas and Fletch included) was still in the car so it was a packed car ride home. Josh thinks Gray doubled in size in the two weeks we were gone, (which may be a little dramatic) but he is now sitting up VERY well and he was pretty wobbly before we left for home.

Gray is putting his bottom in the air and then putting his chest in the air, which I think means he is trying to crawl. Before too long he will be able to get up and take off and I'm scared there will be no stopping him then! We also have plans to trim his hair this weekend (it's getting a little wild) and to feed him for the first time! I'm working on teaching him to hold his own bottle, but we don't seem to be making any progress. Any tips?

Naturally Josh had to work Wednesday and Thursday, but his CO is such a nice guy he gave them a 96 this weekend! In military lingo, that means they got a 4 day weekend! Gray and I are always excited when Josh has a little time off, because his hours are so crazy and even when he comes home he usually has more studying to do! We are planning to spend some QT together and have a mini-birthday celebration for me!! I can't believe my 28th birthday is tomorrow!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Willow Grove and Baby Claire's arrival!

Last week, Josh flew up to Willow Grove (which I believe is in Pennsylvania) with about half of the squadron to get some flights completed. While he is there he is completing his first 'real' flight in the CH-53! We haven't had much time to talk since he left, but he apparently is spending most of his time studying for the briefs and flights he will have the next day. He said yesterday they practiced auto-rotations, which basically the pilots kill the helicopter in mid-air then turn it back on and narrowly escape death. Maybe that's not how Josh would explain it, but that's what I understood an auto-rotation to be. He has flown almost every day since he has been up there, so I imagine he will be a pro by the time he gets back!

Since Josh was leaving for about a week and a half, Gray and I decided to head home to meet baby Claire. We left Tuesday (after Labor Day) and drove all day to make it to Jackson. It was about a 14.5 hour trip with the two stops we had to make for Gray (in case you were thinking of visiting us). Gray was a trooper and even Fletch behaved himself and kept the whining to a minimum. Claire was born Thursday, September 10th at 12:33pm. She weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz and was 19 inches long. She is so tiny and so sweet! Gray promptly tried to poke her eye out, but I think it was all out of love.

He is very excited to have a cousin around that is close to his size at Maam's house. Gray and Maam have had a fabulous time and he even got to meet some of my friends that hadn't had the chance to see him yet. He has enjoyed our trip, but he keeps telling me how much he misses his Daddy! We will be headed home this weekend, giving us plenty of time to be on the flight line Tuesday to pick Josh up!

Baby Claire!
Our first meeting. 
Gray loves Claire!
Ma'am and her grandbabies!