Family Readiness Weekend

I have several close friends who are military spouses. There is a connection between those friends that I don't experience with any other friends. (I also have close friends who are not military spouses and I love them just as dearly....Thought I should throw that out there since some of them stalk my blog.)

I am not articulate enough to explain it without rambling on and on. However, if you are a military spouse, I don't have to explain it because you already get it. There is something about not having to explain how I feel when my husband is gone, or the knot in my stomach and the dropping of my heart when I see him in his dress blues and it reminds me of the times he has gone with the CACO to inform a loved one their service member is not coming home or that I don't need pity when he is gone or what I mean about the gremlins striking the moment he leaves. I can pack and unpack a house in lightening speed. I know way too many acronyms and always have a current POA. We are prepared and although I don't see myself as strong as some of the ladies I admire, military spouses are a strong breed and we can cope.

Since PK switched to the reserve side of things several years ago, I have often told those mil spouse friends that I don't really consider myself one of them anymore. In a post 9-11 world, the reservists are jumping in there with the active duty guys and seeing as much action. My hubby spends more than his one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer.

As soon as I say that I don't really feel like a military spouse, PK will usually go away for the entire summer to work with the Sailors at Great Lakes or take a week for annual training. This time I am feeling the title because he will be deploying to Bahrain for 2 months. I have had more than one person chuckle when I say, "It is only 2 months." We have never done a deployment where he actually leaves the country, but we have done several 2-3 month separations. The reason I say, "only 2 months" is because I have watched friends' spouses deploy for 6-12 months multiple times.

He is currently assigned to a unit in Knoxville, which is attached to a Marine unit in North Carolina. The unit has mobilized with the Marines many times and will probably do so again at some point. PK's upcoming deployment is actually not with this unit. A chaplain is needed in Bahrain to go from ship to ship to minister to the Sailors so PK volunteered.

Because the Knoxville unit does deploy, they periodically have Family Readiness Weekends. Speakers from different organizations are brought in to explain different resources to spouses. Hindsight, I really knew all the "stuff" that was shared. While PK was active duty, this information was drilled into my head. But it was a free weekend away. The unit picked up the cost of the hotel and we got to see where PK drills and meet a few people.

I may have packed my own coffee cup for the stay at the hotel and I may have also gone to the lobby to fill it up each time because the coffee down there was better than in the room. I know I have mentioned it before, but thanks to my mil spouse friend, Jen, for being the first one to bring me over to the side of coffee drinkers. Thanks to my hubby for making me a coffee snob.

The kids and I were on our own most of the day Saturday. We hung out at the hotel pool and read. This is a picture of Aaron and Hannah watching tv. They both had their legs bent up and swinging, but I missed it. It was too cute.

Rachel got comfy while reading her book. When the kids were little, the reward for being good in the car was they could jump on the beds at the hotel. Always a no-no at home. They have outgrown the bed jumping days.

The kids had tons of fun at the Family Readiness Program. There were several exhibits by 4-H members. They actually saw a chicken lay and egg.

Hannah got to ride a donkey. For our animal lover, this was next to heaven.

There was a huge jumpy slip and slide and Hannah got soaked.

The kids told me it was a great day.

It isn't often that we all get a weekend away, so it was nice.

We have never lived near family since we have had kids, so the reason I started this blog is so they could keep up with our lives and watch the kids grow. With that in mind, I want to welcome my cousin Melissa to my blog. Melissa, I am going to put more pictures on this post than you will probably ever want to see.

On to the business at hand...We had a great family mini vacation this past week. We started at Six Flags. The kids all loved it. Rachel has always loved the "high and fast" rides as she called them when she was really little. Rachel, Hailey, P.K. and even Aaron got in on the high and fast rides. Hannah was able to ride one roller coaster. The train around the park and the carousel are more my speed.

This is just inside the gate to the park in front of the carousel.

Hannah and Hailey on the carousel.

The Mardi Gras King and Queen.

Aaron and the Batmobile.

This place is full of foam balls that can be shot out of cannons. Guess which "kid" had the most fun here.

Aaron is behind the blue rail under P.K. When he saw me he starting yelling, "Let's shoot mommy."

P.K. had a little too much fun shooting at mommy.

Hannah thought throwing balls at mommy was fun. I guess I should have put the camera away and taken cover.

Hannah won a stuffed Scooby Doo playing a game. As soon as she saw the statue of Scooby, she started calling for us to take a picture.

The girls got to meet Dorothy the Dinosaur...


and Wags the Dog from the Wiggles. Aaron didn't want to get too near any of the characters. Hannah on the other hand wanted her picture taken with every character we saw.

Rachel's face is hilarious in this shot.

I love Hannah's expression in this one. She is not afraid. I think she was just being silly for her daddy while he was taking the picture. She has no fear.

Mommy, Hannah and Aaron on the train

The next stop was a tour at Jelly Belly. The kids and I had taken the tour several times when we lived nearby. At the end of the tour everyone gets a free package of samples. In the gift store there is a booth with more samples including flavors such as booger, vomit, pencil shavings, earthworm and rotten eggs. Rachel tried the pencil shavings flavor and Hailey tried baby wipes. On one of our previous trips Aaron tried earthworm. I thought he was going to vomit. I'm not sure how much one would get paid for the job of taste tester, but it can't be enough.

These pictures are made entirely of jelly beans.

The gross samples.

Our last stop was at Gurnee Mills Outlet Mall. The kids and I also spent quite a bit of time here when we lived in the area. There is a store with a reptile zoo in the back. We didn't go through the zoo this time, but we did get our picture taken with an Albino Burmese Python.

Aaron was having no part of touching the snake. Here are the girls.

P.K. and I had a turn. The snake was very active. I couldn't believe how strong it was. They had a bottle of sanitizer sitting nearby and I used it!! P.K. said I probably get more germs from Hannah. Oh, well.