Army SERE School

 

From July 30th, to August 19th Alex was in SERE School. This was the longest amount of time we have been apart with ZERO communication, no emails, no phone calls, texts or even letters, thankfully the time went by quickly for both of us! The weather during the three weeks was very stormy! It rained and poured and there was plenty of thunder and lightning, on the bright side, the weather wasn't painfully humid and hot like it normally would be!

 

SERE stands for Survive, Evade, Resist and Escape. Details are not allowed to be talked about, and this training is Top Secret. Before he left, instructors are allowed to tell the wives and families that our soldiers are hit and are sent out in the woods and will most likely have to go without food.  Alex came home 10lbs. lighter, but, I am happy to report that he was not sent home with bruises!

 

While Alex was away, I was able to get together with other Aviation spouses just about every night! It was a lot of fun getting to know some other wives- we are all so different from eachother and come from all different parts of the country, so it's been great making new friends!

 

 

Something fun the wives of SERE students get to do is put together "SERE bags" for the soldiers when they graduate. Our FRG group decided we wanted to make sugar cookies shaped like helicopters in addition to other snack-type foods that are in their care bags.

 

Our cookies with camoflauge marshmellow fondant!

 

Aviation Spouses and Children :)

60 SERE bags all packed and ready to go!

 

The day finally came when we were all reunited with our husbands! It was so nice to have them home and safe!

 

Our banner!

Alex with some of his friends; Dave (Reynolds) grew a mustache!

Petey, Richard and Jay all looking slimmer!

 

Happy Reunions! Alex was on the 2nd bus, so I was able to snap a few pictures of our friends before he arrived, although I was getting so anxious to see him!

 

 

The Best, Softest Sugar Cookie:

 

1 1/2 c. Crisco

1/2 c. margerine

1c. sugar (plus more for sugar cookie coating)

1 c. powdered sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

4 1/2 c. flour

In large mixer, Cream together the crisco, sugar, powdered sugar. Add eggs one at a a time. Mix in vanilla. In separate bowl, combine the cream of tartar, salt, baking soda and flour. Slowly add to creamed mixture. Use cookie scoop to mold round shaped cookies, then using the bottom of a moist cup, dip the end into granulated sugar and press onto cookie (this should coat the cookie with sugar)

Bake @ 350 for 8-10 minutes. Use cream cheese frosting to frost the cookies. Add sprinkles if desired.

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 



 

 



One Year Anniversary!

 

Happy One Year Anniversary to Us!

 

Can you believe we have been married one year?! Time flies when you're having fun!  We celebrated a couple days early due to the fact that on our actual Anniversary, Alex would be starting his first day of SERE School (I'll do a whole post on that later!) We had a wonderful dinner date at the Restaurant in downtown Enterprise, "The Rawls" and we can't wait to take family here when you come visit! It was delectable! Cheers to many, many more Anniversaries! I love you Alex Wales, being married to you is my very favorite of all time!

 

 

This post's recipe is dedicated to Alex! Dirt cake is probably his very favorite desert- he would fight to the death for this chocolatey dish and it is devoured each and every time I make it! Kids and Adults both love it!

 

Dirt Cake:

• 1 package (15-1/2 ounces) Oreo cookies
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter*
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups milk
• 2 packages (3.4 ounces each) instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 carton (12 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed

 

Directions

• Crush cookies until they resemble potting soil.
•  Beat the cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. In another bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes (mixture will be thick). Fold in whipped topping. Gently fold into cream cheese mixture until blended.
•  Cover and refrigerate until chilled (at least 3 hours). In large bowl, alternate crumbs and pudding mixture. Garnish with gummy worms.

* Sometimes I do not add butter, it is not necessarily required!





 

Our First Visitor!

We had been looking forward to having our first visitor from home for weeks! Our time with Shawn came and went by so quickly, but we had such a great time and so appreciate that he flew all the way from Oregon to Alabama, and spent his vacation time with us! We are so thankful for the great friends we have!

We picked Shawn up late Friday afternoon at the Dothan airport, about a half hour away from Fort Rucker. We also saw a soldier straight from Basic Training and gave him a ride to Fort Rucker, kind of a pay it forward since the Secretary to the General gave Alex and a few of his friends a ride when he had just got out of Basic. You can pick out the ones out from Basic because they look like a deer caught in the headlights! After we dropped the soldier off next to the nonexistent building his orders were at, we headed home and I had a lasagna, Parmesan rolls and salad ready. 
We invited quite a few people over from Alex's class so they could all meet Shawn, of course, they all really liked him and got along great and had lots of fun! The next day we had everyone over again for some breakfast: coffee, eggs, fresh strawberries, pancakes, and Rob's biscuits and gravy and watched... you'll never guess "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation" (in July!!) Alex and I made two batches of everything, and we were in the kitchen from 8:00am to 1:00pm cooking breakfast, but it was so great having everyone over! Later in the afternoon we layed out and swam at the pool the rest of the day! What a relaxing Saturday!

 Sunday we made our way with another group of friends to Destin Beach! Imagine 98 degree weather (add buckets of humidity) clear blue skies, white, cool sand and a clear blue-green ocean and that was how we spent most of our day! In paradise! Some of the guys rode their motorcycles down, and some brought the game "cornhole," although by the time a game was finished, it was more than necessary to take another swim in the ocean because it was HOT!

After the beach, we made our way to the pier, where there were shops, boats, and restaurants. It was such a cute place! We ate dinner at a restaurant on the water then had to head back home, but not without making plans to go back again! We are pretty excited that it's only a couple hours drive from our home! It was also really fun to get to introduce Shawn to a warm water ocean- he had only been to the Oregon Coast!

The next morning Alex had swim training, where you have to float in all your gear for approximately 10 minutes, he was a little nervous about this since he is not a great swimmer, and has trouble floating, but he easily passed with flying colors, although he said it just seemed really strange and backwards to have to first shower in all of your gear (boots, uniform, helmet, etc.) then go into the pool. After that we were able to go, again with a bunch of friends to see the new Batman movie- which was so great because the weekend before Alex and I had a Batman movie marathon and got all caught up and pumped for the newest one! It did not disappoint!

The next day Alex had dunker training, where you are put in different helicopter-type contraptions that go underwater, and you have to unbuckle yourself and swim out. This is repeated several times until it become really no big deal.  Alex was a little nervous, because again, he's not too partial to water, but he did great! Here's a very short video (1:33) of what it's like! Imagine doing this, 15-16 times!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdfsOq6V55g

When Alex got home, we were able to take Shawn to the awesome Aviation Museum on post! We had been there a couple of times before, but it is always so cool to see all the different planes they have!



In WW1, your odds of survival in one of these was 50/50. There were just as many deaths from malfunctions as there were deaths by attack! Glad the odds have greatly improved since then! Whew!

 This French airplane was used in a film in the 1930's, it's now worth a couple million dollars!

 The Army used to share the responsibility of flying the President's helicopter with the Marines, this was one of the planes that used to fly around the President and First Lady. Nobody knows why the President decided to solely have the Marines fly Army One (now Marine One).

Look at those FlyBoys!!

The next day Shawn had to go back home, but we had such a great time having him visit and look forward to more and more visitors and company!

Not too long ago, I made the Pioneer Woman's Homemade Mac and Cheese for some company and got rave reviews! Not too long after, I had leftover corn, red bell pepper and black beans in the fridge and had an epihany! Make Southwest Homemade Mac and Cheese!!  The results were so awesome! Way better than the original! So here it is, and I am so PROUD of this!

Sothwestern Mac and Cheese:

4 cups dried macaroni

1 whole egg

1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups whole milk

 1 tsp. Cajun seasoning

 1 tsp. cayenne pepper

 1/2 tsp. chili powder

 1/2 tsp. ground mustard

1 pound sharp Cheddar, grated (not pre-grated cheese), plus more for baking.(Important: Make sure it is the brick, not pre-shredded!)

Salt

Seasoned salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

 1/2 c. corn

1/2 c. red bell pepper

 1/2 c. black beans

Preheat oven to 350.  Cook the macaroni until still slightly firm, a little undercooked is fine. Drain and set aside.

In a small bowl, beat the egg. In a large pot, melt the butter and sprinkle in the flour. Whisk together over medium-low heat. Whisk for a couple of minutes, whisking constantly. Don't let it burn. Pour in the milk,  and whisk until smooth. Cook until very thick, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low.

Take 1/4 cup of the sauce and slowly pour it into the beaten egg, whisking constantly to avoid cooking the eggs. *(This is an important step, DO NOT just add the egg or it will scramble!) Whisk together until smooth. Pour the egg into the sauce, whisking constantly. Stir until smooth. Add in the cheese and stir to melt. Add spices, black beans, corn and red bell pepper.

Pour in the drained, cooked macaroni and stir to combine. Serve immediately (while it's still very creamy) or pour into a buttered baking dish, top with extra cheese and bake until bubbly and golden on top, 20 to 25 minutes.

  Yum Yum! Hope you enjoy!



10 Things about Army life at Ft. Rucker

This month I had the chance to take a few Army Family Team Building classes that teach Army family members a range of things from ranks to stress management to finances, etc. and with Alex having two days (yes, 2 DAYS) left of B.O.L.C (Basic Officer Leadership Class) I have had the chance to observe a little bit more about how things are done in the Army, specifically at Fort Rucker.

1. Army has posts, compared to other branches of services that are referred to as "base." Marine bases, Air Force bases, etc. Fort Rucker is considered an Army "post," not a "base."
2. When 5:00 rolls around each day, no matter what you are doing, you stop, get out of your car and put your hand over your heart and face the nearest flag. The "retreat" music is played over loud speakers and an actual cannon is fired.  This is also done in the morning as well.
3. At Fort Rucker, it is important to be well acquainted with all the different types of helicopters the Army flies, not just their name, but their numbers as well.

This is the BLACKHAWK, or properly known as UH-60 (UH stands for Utility Helicopter) It is the most abundant and versatile, as well as the most well known type of helicopter.



There is also the CHINOOK, or the CH-47 (CH stands for Cargo Helicopter) which as you can see is huge! It is extremely powerful and can lift an enormous amount of weight. (Alex would probably know better approximately how much, and maybe I'll be able to convince him to write a post about all the incredible and unique talents they have someday...)

Then there is the KIOWA, the OH-58D, and I can't remember what the O stands for, my guess is Operational Helicopter? Probably not, again, I'll ask Alex:) The OH-58D is the smallest of all the helicopters, and is more of a scout helicopter equipped with weapons. The Chinook and Kiowa are the two helicopters that are a little more rare to be able to fly, in each class of flight students that cycle through, there may be only one or two available to fly (if any)

(see the little "biscuit" type thing at the top? That is one of the reasons this is a "scout" type helicopter)
Last but not least, there is the APACHE, the AH-64D which is, you can probably guess... Attack Helicopter! The specialized training for this Helicopter is the longest, at 21.4 weeks.

      4.  One of the most important things I have learned about the uniqueness of each helicopter is the personality of the Pilot that flies each of them. There is a stereo-type person for each of them that I have heard numerous times, from both pilots and the wives, and also, from my own observations, they are pretty accurate. The Blackhawks personalities are the hardest to pin, only because they are the most abundant. They are typically pretty laid back. UH-60 Pilots have a wider range of places they will be stationed (from Alaska, to Hawaii to Germany, Korea, etc.) A UH-60 Pilot will typically get the most flight hours, and will have the easiest transition if they want to fly outside the military. The UH-60 is also the type of helicopter used for Medevac.
The Chinook CH-47 guy is known as the "California surfer" type of Pilot who is extremely laid back. He doesn't have to worry about too much weight on his helicopter, because, really, there isn't much he can't lift.  This Pilot is usually the top of his class, because there aren't very many of them available, and usually they are a pretty coveted aircraft.  The Kiowa OH-58D is an active type guy, usually type A. His rival is the Appache AH-64D, who are both Attackers. The Kiowa Pilot is usually the first guy on the scene. The Appache AH-64D Pilot is the easiest to stereo-type. He has his certain hair cut (the one where his bangs are combed up slightly) he is mostly the type A personality who wants to see action and fly the type of helicopter with the advanced computer weapons system. That being said, each one of the Pilots loves what they fly, and will try and convince everyone around them that theirs is the best. I would say there is a healthy amount of rivalry that goes on with the pilots of each aircraft. They also say that the helicopter picks you (the Pilot).
Can you guess which one Alex wants to fly??? :)

5.  I mentioned this earlier, but different Helicopters are going to be stationed different places. This is a list we were given, but it doesn't mean the Army can't station us wherever they want, because they will and can station you anywhere, anytime. Blackhawk: KY, KS, NC, NY, TX, WA, CA, AL, GA, LA, Honduras, Germany, AK, HI, Korea, Sinai, Japan.  Chinook: GA, KY, KS, NC, NY, TX, AL, Germany, AK, HI, Korea, Honduras. Kiowa: GA, KY, NC, WA, KS, NY, AK, HI. APACHE: GA, KY, KS, NC, TX, CO, NY, TX, Germany, Korea.  We have what's called a "Dream sheet" where we can put down our preferences of where we would like to be stationed next, but it is often a joke around here that they pick from the bottom of your list and send you there. Really, this list is not exclusive, we have heard of many other places people are being sent that aren't on this list, it's just an overview.

6.  I am amazed at the cost of helicopters. I learned that one propeller blade for a Blackhawk costs 250,000.00 Just ONE blade! Sheesh!

7. At Fort Rucker, none of the wives ask "what does your husband do?" Instead it's, "what does your husband FLY?" I think Fort Rucker is very unique in that pretty much everyone you meet is here to fly (the exception is the Air Traffic Controllers who are sent here to train as well. I have not met one single enlisted person on the Fort.

8.  Every day there are moving trucks on the block, if not your block, then the block over. Our neighbors on both sides have already moved since we have been here.

9.  This last week we had a class BBQ for the families and guys in Alex's BOLC class. During our time there, when an AH-64D passed over the area (remember what Helicopter that one is??) every singe one of the guys stopped what they were doing, whether they were outside or in, looked out and stood in awe of the helicopter. I guess they had to pay their "respects." It doesn't matter how many helicopters you will see, because we see many, day and night, Aviators (especially ones in training) are going to stop what they're doing and "pay their respect." Many had to wipe the drool off their mouths after it flew over, and we see as many helicopters as we do birds in the sky!

10.  My last "observation point" is close to my heart. There is a lot of confusion about the differences between a Warrant Officer Aviator and a Commissioned Officer Aviator. Most people can go their whole military career and never meet a Warrant Officer, with the exception of Aviators, they are a rare rank.  One wife asked in our class if WO (Warrant Officers) even have their degrees. Our Instructors answer is probably the best I have heard, so I will share it with you. WO's will most always have their degrees (there is only 1 in Alex's entire class who does not have a BA) Warrant Officers are very specialized. They join specifically to fly, and they are only responsible for their crew. Officers may fly one or two tours, and then they will be put into a "management" position that is training and paperwork related. Officers join to climb the ranks, Warrant Officers join to fly and not have to deal with the paperwork or bureaucracy.  Our instructor said that every Aviation Officer at one time or another will want to become Warrant, and some do, and some Warrant Officers will have their fill of flying and deployments and become Officers. Either way, both are considered Officers of the U.S. Army.

I hope you know a little bit more about how life at Fort Rucker is unique and learned a little bit about all the helicopters and Pilots and maybe Army life in general! Alex has today and tomorrow left of BOLC, then he'll be in SERE Training for 3 weeks then it is actually going to be his turn to learn to fly helicopters! Woohoo!!!

This entry's recipe is actually just going to be a sauce, but it's taken me a few tries to achieve just the right consistency. Peanut sauce is something Alex and I both favor. Greatly. We love rice noodles (and unfortunately cannot find them at the commisary here on the FORT :) but this sauce recipe tastes just fine over fetuccini noodles too.  You can make up your own mish-mash of stir fry veggies to go along with the noodles, or buy a frozen bagged stir fry and add it to the noodles and sauce.  Just make sure to top with crunched peanuts and coarsly chopped green onions!

Amy's Peanue Sauce:

1/4 c. rice vinegar (found in Asian food section)

1/4 c. soy sauce

2 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. brown sugar

4 heaping tsp creamy peanut butter

2 TBS water

1-2 tsp red pepper flakes (depending on how mild or spicy you like it!)

Microwave for about a minute, stir, microwave for another 40 seconds or until peanut butter is melted, and let sit for about 10 minutes.  Pour over stir fry and noodles.

Pictured above has shrimp, red bell pepper, carrot, broccoli, snap peas, fetuccini noodles, peanuts and green onions.

Enjoy!

Independence Day!

This is our first 4th of July as a married couple, and it was especially fun being on a military base that goes all out to celebrate! We both thought about home often, since we have such fun memories of the 4th of July in our hometown- the parade, carnival, Buckeroo, bbq- this is our first year missing all the festivities, however, we were able to experience all sorts of fun times this year and were really happy to get to be together!

Last weekend they were having a wine tasting on base, Alex and I had never been wine tasting before, and some of our friends were going, so we tagged along! The place was packed full, and we were given voting cards to fill out because the winner was going to be chosen as the Aviation Units celebratory wine next year (when Alex graduates) to celebrate 30 years of Aviation at Fort Rucker that will be given and served at the Ball next year!

The highlight of our evening was getting to visit with General Crutchfield  (2 Star General in charge of Fort Rucker) and his wife, Kim. We chatted for about 15 minutes, about Freedom Fest, he asked me about housing and we swapped stories about cocroaches, and by the end of our conversation, he invited us to Freedom Fest and told us to make sure to find him at the concert so he could let us in the VIP tent! We were surprised at how gracious and down to earth both he and his wife were (we got hugs at the end of the conversation:)

On the 3rd of July is when Freedom Fest began. We parked at one of our friend's homes, who lived just a couple of blocks away from the fields so we wouldn't get stuck in traffic. There was lots of food, and Alex and I tried Aligator for the first time! (tastes like chicken) There was lots of lightning and thunder, and it did rain, so the Lt.Dan band concert was delayed a couple of hours, but we were in good company! The concert and festival was open to the public, so there was about 30-40,000 people there for the concert and firework show. In case you were wondering what his band sounds like, it is a good mix of country, Kelly Clarkson, Journey, etc. The 2 songs that got people out of their chairs and onto their feet were "Proud to be an American" and (you probably guessed it) "Sweet Home Alabama" (which was the first time I heard that song since we've moved here 2 months ago (2 months already!??!)

The band was good, but I think the nicest thing is that the Gary Sinise and Lt.Dan band volunteers to play, he travels the whole world playing for our troops, and at his own expense. The firework show was very beautiful and lasted for quite a while, so that by the end of the show, we were too tired to head to the VIP tent, but some of the group we were with did end up going, and General Crutchfield remembered, and let them in!
On the actual 4th of July, we slept in and just had a relaxing day at home. We had BBQ at our house and had some friends over, it ended up pouring down rain around 5:00pm so we ate inside and retired for the night by watching a movie together. We hope you all had a great Independence Day this year! We miss you and love you!
P.S. We bought a bed for the guest room, so now we're all ready and excited for our guests!

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

I have made these cookies twice now, because 1. they are so much better than I thought they would be and 2. I had lots of lemons leftover from making home made strawberry lemonade and needed a recipe to use the lemons up! I found this on pinterest (surprise!) and read that it was an award winner and tested it out, and they were scrumptious!

Lemon crinkle cookies: via pinterest
Ingredients:
½ cups butter, softened (or melted)
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Daily Routines

Since we have been settled for a few weeks now, we are starting to fall into a daily routine, and I wanted to give an update on what we've been doing! I also wanted to keep ya'll informed about Alex's upcoming schedule. (I still feel like using ya'll is not proper for a born and raised Oregonian, but I'm warming up to it!)
Monday-Friday Alex gets up at 5:00 am to do PT, comes home and showers and we eat breakfast and have our coffee before he has to leave. Some days he is able to come home for lunch, but we still just have one car so Alex has been car pooling with his friends from WOCS, Dave Reynolds. Alex is usually done around 5:00 pm, comes home, studies and then we eat dinner, and are usually able to watch an episode of "Prison Break" together.
This particular week we had friends over for dinner 3 nights, which was a lot of fun for me since I love cooking and company!  I made taco soup one night with oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for desert, lemon and garlic roast chicken, bacon parmesan roasted red potatoes and fresh green beans (with apple dumplings for desert) the second night and then the third night I went all out since there were 7 of us and we had shrimp crostini for appetizers, eggplant parmesan, garlic cheese bread, salad and "better than sex cake" for desert.

This weekend was spent car shopping (which has been unsuccessful) and we also experienced our first real live "tornado warning" and Southern storm! We went to Church, and in the middle of the service we were all ushered into the hallways because the sirens were going off alerting everyone to find shelter. It poured and poured with big bolts of thunder and lightning! Very exciting.  This was also our second week at this particular church and we both have really enjoyed it so far.
With Alex gone most of the day, I fill my days with cooking, laundry, reading, cleaning, grocery shopping and basic errands. I also had the chance this week to hang out at the pool with other wives, and had a nice skype-coffee date with Ginny from back home, which was great! Two books I have been reading that I recommend are "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer, which I am reading with Ginny and is absolutely great! I also started "From Black heels to Tractor wheels" by Ree Drummond, one of my favorite chefs to get recipes from, it's her story of how she met and fell in love with her husband, her style of writing is hilarious:) I am looking forward to getting involved in volunteering and Bible studies while we're here in Alabama:)
Alex is about half way through BOLC, which stands for Basic Officer Leadership Course, which goes from May 24-July 19. This is the easiest part of Flight School where it is basically classroom learning, and is almost like a 9-5 job. Advice I have gotten from other wives is to enjoy this time, because many of the wives refer to themselves as "widows" during the rest of Flight School. After BOLC is SERE school,(stands for Survive, Evade, Resist and Escape) where Alex will be gone for 3 week, no phone, no communication, etc. We do not have exact dates for this, nor is he allowed to talk about what "training" is like, I have only been told by his instructors is that he will come home bruised, and he will be beat :( but they are not allowed to break bones (comforting, huh?!) but by the end of this training, he will be better prepared if he is captured and tortured in real life. After SERE, Alex will begin the fun part of flight school, where he will actually beginning to train to fly helicopters!
We both love and miss our families very much! Can't wait for visitors!
This recipe might seem a little weird, but it is melt in your mouth good! It is probably the most unhealthy desert out there, but it is worth it every once in a while!


Apple Dumplings

Ingredients:

• 2 whole Granny Smith Apples
• 2 cans (8 Oz. Cans) Crescent Rolls
• 2 sticks Butter
• 1-1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• Cinnamon, To Taste
• 1 can

Peel and core apples. Cut each apple into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan.
Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour entire mixture over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, and spoon some of the sweet sauces from the pan over the top.

Um. Yum.

Memorial Day Weekend

Passing the Georgia state line!

While Alex was in WOCS Alex had mentioned he wanted to have a weekend get away to Atlanta, Georgia before he started flight school because once flight school starts, his schedule will most likely be 4:45am-7:00pm, with studying late into the night Monday-Friday. Alex's first official day was Thursday, May 24th, so since he had Friday and Monday off for Memorial Day, we jumped at the chance to take a little vacation and get to spend some quality time together! We had originally planned to go down Friday-Sunday, but on Thursday Alex's Flight class was asked if he would participate in the Atlanta Brave's Memorial Day game holding their large flag along with other representatives from the different branches of service.
Saturday:
It was about a 4.5 hour drive from Fort Rucker to Atlanta, and on the way we were finally able to eat at "The Cracker Barrel," which we were told by many people that you just have to try. We both agree my home cooking is far superior;-)  We arrived at about 3:00, checked into our hotel and walked to Coca Cola World. One perk we're finding out about is the military discounts offered, Alex was able to visit the attractions for free!

The Olympic torches

They had tasting stations where you could try all the different Coca Cola drinks from around the World, my favorite was the red cream soda!

After Coca Cola World, our camera went dead, so from here on out, I only was able to get pictures with my phone:-( For dinner we drove about 15 minutes outside downtown to the 57th Aviation Brigade WW2 bunker that had been restored and turned into a neat little restaurant with award winning beer cheddar soup!  It was dusk, and the weather was cooling down, so we sat on the patio and watched the jets take off (it was right beside a small airport) They also had a cute old time plane that was taking people for rides. What made the night extra special was that we both saw fireflies for the first time! It was so neat!

Outside the restaurant

We finished dinner and desert around dusk, and drove back to our hotel, where the city had come alive. We found that people don't eat dinner at 7:00 like where we're used to, they wait till the weather cools down, around 9:00pm so we decided to walk around the city. We were surprised at how many horse drawn carriages there were driving tourists around!

Sunday:

Alex had the idea on Saturday to purchase tickets to the Aquarium the day before, because there was virtually no line, and at coke we had waited around 45 minutes to get in the doors. I convinced Alex we would be just fine getting them in the morning, well, we got there the next day and lines were wrapped around the building! We waited in line to purchase our tickets, knowing that we would have 2.5 more hours wait until we would be allowed inside the doors. So we purchased our tickets and walked around the block to grab a coffee. We had a great time waiting and talking, grabbed a bite of lunch and got in another waiting line at the Aquarium. This time we only waited about 25 minutes and were finally able to get in!

 Georgia Aquarium was jam-packed with children and people (I liked seeing so many babies and children just as much, if not more than all the fish!) It is also the largest Aquarium in the world with 6 exhibits and a dolphin show!

The dolphin show was our favorite part, I was particularly impressed with the actor's voice! He sounded just like Gueston in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" This is the whole show recorded by someone I found on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GJYApUDtbI&feature=related

After the Aquarium, we got dressed up and walked to dinner downtown. Ironically, we ate at "Ray's in the City" sushi and seafood that night! It was delicious! Alex had scallops and I had salmon. We had red velvet cake for desert!

Monday- Memorial Day:

We got up bright and early and had breakfast at the Motel. Alex had to wear his uniform (which makes him really uncomfortable in public) We drove just a few minutes and were at the stadium. We were ushered to a special section that had for the families and Alex went to go practice for the actual game along with the other service members. When Alex got back, we had a little time to explore and they also had hotdogs waiting for us!

Turner Stadium

Alex is holding the flag near the top of the stars. Can you see him?!

The whole program was great! Very patriotic and exciting to see! Unfortunately, the Braves lost the game:( However, they had such a touching show it didn't really matter so much to us! During the game, on the scoreboard, a Dad in the Airforce had a message sent to his family, and then after the message was through, he surprised them by coming out onto the field! It was so great to get to see their family reunion! I never get tired of seeing these military family reunions!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWjxcG2NljM

Here is another video from youtube I found where I do believe I can actually see Alex's backside!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCheenMlG08

We left the game a little early because Alex had a PT test bright and early in the morning and we had a long drive home. On our way, we got to experience a Southern storm! It was very windy, we passed two trees that had fallen onto the highway and it poured buckets of rain and a bit of thunder and lightning! I was glad to be in the car. I still turn the heat on when the rain comes, even though it's still hot out when it rains in the South, my mind just doesn't comprehend that hot and rain go together here! (And I know Alex is thankful that in our Jeep, I control my side's temperature and he controls his own!)

Now it's back to reality, and Alex is busy in flight school all day. We are so thankful for the time we got to spend together!