In the meantime...

Whew! After a 1,000 mile jaunt over a week to visit our families in western Kansas then northeast Oklahoma, we made it back to Kansas City Monday evening. Now I'm at Fort Riley for a night before driving back to KC on Wednesday. Just to explain, on every Army post in the world an officer is on duty all night to handle any issues that may come up for that installation. Well, here at beautiful Fort Riley that person is me tonight as it was my turn. An officer usually pulls this duty about once a year or so. But I'll be back home tomorrow continuing my vacation with Shelly and Anderson.

We took some great pictures while we were gone but I don't have any on this computer right now. So in the meantime, above are two pictures Shelly sent me that were taken today when she was visiting friends in KC.

More pictures and information about our Christmas when I get to KC tomorrow (and after I get some sleep as it's now 4:40 AM).

Mike
Fort Riley, KS

Ahhh...Christmas Vacation!

We're now four days into a nice long Christmas vacation. Made it back from Fort Riley to KC Wednesday evening and the family and I have been trying to enjoy a few relaxing days before hitting the road again. Since we (or actually Shelly) finished most of our Christmas shopping Thanksgiving weekend, our plan was to stay home, watch movies, get caught up on Tivo, cook, and catch up on sleep. And we've been successful for the most part.

As a matter of fact, I didn't even get out of my pajamas until Thursday evening. And Shelly won't like me saying this, but our bed hasn't been made since last Wednesday. And if you know Shelly, you know our bed is made by 7:30 every single morning whether Daphne is out of it or not.

It's been a nice weekend. Shelly baked all kinds of sweets, we made a Thanksgiving type meal Thursday, we watched a few movies, had breakfast with several friends, and got Anderson's picture taken with Santa today. We head out tomorrow to visit Shelly's family for a few days then down to Oklahoma to see my family. Here are a few recent pictures:

He loves being in his little bath seat.


Since we are moving to within a couple of hours of Shelly's parents it has made it much easier to visit them. This is from a recent trip Shelly took there from Fort Riley a couple of weeks ago.


He was a little tired after our Christmas card photo shoot. Just wanted a quick nap before getting undressed.

This was the feast we made on Thursday. I made the peas and the cranberry sauce and Shelly made everything else. Yummy!

And finally, before we left to see Santa Claus this afternoon.

Hope everyone enjoys the holidays! We'll post more pictures in a few days.

Mike
Kansas City, MO

Transition time

Wow, can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since I've posted. In my defense, we've been in a great transition the past few weeks. I am now officially assigned to Fort Riley, KS (near Manhattan and Kansas State University). We still have the house in Kansas City and Shelly, Anderson, and Daphne are still there. I drive there on weekends and will take Christmas vacation beginning next week until after the first of the year. Then all of us will go to the Washington, DC area for the first 4 months of the year while I'm in school there.

Needless to say, we'll be ready to get settled here in Manhattan and start the next part of our lives. In the meantime, I'm sitting here in a ratty ole Days Inn waiting for Shelly and Anderson to get here this weekend for his doctor's appointment on Monday. Yes, it's time for his shots so I'm sure that will be a rough day for all of us.

Below are a few pictures taken 2 weeks ago while we were in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving.


He's a sharp dressed man already huh?

Mike
Junction City, KS