Fort Irwin on 9/11

On the last day of our Calico trip we took a tour of the Fort Irwin National Training Center.

Its tradition for any unit who comes to train at Fort Irwin to leave a painted rock as memorial to their trip. Here is a picture of me and my unit’s rock from when I trained with 1-8 Infantry in 2001.

The crew in front of the “Rock Pile”

We wanted the boys to leave their mark, so we painted our own rock, had each boy sign it, and left it at the site. As we were getting set to take this picture one of the boys said, “Man, our rock is the worst one here!” And it was.

Fort Irwin Museum--The museum curator came in on his day off to give us a tour of his museum. It was fantastic (I think the dad’s enjoyed it the most). When we arrived the boys started climbing all over the tanks in this picture. When the curator came out, we were expecting him to yell at us to get off the tanks. Instead, he threw us the keys and asked us if we wanted to climb inside. The boys loved it.

After the museum tour, the tribe got to eat with the soldiers at the dining facility. It was a great way to spend and remember 9/11.

Calico 2011—Crank up the fire!

Our Indian Guides tribe to our 2nd annual unofficial trip to Calico Ghost Town near Barstow. Aside from nothing going to plan, it was a fantastic trip. It was 100-degrees when we arrived on Friday afternoon, but that night we had crazy thundershowers and wind, which brought it down to mid-80s for the rest of the trip. The lighting knocked out the power to the ghost town, but lucky for us our bunkhouse was on another circuit, so we never lost our much needed A/C. We couldn’t go to the ghost town with the power out, so we headed into the outback for shooting and rockets (both must have been a great time because I don’t have any pictures of that part of the trip).

Gavin, Shane, and Kyle in an abandon mineshaft. It was 100-deg outside and 80-deg fifteen feet inside the cave.

The kids found a 10-inch baby sidewinder rattlesnake within 15 minutes of arriving at the bunkhouse. It was so young that it had not yet grown any functioning rattles. It quickly moved out of our area…with 18 kids buzzing around, I didn’t blame it.

We did get to visit the ghost town in the afternoon. Shane and me with a view from above.

Sign? What sign?

Dinner at Peggy Sue’s Diner. The power went out near the end of the meal…I was suspicious that it was a ploy to get our group out of the place, but after witnessing the amazing lightening show outside in the parking lot, I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

Rolling Hills city celebrations

We once again went to the old school city celebration with a lot of our neighbors.
The petting zoo is always a hit with Hailey. Her facial expression never changed when she was in there with the animals

The hay pit was hours of fun- the simple things in life- Hay fights

A common theme for Shane- Entering a eating contest and winning. He beat a bunch of older kids, must be those 2 front teeth. Here is his expression as he realizes he won

Shane and Charlie both won ribbons in the watermelon contest. He was so proud and wore the ribbon the rest of the day. Shane also threw at the dunk machine and hit the mark on his first throw. He was on today!

As soon as Shane heard that dinner was being served he was the first to get his food

One of the reasons we go to the celebration, for Pixie Pam. Words cannot describe her so i took a picture for the memory. One of a kind!

Horse Lessons

A neighborhood girl, Alyssa, who is in high school said that Hailey could ride her horse just give her a call. So we met her down at the horse rink, not really knowing what to expect. She immediately let Hailey lead Tipper into the rink........

Getting use to the idea of being so high up. This is one large horse gentle horse. Hailey is trotting in the picture

Hailey riding and guiding the horse all by herself. She learned how to stop, go and turn the horse. Alyssa is an amazing teacher, so patient and great with kids.

After Hailey was done riding Alyssa showed Hailey how fast the horse can really go

After seeing that, Hailey said she wanted to get back on the horse for round 2. Here she is kicking the horse to make it go faster. Hailey ended up riding for an hour!

I am sure we will be back for more, Hailey Loved It!

First Day of School

Shane's first day of 2nd Grade. He said he was ready to go back to school and was looking forward to it. I somehow read the TV channel (804)instead of the clock and we got to school way early. (40 mintues early) Notice there are no kids in the background, but we got a great parking spot. As soon as a few kids showed up Shane told me i could leave. He is so comfortable there

Hailey was excited for school to start too. She started a few weeks after Shane and all her buddies, so i think she was feeling left out. She wanted her first day picture with her daddy who had been going all weekend.

Make the Face

Shane has a face he makes when I ask him to do something that he doesn't want to do, is out of it in his own world, or just frustrated. It started out with me saying to Shane, "Make the face, Make the face." Funny thing is, most of the time he doesn't even know he is doing it. But that is no longer the case because now Hailey notices everytime he does it and says to Shane, "Make the face, Make the face" and we all laugh, even Shane. But if you ask him to Make the face, he can't.

Hailey has a new face that she makes. One night while we were at Papu's we heard some sirens. We told Hailey that they were coming to get her and that if she did the face that Nat was making that they wouldn't be able to find her. A week went by and we were out for a bike ride when a fire truck went by. Jesse turned around to tell the kids to cover their ears and this is what he saw.......... dead serious face too- she is a believer of our nonsense

So whenever we hear sirens we all Make the face. It's a family thing now

Fair

The Belofsky's came over to see if they could take Shane to the fair. Somehow Hailey overheard what was going on and spoke up that she wanted to go. David has a soft spot and invited her of course. So three boys (7, 8, 10 years old) and Hailey. She loves Aidan and Joshua and flirts with them constantly. Jimma asked Hailey if she wanted to get her face painted and she said yes. Jimma tried to encourage a butterfly, flower, bunny The lady looked at David and said, "Is it ok for your daughter to be this?" ...............................

Philosophical Bike Ride

We went for a bike ride on labor day. Hailey rode a bike that attached to the back of mine, so, of course, she talked to me non-stop. Somehow she got the idea that when you exercise and you sweat, the water comes out of your heart...and when you drink your heart fills back up. She kept telling me she needed more water in her heart. Then, she finally said, "Daddy how did Jesus get in your heart and can he swim?" Wow! Careful with the metaphors you use with four-year-olds. She was very concerned that Jesus would drown in her heart if she drank too much. Funny that she wasn't much concerned that she has a little man living inside her body.