Oprah's, "The Bravest Families in America"

I'm not sure how many of you were able to see Oprah's show on January 27 titled, "The Bravest Families in America", but it was heart wrenching!  I did not get to see it on air but watched parts of it online.  The show discussed the visible and invisible wounds of war and showed several different amazing military families.  It brought back many memories for me and made me so thankful for my wonderful husband and how amazingly well he has recovered from his injury!  It also made me thankful for all the sacrifices that our military men and women and their families make everyday for our country.  Just go to oprah.com and search for the show on January 27, 2011 if you are interested in watching.

Seattle

Adam and I took a trip to Seattle after the new year to visit some good friends from Adam's old unit, Dave and Megan Zientek.  After the guys last deployment, the Zientek's moved duty stations to Fort Lewis which is outside of Seattle.  Megan is from the Seattle area and loves it out there, understandably so because it is beautiful!!  The Zientek's have a beautiful house outside of the city, away from the Army post and pretty much in the middle of nowhere!  They are on a dirt road with lots of acres, beautiful trees and an amazing view of the valley and mountains.  It is a view that you typically only see in pictures!  We had a wonderful trip with them; spent some time relaxing and hanging out and also did the typical touristy thing in the city at Pike Place Market.  One of my good friends from Atlanta, Anna, recently moved out to Seattle so we also had dinner with her and her fiance, Ben, one evening.  Lots of fun with great friends!  Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Dave and Adam

Megan and Dave

The rest of our Christmas vacation...

Sorry it has taken a while for me to post again on the rest of our holidays--it seems like so long ago now!  We had a great New Year's Eve and went to a concert with one of Adam's best friend's, Brian (who was in our wedding for those of you who may remember), and his girlfriend, Jessica.  They came into town from Washington, D.C. to see Zac Brown Band and invited us to come along.  Adam and I were super excited because we both love Zac Brown and, of course, always have a wonderful time with Brian and Jess whom we seldom get to see.  The concert was awesome and we stayed out really late, at least late for Adam and me!  We are use to going to bed pretty early and getting up pretty early as are most people who have toddlers.  And everyone knows that children do not sleep late the next morning after their parents stay up late, in fact, they probably get up even earlier ;)  I do not have any pictures of our New Year's Eve--not sure what we were thinking?!

We also had another fun night out with some friends the next night!  Kind of sounding like we are back in college again going out two nights in a row!  We have not done that in years.  Anyway, Adam has stayed very good friends with all of his college buddies who are now all married with children.  We all get together fairly often when we can, but always with our children who are all under the age of five.  This means that we can NEVER finish any conversation without being interrupted, at least the women cannot (the men tend to go hide in another room, the basement or outside somewhere!).  So we all decided to have an adult night out over the holidays: go to a nice dinner, go out afterwards and stay in a hotel in Buckhead.  There were 19 of us including Adam and me and we all had a fabulous time!!  Dinner was wonderful--lots of conversation to be had with no interruptions!  We tend to act like kids at a middle school dance when we all get together with the guys in one room and the girls in another and this night was no different:  the guys sat at one end of the table and the girls at the other end!  Someone did take pictures of this night, I just do not have any of them.

Ball

Adam and I were invited to a military ball last Friday night and we had a great time!  It was the Brigade ball of Adam's previous unit, the one he deployed with in 2008-2009 (seems like so long ago now!).  Even though many of our friends have moved away from Ft Campbell to different places now since returning from the last deployment (which is how things go in the army world), some friends are still here and there were a lot of people that we knew and enjoyed socializing and spending time with at the ball.  It was also a fun night out for Adam and me!  Here are a couple of pictures of us dressed up.

This unit will be deploying again soon so please keep them and their families in your prayers during this next year!

Calloway Gardens

After Christmas we took a trip down to Calloway Gardens to see the light show with some friends.  Calloway is a resort about an hour south of Atlanta with gardens, golf, tennis, and all kinds of amenities.  We just went to spend time with great friends and for our little ones to see the light show, which is a very popular thing to do at Christmas time around the Atlanta area.  We went with our friends Wes and Maggie Muschara and their two children, Colt and Marley, and Ben and Courtney Thomas (who planned the trip--thanks guys!) and their two children, Caroline and Alley.  We stayed in one of Calloway's villas which had three very large master suites for each of the three families--it worked out great!  The options for viewing the lights are riding in your own vehicle or riding on a trolley, which is open air.  Of course we wanted to do the trolley so we could all be together and take in the whole experience.  However when we booked the villa, which included the trolley ride, weeks before the trip we had no idea that it would snow on Christmas and be in the 20's that night!  So, we just layered clothes on the kiddos and wrapped up in blankets for the trolley ride.  All the kids loved the light show and not one of them complained the entire time about being cold--and it was about a 60 minute ride.  I think the adults were colder than the kids by the time we got back to the villa!  We all had such a good time with great, great friends and the little ones just loved playing together!  We only took pictures of the kids, which is how it usually works these days :)

Caroline, Colt, Alley, Cohen and Marley

Our Christmas Vacation

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation this year!  We spent about two and a half weeks away from home visiting family and friends and had such a fabulous time with everyone.  We were at my parents house in Jonesboro, just outside of Atlanta, most of the time but took a couple of short trips over the course of the two weeks.  I will try and fill everyone in on all of the details but it will probably take me a few blog entries to catch up...

Christmas morning was great with Cohen opening his presents and playing with all of his toys.  He loved tearing the paper and pulling out the tissue and then of course spending all of ten seconds playing with a toy before being distracted by something else!  His attention span is still quite short and he is a very busy little boy!  He did get his very own little chair for Christmas from his "Mimi" and "Pops" (my parents) and that is about the only time he will sit still.

Cohen sitting in his new chair on Christmas morning

We celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family on Christmas day, which is our tradition, although, we usually have Christmas at my grandparent's house.  However, this year we were not able to because my Grandmother fell and broke her hip about six weeks ago.  She is currently in a rehabilitation center now and is doing great!  So instead of her cooking Christmas dinner this year, my mom, my Aunt Jan and I cooked dinner and had everyone at my parent's house.  My dad went and picked up my Grandfather from his house and my Grandmother from the rehab center and we all celebrated Christmas together.  It turned out great except our night was cut a little short because of the snow.  How crazy that it snowed in Atlanta on Christmas?!  That never happens!  Although it was beautiful to have a white Christmas!  Because our night was cut short I was not able to get many pictures but here are a few from our Christmas.

Aunt Jan and Cohen opening a gift

Adam and Ben

Lorra, my cousin, and Carol, my mom or "Mimi"

Lorra, her husband Ben, and their children Olsen and Benjamin

Lorra and me

The Sunday after Christmas we celebrated with my mom's side of the family at my Aunt Judy's house up in Cobb county on the northwest side of Atlanta.  It was definitely a much different Christmas this year since it was the first without Pop as he recently passed away before Thanksgiving.  Even though we all know he is in a much better place now, the holidays can especially be difficult as everyone knows who has lost a loved one.  Despite being without Pop, the family really enjoyed spending time together as we don't often get to see each other.  Here are a few pictures from our Christmas.

my cousin, Todd, and Cohen