Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Vacation part deux

After the trip to the promised land, aka Texas lol, we went to hubby's home town in the Grand Canyon State.
It had been over two years since he had been home, so to say people were happy to see him was an understatement. His two biggest year round fans in Arizona are his mom and his brother Steve. Steve is one of the sweetest people you would ever have the pleasure of meeting. He has Down's Syndrome so he is at the learning level of a 3 year old. He does not make many sentences but you can easily interact with him in other ways. He is a lover of classic Disney movies and Elvis, just like me! He loves to rough house and always tries to get hubby to wrestle when we are in town. It is beyond adorable to watch. On our first day in town we surprised him and picked him up from "college". College is a day program center for special needs adults called Cortney's Place. It is an awe-inspiring establishment. They have an amazing facility and an even better staff. The look on Steve's face when he saw his brother at school was enough to melt anyone's heart. He loves him so much. We spent as much time as we could with my mom and bro-in-law. Lots of Super Mario Brothers for hubby and family gossip for me with the mom-in-law. It's my favorite thing to catch up on : ) Gossip was once considered a virtue, so yeah, I can do it. 


That's my mother in law with hubby on the left. Doesn't she look so proud of her son? I think so.These pics are from the Memorial Day Ceremony we went to in town. We met some amazing people who thanked him for his service. One man was a helo pilot for the Army during Vietnam. Just to hear a little of his story was humbling. He was in the action, landing in LZs with gun fire and missiles coming at him, while he was trying to pick up his injured buddies. The man standing in the pictures was a Marine lieutenant colonel during WW2. Ralph was another amazing veteran we met in Arizona. He goes to the same church my mother in law does, so we had the opportunity to meet him the Sunday before the ceremony. He enlisted in the navy before the US officially entered WW2 and was stationed on the USS Lexington during her entire tenure in the war. If you remember from yesterday, I have a special affinity for the Lex so I talked to him for a quite a bit. He is planning on heading to Corpus for reunion on the Blue Ghost next year, and I would love to be there to experience that re-connection right along with him. The ceremony was great but still solemn with respect for the fallen. Congressman David Schweikert, who spoke at the ceremony, said it best during his speech.

"Today we gather to honor those who have fallen to preserve our freedom. Use this day for something else besides sales and barbecues," 
"Arizona has lost 147 lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. We need to honor them and all who have given their lives for our freedom." 

It was the perfect way to remember those who had given everything to protect us, past and present. It could very well be that because of one of them we as individuals, not just as a nation, are here today.      

                                     

The next day we met our newest family member. That is hubby's twin sister's first baby. Our first nephew! baby kibbey. Daddy is Big Kibbey (a nickname) so naturally he is the littlest one and therefore named 'baby kibbey'. He was born during this last deployment so it was the first time we got to see him. Adorable does not even begin to describe this child. He is such a good baby. Not one peep came out of him the entire time we were there. A coo here or there but not one scream or cry; even after being passed around the room like a hot potato. Such a good baby. And he loved the pilot bear we gave him. Well, as much as a six month old can portray that he likes a toy. lol. We'll see if he likes the other gifts we gave him later when he starts crawling. They light up and sing and roll around for him to chase after, so I KNOW mommy and daddy will LOVE them! All sarcasm intended. Such a cutie pie. 


To change things up a bit, we stayed in a magnificent resort in Scottsdale for our last few days in town. It was so relaxing. Drinks in the cabana, a fire pit and how can you not love fire over the pool? It was the perfect ending to our time in Arizona, and our designated 'family fun time' of the vacation. Next up is the friend roundup/slow roll down the east coast part of this excursion!  

Part tres manana! Night yall.  

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