February

January

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The busiest day of the year….

On December 7th, we had a day jam packed with events, as weekends leading up to the holidays usually are. Steve left the house early to fly all the way to the North Pole in an F16 to pick up Santa Claus and bring him to our Ops Group Kids Christmas Party. Both the kids were so excited and proud that their Daddy was assigned this duty. When Daddy and Santa were arriving, an announcement was made in the hanger that Santa was being taxied to the hanger in a jet piloted by a “World Famous, Highly Respected Triple Nickel Pilot,” and our kids screamed “it’s our Daddy!!!!” And Daddy had lots of time to talk to Santa about the kids because before Santa even climbed down the ladder, he waved in our direction and said in his jolly way, “Hello Emily!” It made her month. She went running up and monopolized the conversation with the Jolly Old Elf. She not-so-subtly went through her list of gift demands and prattled on about a few recent and slightly embellished good deeds. One of us eventually dragged her back through the crowd so the other star struck kids could get a word in. Brian was slightly more shy (or maybe a little skeptical) and was content to play some party games while we waited for our turn on Santa’s lap. We got the standard Santa’s lap photos and he gave each kid a book, and Emily once again chatted his ear off. Overall, the kids had a blast and Emily basically fell head-over-heels for Santa. It’s so cute to see the magic of Christmas excite the kids so much!

 

Right after that party, the kids and I headed over to the base Ballet Recital, since our friends “S” and “A” from the “R Family” were performing and we wanted to support them. Emily was dancing along in the aisles, she wants to join Ballet sooooooooo bad. So bad, in fact, that we’ve been on the wait list since May with no luck. Then, just a few hours later, Steve and I attended our Squadron Christmas Dinner Party (minus kids). A super busy day but everyone had a blast!

Out with the old, in with the new!

Our landlady’s son, Claudio, brought us this broom recently and told us it is traditional to sweep the entrance to your home on New Year’s Eve to sweep away the last year and welcome the new. There are a few parts of 2013 I’d like to sweep away forever: the death of a fellow Nickel Pilot, “Gaza” Gruenther, and the passing of both of my paternal Grandparents, Bunny and Lefty.

 

We had plenty of fun times as a family in 2013 including tons of skiing, a visit from Steve’s parents, and lots of traveling to include Israel (Steve), California (once just me for my grandpa’s funeral, and the kids and I for most of July), Germany (Spangdahlem, twice to Garmisch, Steve and I to Munich for Bier Rafting, and Steve to Munich for Oktoberfest), Switzerland (skiing in Zermatt), Austria (Salzburg twice, Stubai Galcier for skiing, and Kirchberg in Tirol area for a weeklong ski trip), and of course lots of exploring in Italy: Venice, Pisa, Castelrotto/Dolomites area, Verona twice (once for the Opera and once for wine tasting), nearly a week on the Amalfi Coast, and a week on the island of Sardinia.

Brian will turn 7 in exactly one month. He is doing great in First Grade. He enjoys reading and math and of course recess and PE since he loves to run and play. He’s in his second year of Spanish at school and his first year of Italian and really enjoys learning new languages. At home, his dream day would include building Lego creations and drawing/coloring all day long. He is staying busy with Cub Scouts and played Baseball and Soccer this year. He enjoys skiing as long as the blues are easy (he’s like his mom that way!). He’s laid back and easy going most of the time and really only gets in trouble for pushing his sister’s buttons!

Emily turned 3 in April, with a very no-frills birthday in Zermatt, Switzerland. I didn’t even have room to bring her presents on the trip with us and she never asked for any, she was only concerned that she get cake! This coming year, she will spend her 4th birthday on a cruise to Greece! She’s our little International girl, always singing songs in Italian. She is doing well in Asilo and is learning some of the language. She’s high energy and is passionate about whatever she is feeling. She doesn’t throw fits very often but she is strong willed and clever. She still gets into everything. She’s our kid that we watch to make sure she’s not painting on the walls with glitter glue or cutting her own hair or eating something she found on the ground! She loves intensely though and everyone is her friend (until you get on her bad side, then you are black listed!)

Steve is staying busy with the squadron. He’s a Lt.Col. select and an Assistant Director of Operations. When he’s not working or with the family, and if it’s winter, he’s on the ski slopes. He’s got Brian and I skiing this year, and is working on Emily, who is not quite ready to learn technique but we are just hoping to get her used to the idea, so one day in the future, we will be tearing up the powder as a family. I have future visions of my family fighting over who has to stay behind with slow, old Mom! I’m staying busy with stuff at home, mostly cooking and cleaning and all that jazz. Now that I have most weekday mornings free with both kids in school, I’ve been hitting the gym on base hard and have fallen in love with Spin class.

 

In with the new! We are excited for many things in the upcoming year, which will probably be our last full year in Italy. We are planning out some trips already, including a week long ski trip to Cervinia (the Italian side of the Matterhorn), and a cruise to Greece for Spring Break. Steve will be going TDY to Portugal soon and will pin on Lt.Col. sometime in early summer. We are also hoping for some more visitors! Happy New Years to all of you!

2013 Jet Pictures

It’s that time of year again, time for our annual Jet Pictures! This time, our talented photographer was Kirby “Fuel” Sanford and he did a great job over 3 days, sometimes in the pouring rain, taking all the squadron families’ pictures. And we also did a wives photo shoot this year! One of these years, we are going to get both kids in the intake for a photo. This year, Emily came at Steve like a spider monkey when he tried to put her in it. The intake is like the Santa Claus of the jet, you just never know if they will want their picture with it until it’s go time!

Nickel Air Refueling

In August, Steve had a flight where they “hit the tanker” to refuel in the air. Without refueling from the tanker, they can only fly for 1-1.5 hours per flight and then they need to land to refuel. Refueling in the air of course extends length of the flight. They don’t do this often for just regular everyday training missions. But when they are flying in combat, then they do this often to be able to stay in the air for long sorties, 8-10 hours. Hitting the tanker is a skill that needs to be practiced occasionally because it’s hard to do and dangerous, so whenever they can get a tanker in the area, they practice. Not sure what day this was, but the squadron’s flight doctor was able to go up in the tanker and took these pictures. He didn’t keep track of who was who but Steve was in this flight and could be the pilot in one of these jets. Back when we were stationed in Germany, I got to go up in a tanker and actually watched Steve refuel! It was by far the coolest Air Force related thing I’ve ever gotten to do, better even than the two taxi rides I took in the F-16.

Our Little Patriots

While there are definitely some challenges to raising children while simultaneously being career military folk, there are times when I’m grateful for some of the experiences our children get to have as Air Force brats. One of them happened last week when we were leaving the Commissary. We got no more than 15 feet from the building when retreat started blaring over the base loudspeaker. Retreat is the lowering of the flag and also signals the end of the duty day (for some, Steve is never ever ever home at 4:45pm on a duty day, we wouldn’t know what to do with him if that happened). Retreat is followed by the Italian National Anthem and then our National Anthem. When retreat begins, you stop, face the flag (even if you can’t see it), military members stand at attention and civilians with their hand over their heart during our National Anthem.

 

I’m not sure when Brian learned it, but since a young age he’s always known to stop, be still and quiet, hand over his heart, face the flag. This time he helped his sister by instructing her to stand up in the cart and showed her where to put her hand. When the Italian National Anthem began she says “Is this our song?!” and Brian says, rather annoyed, “No, this is the Italian one, it’s been translated from English to Italian, now be quiet!” It was so cute, I didn't have the heart to correct him. I will one day. But for now I love that our children are growing up to be proud Americans and hope that their time as Air Force brats teaches them the importance of military service.

Israel

 Steve went back to Israel at the beginning of February for his second trip back. It was a small group so they were able to get their work duties done fast and squeeze in one long day of sighting seeing before the trip was over. They pretty much drove around the entire south and central part of Israel. I didn’t write a whole lot cause I wasn’t there and don’t really know what most of this was, but Steve gave me some detail and brochures, and I really don’t want to read through brochures night, so I’m just providing the basics. He had a blast though and something about Israel makes him bring back gifts. The man who never ever buys presents brought home a very very very nice diamond ring for me from the first trip and this time brought me back some expensive face masks promised to take 10 years off my appearance. I hope there will be many more trips to Israel in Steve’s future!

These are the ruins of Tel Beer Sheva, an early Arab fortress dating from 4,000 B.C. It is believed to be the first settlement the Israelites reached after wandering in the desert for forty years. Steve toured the ruins and then descended into the underground water reservoir. 

Above right is a replica of a four horned altar.

Steve and the Dead Sea, which he’s been to 3 times now, twice on the west side in Israel and once on the east side in Jordan. This is the lowest point on earth.
Next, they went to Masada, which was King Herod of Judea’s ancient fortification on top of an isolated plateau in southern Israel. It was attacked by the Roman Empire at the end of the first Jewish-Roman War and when the 375-foot siege ramp built by 4,000 Romans finally reached the fortress after 2-3 months, 960 Jewish rebels and their families committed suicide rather than become Roman slaves.

Everything below the black crack is original to the fortress and everything above has been reconstructed. 

They visited the Church of the Sepulchre, which is a church built over the site where Jesus was crucified. The bottom left picture with all the gold is the spot they believe the cross was placed in. The picture above that is the spot where they moved the cross to after he died and he was given back to his family. The picture on the right is the anointing stone where he was laid and cleaned after his death and prepared for the tomb. The stone is important because it is the only thing known to have actually touched his skin and therefore it is blessed. Steve put those two little boxes on the stone to bless them for the kids to have.

The pictures above and below are of the Western Wall (also known at the Wailing Wall) which is a very important religious site for the Jews because it’s the original western wall of the Temple Mount where the Arc of the Covenant was kept. The Temple Mount was destroyed during the Crusades and when the ruins were found by the Muslims, a Mosque was built where the temple used to be but they left the Western Wall for the Jews to worship at. 

The pictures above and below are of Jaffa, an ancient port city, the oldest part of Tel Aviv, having been inhabited since 7,500 B.C.  

Views from Jaffa back to Tel Aviv.

A Sad Goodbye

Most of you who read our blog are friends of ours on Facebook so you've already heard our squadron lost a pilot last month. On January 28th, Capt. Luc "Gaza" Gruenther was flying with jets from the other squadron when his jet disappeared in the weather over the Adriatic. A huge search began, headed by the Italian coast guard, and included boats, planes, helicopters, and even F-16s from our base. The hope was that he was able to safely eject and was awaiting rescue but 3 days later on January 31st, Luc's body was recovered. Luc was posthumously promoted to Major that night. 

It's a sad time for our squadron, losing someone always is, but Luc's wife was pregnant with their first child at the time of his passing. Baby Serene was born on the 7th and I can't wait to meet her! The memorial service for Luc was on the 6th, and it was a beautiful tribute to a great person. There was a picture slideshow and several of Luc's friends and squadron mates spoke about the kind of person he was and some touching memories they have of him. I think the hardest part for me was his mother and then his wife getting up in front of 1,000 people and talking about him. As a pilot's wife and a mother, I can only imagine how hard this loss is for both of them. Thank God for baby Serene, who will be a living reminder of her Dad for their family.

My mom asked me if we knew him well and I answered that although we didn't see Luc on a daily basis, he was one of those people that no one could say "Oh, I never really talked to him." He knew everyone. He never met a stranger and could strike up a conversation with anyone. He was a people person for lack of a better phrase. He was an adventurous outdoorsman and a photographer and had many other skills and talents and he shared those talents with everyone. In October, he sat outside all afternoon with his camera taking Jet pictures for family after family, even after it started pouring rain. He was so good with our kids that day and got them smiling and happy, especially Emily, who was in a no-smile-for-the-camera phase then. I even told Luc before he started taking pictures not to worry about her smiling, just as long as she was looking in his direction, or at the very least not picking her nose, I'd be happy. He basically said back to me that that won't do and that he'd get her to smile and he did! He took some great pictures for us that day and almost every other time I saw him, he had a camera in his hand. Check out this post to see the pictures Luc took for us that day. Luc took all the pictures on this page, I don't have any of him to share but if you want to learn more about him, see the links at the end of this post.

{Luc took this picture of us at our Christmas party, he missed the cocktail hour so he could set up this photoshoot for everyone with his camera and then later edited and shared those pictures free of charge. Talent and generosity!}

The first time we met Luc and Cassy was 1 week after we'd arrived in Italy and we sat next to them at a welcome dinner. I warned them that sitting next to Emily was putting the enjoyment of their dinner into her hands but they seemed totally unphased by her fun toddler-in-public ways and interacted with her throughout dinner. I remember thinking "why don't these two have kids?" because they seemed like they'd be the best parents. It was just a few weeks later, they announced a bun in the oven. Luc would have been the best father. I remember the day he took our jet pictures, I knew they had just found out if they were having a boy or girl, but I didn't know which it was yet, so I asked him and he lit up when he said it was a girl! Just a few nights before Luc's jet went down, we sat across from him and Cassy at another squadron welcome dinner. The kids were with us and I had broken out the crayons and paper because we had a large group and dinner was going to be slow (3 hours!). Luc started talking to Brian and asking what he was drawing and making suggestions. Brian drew a picture of the Gruenther family and later Luc signed the back with "Gaza" after Brian kept calling him "hey you!" when he wanted his attention. Then Luc told Brian to draw an apple tree because Luc had a boss in high school that when he would interview potential job candidates, would ask them to draw an apple tree because he could tell alot about a person by their apple tree picture. Luc just had a way with kids, he always spoke to them and made them feel special when other adults don't even look down and notice them. He always noticed everyone.  

{Brian's drawing of the Gruenther family}
 

Luc and Cassy's blog is already listed in the blog list in the right sidebar------->

 

Memorial website for Luc

 

 Luc's Photography Website

 



Mail Call

Back in the day (2002 to 2005) when we lived in Germany, getting mail was always exciting, it is even more so now that we have kids. In case you aren't familiar with the military mail system, we have an APO box where all of our mail comes to on base. The USPS delivers our mail and packages as far as our New York zip code and then the military mail service takes over. At that point, letters and packages get on planes (and maybe even ships?) on a space available basis and fly all over the world and to timbucktoo and back, before finally (hopefully) arriving all out of order and discombobulated. Okay, it's not that bad, it just sucks when all but 6 of your Christmas cards from friends and family arrive weeks after Christmas. But at least we have some way of getting letters and packages, I am grateful for that, just don't ask me how grateful when I've waited in line for 30 minutes to pick up 13 boxes and I have both kids with me "helping," and by helping, I mean fighting over who gets to hold which box and whose presents are inside which box and who Santa likes more and on and on. The picture on the top left was a few weeks after Christmas, when BAM! one day everything arrived. But it's either flood or famine with the mail because today all we got was Steve's government credit card bill from a TDY, due in 2 days, and a birthday card for Brian, whose birthday was 12 days ago, see what I mean? We love living over here and getting to experience the traveling and the culture but there are some definite inconveniences!

2012 {Annual Holiday Letter}

I meant for this to be a Christmas letter to accompany our Christmas card we sent out (if you didn't get one, sorry, we don't have your address!) but I didn't get around to it until now, so I guess it's a New Year's letter. And I think you could read back in my blog posts and get a pretty good idea of what we were all up to this year. But here is a quick recap anyways!

 

Steve and I had our 10-year wedding anniversary in January and celebrated with a trip to Hawaii for the whole family plus my parents! We stayed in my Grandparent's condo in Kona on the Big Island and my parents served as our tour guides and babysitters. It was a great trip filled with delicious island food, snorkeling, swimming, shopping, volcano viewing, deep sea fishing, and beautiful beach sunsets. A few days after returning home from our wonderful vacation, we found out the Air Force was sending us to Aviano Air Base in Italy, so.....

 

Obviously our biggest change this year was that we moved from Goodyear, Arizona to Grizzo, Italy! Italy is great! We love the food and wine and gelato. I love hearing the language spoken and learning to make Italian food. The traveling is amazing and the area we live in (northeast corner) is stunning with a backdrop of Dolomites mountains (foothills of the alps). Since we arrived in July, we've been able to travel to Lake Como, Tuscany and to Austria for skiing, as well as a day trip and a date night to Venice (one hour away by train). Living in Europe is an opportunity we never thought we'd get again and we are doing our best to balance traveling and sightseeing with keeping the kids entertained. It's a challenged for sure but we are determined to maximize the fun in our 3 years here because we won't get this chance again!  

 Steve is assigned to the 555th FS, Triple Nickel. He spends long hours at work and is stilling flying the F16. This is an operational base (as opposed to a training base like Luke) so the guys stay busy with lots of TDYs and deployments. Steve spent a week in Israel in November and will hopefully go back at few times in 2013. When he's not working, he spends most of his free time playing with Brian and just generally wrapped around the finger of Emily. When she's not available for cuddles, he plots how best to keep the boys and other vicious things away from her.

As for me, just keeping the house and kids going takes most of my time, but I manage to squeeze in some blogging (obviously) and sewing/crafting and volunteer in Brian's kindergarten class. I've also taken an Italian cooking class and hope to do it again soon. I've cut way back on my flight suit purse business and only accept the occasional order from friends now so I'm dedicating this year to learning some more Italian and getting caught up on our family scrapbooks.

Brian turns 6 in January and we are busy planning an Angry Birds themed bowling party. He wants to invite everyone he's ever known so most likely you are invited! He graduated from preschool in May and started Kindergarten on base in September. We had a hard time deciding where to send him for school: Italian school or American school on base. After 4 months of school, I know we made the right decision as he loves his class and teachers and new friends and is learning to read and write and loves Art, PE and Spanish. He still loves all things transportation but has also added the Power Rangers TV show and the Angry Birds game to his list of favorites this year. 

Emily turned 2 in April and has come into her own personality this year. She is sassy and funny and demanding but also sweet and cuddly. She really doesn't have terrible twos tantrums, her worst habit is screaming if she's not getting her way. (That might be the 1% of genes she got from me). She loves baby dolls and princess things but mostly wants to play with brother's toys. She also wants to go to school like brother, so in the fall she will head off to "Asilo," Italian preschool (pending the results of potty training soon).

 

For 2013, we are looking forward to some more traveling. Nothing is set up yet but the kids and I will try to join Steve on one of his trips to Israel. We'd like to come back to the states once and hopefully drive up to our old stomping grounds in Germany, plus several other trips we haven't thought of yet. We hope this finds everyone doing well and that you are enjoying your holidays. Check back often as I'm vowing once again to keep up with the blog and not get behind on posting our adventures in 2013!

American Military Cemetery in Florence

On our way home from Tuscany, we stopped at the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial (it happened to be Veteran's Day) to pay our respects to the 4,402 Americans buried here who were killed in action during World War 2. I've seen Arlington, and Steve and I have been to Normandy and seen the WWII cemeteries there but we are always in awe of the beauty of our overseas cemeteries and sad for the massive numbers of white crosses and stars. I feel like it is my duty as an American living overseas to seek out these memorials and spend 30 minutes of our day walking through them and remembering how grateful we still are for the sacrifices of these men who were sons, and husbands, and fathers, and friends. It is important for us to show this to our children and begin the childhood-long conversation with them about service and sacrifice and gratitude.

 

"Time will not dim the glory of their deeds."

-General of the Armies WWI, John J. Pershing, First Chairman of the American Battle Monuments Commission

Akward family cemetery photo! I had mixed feelings about taking a family picture here but I think it's good we will have this to show the kids. Oh and look at the giant leaf Brian is holding, those leaves were everywhere and the kids enjoyed collecting them during our walk.