August & September

So much of our life is captured by my phone and I don't usually take the time to put them on the blog but, those are the little things that matter most because they make us a family, they create our memories and the little things are what we are doing day after day as a family!

Most of these pictures are from August/September ...

Bowling as a family the night before Brad deployed.

Right before Kason said good night - talk about a tear jerker!! Tears were definitely shed ... 

Love this ... he's rarely serious! 

First day of 1st grade!!

A couple weeks after our husband's left, my friend Charee & I put together a trampoline. 

Never. Again. 

That thing was a pain! Although ... I am pretty proud of us for doing it sans husbands!

Flea Market shopping ... 

he really wanted the hat & I think he was serious!

Kason & I took a trip to Ramstein Air Force Base for their annual Bazaar - we had to eat some Macaroni Grille while we were there...

We have sent lots of these over the last month! The picture Kason drew was too adorable not to document - it's a picture of all of us sitting around the dinner table ... 

This? Can't even write words to express how sweet it was! 

This hangs on our bathroom mirror to remind me that I can do hard things and that even if deployment is struggle, if I stay strong, we'll all come out on top! 

And I love little reminders like this that we are only a small little piece of this big beautiful world that was created just for us ... 

We also have done a lot of this the past 6 weeks ... I am so grateful for Skype & FaceTime!!!

I don't talk enough about these lovely ladies here ... Charee and Mary Anne have been my rock(s) since moving here! They are absolutely incredible and I couldn't ask for better friends ... Mary Anne is leaving soon and it's killing me! But, I know their family is moving on to amazing opportunities so, it's hard to stayed bummed for too long. Bottom line: I love these girls! 

Our new little nephew, Brevik! 

Erika & Jordan (Brad's sister and hubs) had this cute little guy back in July. I love him already and just wish I could snuggle him! 

Soccer FINALLY started around here ... Kason is a natural. 

He scored the first goal of the game in the first game of the season! 

We have since changed teams and he now sports a yellow shirt for soccer. But, regardless, he's loving it and I'm loving watching him! 

This past Saturday Kason did a kid's Spur Ride ... they fired real military grade weapons (with blanks of course!) and got to eat MRE's. Kason loved the MRE ... weirdo. Brad said the one he got was one of the most disgusting ones out there. Double weirdo! 

And that's a wrap. Happy October!!

Tough Mudder

Back in July, Brad ran a Tough Mudder with his platoon. The race is something like 12 miles and then has obstacles every miles. (It's been awhile, I don't remember the specifics) Brad loved it though - I told him it solidified his "meat head" status ;) (jk, I don' really think my husband is a meat head but, I did think the Tough Mudder was a meat head convention...)

Moving on ... 

Not all of his platoon ran the race but, here are the guys that did (I'm not even going to try naming all of them)

Do you like their camo daisy-dukes? Nice, huh? 

The obstacles were so spread out Kason and I only made it to see a couple of them ...

This was the obstacle I was most excited about - Electro-shock therapy! I guess it's not as bad as it sounds but, it was the final obstacle and all the guys made it to the end! 

There were a couple other groups from our Squadron that also ran in the Tough Mudder - this is mostly everyone that was there:

I love this guy - missing him like crazy but, love looking back on these moments and remembering the memories we have been able to make and looking forward to the many memories we still get to make! He's a good man - so glad I get to stand by his side for eternity. 

Recent Happenin's

I feel like I haven't even had time lately to blog! Which is crazy considering I have more free time than before. Regardless, here's what's been happening in the life of us: 

1) Brad deployed (Blah. Gross. Not cool.) He left August 25th bright and early at 2am in the morning. I drove him to his office, we said a quick final prayer and then said good-bye for 9 months. Now, it seems like that was an eternity ago. But, thinking about it floods me with the emotions of that night. He has almost been gone for a month now and this just seems normal. He is doing good and he's busy so that's nice. We get to talk every day for the most part which is a huge blessing! 

All in all - we're surviving deployment number 1! 

2) Kason started first grade. What. The. Heck. Why is he getting older!? It's killing me. After the fiasco of last years kindergarten teacher, we really wanted to make sure he had a good teacher and classroom environment. We got him into the multi-age classroom this year, which means there is first, second and third graders all in the same class. It's beneficial because the students are required to push themselves & learn how to be self starters. It's also helpful because if a student is succeeding in one area of their grade level then they can move up to the next grade level. It's fantastic! Plus, for Kason it has been really good to have older kids model the appropriate behavior in a classroom setting. His teacher told me, "I'm SO glad you put him in multi-age!" ... That seriously almost brought me to tears. Plus, Kason adores his teacher, which I couldn't be happier about!

3) I started school! Yep. I am taking one Undergraduate class at Utah State University online. I am hoping to eventually get my Bachelor's degree in Psychology. So, I am taking the intro to psych class they have. It's been good so far but, man I forgot how much work college classes are! 

4) Kason started soccer. He only has it twice a week but, that's two times a week that we are home late and have to rush through dinner and homework and hurry him off to bed. BUT - Kason loves it. And he honestly is pretty good, it's been fun watching him and I'm hoping he'll stick with it. I miss playing soccer so much so I will live vicariously through him. 

5) I started teaching piano again. It's been a few years so I'm a little rusty in the teaching department but, some friends of ours from the ward wanted a teacher for their 4 kids so, I decided it would be a good opportunity for me. I go to their house once a week, teach their 4 kids while Kason plays and then we eat dinner with them and head home! They're an amazing family so in reality it's more of a blessing for us than them, I think ;) 

I also started Shakeology and doing the Insanity work-outs so between all of that, plus normal life stuff, life gets a little crazy around here. But, in reality I am grateful for it because it helps the days go by much much faster and it''s helping time fly by! 

Until next time ... 

London at Night

Finally, I am finishing up London. It's been almost two months since we've been there!! Friday night after we did Harry Potter World, we went back to the apartment, get Kason into bed and the Brad and I headed out for a little night on the town! 

We headed for Trafalgar Square first: 

We sat on the statue in the middle and just people watched for a bit and enjoyed each others company. Brad took a little cat-nap...

Then we walked over to Big Ben & The London Eye so we could see them all lit-up. I love cities at night and London was especially fun. But, there were some weirdos out so we didn't hang out long. 

Then we headed back to the apartment! We had to get up super early the next morning to get to the airport in time (we didn't want a repeat of our last London trip!). The rest of our time while my mom was visiting was spent hanging around our town, we made a trip up to Poland for pottery shopping and we hit up Prague for a few hours. Other then that, we really didn't do too much with them (they did a couple thing on their own). It was fun to have family visit!! 

Flossenburg Concentration Camp

So, I went to go start this post, assuming I had finished London, which in deed I have not but, the pictures are already uploaded for this post so, we're skipping ahead. 

The Sunday after we got back from London we went to a Concentration Camp that is close to us. I have really been wanting to go to one ever since we moved here and this was our first opportunity to see one. I am pretty sure Flossenburg is a "toned down" version of the average concentration camp but, that didn't keep it from have a very somber and reverent feel. 

This was the headquarters for the camp: 

When you walk in you see barrack-style buildings and off to the left is the "roll call" field. Each morning the prisoners would have to report here and listen for their number to be called. This was also the central spot for hangings, right out in the open so everyone could see.

When prisoners were brought to the camp, they would be sent down this hall. This is where their name was taken away and they were given a number to be known by, their heads were shaved (usually by fellow prisoners), they were given their prison attire and eventually they were all sent into a washing room. Sometimes the water was freezing cold and other times it was scalding hot; the prisoners weren't given a choice about getting washed. It was so humiliating for them to stand in a huge open room, completely naked, being washed clean of their "filth". 

The washing room:

Outside it was hard to believe that such a pretty area was home to so much horrific history. I could only imagine the prisoners holding on to the beauty that surrounded them allowing it lift their spirits, since not much else could. 

There were watch towers surrounding the entire perimeter of the camp. 

This was known as the "Valley of the Dead", for good reason. It was home to the killing grounds and the crematorium. Again, how can such a beautiful place has such a wicked past? 

This reads: "These are the ashes and bones from mass-burnings"

And ... "Prisoners were shot in mass here"

The crematorium had such a sick feeling to it, I couldn't stay in there for long. 

These fence posts were the original posts that were there during WWII. I would imagine with a lot more barbed wire. 

Now, there are memorials all over the concentration camp. Memorials for Army, Marines, Air Force, the specific units that helped free the Jews and here is a Jewish memorial for all the 30,000 some Jews who were killed at Flossenburg. 

The Nazi's decided that they had so many Jews/Homosexuals/Criminals that they were having to cremate that they built a little track for a cart to transport the prisoners down to the crematorium. This was the opening: 

They had "sick bunks" that would be filled to the brim with those who were too sick to work but, they wouldn't ever give them medical attention. It was pretty much a cesspool for germs and disease. You knew if you ended up in the sick bunk, you wouldn't be coming out alive. If you wanted to stay alive it was important for you to keep working, the minute you were deemed to sick to work, it was off to the sick bunk with you. These are the remaining foundations of the sick hall. 

They had solitary confinement for anyone who acted out or spoke their mind or stood up for someone else. They were removed completely from the group. 

This view has changed a lot since WWII. You can see in the picture that the hill used to be covered with barracks for the prisoners. 

It was a very humbling experience to be able to visit a concentration camp. I was disgusted at the ways the prisoners were treated, with absolutely zero respect. The scary part is Flossenburg is a pretty low-key concentration camp in comparsion to Dachau or Auschwitz. 

To lighten our moods, we visited some castle ruins that are near by, before heading home ...