Marine Corps Ball 2009

Last week Tyler and I attended the annual Marine Corps birthday ball. It was a lot of fun, so much fun that I actually forgot to take more than two photos...ooops. Anyway, its always motivational to go and celebrate the history of the corps.

Vote, Vote Vote

Tyler had a meeting with his monitor yesterday and he provided us a list of all the JAG openings around the Marine Corps and we've narrowed down our choices to the below three. We'll probably have to rank the order and then see what happens.

I thought it would be fun to open up a voting poll to help us decide where to go. I already started one on Facebook, but thought I'd add it here as well (on the side panel, or you can leave a comment). So below are our choices, in random order:

-Miramar, San Diego: This is literally ten minutes from our house. It would be awesome to stay put for another three years. We'd still be close to family, amazing weather, etc.

-North Carolina: This would still keep us pretty close to family. Its a little father, but still not to bad. We love the East coast and think we'd have a lot of fun in NC. Plus, my parents just got home from a mission to NC and I think they'd love it if we were stationed there.

-JAPAN: Wow, I really think this would be an adventure. It would be cool to live in a foreign country and learn a new language. It is just SO far from home and I don't think we'd get many visitors. I'd have to bring Charlie, which would be a huge hassle. If/when Tyler gets deployed, it would be hard to be in a foreign country all on my own.

Cast your vote!

Miramar Air Show 2009

Yesterday we went to the annual Miramar Air Show. As always, it was amazing. I'm always surprised by the amount of people that come out for the show. We only stayed for a couple hours, but it was fun to walk around and see all the cool planes and even see a little of the air show. If you're ever in San Diego you should definetly check it out.

Video Footage of Anne Frank

Over at my book review blog I did a post about Anne Frank and thought I would put it up here as well. I thought it was pretty amazing, and a little creepy as well. While I was surfing through different book blogs I stumbled upon At Home With Books. They had this amazing post about Anne Frank. Apparently a couple of weeks ago the Anne Frank House posted this video footage of Anne, I guess its the only video footage that they have. To be honest I have actually never read The Diary of Anne Frank. I have a hard time reading sad stories, I've started it a few times but have never gotten through it. Anyway, below is a blurb from YouTube about the video.

July 22 1941. The girl next door is getting married. Anne Frank is leaning out of the window of her house in Amsterdam to get a good look at the bride and groom. It is the only time Anne Frank has ever been captured on film. At the time of her wedding, the bride lived on the second floor at Merwedeplein 39. The Frank family lived at number 37, also on the second floor. The Anne Frank House can offer you this film footage thanks to the cooperation of the couple.

A couple winters ago I was able to go to Germany with my brothers and sister-in-law. While there we visited the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. This is actually the camp where Anne and her sister Margot died. They have a small headstone and memorial there. All of the building had been torn down, although there are still huge burial mounds and a pretty amazing museum. While I was there I also picked up a copy of her diary, I really should sit down and read the whole thing, she has a pretty amazing story to tell.

Welcome Home Mom and Pop

After a very long year my parents finally returned from their mission to North Carolina. They took about ten days to drive home and weren't really sure when exactly they would arrive so I hadn't planned on going out until later in the month. Tyler and I got to talking about how it would be fun to surprise them, so we bought an airline ticket and it turned out that I flew in the very night they ended up making it to Salt Lake. Nicole and I planned an impromptu surprise party at her house and when my parents rang the doorbell I answered! They were totally stunned to see me (and I was stunned I kept it a secret). It was so good to see them again, it had been way too long.

We met Nicole and the kids at Gardner Village. The kids love seeing all the witches and Halloween decorations. What a fun place!

We had a family dinner to welcome them home and got to talking about old times. Nicole used to kick butt at the Crab Walk game (and still does), here is a cute video of her and Trevor racing.

September Reads...14

As many of you know, my friend Jessica and I started a book review blog about a year ago. We've enjoyed it so much we decided to get a little work done to make it more unique to us. It is finally finished and we're pretty happy with the results. If you haven't yet, take a look. Anyway, September was an interesting month for reading. I of course loved Catching Fire, but other than that there wasn't any books that I totally fell in love with. There were quite a few that I read and was disappointed in, so I'm hoping October will be a better reading month. As always you can visit our book blog to read my reviews for the below books. Happy Reading!

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Geek Girls Guide to Cheerleading by Charity Tahmaseb
Magic Study by Maria V Snyder
Goddess Boot Camp by Tera Lynn Childs
How to Hook a Hottie by Tina Ferraro
A Time for the Heart by Nancy Campbell Allen
Need by Carrie Jones
Forest Born by Shannon Hale
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Princess and the Bear by Mette Ivie Harrison
Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs
The Boyfriend League by Rachel Hawthorne
The Market by J.M. Steele
Bright Blue Miracle by Becca Wilhite

Reagan Library

Yesterday Tyler and I went on the best field trip. We visited the Ronald Reagan Library up in Simi Valley, CA. I'd never been there before and I was blown away by how pretty it was. What a great location for a Presidential library. The coolest thing about the museum was the fact that they at Air Force One there and we were able to go inside! It was so fun to actually be on Air Force One!!! Its a very beautiful museum and its definately worth the six hour drive!

Part of the Berlin Wall

Lunch with a view.

Air Force One

Presidents Car

Marine One

An exat replica of the Oval Office

Grave site

Congrats John

On Friday our good friend John was commissioned as an officer in the Navy. He'll be a chaplain and hopefully working with Marines. I'm crossing my fingers that we can be stationed by each other. Tyler was able to swear him in (I thought I had video, but I guess I was just standing there holding the camera instead of actually recording it...oops). After the ceremony we went to a fun lunch at Corvette Diner, one of our favorite places! Congrats John and Jaime, and baby Reece!