Family Photos

These pictures were taken right before we left Okinawa by our friends Matt and Crystal. They are a few months old, but I'm so glad we were able to get them. Kaden is barely looking at the camera for any of the portraits, but most are candid any way. Also, Mama knew how to make him smile while Daddy was holding him, but Dad didn't make him smile for any of mine, so he just lays there staring off at the ground when I hold him! :) sheesh. Here are a few!

This week...Aug. 11-18

The plane before Ed jumped out....
There he is!


Doesn't he look so cool? That's MY husband! :)

Right before the next jump



This past week was a nice one, but it started out hard. I am still struggling to set up the house, make friends, and just being in such a secluded area, BUT, this past week was a turning point for a lot of these issues. Ed went TDY for a week down to Lake Elsinore, which is about 2 hours away, and I was somewhat jealous that Ed could go skydiving all day everyday with all of his friends, and then go out to eat and stay in a nice hotel all for work, while I sat at home with Kaden. I was so excited when he invited us down to watch him jump and go out to dinner with his team and then stay overnight. We went down on Thursday and stayed until Friday morning. The drive down went fine, and the GPS helped me find the site easily, but the drive home was a different story! The GPS took me a new route, and I had to drive on CRAZY California freeways that are like 5 lanes of packed traffic going no slower than 80 mph, and I was so nervous, my blood pressure was through the roof! But it was a great time.

Next, I decided that we had so much stuff crowding the house and garage that we needed to have a yard sale STAT! So Ed and I had a yard sale this weekend and did so well. We used some of the money to buy a new dresser, and will use the rest to go toward a new dining room table! :) So excited about that!

Kaden is doing great. We are meeting other kids every day, and he enjoys crawling everywhere. He had a bit of trouble with his eczema last week, but it looks to have cleared up well. One exciting thing is that he is getting 2 teeth! They are SO CUTE and are coming in the bottom. I will get pictures of them as soon as they grow in a little bit better and are easier to see.

We have jumped right into the chapel here on base, and the service is called Change Point. It is the Contemporary service, and it is very small, only about 50 people attend. There isn't even a nursery! So I volunteered to start a nursery for the babies, and we've made some friends through church already. We went to the potluck after service and met some nice couples. I'm excited to get to know them better. I hear there is a Calvary Chapel in North Edwards (a podunk town just outside of the north gate) of only about 25 people, but we may check that out too, since we enjoyed Calvary in Okinawa.

Things are going well, and I know this week will be a good one already, and it's only Monday. Praise God!

Our new house!!

I lost my feet!
Samson and Kaden are such good friends! They really love each other.
Kaden fell asleep on daddy's shoulders

The front of our new house- 36 Blackbird St.
Look really hard- there is a park right across the street from us
We're driving, but here is the basic view on base. Our housing area is called Mountain View-These are not quite mountains, but I guess they'll do.
More desert!!
We went to the fireworks display on Edwards the first day we got to base. Kaden stayed awake until about 8:50 and the fireworks started at 9. He slept through them!

Ed's family in PA

Dawejko family party
Sue Dennis and Kaden
at the diamond mine...they were really crystals, but very cool none the less
pulling up to standing
Kaden first meets Great Grandmom
Ed and Kaden hug Grandmom
Kaden's first haircut at the barber - 7 months
4 generations

Ed and Carla with Kaden

We had a great time of family in Pennsylvania. We picked up Ed's grandmom in Philadelphia and continued our drive from Baltimore up to his hometown in Sayre, PA. Ed's mom actually lives in New York, just about 10 minutes away. We stayed there, and Ed's sister Chris and her husband Scott also came up. Here are some pictures from that week.

Baltimore

meeting Great Grandmom for the first time!!
Otterbein family party
Annapolis
Fort McHenry
These two are both D.C.

Kaden's first Merry Go Round ride on a rooster!!
My dad and Kaden in Annapolis


Here are some pictures from our trip to Baltimore visiting my side of the family! We had a great time visiting family and taking day trips. My brother Phillip and his girlfriend Ashleigh also came. We went to D.C., Fort McHenry, Annapolis, and had a party at my Uncle Mark's, and another at my Grandmom's for her 80th birthday.

So Much Going On!!

Ed, Kaden, and I have finally pseudo-settled into our house on Edwards AFB in CA. Now that I have internet again, that has really helped. It's been hard being so disconnected here. We live in the Mojave Desert and it's 15 miles from our house to the front gate...and there is nothing in between!! The nearest nice city is about a 45 minute drive. The closest cities to us are Rosamond (a dump), Lancaster, and Palmdale. The last two are equivalent to Spokane, I'd say...maybe a little smaller.

Kaden is growing so quickly, and learning new things every day. He is 8 months old now and has a tooth popping through. He is always on the go, crawling everywhere and he loves to go back and dump Samson's water and get into his food. I even caught him eating some recently! He has super sensitive skin, and he's having trouble adjusting to the dryness of the desert. His skin has angry red patches all over his body. The pediatrician says it's probably eczema. It doesn't seem to bother him too much. I think it may itch him sometimes though. We go to the children's library, play group, and even the pool. On a typical day though, Kaden just plays in the house while mommy tries to unpack!


Ed has jumped into his job here feet first...quite literally! He is a test-parachute jumper and will be going to free-fall school here soon too, so that he can also skydive. They are gone for a week every month jumping, and they jump about once a week for the rest of the month. So needless to say, it is a major part of his job. He is still teaching survival the rest of the time. He has great co-workers here, and has made good friends with them.

I'm having a bit of a hard time adjusting, with a house that is still being unpacked while I try to entertain a baby during the day, Ed gone all the time already, and being in such a remote area. it's not like I can just go grab a cup of coffee and meet with friends. The nearest stand is out the gate...15 miles away!! I only know a few girls, but I am meeting new people all of the time. Nobody I'm really close with yet, but I met one nice girl with an 18 month old and one on the way next week. I met another girl with a 7 year old and one on the way next month. Ed and I met some really nice people at church recently, but they are all older than us, with much older children.

Ed, Kaden, and I went camping already!! We went to Lake Isabella in the Sequoia National Park. It was the grossest lake ever! It was stinky, muddy, and in the middle of the desert with no trees anywhere!! I'm used to WA lakes, which are beautiful, so it had a lot to live up to, but it didn't come anywhere close! And the really gross part is that people where laying on the beach, with flies everywhere and people where even swimming in it. ugg. other then that, it was kind of fun! it was nice to get off base for once, and the drive was nice. We didn't see any Sequoias, but apparently they were only about 15 minutes away.

I wanted to catch everyone up to what I'm doing right now, but I also want to post pics and info on our trips to the east coast. I'll do that next. We have a local number here now. Feel free to call! I'd love to hear from all of you!! It's 661-475-4122.