On July 4th we went to the Plano parade. You just don't get more "American" than that!
The kids had a blast... and afterwards we had "red, white and blue pancakes" at Aunt Patty & Uncle Warren's house.
Now, you know how expensive fruit is here. A few weeks before we left for our trip I blogged about how I purchased a $15 watermelon. Well, during the course of the parade they were passing out various things like candy, necklaces, flags, bottled water, etc. There was one float that was passing out watermelons to about every 10th person.
I must have had astonishment written all over my face because
the lady walked right up to me and said, "Happy 4th of July!"

One of the things people look forward to, when they visit the good ol' U.S. of A is to buy some clothes that no one else has. The BX only has so many decent things here and you are guaranteed to have at least one friend, if not more, who makes the same purchases as you....
So, yesterday I'm walking up to the table at Chili's, too to meet Holly, Brenda & Marcy and the first thing I hear Holly say is, "Hey - I have that shirt!"
She just returned from the states too.....
Apparently, we both shopped at Kohl's
Oh, and her son has the same tennis shoes as William (payless)

Well.... we are HOME!
Now I need a vacation from our vacation! Our trip was long but, fast and furious. After we landed at Fort Hood, we drove to my mom's in Austin. Spent a few days there where we saw Scott & Johnise and their kids, Joey's sister & her family (drove down from N. Carolina) and his dad (drove in from Phoenix). We headed to Dallas on Tuesday and spent a week (over the 4th of July holiday) there visiting Grandma Jackie, the Sanders and the Chapmans and the Champions. We also got to see Brenton & Denise & their new little one! AND, we squeezed in lunch in Plano with Missy, Dawg and their kids. We left Dallas for College Station the next Tuesday to visit Joey's Aunt/Uncle/Cousin and his family and some college buddies. Were in Aggieland Tuesday - Friday when we headed to Amy & Cary's in The Woodlands. We stayed at her house (they were in San Antonio) and saw my Dad in Conroe a few times and my sister, Ken & Lori and did some shopping..... Joey left on Monday and the kids and I stayed until Wed when we drove with my sister and my nephew down to Port Lavaca to my mom's other house. My grandma (from Florida) was there and we stayed until Sun.... drove to Austin, spent the night and then my mom drove us to the San Marcos outlets where my friend Julie met us and took us back to her house in San Antonio. We started hopping on Tuesday afternoon but the C-17 was delayed so we spent one more night at Julie's. We were in the passenger terminal from noon to 9 PM on Wed when the plane finally left. We landed around 1 AM and went to the on-base hotel to meet up with my friend Holly & her boys, who were also hopping back to Kadena. They left on Thursday for Oki via Guam while we stayed behind for a direct flight. That didn't happen until Saturday so the kids and I spent a few days tooling around HI. Friday night we stayed in Waikiki and saw the fireworks at the Hale Koa. I got the kids up at 0330 go back to the terminal to stand by for 2 flights. We got on the 2nd one (KC 135) from HI to Okinawa on Saturday. Joey picked us up around 5 PM! Now, I bet you are worn out just from reading that so you can imagine how hectic it was to LIVE it!
I have lots of blogworthy comments from our trip so they will come soon.... right now I have to figure out how to get the kids to sleep in past 4:30 AM!
Suggestions?

We're having a good time in the "Big D" seeing Joey's family.
Grandma Jackie is doing great and is so happy to see the kiddos.
Today, after lunch with Aunt Patty & Uncle Warren at JASON'S DELI!, Darabrat and her girls joined us at the pool at the condo.
Now, we are at their house... we brought over Mooyah's for dinner (yummy burgers) and now Joey and William are playing guitar hero. Today is her 14 year anniversary and her husband is out of town so we thought we would celebrate her special day with her.
Tomorrow we're going to do some shopping!

I'm typing to you from AUSTIN, TEXAS!

It's a long story and I have lots of blogworth antecdotes... but for now I'll keep it short and let you know that we got the last 4 seats on the Patriot Express to Seattle.  The first time they called us there was 1 seat so we didn't think we were going to get on. Then, Joey went back up to talk to the counter about a possible flight to Hawaii and they said they were trying to get 3 more seats to Seattle and they did so when they started the roll call over we were the first ones called....what a relief!

After we deplaned in Seattle, we saw Aunt Me & Uncle Don for an hour before catching the shuttle to Whidbey Island. Called the terminal when we arrived... show time at 10:45 AM on Thursday. We go to bed... Thursday AM at 7 we call to make sure the flight show time hasn't changed and the PAX rep says, "Ma'am, there are not any space a flights out today... the flight to Ft. Worth left YESTERDAY." Yes, that's right, when we were hanging out in our hotel room... after we talked to someone at 1:30 and they said it was the next day. WE'RE OVER IT.... had to re-evaluate our options so we drove the rental car 2.5 hours to Tacoma (it was a really nice drive) and were going to spend the night to catch a flight to Memphis on Friday AM when a flight "popped up" to Ft. Hood....to Killeen.... right in the middle of where we need to be. We landed at Ft. Hood at 1:00 AM on Friday AM.... arrived to the hotel at 3:30 AM... slept until NOON... had breakfast at I-HOP and drove to my mom's. Tomorrow we'll see Joey's sister's family in Austin... probably stay here until Monday and then drive up to Dallas for a week or so. 

WE'RE GLAD TO BE "HOME"!!!

I'm SO EXCITED.... but trying not to be... and trying not to get my hopes up.
There is a flight (the patriot express) on Wednesday AM with 19 seats on it. This number is tentative so there may be more or less... we won't know until we show up to "compete" for them. We also don't know how many people we are competing against but the guy at the terminal said he thought we had a good chance of getting on. If we get on that we arrive in Seattle on Wednesday AM (local time.... we actually land before we take off!) and on Thursday AM there is a flight out of Whidbey Island to NAS FT. WORTH. We can spend the night with my Aunt Me and Uncle Don and they will take us to Whidbey on Thursday. I could be in TEXAS in 3 days! WOO HOO....
(I said I was TRYING not to get my hopes up.....)
I'll keep you posted.

Well, our pictures were cancelled by the photographer due to a family emergency.
We can't reschedule them because she is moving so I think we will get some pictures done when we are home at the mall or something... and spend the oodles of money we would have spent on pictures on something else!
I'm a little bummed but not altogether heart broken... it was turning out to be more money than I really wanted to spend.

I've been asked before (my more than 1 person) if it's "cool" to be married to a fighter pilot.
The answer is, "Sometimes!"
Today was one of those days.... Mr. Brick's fini flight.
They are moving the week after we leave.
William will not know what to do with himself when we get back and Spencer is gone... only to be seen on the computer.
Anyway, here are some pictures from BRICK'S FINI FLIGHT

We have pictures with the famous (on Okinawa) Serena Nicole on Sunday morning on the beach.
It's a rocky beach. We are wearing white shirts...not sure about the bottoms...
Do you vote for Denim or khaki?
Let me know....

Starting to think about our hopping adventure home.
We hope to be in D/FW area by July 4th but I don't think we've actually talked to any of our family in that area yet.
We are going to start looking at flights to leave on Wed, 6/25.
Wish us luck....
Between now and then we have to typhoon proof the house, just in case, and get things in order.
I'll be gone for about 6 glorious weeks.
I figure I'll be ready to come back by then... right?
Oh - dont' forget.... khaki or denim?

Today we have..... poopie in the potty.... AT CHILI'S!
Now we're getting somewhere!
Of course, as he was getting onto the potty he said, "After I do this I get to have dessert!"
and I had to say no because he did not finish his lunch... and he still went in the potty so I think that's a good sign.