Oktoberfest

Why did it take us until our last year here to buy the correct gear for Oktoberfest? Who knows, but we had a great time at the NATO Base's Oktoberfest



The best part of the evening for me was the sweinshaxe with potatoes and kraut.  It is by far my favorite German meal.



We had a great time and I am sure we will be pulling out our drindl and lederhosen for any Oktoberfest we can find in America.



The next day we headed back for their children's day.  I can neither confirm nor deny that the main reason we went was because I wanted to eat another knuckle. Unfortunately they weren't serving that that day but we did have a great German buffet.

They had all kinds of activities set up for the kids.  The girls loved getting their faces painted. And what they each chose suits each of them to a T.  Carolyn was a puppy and Sidney was a fairy. Carolyn thought if she smiled it would mess up her paint.



I finally convinced her it was ok to smile.



Here is a picture of Payson to prove she was there.  Just remember girls, your mom and dad were the ones to take you to your first Oktoberfest.

Hog Pickin

Brian decided that he wanted to cook a pig for his Major promotion party.  We rented a huge grill from the Army base here and gave our neighbors lots of entertainment while Brian sat in our driveway and cooked the hog all day.



I took zero pictures that day which makes me sad but we ended up feeding about 50 people over the course of the day, so I will use that as my excuse.  Although Brian says he will not do another whole hog, the day turned out exactly like he wanted.

Here is one picture I did get at the end of the evening of Brian with some of the guys who were there.  The reason he is holding a Patrick Swayze picture is too long to write...lets just say my hubby has much love for Swayze.

Air Force Ball

The night after my brother left way back in Sept. we had the Air Force Ball.  Brian and Dwight David actually went shopping with me to pick out my dress while he was here.  Shopping with two men is an interesting experience.  I was not allowed to look at anything else other than dresses.  We were on a mission.  I loved the dress I found though, and it is always fun to have a night out.



We are very lucky to have a great group of friends here and this is one of the things we will miss most when we move.  Just a couple of pictures from that night.

Monks & Oysters

Our last day in the Normandy region we drove to Mont St Michel.  No cars are allowed on the island that holds this working abbey, but the walk in was beautiful.



We had heard strollers could be a pain here but after many days of sight seeing there was no way we would have made it without the stroller.  This place was packed with tourist so it was nice to have all of our children confined in some way.



One of our only family pics from this trip I think.



The village underneath the abbey was lined with touristy stores.  Its a very charming village but we were not expecting it to feel like Myrtle Beach underneath a working abbey.

The stroller did prove to be a pain when we tried to get up to the abbey.  We ended up just eating in the village and then



headed out to drive the Brittany coast.



It was a gorgeous coast and we stopped at a couple of beaches along the way.



The girls looking for critters with their Daddy.




Payson has grown so much since this trip.



Brittany also claims to have the best oysters in the world. We drove to Cancale, the oyster capital of this area, for our supper on this night.  You can see the oyster racks off the coast in the picture below.



All the oysters for sale at the docks.



This was our dinner that night.  I normally am not a huge fan of oysters on the half shell but these I loved. Carolyn was in heaven. She still talks about the oysters that tasted like the sea. Sidney even had a few as well.

Normandy Again

I know we went to Normandy way back in July and it is now November but this is the only way I keep up with our pictures, which means I have to play catch up.

After the American Cemetery we headed to the Pointe du Hoc Ranger Memorial.



The Allied Forces determined that they had to run the Germans off of this cliff for American landings to be successful.  This is the most massively bombed site of all D-Day targets.  300 Army Rangers attempted a castle style assault on this cliff and only about a third survived.



Everything remains as it was found then.



The bombed out bunkers are considered graves sites.



It was kind of surreal to see our daughters jumping in and out of the bombed out landscape.



After this we headed over to the Dick Winter's Memorial.



Brian and I are both Band of Brothers fans so we really wanted to see this memorial.



Then we visited Ste. Mere Eglise which was the first village to be liberated by Americans.

The Airborne Museum here is dedicated to the daring aerial landings that were essential to the success of D-Day.



We were able to see a Douglas C-47 plane that dropped parachutists on D-Day.



Always love to see the South Carolina Flag.



These were all over the Normandy region.  They were anti-aircraft towers that the Nazi's used to deter allied forces.



Not the best picture but it reminds me of Carolyn eating 4 out of the 6 snails that Brian ordered as an appetizer that night.

Here we go ..

Well we finally found out where we are headed next.  Back to the south we go to Montgomery, Alabama. Although it will only be for while Brian is in school, it will be nice to be back in the land of Duke's Mayo, boiled peanuts, and we may even be able to find a Cheerwine there.  We won't leave until this summer so we will have time to fit in a couple more trips.  We have enjoyed our time here, but are really looking forward to getting back to the states and being closer to family.

Here is a picture from our recent trip to Crete.  One of the things I will miss about here... Carolyn going on fall break means an excuse to check out another country.

Major Promotion Ceremony

10 Years, 4 moves, 3 states, 2 continents, throw in three kiddos, numerous TDYs and deployments and you get the sum of Brian's military career thus far.  Seems crazy that we have been doing this for 10 years of our life. (And even crazier that in 10 more years Brian can retire.) We were very excited for this milestone in his career.

Brian's old Squadron Commander Lt Col Poisson just got stationed in Belgium and was able to make the trip down.  His speech basically listed what Brian has accomplished throughout his career.  He spoke about how Brian went from working on a tug boat in Charleston, to a Maintainer at Moody AFB, to getting accepted to Navigator training, which led us to the AWACS.  Brian respects Lt Col Poisson immensely so it was just perfect that he was able to come pin him on.



The girls decided that Brian looked lonely up front all by himself and left me about halfway through his speech.



A hand for each girl.  They really didn't understand what was going on, but they were loving being up in front of a room full of people.






Brian taking the oath of office.



Brian's first realization of "I am a Major".  His speech basically summed up how thankful he is for the things he has gotten to do for our country, the friends he has made along the way, the places we have gotten to go and how he is looking forward to the future.



We are all looking forward to seeing what adventures the Air Force has in store for us.