It's Official!

As some of you may know, we were supposed to report to Columbus, GA in July for Paul to attend the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. All of his classes would have been in Spanish, which is why he is currently learning Spanish at the Defense Language Institute.

Well, because of many different factors, he realized that going to WHINSEC was not such a great idea. His detailer worked some magic and we just got orders today for Montgomery, AL. Paul will be going to the Air War College there at Maxwell AFB. Needless to say, we are very excited!!! School starts at the first of August, so we'll be leaving California in July. We are looking forward to a very busy year in Alabama!

Best Friends

These days wherever there is Alex, there is Jane Ritchie!

Jane Ritchie is on the move!

Jane Ritchie started crawling yesterday. Of course, she heads towards Alex every time, as well as anything else that she shouldn't be playing with! Here are a couple of videos!

Happy Easter Everybody!

Poor Jane Ritchie was sick for her first Easter and her evil mom made her put on her Easter outfit anyway!!! Despite not feeling well, Jane Ritchie was a good girl while we had a wonderful lunch with friends from USS Chicago, Laura, Sean and Liam Welch. Mommy made a really good wild rice salad (see http://www.foodnetwork.com/ for the recipe!) and the butterfly cake turned out great!

The Easter Bunny brought Jane Ritchie her very own bunny!

Eggs mommy colored using skins from yellow onions!

M & M butterfly cake!

A trip home

We took a trip home to Alabama last week. Paul's half brother, John, was getting married in Huntsville, so Jane Ritchie and I went earlier in the week and stayed with Aunt B and Uncle Eddie in Decatur. Of course, May May came, too! Grandaddy Jeff even joined us on Friday!

Aunt B and Uncle Eddie kept us well fed as usual. We did lots of coming and going and Jane Ritchie was very good! Jane Ritchie met some of her cousins and met her Great Grandmother Jane for the first time. Here are a few pictures!

Jane Ritchie checking out her cousin, Campbell.

Meeting Great Grandmother Jane!

Meeting cousins Porter, Edy and Carolyn Smith.

Cousins Sally Frances and Robert. Robert won the city championship in soccer that night. Yea!!

Whew! I need a relaxing bath!!!

Big Sur

We did a little sightseeing today along the coastline to Big Sur. It is so amazing that these views are only a few miles from where we live! Highway 1 south of the Monterey Penninsula was dedicated as California's first scenic Highway by Lady Bird Johnson in 1966. It goes 130 miles from Carmel to San Luis Obispo, but we only went about 30 miles this time. There are some great State parks that would probably take a day in themselves to check out, so we'll have to go back. Point Lobos State Park, for instance, has been called "the greatest meeting of land and sea in the world." It is a 1,275-acre preserve, more than half of which is below the sea. It is the first undersea preserve in the United States.


Below is a picture of the famous Bixby Bridge. It was built in 1932 and was one of the longest concrete arch span bridges in the world, with and arch of 320 feet and standing more than 250 feet above the creek!!

Tofu

Jane Ritchie ate tofu (mixed with banana) for lunch today! There is something very satisfying about feeding her things that are so good for her, that I won't eat! :) I started off making her baby food and got bored. I was basically cooking one vegetable and pureeing it. Then I got turned on to some recipes and that is much more fun! It is actually helping with my diet, too. Whenever I feel the need to whip up some brownies, I make a batch of baby food instead!

Birthday Party

Jane Ritchie went to her first birthday party this weekend! Liam Welch turned ONE on February 26 and the party was on Saturday. Jane Ritchie was such a good girl at the party. She ate her lunch in Liam's high chair and played the rest of the time. There was no crying and she took a long nap when we got home!


Happy Birthday to Liam!