Desert Skies Are Beautiful!

The skies out here in the desert are just breathtakingly beautiful!!! I never grow tired of them. Sadly my phone does not capture their true beauty....



















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Farewell From The Stables

It is really sinking in that we are leaving....The Dude In Cammies had his first farewell today. It was at the stables. There are several events going on from Redding California to Washington DC and Colorado that they wanted to have his farewell from the Mounted Color Guard before they hit the road. The stables is always such a peaceful place....I went straight from work so i was a little early. I spent some time with the horses and Kishaba and Naha, love those two barn cats!



Kisses for Ford


He loves the very top of his head rubbed, right where his bangs grow in.



Moses grilled some yummy food and the Marines arrived.

This is such a small base so everyone knows everyone. It was fun just sitting and listening to the Marines. They are hilarious! I had a delicious bacon cheeseburger.

Ed said a few words to the Marines but other than that it was just a perfect afternoon with some of Americas finest.....

Later Ed and Gunny Flores went for a little ride.....

Chit Chatting With Kishaba

I saw that the stables was out of cat food when Ed and i were there on Sunday. I bought a big bag and swung by there after work today.  I filled up the cat dishes and put the bag where it goes and than sat down and chit chatted with Kishaba. I'm not sure where Naha was, she never came out but i saw her Sunday so I'm sure she was just napping somewhere. I held Kishaba for awhile and than went and said hi to the horses. I love being out here, so very peaceful......going to really miss this place. 

Time To Update Uniforms

We left this morning for 29 Palms.

We are coming into crunch time before Ed will be wearing Sgt Major chevrons so we zipped to his favorite tailor and dropped off his uniforms.


After we dropped off the uniforms we went to the PX, the boys had their favorite pizza, and than we went for a drive. We headed over to the training areas where Ed has been too many times to remember how many!









It was fun to see the actual places he's stayed since we have only seen pictures or heard him explain it or the conversations I've heard him have with his buddies when they were here.  It was great for the boys to get a visual too! He was out here when we were on Okinawa and he left to go to Iraq with a battalion from Camp Lejeune. He's been here for training with tracks at Camp Lejeune and with a CLB from Camp Lejeune for an Afghanistan deployment and again for Advisory training before going to Afghanistan. He will be back here in October for training for a deployment in 2017 with his new unit. He jokingly calls it his home away from home!    

The boys were like, 'Wait! There's Marines in there!' Ed laughed and said yes, that is where we live when we are out here. I said and there is no AC in those! Ed chimes in, and no heat! I forgot he's been here during every season! 

It was hilarious! We would be driving along and than a random arm pops out of the sand out of nowhere. Ed laughed and said that is a Marine trying to get a signal or take a selfie.

Desert Baseball

We headed out to catch a baseball game tonight, the Desert Mavericks. It was a bit windy and chilly but we had a great time! Ryan was picked to do a golf game in between innings and won free tickets for another game. Taylor was selected to race the bases. It was a really fun night. The mascot totally photo bombed us! Best picture of the night! The Mavericks won. Perfect night in the desert! AND i had a super yummy hot dog!!!

We Are Not Off To A Baseball Game

We are off to the Angels/Rangers game tonight at Anaheim Stadium. I picked up Ty, Ryan, and Taylor early from school on my way home from work so we could get on the road for tonight's game. I work for the school district so the principal, assistant principal, secretary, etc know me. I'm in Angels clothes, Taylor comes in wearing all Rangers gear, Ty in Angels gear.......as we are walking out i say, "we are all off to doctors appointments, not tonight's Angels/Rangers game....' They all started cracking up saying have fun at those Dr's appointments, go Angles!!! Hahahahahahahaha

Beautiful Patch of Green

There is this nice beautiful patch of green grass where i work.....grass is not very abundant here in the desert......i walk thru it almost every day, just a few steps to remember what it feels like! 

Rookie Scare

Ed and i were in Victorville when he got a call from MCLBPD saying one of the horses was down and not getting up after they watched him for awhile and hit the horn a few times. We zipped straight home to check on the horses since everyone else with stable access was gone for the day. Was sooo relieved to see Rookie standing up and doing fine!!! Man, these horses stress me out!!! Rookie was born in 1997 and captured Oct 21, 1999. He is getting up there in years and his joints are not doing so well so it is taking him longer to get up these days. Poor guy.....love these guys, but like all animals, hate to see them grow old.

Easter Sunday Picture

It was a beautiful Easter Sunday in the desert! Mr Hottie even took a picture with me. The boys said NO!!!!


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Ford Therapy

It was a tough weekend. Saturday was spent with Vietnam veterans and the mobile Wall That Heals and than Sunday morning Ed found out another one of his (Marine) friends committed suicide. Going to the stables was exactly what he needed. Ford did everything flawlessly and they had a nice ride in the desert. Best therapy there is......


Taking Ford out to saddle up and do groundwork.


All done and heading back in......


He just puts the rope over his shoulder and Ford obediently follows him to his stall without batting an eye.





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Trying Hard To Bowl

No work for Ed or i and no school for the boys. We wanted to something but none of us felt like driving 2 plus hours to go do something.....soooooo we decided to go bowling on base.  I went on line and double checked the hours. It said it opened at 10 am. We arrived at 11 am and there was a sign on the door that it would open at 1 and an apology for any inconvenience.....so typical of this duty station. I've enjoyed my time here but really looking forward to living on a REAL Marine base again and having things to do close by and not having to drive HOURS to go do something!!! We decided to go check the bowling alley out in town. It didn't open until 4 pm!!!!  Oh my gosh!!! like seriously it's just eat or watch a movie in this town!!! Drives me crazy!!!  It's super windy today so hiking, shooting, and riding horses is out, so literally leaves eating, watching a movie, or go bowling......ugh!!!!! So we killed some time running a few errands and went bowling later on base when it opened. As you can tell by the score we don't bowl often!!!  We are more of an outdoor family but on these crazy windy days we are a bit limited on things to do if we don't want to sit at the house!!!  

Ryan gave us all our name

Snazzzzzzy shoes here!

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Simple Shopping With A Cell Phone

Cell phones come in soooo handy when you see something for your child that ISN'T with you!!!! I just send picture of kid with me holding it up and the selection of colors. Notice how happy Ty is to help his mom?!!! Hahaha!!! The torture I put my kids thru! Ryan LOVES the material these shirts are made of. He texted back his color choices and wha-la, new shirts purchased!!!





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Rockin' The Sparkle Sunglasses

We have no idea where Ed's sunglasses are....but my car had an extra pair and Ed rocked them!

Sawtooth Canyon Hiking

We had a great day hiking Sawtooth Canyon today! 

Ryan snapped this picture of Ed and I

Quick family picture while we all happened to be sitting on the same rock!

Ty taking in the view! I decided to go around the other side. My arms were tired from the other climbs I had done.

These two boys can climb soo fast!

Aside from the wind it was a gorgeous day for hiking!!!

Made it down those steep set of rocks behind me. Always easier going up than coming down!!!

There were a LOT of great grip rocks climbing up this! Quite the workout though!!!