getting to iraq, part I

Well the dream has finally come true. I am here. I can't believe it. Life has really come around for me. I am truly living the dream. Oh wait a minute I am in Iraq. I must have been daydreaming of that oasis in the middle of the desert. We just had our first dust storm. Not to be confused with a sand storm. A dust storm is different from a sand storm. A sand storm is like what you see on tv where the wind is blowing sand everywhere and people are getting sand blasted and things are getting torn apart. A dust storm is not that dramatic. Imagine the outside air completely saturated with sand dust. It almost looks like the sky is orange. Sand gets everywhere and in EVERYTHING. There's hardly any wind oddly enough but it is kind of dark out due to the dust clouds blocking the sun. Strangest thing I tell you. Anyway, over the next couple blog posts I will catch you up to date with my trip from Seattle to Iraq. I will also have lots of photos starting with some pics from Steph and Bri visit to Seattle to our trip from Ft. Lewis to Kuwait and then to Balad.

Here are a few pics of Brianna at the Seattle Zoo and some of the animals she got to see. I think Steph's camera has all the pictures from us together.

Here we're showing Brianna the map of the zoo and still trying to get a look at the bears before they walk off.

Here’s a picture of the famous Space Needle but we didn’t go up it. I am not sure how Bri would have handled the ride up so we chose not to try it. Bri did seem to like the circus act going on just outside of the Space Needle. You know it's one of those guys that rides a unicycle and juggles flaming batons.

The gorillas didn't really want anything to do with us. They looked ticked off. I guess I would be ticked off too if I had been captured, put in a cage and thousands of people just stared at me all day long. I have found out that although gorillas don't talk to you like they did on the Planet of the Apes they really don't like to be stared at. They were literally throwing branches at the glass when people were staring directly at them.

I also couldn’t resist putting in this video of Brianna going down the slide at the slide at the REI store in downtown Seattle (see video on the side). Let’s see there’s some other memory I have of that store…oh yea I dragged Juddy to that store after he had dislocated his shoulder. What a great friend I am. Brianna loved the slide. She wasn’t at all hesitant to go down it. Unlike daddy who watched her like a hawk she just climbed up and slid down like there was not a care in the world. She must have gone down the slide for about 20 minutes straight.

Since Bri got sick the day they were leaving I didn't want Steph to try and drive to the airport, return the car and then have to carry all the luggage AND a sick child through the airport. So I went with her and helped her (the chivalry is just sickening, huh?). This was the hardest part of the deployment. Before when I left I knew within a month I would be seeing them again, but now I won't see them for 7 months! Seven months without my two girls!