Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Catching up with family

Mr Speedbird here,
Well, I decided since Mrs Speedbird was gone for Labor Day weekend I would take a last minute trip to see some family in WA state that I have not seen in entirely too long. I got to see my aunt, uncle, 4 cousins, 1 cousin's sig other (I consider him a good friend even though we had never actually met in person, only talked online) 2 of my cousins young'ins, their puppy Shady, and last but certainly not least my brother who was there because he is working OTR trucking with 2 of our cousins that were there as well. Confused yet? Good ;-P I flew in late Saturday night, stayed Sunday, and left Monday afternoon to come home. The time we had was short, but priceless. Here is a few pictures of our excursion day :-)


A beautiful stream/ river that we went to and killed some time.


My Uncle Mike and Aunt Laura at Crescent Lake (so deep the dont know exactly HOW deep!)

My Brother Garrett, cousin Allen, uncle Mike, and me

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

A Photograph....

... a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.  - Ambrose Bierce.

Some of my more recent pictures.

Girard Winery in Yountville, CA.
A glass of Mumm champaign from above.

Our poor dog, Aiden had to wear a donut to keep him from irritating a hot spot he had.

From a 25 cent attraction in San Francisco.

A lonely gull on the pier in San Francisco.



Much much more to come!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

There is life outside of Tampa!

At last, my dad and sister came to visit us out here in California and it was great!  Dad, unfortunately, was suffering from food poisoning due to a bad sandwich on the plane ride.  When he did start feeling better we had a good time in San Francisco and Napa!










More on snapfish, dad!

Until next time.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

I'm going going, back back to Cali Cali!

Ok, ok.  So I'm already back home.  But I love that song, don't you?

I know, it's been a while since I've last blogged it, but I've recently started my Masters in International Relations, so my free time was split between work, flying, gym, food, sleep, and homework.  Nonetheless, after 4 of the longest months in our lives, both hubs and I are home together again.


Here are some pictures to sum up the last month of the deployment!


This was my crew for the last month, or so, of my Kuwait tour... just an awesome group of guys :-)


Here's the AC (aircraft commander) working hard at the pilot seat at cruise.  Hah!



Our main cargo were passengers, namely Army personnel, either heading home for good or R&R, or heading out the the fight.  This group was heading home.  


It may be hard to see, but my last mission out of Kuwait had us flying to Cairo Int'l, and we begged the controller during a busy time of the day to give us vectors at about 3000 ft above ground so that we could overfly the pyramids.  These were probably the best pictures I got.  We were absolutely ECSTATIC that we got so close.

The end.

~*~*~*~

Now, on to normal life!  If you can remember from earlier, we are planning a vacation, scheduled to leave Saturday for a college friend's wedding and then on to Cancun at the Excellence Playa Mujeres!  We are super excited about the all you can drink/eat/sun but are really worried about our passports.  Since we decided on the trip during the deployment, we had no way of getting our passports while away.  We are slated to pick them up tomorrow afternoon - that is, if there weren't any issues with the application/pictures/etc.  UGH!  I just want to go and be happy!


Another big update, Mr. Speedbird bought me a brand new SLR camera:  a Canon EOS Rebel T1i DSLR. So, standby for some really amazing pictures by yours truly... as soon as I learn how to operate the thing!



Good to be home.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Just for dad...

Turn down (or mute) your sound!  Sorry for all of the background noise...


... this was taken on a military airplane, you know!  Landing at Ali Al Salem AB, Kuwait, today.   Look at that amazing visibility!



... and the picture you've been dying for.  Taken today at Al Udeid AB, Qatar.

Happy Trails, Dad.