Buying Our First Christmas Tree Together

Usually I use an artificial Christmas tree for the holidays.  There are several reasons for this.  The first is I hate the thought of a tree dying for the sake of being a decoration for a few weeks.  The second reason is real trees are a mess to clean up.  The third is I'm rather a frugal person (or my mom would say down right cheap), so I like the thriftyness of re-using the same tree.
But since this year was special in that it was our first Christmas to celebrate together, Russ and I decided to go all out and buy a real tree.  Here's Russ with the tree we selected.

And here we are with the "left arm stretch" pose that's become our trademark.

My Surprise Birthday Party

For many years my birthday hasn't been something I've looked forward to.  This year was no exception.  I was working in the Ops Center and had had a really crummy day.  The last thing I wanted to do after getting off work was go out to dinner where I needed to dress in something more formal than jeans and a sweat shirt.
Russ, however, was really set on going out to a Japanese hibachi restaurant.  He kept assuring me that going out to eat would make me feel a lot better.  (I figured he felt I should have something better than Chinese take out or a pizza for my birthday.)
When we arrived to the restaurant, Russ told me we had to wait for the table to fill up before we could go back to eat.  A few minutes after we arrived, our friend Sarah Small (another AEF Center worker) walked through the door.  I asked her what she was doing here as she was by herself.  She casually mentioned she was meeting a few friends for dinner.
A few minutes after that, Leticia (another AEF Center staff member) and her husband A'braham Marsh arrived.  That was when I clued in that Russ had arranged a surprise birthday party/dinner for me.  I really was surprised.  Within a few more minutes everyone else who said they'd be able to make it had arrived.
Here are Sarah Small and Trisha Cundiff.

And the newlyweds in the group, Jackie Day and her husband Jose de Ocon.

A'braham and Leticia Marsh are clapping along to the Japanese version of Happy Birthday.

And here I am (a little "allergenic") with Russ.  What a wonderful birthday!

As if the birthday party weren't enough, Russ still had presents for me when we went back to my house.  Notice the lovely "map" wrapping paper.  In some ways, Russ is as frugal as I am.  He really just wanted to recycle an outdated flight chart.  (See, he was helping the environment!)  Also notice the new robe I'm wearing.  When Russ learned I was still using my AF Academy robe that I'd been issued in 1989, he felt he needed to bring me up to the present times.

And finally, here was a tray with photos that we'd taken from our first date and our "announcement" photo shoots.  I'm so lucky to be marrying such a thoughtful man!

Selecting a Wedding Invitation Photo

Naturally, there was a lot to do before the wedding day. One of those many items was sending out wedding invitations. I wanted to include a photo of Russ and me in the invitation. We went to several locations and took over 100 photos until we decided on a final cut. Here are the quarter finalists:

And this is the one we ultimately selected.

Finding the Wedding Location

I went home to Phoenix in November to try to find a simple/suitable wedding location.  It seemed that whenever I found a place that was good for a reception, they had "stipulations" on which catering companies or photographers they'd allow.  With this frustration behind me, I greatly imposed on my friend Steve May to use his home for the wedding and reception.  (As you can see from these simple snap shots, he has a great "party yard".)  Fortunately for Russ and me, Steve agreed to let us use his home.  One big item checked off the list.

Lurray Caverns, Virginia

Being a plane owner, Russ no longer settled for going to places we could simply drive to.  He selected places where we could get there easily by plane when it would have been an all-day event otherwise. 

                                               

For this weekend's adventure, we flew to the airport closest to Lurray Caverns.  (The caverns offered shuttle transportation from the airport to the caverns.)                                                 

While Russ has his instrument flight rating, this was the first time I'd flown with him where I couldn't see anything.  It was really unnerving for me to be flying through clouds knowing we had mountains on both sides of us and that a wrong reading of his instruments could lead us "to fail to maintain altitude"  (FAA "investingation speak" for crashing into a solid object.

Russ did his best to distract me from the weather (while still keeping a close eye on the instrument readings.  Here he showed me his "namesake" for the navigational beacon.  (Notice our airspeed was much slower than it had been with the tailwind when returning from McGuire AFB a couple weeks ago.)

But this is what I saw when we finally descended below the clouds.  The area was beautiful with the fall foliage in an array of colors.  I was glad at this point that I hadn't asked him to head back to our starting point.

 

 

It was pretty cold in the caves, so I was glad I'd brought an extra jacket.  But it was pretty need to see all the features with the electrical lights wired in.  There was a point in the tour when the guide turned off the lights for a minute.  It reminded me of Tom Sawyer being lost in the caves.  "Head toward the lights" takes on a whole new meaning.

 

Russ always has to do something silly looking.  He's really a little boy trapped in a man's body.

The reflections on the pools of water are so pristine it's difficult to tell where the ceiling leaves off and the pool of water begins. 

What a great day!

McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey

Some of Russ' Air Force Academy classmates were stationed at McGuire AFB in NJ.  What would have been close to a 6-hour car drive was less than a 2-hour flight.  So we were able to make a short visit.  Russ is demonstrating his fine stroller handling skills while his friend Kori Delwich adjusts the hat on her daughter.

It was during this trip that the "Team R" concept came to being, thanks to Kori dubbing Russ and me as "Team R".

While those of you who aren't suitably familiar with the Piper Cherokee to be impressed with a 144KT speed, I just thought I'd point out that this was an early "record" for this aircraft.  (I think Russ is the record holder for the top three speeds submitted for his type of aircraft.  Perhaps that just means there aren't a whole lot of pilots submitting their tops speeds.)

This was the front that we were riding with the really strong tail wind.  Russ mainly wanted to take pictures of lots of clouds to show his dad how excited he was looking at slides from his dad's time in Korea.  With this much excitement out my window, can you understand why I was suitably impressed with our speed?

Air National Guard Convention in Nashville, Tennessee

Russ had a convention he had to attend in Nashville TN.  And thanks to his status of "pilot/plane owner" he now has more travel options available.  Rather than fly commercially to Nashville, he was allowed to fly his own plane with the reimbursement rate being what the government would have spent on a commercial ticket or the actual travel cost (whichever is less).  Since he had an empty seat on the plane available, he invited me to go along.
Here's Russ filling up the plane at an airport along the way in Knoxville TN.

After Russ' meetings the first day we walked to a park near the hotel.  Russ was being pretty risky with which spout the water was going to come out of.

We sure had fun getting a "suitable" shot of us kissing.

For the ice breaker social, Russ practiced NOT breaking anything.

As the Grand Ole Opry was right next door to the hotel (The Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center) where the convention was held, we walked over there to check things out.  Too bad there weren't any shows scheduled during the time we were there.

It was a great trip for me since I didn't have to work.  I think Russ had a good time, too.