We May Not Have Had Fireworks But We Still Had Fun

Hello Everyone

     It's been a few weeks since our last posting and a lot has happened!  Tyler finished up Basic Officer Leader Course just in time for the 4th of July weekend.  He has been trying to build a bookshelf but progress has been slow since he hasn't had much time to work on it.  We have hung out with our neighbors (Ben and Stacey) a few times and stayed up late playing cards and watching the dogs play.  They have a 9 month old Weimeraner named Chloe that Kahlua has become friends with.  They have gone to the Bark Park together a few times as well as hanging out around our house and our neighbors house.  Tyler got to go to the flight-line and see all the helicopters up close.  It's a good thing he will be flying Blackhawks since he is far too big for Kiowas and Apaches.  Today he completed the Helicopter Overwater Survival Training course, where he learned how to escape a helicopter if it crashes into the water.  It involved lots of getting flipped over in a cockpit simulator underwater and learning to breathe with a small air tank.
We got a four day weekend for the fourth of July and went to New Orleans.  We got to see the French Quarter, Ninth Ward, Bourbon Street, Canal Street, the national WWII museum, and eat some beignets at Cafe Du Monde.  Even though it was hot and packed everywhere we had a good time.  On the way home we stopped in Mobile at the USS Alabama memorial and toured a WWII battleship, a submarine and lots of aircraft.  Unfortunately we didn't see any fireworks for the 4th.  Fort Rucker had theirs on Saturday and New Orleans were on Monday, so we just missed both.  This week should be an easy one.  Tyler is supposed to pretty much have the week off to prepare for his next training event SERE (survive evade, resist and escape) where he will learn to survive and avoid capture.  He begins that on Monday and will have no contact with the outside world (including Shanonn) for 21 days so feel free to give Shanonn lot's of phone calls to keep her occupied.  That is about all we have for now, we hope everyone had a good 4th of July weekend and we miss you all!