Reserve Active Duty Training - Day 2

It is day 2 of my annual Reserve Active Duty Training. Day 1 was spent checking in, moving to the airport, and flying up to Yakima Training Center in Washington State. There was the typical military hurry up and wait, but we arrived safely and moved into our squadbays.


Today was spent on orientation to the base and its training facilities. Select staff received range officer safety training so that we can run the various ranges on the base safely. After this brief class, I went out with one of the Army contractors to view the Convoy Live Fire range which I would be in charge of running for the battalion. The rest of the day was spent confirming the training plan and coordinating logistics for the next few days.


Yakima is located in the eastern part of Washington State, east of Mt Rainier. YTC is the brown area northeast of the town of Yakima and is west of the Columbia River.


The countryside is composed of a series of rolling hills. You may think of Washington as a very rainy area, but Yakima is in the eastern part of the state and is considered a high desert. The low brush is very dry this time of year and wild fires are a big concern. Temperatures today were not too bad and only made it into the high 80's. This is a bit below average and they are expected to climb into the mid-90's. Evening temperatures are chilly and average in the high 50's. Its also very dusty when the wind blows.

I told Dominic that I was leaving the day before I left and that I would be gone 3 weeks doing Marine work. I told him again on Sunday morning. That evening DominicsMom overheard him explain to one of his toys that Daddy was not home because he was doing Marine stuff. By Sunday evening he had forgotten and DominicsMom had to remind him where I was...


I'll continue to post as I have time (probably not too much as we get busier.)


SemperFi,
DominicsDad

Dinocoaster

Here's a quick photo of Dominic and DominicsMom on the Legoland coaster. I think it's easy to say that Dominic is having fun!

I'll be out at my Reserves annual training for the next three weeks, so no blogging until I return.

SemperFi,

DominicsDad

Bust My Buffers

Dominic is at the age where he picks up anything that is said around him. DominicsMom was getting out of the car this afternoon and she let out a big sigh, "Ohh Lord!"

Dominic came right back with his own "Ohh Lord!" As we started to laugh, he gave us a few more "Ohh Lords!" No lightning bolts struck the car so everything was ok.

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The other day DominicsUncle Andy was relating a story and he finished it up with a "Dammit!"

Dominic quickly topped it with four quick "Dammits!" As we started to laugh, he gave us a few more for good measure... (DominicsPapa Tom is guilty of this with DominicsCousin Cole!)

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We read a lot of the Thomas the Tank Engine story books to Dominic and one of the exclamations that Thomas uses is, "Bust my buffers!" Dominic hasn't used that one yet, but I'm just waiting for the day. In addition, when one train bumps another on purpose, they are giving the other one a 'Biff' or a 'Bash'.

The other weekend DominicsMom, DominicsMama Pat, & DominicsPapa Frank took Dominic to the Old Poway Park and to see the train station and ride the train. They also have a gift shop featuring a lot of Thomas trains. The gift shop has a train table and a bunch of tracks and train engines for the kids to play with. Dominic immediately gravitated to the table and acquired a train. He was playing by himself when another little girl joined him. She grabbed another train and began to move it around the track. When she reached the table where Dominic stood, she bumped their trains together. Dominic immediately exclaimed, "Hey! Stop biffing my Thomas!"

They things they pick up and learn!

Dominic's Antics

Dominic has been on a roll these last few days. Tonight we had dinner with DominicsAunt Laurie, Mama Pat, and our friends Jared & Erika. After dinner Mama Pat asked Dominic if he wanted a treat. Of course he said Yes...

She made him a cup of chocolate ice cream and he immediately asked for more, because he wanted a "Tall cup of ice cream." So she gave him another scoop. Mama Pat then made herself a small cup of coffee ice cream and sat down next to Dominic. She asked, "Do you want to try some of mine?"

As he was already finished with his own cup of ice cream, he said, "Yes!" and took her cup.

Dominic then handed Mama Pat his cup and said, "Here, try some of mine!" (Nice kid, give her an empty cup to try...) He had a bit of Mama Pat's ice cream, definitely liked it, but gave her cup back. Once he had his own empty cup back, he looked at it, back at Mama Pat's cup, and then said, "Do you want to trade?"

After we stopped laughing, Mama Pat gave her cup to him. He had the biggest grin on his face...

DominicsDad

Legos

Two weeks ago we went to Legoland and I'll post some pictures a bit later. While we were at Legoland, Dominic saw his favorite, Thomas the Tank Engine. Of course, Lego has a whole line of Thomas lego sets and when saw the Thomas lego display (a large Thomas the Tank Engine in legos about 4 feet high) at one of the small stores in the park, Dominic decided he had to have one.

A couple tantrums later, some skipped rides, and we were browsing through the final LegoStore on the way out. Dominic saw another Thomas display all the way across the store and before I could say "Bust my buffers!", he had left me behind and made his way to the wall display. He stared at the wall and did that particular little hop & dance that he does when he can't make up his mind. I could just see his thought process: He knew that we had already said No once, so the large Thomas lego set that he really wanted, he probably couldn't get. But the Percy set was so much smaller, maybe he could get away with that...

So he grabbed the Percy box, held it tight against his chest, put on his best pleading face, and said, "Pleaaaaassssseeeee!"

I put on my best Dad voice and said in a very firm manner, "Go ask your Mom!"

Off he went running through the store looking for DominicsMom. She threw me a disgusted look as I tried to look innocent. So he got the Percy lego set (and I was secretly pleased as I used to love Legos as a kid...) As a side effect, Dominic no longer refused to go on any rides and we all got to go on the roller coaster...

Big Percy is now Dominic's favorite toy and he carries him around everywhere. I mean everywhere. He's been into the sandbox, to the park, the store, the bath (three times), and regularly guests at the dinner table. A long forgotten toy, a sled/box of Legos (actually, the Duplo set of child 3-6 blocks) which is the line of Legos that the Thomas trains are actually a part of, has made a resurgence. Dominic plays with them non-stop, building Percy a shed, train-wash, water stop, and house. It's really neat to watch him build these structures and add and subtract to them. It's even more fun to watch Josszilla come through and destroy his high flying creations (and Dominic scream in frustration...)

Hopefully Dominic will continue to build and design more Lego masterpieces...

DominicsDad

Been Busy

It has been 3 weeks since I've posted, but I've been busy. I ordered and received a new computer just after Independence Day. It is a nice computer, but it came loaded with Windows Vista. Vista is just not ready for prime-time in my opinion. While I did not have too many problems with the OS, I had a lot of problems installing all the normal computer programs that I use. A large percentage of them were not compatible with Vista, requiring a patch or upgrade. Of course, the program vendor wants money for the upgrade and after having spent big bucks on the computer, I did not want to spend a lot of money on replacement software (so in retrospect, my beef was not so much with Vista as with the requirement to get a LOT of new software.)

So I went back to Windows XP. All this took about a week and a half. Once I got going with XP, it took about a week to get it where I wanted it... Yep, that was a long time, but I'm only able to work on the computer for an hour or two in the evenings after the kids go to bed.

So I'm still behind and have a lot of photos to sift through, organize, and post. It will be slow work this week as DominicsAunt Laurie, Uncle Andy, and Cousin Jake are in town. I also leave for my two (three) week annual training for Reserves next weekend. So as much as I am behind, I probably won't be able to get too much done...

Over the last month, the kids saw fireworks on July 4th, we went to the Wild Animal Park, and Dominic went to Legoland. Here's a small taste:

Dominic and Joss check out the animals at the Wild Animal Park.

Feeding the Parakeets. DominicsDad has a lot of them!

Joss isn't too sure about that feather-covered creature.

Dominic gets eaten by a shark at Legoland.

DominicsDad

Cookie Thief

This evening Dominic was a good boy (he went #2 without any coaching), so we rewarded him with a ginger-snap cookie. This meant that Jocelyn also received one. Not wanting to be left out, DominicsMom and I also took a ginger-snap. The cookies were well received by both kids and they dug into them with gusto. Dominic quickly finished his cookie and went off to play Thomas. (I think I finished mine in three bites.)

Joss was taking nice little lady-like bites and still had plenty of cookie left as she stood near DominicsMom and played with Percy the Tank Engine. I crawled over (to get down to her level of course) and pretended to try and take her cookie by grabbing it with my mouth, making all sorts of eating noises. For a moment or two, she tried to resist, but then she decided to feed me and held up her cookie for me. I moved in and barely gummed it, making of lot of eating noises (but didn’t actually eat any.)

Joss was delighted and she thought it was the best thing in the world. She turned to DominicsMom and offered her ginger-snap to her. DominicsMom also pretended to eat it with delight. At this point, Dominic looked up from where he was playing and he decided to get in on the action.

“Me! Me!” he exclaimed to get her attention. She obligingly turned to him and offered up her cookie. Dominic gleefully hopped over to her to partake in her treasure. He leaned in to take a big bite, but DominicsMom was right there to make sure he didn’t get carried away. He still managed to get a big bite of the cookie and then backed up a step as Joss looked sorrowfully at her decimated cookie -- 3 year old boys take much bigger bites than a little toddler girl!

DominicsDad