Day 1 - Orlando - Gatorland

When I hear Orlando, the first thing that comes to mind is Disney.  When I was 8 my Dad took me to Florida and we did spend a day at Disney.  However, it isn’t Disney that I remember but Gatorland.  That is how we began our trip.

We spent the morning just hanging out at the house.  Mike and I talked over coffee while the kids practiced for the big tournament.  At 1000 we headed into the gameroom where I won the air hockey portion and Mike took the basketball shooting thing.  Luckily the kids have all week to prepare for a rematch.

After showers, Sam and I took off for Best Buy to buy a new camera to replace the one I washed, then we grabbed the boys and headed to Gatorland.  It was a fabulous afternoon.  The park was well taken care of and we all enjoyed looking at the alligators. 



One perk of mom being away... a closer bond between Samantha and Mike.



Samantha’s favorite was the white one.  Mike asked Sam “wouldn’t that make a great pair of boots?”  Her reply… “Dad, why would you want to wear crocodile skin on your feet?”

Jason’s favorite alligator was the one that got irritated with another and snapped.  The splashing got our attention and watching the one alligator remind the other who was dominant was amusing.

I knew I definitely wanted the kids to hold the baby alligator and take a photo like I did when I was 8 in 1984.  Sam wasn’t so sure.  When the lady told her to hold out her hand, Sam did.  The lady said “No sweetie, you’re real hand”.  What Sam had held out was her hand, but her sweatshirt sleeve covered it down to her finger tips.



Me when I was 8 years old at Gatorland.


We also chose to feed the parakeets which was a blast.  Luckily Jason had the benefit of his sweatshirt hood.  Sam walked around with her arm over her head.  When we first walked in the birds knew exactly what was to come and we were swarmed by birds.  Mike wasn’t planning to come in with us but when he saw Sam completely covered, and not happy about it, he rushed in to help her out.  After a while she got used to it.  It was a unique experience.

On the way back to the house, the kids fell asleep in the car.  We wore them out after just half a day at Gatorland.  They are going to need to build up their stamina for the days ahead.

There is a super Wal-Mart just outside our neighborhood so we stooped there to pick up dinner.  Mike ran in and grabbed a rotisserie chicken and vegetables which was a perfect dinner.  I didn’t make it too much longer after that before I again felt the effect of the 9.5 hour time difference and we all headed to bed early.

Spa Day

I found an Aveda spa online that was running a $99 special for a manicure, pedicure, facial and massage.  I made an appointment for the package as well as a haircut before I left Afghanistan.  This was how I spent my day before picking up Mike and the kids at the airport in the afternoon.  It felt so good to finally be together again.  As much as I wanted to stay up, the time difference was still taking its toll so I was in bed early again.

Rental House

The flight from Dubai to Atlanta is 16 hours.  That is a long and painful flight.  After making my way through customs I had just enough time to run to the gate for my flight to Orlando. 

I arrived mid morning into Orlando, picked up the rental car and headed to the house we would call home for the next ten days.  Having found such a perfect apartment in Rome via vrbo.com, I decided to try it again.  For $85/night (no tax), we rented a four bedroom, two bath house with a pool.  The garage was converted into a game room.  We couldn’t have stayed at a nice hotel for that price and we had more than just a room with beds.  We are definitely on to something.  On the way to the house I stopped at Wal-mart to pick-up some groceries and remind myself how wonderful shopping is.  I was able to keep myself awake until 6pm when I finally lost the jet lag battle.



VRBO Property 352262






R&R Start in Dubai

I can tell I need a break.  Before I went on my last R&R I didn’t realize how badly I needed a break.  This time, I could definitely tell.

Getting ready for R&R is stressful.  I had so much work to do that I wasn’t in my room packing until well past midnight.  We aren’t supposed to do laundry after 10pm but I really needed to so I did it anyway.  It is a blanket rule for all laundry rooms on the compound but my laundry room is outside and the sound doesn’t echo like it does in some of the other buildings so I was relatively confident that I wouldn’t disturb anyone.  I washed my wallet and my camera.  See, this is why I don’t usually break rules…karma.

I met my friend Bimi last Sept at the deployment processing center.  She and I work together here.  There is a special bond with the people that deploy in the same group.  Bimi had done two tours in Kabul but this was her first time in Kandahar.  Born in India, she moved to the US in her 20’s so she is well traveled.  We hit it off right away so it was a pleasant surprise that we were going on R&R at exactly the same time.

Bimi and I arranged to have a private tour guide and driver meet us at the airport for our six hour layover in Dubai.  Bimi’s son and new daughter-in-law were having a wedding reception while she was home and she wanted a traditional Indian outfit for the event.  Because Dubai is an International hub, the shopping is amazing.  We wandered the streets of shops and while Bimi shopped, our tour guide filled my head with so much wonderful information about Dubai and the Unites Arab Emirates.  The guide is from Mexico and she moved to Dubai when her husband accepted a pilot job with Emirates Airline.  She has two middle school age children so it was fascinating to hear about her life and how her children felt about living in Dubai.  After Bimi found a dress, we went sightseeing.  I really like Dubai.



Bimi and I in front of the Dubai Skyline



One of the many streets we walked along while shopping



In front of Jumeirah Mosque



Bimi and I in front of the Burj Al Arab hotel.  It is often referred to as "the world's only seven-star hotel."



Christmas Eve

The days leading up to Christmas were full of wonderful events to keep our spirits up.  In addition to the Corps events, I was also planning a few things with the Wounded Warrior Unit.

We started off requesting donations from friends and family to deck out the Wounded Warrior mods.  Then one Friday afternoon we loaded up the volunteers and boxes of donations and did this…



Sam picked out the Santa face we hung on the door.





Jason's 6th grade class sent the red and green cards.





There are not many lights at night so the mods really stood out!



On our compound we decorated Santa’s MRAP sleigh…

We had an office door decorating contest…



Our office door.



Those are the bottoms of water bottles!



And we had a wonderful Christmas party on Christmas Eve.  As always, the Wounded Warriors were invited.  There was a gift exchange so each employee was asked to bring a gift for themselves and an additional gift to donate.  There were enough gifts for everyone and it took two hours to get through them all.  It was a blast and I laughed a lot…even when my gifts were stolen.  I opened some pretty nice gifts but all were stolen until in the end I got a t-shirt.



Gift stealing in progress.



Kelly and I at the Christmas party.



During the holidays, donations to soldiers are abundant.  We had lots of care packages so we decided to deliver them on Christmas Eve, Santa style.  We had a couple of hours from the time the Christmas party ended until we could be elves, so the four of us sat up in the day room and plated card until it was time.  We had lots of empty stockings that we filled with DVDs, snacks and other fun stuff that had been donated.  The larger donations, such as slippers and large containers of snacks, we wrapped and placed under the trees.  We also left fresh baked muffins and juice.  It felt great.