Fort Lewis!!!

So Tuesday (June 23rd) morning before we left Washington for Oregon, and after we bid Scarlett and the girls goodbye (after Ben's morning nap) we went up to Ft. Lewis and drove around LDACistan, where Chris spent 5 weeks training in between his junior and senior years of ROTC. It was fun having him point out all the locations where he lived, called me, was in the field, did exercises, ate,etc.

We almost got them all to look. Of course Ben was infatuated by Kaitlyn


Much better,at least he was looking forward if not at the camera


The kiddos...and Annabelle gets lost!


Yay, we managed to get 4 kiddos 2 & under to all look at the camera and smile(ish) at the same time!! Definitely a great pic!


So, these cattle cars, actually carry cadets, to and from wherever they need to go for the day, not cattle. I think if you click on the picture, you can actually see some of them in the windows.


Some cadets planning out their drills for an exercise later that day.


The line of barracks where cadets live for 5 weeks.


We stopped in a parking lot while Chris got out to take some pictures, orient himself (ie where was he in the field, where was he at the range...)and I got Ben out cuz he was fussy. He makes some of the cutest faces!

My happy boy!

Skookum's. Chris has some funny stories about these things. Only at Ft. Lewis are they called Skookum's and not port-a-potties.


This the building Chris stayed in. There's a phone on the outside that he used to call me on, when he was given permission (they take away all cell phones).


Chris's room was the 2nd one from the end, top floor.


Mount Rainier. Chris saw this amazing site nearly everyday he was there, thanks to no rain/cloud coverage for most of the 5 weeks. We got to hike parts of it when I went up for his graduation!

I loved hearing all the stories he told as he pointed out different buildings. He got so excited reliving it!

Since Nils had to go to work early, we stopped by to say goodbye (he works right near the cadet land) and to get a pic


Since our boys were acting up when we went to visit Ron & Susan, and we didn't get a picture, they met with us at Panera Bread on the way out of town, and we got a family shot.

Ron, Susan, & Ben!

The boys finally slept on the drive down to Oregon. This was the only "long" drive that we didn't do in the middle of the night.

The beginnings of sleep (he hated to sleep in the car)


And we are getting more comfortable (rolling)-yes I know bad mom,taking the seatbelt off, but I was desperate for him to sleep.


And the final roll, nose pressed into the seat.