The Great Punkin' has arrived!

At last, our new granddaughter has arrived. Weighing in at 10 lbs 3 oz and 21.5 inches long, we'd like to introduce you to "Lydia Belle Brown"

It's amazing how much she looks like her big sister. Mom, baby and of course, Dad are doing great and Elina and Noah are astounded and proud to have a little (big) sister.

Shela's new look! WOW!

Mike & Shela
Elina & Noah










We are in Fort Huachuca,
visiting our daughter, Ariel
and her family which includes
two really fun grandkids.
ps. and one's on the way!

Poppi says hi to Noah T and Ellie

Aaron in the Airport

It was really weird to travel with only one child but regardless of how many are in your party, airports are never fun.

Meet Officer Gil

We are so proud to tell you that our son-in-law, Julio, is now a patrolman in the Little Rock Police Department. He excelled in his class and was a first-pick by a specific division of LRPD. The first picture is of him with his little sister from NY on his right and his wife, Corinna who is expecting their 1st, is on his left. And the second picture is of him being pinned with his badge by Corinna.

WE"VE MOVED!

This is a picture of our bed in our Germany house, just before the packers took it down and put it in a crate to ship to the United States. Sometime around the last couple of days of July, Mike's medical status was upgraded to "fit for duty" after nearly 8 months recovery from his disc replacement surgery. We really expected to be assigned to Fort Huachuca, Arizona but imagine our surprise when an assignment came for Fort Riley, Kansas. Mike will go to Alabama to train for a new job as an aviation liason to an infrantry division and then he's off to Iraq to join his new unit. Shela and Aaron will stay in central Arkansas, Cabot to be specific while Mike is in Iraq. Shela will spend a few weeks in Arizona helping Ariel with her 3rd baby due end of Septemberish. She will also be able to be in the area when Corinna has her 1st end of Decemberish. Thus, our new chapter begins. But we sure do miss our Germany house and ward family and friends.

Castle Touring

During the last week, we also took our visiting family to see the castles of King Ludwig II. Here is Mike with the King's childhood 'home' in the background. It was a beautiful day. This is the first summer we have spent here in Germany since we began this tour in 2005. We do miss our family in the states that we normally go to visit but we are enjoying some sightseeing too.

Paragliding in Garmisch

On Tuesday, the 1st of July, we went down to Garmisch again and this time Shela and Lorissa went down the mountain on a parasail. It was pretty darn awesome. The pilot asked Shela if she wanted a calm flight or some action and Shela said, "Bring it on!" so the pilot took her on two "death spirals". It was exilirating to say the least. It's no wonder the boys want to do this as a hobby.

Just walking along.

This is one of my favorite photos because it shows a rare time that I had with my grandkids in Arizona of just being normal. We were walking down a sidewalk at a strip mall heading for the pizza joint.

Grandma's Visiting

Just a couple of days after Corinna left Germany, Grandma Burnside, Aunt Betty Wayman and Lorissa arrived for a visit to our home and country. So far we have walked the Nuremburg tour of the Emperial Rodelbahn (kinda of like luge in the summer) and we watched a falconry show. Jacob and Aaron left for EFY in Copenhagen today, Sunday and tomorrow we will take our guest down to Garmisch. Grandma's really gotten a kick out of Lily, our cat.

Walking my legs off

Corinna came over for a visit and we did so much walking. We went to Nuremburg, Karlovy Vary (Czech), Rothenberg, Garmisch, Neuschwanstein Castle and much more. Here's a pic of me and Poppi in front of the castle of old Nuremburg.

Summer Vacation Begins

The first weekend out of school and we were already on the move. We went down to Garmisch to the Edelweiss Lodge and the boys and Corinna went parasailing. They had the best time and they all said it wasn't too scary. I didn't go because of my previous encounter with the ladder, (if you don't know, look below) and I was afraid it would hurt but the said I'd be ok, so next week sometime, I'll probably do it. We'll see.

Jacob's Graduation

On Friday night at approximately 7:35, the Ansbach High School Principal handed Jacob his high school diploma. Yahoo! Four down and one to go! It was a good ceremony and Jacob wrote a very gratitude filled dedication for his parents and of course for his friends. He will attend Arkansas State University in the fall. The day before, at the HS awards ceremony, he was presented with a $1000 scholarship from the Illesheim Spouse and Civilian Spouse Club.

Fire Recovery

The current event that shapes what we do with our time is a house fire that occured a month ago. One evening, Mike came home to a strong burning odor. He found Aaron's room had been on fire. The computer monitor in his room had burned up and destroyed all of Aaron's belongings. He literaly lost everything but the clothes he was wearing (and his school backpack which he never puts away). Besides Aaron's room, there was soot damage to other rooms on that floor. We have had to move to the house next to ours. Fortunately, the insurance company is footing the expense. We are grateful that there were no injuries and that it did not spread to the rest of the house.

Welcome to our World

I was looking at the family portrait hanging in my dining room and gave thought to the fact that it was a fairly recent photo and it was already out of date. I realized also how behind we are in getting updated photos to family. What is to be done? The answer came when recently Ariel sent us the link to her family's blogspot. Mike thought it would be a good idea and a simple way to get much information out to family and friends, especially when our family is evolving so fast. What do I mean by that? Well, currently, we have both daughters expecting babies this fall/winter, we have one son engaged, we have one son graduating, we have one son growing faster than we can outfit him and we have grandchildren learning to talk, and having ballet recitals etc. Many, many great wonderful changes and also challenging times that best shared with family and friends. We hope to put smiles on faces and prayers in hearts with this blog/journal of our family.
Enjoy,