Adventures begun

I've been meaning to start a blog for quite a while now, since all of our friends and families are spread out across the states, and I've finally gotten around to it... after we've been married almost 2 years and have moved three times. Oh well, better late than never.

So we have just begun probably one of the biggest adventures of our marriage - our 3+ week trip to Europe. We were originally going to leave Thursday around 5am but quickly decided that we wouldn't be able to sleep on Wednesday night anyway, so we left Enid around 7:30pm Wednesday night and got in to Chicago around 8:30am on Thursday. Traffic was pretty much non-existent until we got into the Chicagoland area and then it took us about an hour to go less than 30 miles. Can't say I miss traffic too much. Luckily we don't have to worry about that much in Enid. =)

I feel like we're back in civilization again now that we're in Chicago. There are miles and miles of any type of store you could hope to shop in.... Something we're not at all used to anymore. Quite the switch from Enid, and it makes us even more excited to eventually get to Phoenix.

We saw my uncle, Don, who has stage 4 lung cancer yesterday. He was told almost a month ago that he was pretty much on his death bed, but he had one round of chemo at the beginning of April and he just had another one yesterday. I was expecting him to be weak and tired and quiet, but he showed none of those signs. The doctors have pretty high hopes for the longevity of his life. Lung cancer is terminal, but he could live a fulfilling, independent life for many years. His situation is pretty much nothing short of a miracle and it was really nice to see him and my cousin, Allison, yesterday.

I guess the T-38C fleet (what Mark currently flies) has been grounded as of yesterday. They've had 2 fatal crashes in the past 8 days, killing 4 pilots - 2 students and 2 instructors. Hearing these things literally makes me sick to my stomach. There isn't much info out about the crash that took place yesterday, but the one that happened a week ago left the student pilot's wife - who is pregnant with their first child - and the instructor pilots wife, and 2 young kids behind. Not too long ago there was an F-16 crash at Luke (where we're going next) and the pilot died and his wife was also pregnant with their first child. It's so hard to not let that fear just consume you. It's a very good reminder to live in the moment and cherish every second you have with your loved ones. My heart goes out to the families of these fallen pilots.

So I'll try to keep this blog going better than I did the last one. I'll definitely be blogging during our trip so check back for updates!!