Parc Paridisio

Last night, Isaac made my Father crawl onto Claire's playmat.  He then commenced to ordering fast food from my Father.  I know the child has not been to drive through window since we moved to Belgium.  We cannot begin to comprehend where this one came from. 

Today, we finally visited Parc Paridisio (or whatever the new name is).  This is a zoo/park that we'd heard about since we arrived in Belgium.  The description was that it was a great place to take the kids, but too expensive.  We waited until this year so we could buy the season pass.  Great day.  It was especially nice visiting a zoo with my parents along to help catch the kids and keep them coralled and fed.  I managed to sit in some animal's feces within the first thirty minutes of arriving.  I sat down to take pictures of Isaac with a peacock.  When I stood up, Emily pointed out that there was something on my shorts.  At least I know my wife is still checking me out after seven years.  There are new pictures on my photo page from the zoo.

Family Visit

I’ve almost posted a couple of times over the last week, but time seems to have been in pretty short supply.  While delayed, I did want to share my thoughts on Osama bin Laden’s death.  I do believe he deserved exactly what he got.  I’m proud that US intelligence and special forces executed their mission so well.  Like most other soldiers I have talked to about the news, his death is symbolic.  There will be another mental case that will step into his role.  We will continue to have soldiers in Afghanistan.  Many soldiers I have spoken to think this will actually decrease the amount of media attention the war in Afghanistan receives. (How often do you see reports from Iraq on the news?  There are still 47,000 US troops in Iraq).  My other question concerning bin Laden’s death is the response of the US public.  Dancing in the street?  Really?  This is the response to killing someone?  I believe the man deserved to die, but our response as a nation was over the top.  It should not have been that surprising that eventually US forces would find him, and as evil as the man was, another mental case will step into his role.

OK, now that a very small rant is over, my parents arrived her last week to spend a few days with us, which has been great.  Isaac is very jealous when his Grandaddy gives Claire any attention.  Claire is just thrilled to have more people at whom she can stare.  We’ve completed the customary argument about who’s paying for what, and the obligatory catching up on people from Laurel.  The next few days should let them see some of the sights around here.

Scotland

This week, we took a vacation to Scotland.  We landed in Edinburgh on Monday and made a loop up the coast and back down through the Highlands back into Edinburgh.  The pictures are in my photo albums, so I'll spare anyone a play by play of the week.  Driving on the left side of the road was an adventure.  I managed to damage a tire on the rental car when my GPS couldn't figure out the difference between a left turn and a traffic circle (for those not living in Europe, don't worry about it).  The kids did really well.  This was Isaac's first actual vacation with us.  I'm the guy that has his itinerary when he leaves on vacation.  We make a lot of adjustments as we go, but the point is we try to get a lot of things into most vacations.  Both kids did pretty well handling the pace without complaining too much.  (Isaac managed one major meltdown, and Claire did not like Edinburgh Castle. 

With the flight schedules we could get, we got back to Belgium on Friday night, which turns out to be nice because we have a couple of days to wash clothes, get the house in order, and rest before really getting back to work.  Unfortunately, getting in on Friday also means I can't sign out a lawn mower until Monday, and my yard is about a week overdo to be mowed.

The picture I put on this page is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club in St Andrew's Scotland.  I didn't get to play the course, but even Emily was excited looking at what we could see of the course.

A not so triumphant return to golf

I got up at 0215 this morning.  I got dressed and got in the car and drove four hours to Wiesbaden, Germany to play in the 5th Signal Command Golf Scramble.  My battalion commander and our operations NCOIC are both extremely good golfers.  The CSM and myself just enjoy playing.  I realized tonight that the last time I played golf, I was on R&R from my tour in Iraq.  The last time I consistently played golf was the summer of 2008 (CHBOLC).  With that in mind, I'm fairly proud that I only lost two balls in eighteen holes.  Unfortunately, we finished well behind the leaders.  One of our two ringers had an off day.

I didn't particularly like the course, but it was nice to be playing golf again.  I've got to figure out a way to get a membership at one of the golf clubs in Belgium.  It costs way too much money, but I really enjoyed a day on the course again.

Otherwise, this week has been as busy as I expected.  We've had noon and end of the workday prayer services for Holy Week.  I finally got around to getting my ankle checked.  (Mainly due to threats from Emily).  It's fine.  Emily was over-reacting to pain that wasn't even hers.  (I'm seeing if she actually reads the blog, which I doubt).

Youth Camp

This past week, I went with the SHAPE Club Beyond to a middle school adventure camp.

For those who don't know, Club Beyond is a ministry of Military Community Youth Ministries.  I speak at our chapter occasionally and volunteered to chaperone this camp a few months back.  Youth camp is actually a lot more fun as a small group leader.  All I had to worry about was my four middle school boys.  It was great being able to dump any issues or problems on Megan (center), who is the Club Beyond leader for SHAPE.  The guys in my group had some great questions about who God is and how we relate to him.  It was actually a lot of fun to be with students again.  I still never see myself back in youth ministry, but the opportunity to help support student ministry without leading student ministry last week was great.  The camp facility had rock climbing, caving, moutain biking, etc., so it was a lot of fun on that side of it as well.  I'll post a few pictures online later in the day. 

Looking ahead, this week is going to be hectic.  We have daily prayer services for Holy Week.  I'm supposed to play in a golf scramble in Germany.  We're also getting ready for vacation next week. 

Several people have asked Emily about pictures from the marathon last week.  I'm putting those online as soon as I finish this post.  I'll try to post something before we head out next week.