Holiday Highlights

Here are a few random highlights from the Smith's Christmas/New Years season:

#1: Graduate from BOLC III with honors:
During the BOLC III Graduation Ceremony, Cam was awarded the BG Mellnik Leadership Award, as voted on by his classmates and approved by the Cadre, and the Army Communication Skills Award for his superior grades on his Cultural Awareness Paper, Battle Analysis and Operation Order. As the leadership award recipient, he also led his classmates in the Soldier's Creed during the graduation ceremony.


#2: Drive non-stop north through the western US states:
After the graduation ceremony, we packed up the truck and headed out for a 24+ hour trip north through New Mexico, Arizona, and California to Washington and Oregon to spend time with our families. We spent 4 days in the Vancouver/Portland area visiting with Cam's parents, siblings, nieces, nephew, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins... We even squeezed in some time to visit with some of Kristy's family friends while we were in town. On Christmas Eve, we headed to Eastern Washington to spend a few days with Kristy's parents, brothers and grandma.

The Smith/Anderson/Dunphy gang

With Dad Smith and his girlfriend

Twins? Uncle Cam and his nephew

The Smiths, The Lebers and Grandma

#3: Pray for no snow on our drive home:
We took a different route home through Idaho, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. We were blessed enough to only find a little snow just as we were leaving Utah and saw the most beautiful sunrise in New Mexico.

#4: Finish unpacking and organizing our NEW house:
After arriving home safely after a 20+ hour drive, we set to work unpacking our remaining boxes and organizing everything! We ended up with a HUGE garage sale pile (We'll drag it all to our friends' house on Post for the Spring Post-Wide Garage sale) and more space than we know what to do with. On the bright side, both cars fit in the garage with space to spare for our bikes and a work bench for Cam!

#5: Attend the 2009 Sun Bowl:
Our house-inspection guy noticed that we were big football fans (How could he not when we were sporting Coug gear from head to toe when we met him?) and offered us free tickets to watch our Pac-10 brethren Stanford take on the University of Oklahoma. We figured that we'd be safe with either teams' fans if we proudly wore our WSU crimson. While our adopted team didn't win, we had a GREAT time and got to see the Army Knights parachute team deliver the game ball.



#6: Start a new job:
After all the hullabaloo of the holidays, Cam was ready to start his new job with his new command. He is currently a platoon leader for the A-4 THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) Battery. He is currently spending most days "out in the field" learning the system and meeting his team.

As a final note, we wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to all of our family and friends we visited over the Christmas break!!! You guys went above and beyond for us and we feel so lucky and loved! Until we can visit again, our door is always open and we now have a super comfy Guest Room! :)

Long time, no post...

Wow! It's been a long time since I've looked at our blog! Good thing I decided to put fingers to keyboard to update you on what's been happening in the World o' Smith. Unfortunately, we have been leading a terribly unexciting life in El Paso for the last few weeks!

Cam has been staying VERY busy with BOLC III (Basic Officers Leadership Course) training. So far, the 2nd Lieutenants have been trained on basic leadership skills and various Army forms and paperwork. They have had several tests on the material and Cam has been averaging in the high 90%'s. If he maintains this average through the next 2 1/2 months, he may have a shot at an Honor Grad spot during his December graduation. Next week, the 2nd Lieutenants begin Patriot missiles training.

Part of the recent BOLC III training included a field trip to the Islamic Cultural Center of El Paso and El Paso Holocaust Museum. Spouses were invited along and so my friend, Charla, and I joined the class. While Cam and I didn't learn much about Islam at the Islamic Center (as we both have studied the religion a far amount), we did learn a few things about mosques. The most interesting tidbit: all mosques contain a large dome over the prayer room in order to enhance the acoustics of the room. It's a similar concept as the designs of many of the old cathedrals in Europe.

After a quick lunch, the group headed to the El Paso Holocaust Museum, one of only four stand alone museums dedicated to the subject in the US. The docent giving the tour herded us through the exhibits rather quickly and did not give us enough time to read all the information at each stop. Therefore, the four of us (Jason, Charla, Cam and I) decided to revisit the museum the following weekend. Again, we did not learn anything new at the museum, but it was an interesting place to visit. (FYI - Cam was a History major; emphasis on WWII and I learned many things via osmosis from him. Either that or it's due to the constant exposure to the Hitler ... I mean, History Channel!).

While Cam's been slaving away at school, I've been staying busy playing housewife. I've made several new quilts and other sewing projects and will post pictures in a new post soon! I've also joined the Ft. Bliss Officer Spouses' Club and have been making new friends and trying new activities. I'm also making time to reconnect with several old "new" Army wife friends, now that everyone is back in town.

Finally, this past week we celebrated our third wedding anniversary! Due to Cam's large quantity of homework that week, we were only able to celebrate with a very yummy home-cooked steak dinner and cheesecake. Never fear! We are headed to San Antonio to watch our beloved Cougs take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Alamodome at the end of the month to celebrate our anniversary and 30th birthdays! Not exactly the traditional leather/glass/crystal gift, but perfect for us!

We will have several new posts coming over the next few days. These will include the craft update I mentioned above as well as a post regarding Cam's latest road race! Stay tuned...