Logan and me were pretty sad that Pilot Training didn't work out but we were happy to be moving on and perusing a career in Intelligence. It was a logical transition considering his degree in Geo Spacial Intelligence. So San Angelo, TX will be our next home for about the next 6 months.
Right after Christmas we started packing. I was glad that I could spread it out over a week and a half so it didn't seem so hectic - it also made moving day easier. We got our truck the day before and with the help of our neighbors got it all loaded up.
After that, we cleaned and cleaned! I had heard that some people got charged up to $700 for cleaning and repairs. I really didn't want that, so I made it my goal to get charged as little as possible. For example, they said that cleaning the carpets were optional, but if you didn't, we could get charged $350 just to get them done! I decided to risk it and did everything myself.
On our check out inspection the lady doing it said the house looked great! She even asked "did you clean the carpets?" and I told her yes. Then she asked what company I used because they looked so good. I smiled and said that I had done it all. I think they were really impressed. The best part was no charges at all!
Loading up the Truck - almost done with plenty of room to spare.
Our almost empty house a few hours before checking out.
This time Logan decided to haul the car and we both road in the truck. It was nice being able to be together. It made me so nervous having the car in the back though. It is hard enough driving the truck - I wan't sure how adding a trailer would affect that too. Logan, of course being the awesome person he is, figured it out quite fast and we had no problems. His driving skills always impress me, considering, I would have had a heart attack if someone had even just asked me to drive it a few feet. Logan is so good to take care of me that way. After making sure we had put the car on right we were on our way.
All loaded up and ready to get on the road.
We left Enid, America exactly a year from when we moved there. It was extremely hard to leave all the friends I had made there. It was about a 7 hour trip to San Angelo. We got there in the evening and a friend was nice enough to let us sleep at his house that night.
The next day we went to check out the apartment we had applied for. I have to tell you, it is pretty hard trying to find a place to live, when you have never seen it before! The apartment complex is actually the same one that Lani and Scott (Logan's sis and BIL) lived when they were here too about 10 years ago! I'm glad they suggested it because it is working out well for us, especially considering we will only be here for a short period of time. It is also great that we will save a good amount on BAH each month (meaning our housing allowance is higher than the cost of rent so we get to pocket the difference).
Logan standing in our new apartment.
So far, it has been nice here. The ward is much smaller and there are not as many young couples as there were in our last ward. Logan has an easy commute to work each day. We are still learning San Angelo and what it has to offer. It is much bigger than Enid, so that is nice.
Moving in and putting together furniture.
Another nice thing that we have learned about our apartment complex is that it is a really safe place! Almost all the apartments are occupied by people in the military or police force.
On the 8th, Logan and me and two of his friends, got to go to Oklahoma City to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra! And boy was it wild!
Before the concert, we all got dinner at Texas Road House and then because we had some extra time, we walked around down town Oklahoma City and looked at all the amazing decorations.
I have always liked Trans Siberian Orchestra but I guess I never realized just how rock and roll they can get. Electric guitars, fire, head banging and light shows. I was so not prepared! It was still a great concert and we left satisfied and a little deaf.
For Christmas Vacation we got to go back to Katie and Jeff's house again. This time the whole crew was there! It was great having everyone together, It has been a while since all the Cluff girls were under one roof!
Of course, it was also a ton of fun having a toddler to keep us all entertained. Kara Anne sure loves her Pa pop! Above, was when he decided to show her how to build snow men and they both went out with only SOCKS on their feet! Silly grandpa.
Katie found these singing and dancing stuffed animals this year. Kara had a ton of fun watching them play over and over again. Then when they turned off she would bring it to you until you pushed the button and made them dance again. Kara loved to watch them and give them kisses with her teddy.
Lots of Kara!
This year because of schedules, we had Christmas eve as our fancy dinner and then opened up presents that night. Before, we all went out to see The Hobbit and Katie, being the amazing person she is, babysat Kara, cleaned the house and made all of us dinner! She is so good at spoiling us!
All of us eating dinner (dad was playing with Kara of course).
After dinner we had our own Christmas program and Logan and me played two songs on our guitars. We had been practicing for a few weeks before and I think we did pretty well. We read the Christmas story and had a spiritual thought by my dad.
Then we opened presents. I loved that everything I got was for the kitchen. I loved all of it! Logan got some camping gear and so he was a happy boy too! After opening our gifts we all enjoyed watching Kara unwrap hers and play with the new toys we got her.
Here is the Cluff Family Photo that we took on Christmas eve. I think this is the first picture of all of us and Kara. To get this great pic, I set up mom's camera on a chair and set the timer and ran back and forth to the couch each time between shots. I think it turned out pretty good. My favorite part is that all of us on the couches have our arms around one another and dad is holding Kara's hand. We love each other so much!
A few days after Christmas, we celebrated Jeff's birthday! The activity was ice skating! He had never been before and it had been a while for the rest of us, so we all had a lot of fun remembering and falling a few times. The best one of us all was Cynthia by far, but she taught me some cool tricks and I found out that I'm not too bad either!
Afterwards, we went home for cake and presents! Hostess had gone out of business a few weeks before this, but Katie saved one of the cupcakes so Jeff could have a Hostess Cupcake with his chocolate cake too!
Happy Birthday Jeff!
Watching Jeff blow out his candles.
Grandma of course loves her little grandbaby too! Here she is teaching Kara the moves to patty cake. I love the end when they both go "yay!".
YAY!
By New Years, Logan and me were the only ones still at Katie and Jeff's. We sure know how to have fun! We played Risk 2210 and after not being able to get into a movie, we went to HyVee and got all our favorite snacks! I ate so much!
That night it started snowing. It was already slick when we were coming back from the store so Logan and me stayed one more day. After that, it was back to real life and the start of packing up the house for our move.
I had a great birthday this year and felt so loved by all my family! Before we left Kansas City, Katie and Jeff took us out to eat a a fun new Brazilian restaurant (it was a lot like Tucanos) in Kansas City. It was delicious and I ate WAY too much!
On my birthday, Logan and my family surprised me with Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop) and a second monitor to use it on! I couldn't be more happy! It was also really awesome to get a gift card to Banana Republic (I'm kinda addicted).
Cynthia put together a package full of little things that I love, like halvah. Yum! It was also cute that she tried to find some Texas things for our upcoming move. The little star magnets are adorable!
After presents, we headed to Oklahoma City, got some yummy lobster at Red Lobster and saw a movie and even had time to go to the outlet mall (because I had to use my gift card, of course!).
Logan pretty much spoiled me all day and it was a ton of fun :) Actually, to be honest we pretty much celebrated my birthday all month long. When ever I wanted something or we were making a decision, Logan would be like, "ok, it is your birth month". I love celebrating birth months!
For my cake, I made a blueberry cheesecake with a pecan shortbread crust and homemade whipped topping (all homemade and all delicious!). It was amazing!
I can't wait until Logan's birthday so I can return the favor!
Our closest family this year was Katie and Jeff, so we headed up to Kansas City to celebrate Thanksgiving with them this year!
On the way up, Logan said he wanted to have a "thing" to be in charge of at Thanksgiving that he could do every year, and you know, be "his thing". The next day when we got out the really cold and wet Turkey, Katie and me knew exactly what Logan could do to help!
We decided that he could have the Turkey be his thing and that would grant him the privilege of sticking his hand in the nasty turkey to pull out the neck and stuff and he could be the one to wash, dry and dress an extremely cold Turkey.
Well, I think he enjoyed it more then I thought he would and he was pretty proud of the great Turkey that resulted from it. Good job Logs! You really can do that job every year!
Logan and his Turkey
Sister cooking in the kitchen
Jeff carving the Turkey
We had everything you would ever want for a Thanksgiving Dinner. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of everything because once it is all done, there really is no time to waste before eating it up! Dinner was great, but there is always room for dessert!
I did get a good picture of the dessert!!! We had pumpkin roll, pumpkin pie, magic chocolate pie and a new one that Katie and me made up that we decided to call a caramel pie!
A piece of each pie to go along with my whipped cream!
We had a great few days with Katie and Jeff. They are so much fun to hang out with. Before leaving, they wanted to celebrate my birthday with me that was in a few days, so they took us out to a great new Brazilian restaurant.
Before dinner, we stopped by Zona Rosa to take pictures in front of the giant Christmas tree. It is a good thing that we did that before dinner because afterwards, I was way too full to stand!
After work today, Logan and I drove out to a free place to practice target shooting. It has been a while since we shot the gun and I know that Logan was happy to get out and do something fun.
The range was out at a wildlife refuge about a half hour away. When we found it, it was pretty obvious because of all the debris. We brought our own homemade targets that I was pretty proud of coming up with. I taped a popsicle stick to each paper plate and them some got spacial images. My favorite was the zombie.
Here are the Targets set up. We both took turns shooting and reloading. We are both pretty good shots.
Here my good looking man is reloading the clip. He loves his side holster. Good thing Oklahoma is an open carry State. When we were pretty much done with the targets Logan decided to shoot all the Popsicle sticks holding them up. I was impressed he hit them all!
I was very excited to vote this year. It is the second time I have been able to. I was really sad that I had to mail in my ballot because that meant I wouldn't get one of the stickers that say "I Voted". Then, a few days before voting day, I got a letter in the mail and my mom had sent me one to wear! She had picked up an extra one when she went to vote and made sure to get it to me! I love her so much!
Here I am wearing my "I Voted" sticker and showing off my mail-in ballot.
We had a pretty good Halloween this year. We carved our pumpkin to look like Jack the Pumpkin King. I think it turned out pretty well!
Here he is all lit up!
I though that we would go to a Halloween party but I ended up going to the church to help out with the Trunk-or-Treat that the Young Women were doing some of the games for.
Logan got the assignment of passing out candy at home. Apparently the base is a really popular place for parents to take their kids so he was pretty busy. I was also really proud that he wore his Robin Hood outfit that I came up for him. He said all the kids thought he looked great!
Doesn't he look so cool! I think he wished his bow was real and not just a branch I tied yarn to.
After the Trunk-or-Treat, I came home and we tried to watch some scary movies (the only time we do that all year) but they ended up actually being more boring than scary, so we had no problems falling asleep that night.
At the beginning of October, Logan had a long weekend off and was able to take off the rest of the days of that week so we went on a little trip! The first one Logan has been able to take all year! It was obviously much needed and we had a lot of fun!
After getting back, Logan kept asking me if I had updated the blog with our trip but I have been busy with my new business so I hadn't. The next time he asked I told him I still had not written it but he was welcome to write it if he wanted. I was shocked that Logan said he would! So you are in for a big treat! Here is what Logan had to say about our trip!
Friday-
After a long week of work, we set off on our trip to Albuquerque. First stop was 30 minutes south. Braums is an addiction. Anna got her vanilla frozen yogurt cone and I got my Reese's mix. 10 hours later, and about half way through the da Vinci Code on CD, we arrived in Albuquerque, NM.
Saturday-
We started off the day at 5:30am so we could get down to the balloon fiesta. After standing in line for about an hour to get bused over to the fields, the mass ascension was cancelled due to high winds. So we went home and took a nap before watching the morning session of general conference. After the nap, we decided to check out the Albuquerque gun show. I found a leg holster for my gun for a great price too!
Sunday-
We left for the cabin after the morning session of conference on Sunday. It was a 3 and a half hour drive through northern New Mexico and southern Colorado to get to beautiful cabin. After unloading and getting set up, we got to the most important part of the day, the fire. We ended up using a fire log the first night but they just aren't the same as building your own fire, and they make s'mores taste funky too.
Monday-
Monday morning I got up early to go on a morning hike. The hike went a little longer than I had intended. I intended it to be a one or two mile hike, but as I went, I just kept going, until I hiked all the way around the lake. 22 miles of shoreline normally, but because there had been a very dry summer the lake had shrunk. While I was hiking I found bear, cougar and even wolf prints in the dried mud. After I got back, we went into Durango to go get our fishing licenses and to go shopping. When we got to the department of fish and wildlife we realized that it was closed for Columbus day, so we ate lunch on the Animas river and checked out the fish hatchery that was right next to it. They were raising rainbow trout.
We stopped by the gas station because the tire pressure light was on. We ended up just needing to get air into the spare, but that ended up saving us later in the trip. After getting that done, we went and got Anna a new Durango hoody and some candy at the local candy store.
Tuesday-
We got up bright and early to get going on our hike up Vallecito Creek. It was cold but it would warm up as we got going. The creek was beautiful, and the trail wasn't too steep.
We hiked until we found a pool that had a few fish in it. We got to fishing pretty quick, and not too long after Anna caught a fish. It was only 6 inches but it was still fun.
By the time we took off, we had caught three fish in all, Anna 2 and Logan 1.
When we got back we headed out to drive up middle mountain, it's tradition. The drive is great and beautiful. We get to see the mountains and the changing leaves.
We got kinda light headed as we started getting higher, nearly 13,000 ft at the top. Having driven to the meadow for a snack we headed back.
On the way down the mountain I felt like the car was listing to the right, so I stopped to take a look. We got the car stopped just in time to watch the last of the air in the passenger side tire whistle out. It didn't end up being too big a hassle and we were back on the road within 10 minutes. We really lucked out that we went ahead and filled the spare tire the day before, otherwise, we would have been walking back to town to get help... No cell reception in the mountains.
With the spare on we drive over to see the trail head for my next hike, Los Pinos Creek. We wrapped up the day by going fishing on the lake, and caught nothing. But we still had fun.
Wednesday-
We woke up and headed to the store to get a map. Other than that we just relaxed and took a nap. Shelby and mom got in around 3pm, so we went down to the lake to get firewood and skip rocks or in my case, just through stuff in the water.
When we got back I made steaks for everyone and we sat around the fire telling stories.
Thursday-
Thursday morning mom left for Farmington and I left for his hike up Los pinos. When I got back I took Anna and Shelby up Vallecito Creek to go fishing again. We found a great spot with some large fish but they knew the game and just sat there. We didn't get a nibble for almost 2 hours (except for the two sticks Shelby caught). Anna lost her bobber and I ran down the side of the creek for a quarter mile to catch it before it ended up in the lake. I got it! But fell in trying to, a little too much effort for a .50 bobber. After I fell in, we decided to head back to the cabin to dry out.
We hung out there for a while then we took off again to get ice cream from the general store then to try our luck at a new fishing spot that I had found on my hike on Monday. It was a muddy spot where the water was almost closed off because of the water level the lake. On the shore you could see prints of all sorts of animals even wolves.
Within seconds we were all catching fish, and not small ones either. It got to the point that I was running up and down the shoreline with pliers to dehook the fish that Shelby and Anna were catching. We ended up keeping three 14-17 inch rainbow trout. I actually had to tell Shelby and Anna to stop casting out because it was getting late and a storm as rolling in.
When we got back to the cabin we cooked two of the fish over the fire we had made, they were delicious.
Friday-
We packed up and left the cabin, during a storm with lots of lightning and hail. Our first stop when we got to Farmington, was discount tire to get the tire looked at. They said the hole was so big it could not be fixed so we had to get a new tire. For lunch we ran to get some Costa Vida with the Farmington family. After that we headed out to Albuquerque to go see the balloon glow (but that ended up being cancelled too).
Saturday-
We got up bright and early to catch the balloon launch which actually happened this time.
We got to see a ton of balloons and a lot of different shapes and sizes. It was pretty cool.
When we got back we, of course, took a nap. When we got up we went out with Shelby to go rock climbing. It had been a very long time since either of us had gone and we got very sore forearms.
After that we went to Costco to go resupply for the next few months.
Sunday-
On Sunday, we got up and had a good breakfast then headed back to Enid. We finished the da Vinci Code too.
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