We are now half way through January. Since the year started I have: finished a vacation with the woman of my dreams, tested for Staff Sergeant, started 2 classes, and attended a week long conference in Vegas.
The vacation was wonderful! Mary surprised me with the entire weekend. She told me the days that I needed to take off from work and nothing else. We got in the car and Mary told me to sleep. I was more than willing to abide! I woke up and we were in the mountains and there was snow on the ground. Shortly after we pulled in to Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's house). After the tour we went to a tavern for lunch. The food was delicious! We got back on the road and I went back to sleep. When I woke up, we were driving through a downtown area. It looked real nice with small taverns, locally owned shops and a brewery. A few minutes later we pulled into a small parking lot for a bed and breakfast. It looked really nice! We parked and Mary pointed to a little cottage behind the house and said, "that's ours!" It was a small 2 story cottage with a feather top king sized bed, a little sitting area, spiral stairs leading downstairs to the bathroom, fridge, and oversized whirlpool! It was amazing inside. There was a small envelope on the table in our cottage. While I was outside bringing out stuff in from the car, Mary opened the envelope. It was from the ownders of the B&B, it said that our good friends Steven and Heidi were taking care of one of our nights in the cottage and also bought a picnic lunch for us! We were speechless... After a few seconds of silence Mary told me that they stayed at the same place for a vacation. We started looking through brochures to find which vineyard to take the picnic too. For dinner we went to the brewery and had some really good food and I tasted some really good beers. In the morning we slept in. We woke up around 9, when our breakfast was delivered. The breakfasts there were awesome! After breakfast we showered and got our picnic and went to a vineyard. I tasted the wine (since Mary was pregnant, she wasn't drinking any of it). We bought a few bottles and then started to eat our picnic. We had cheeses and spreads for crackers and bread and for dessert we had pound cake with toffee sauce on it (MMMMM). After we ate we went to another vineyard (suggested by our friends Steven and Heidi). I liked this vineyard better because the person doing the tasting was more friendly and the building was more welcoming. They also had a little dog (Rascal was his name). After that tasting we went back to the cottage and relaxed until our dinner reservations at a really nice Italian place. I had veal and tiramisu (it was magical). That was New Year's Eve night and I think Mary fell sleep around 9 or 10 and I went to bed right at midnight. New Years day we went to the Luray Caverns, it was cool to walk through and see all of the rock formations. Afterwards we went back to the room to get ready for dinner and a play. We went to a nice locally owned place that buys all of their food locally. In the description for each menu item it said there the ingredients came from. I ordered the pork and it came from the next town over (less than 20 miles away). It was really cool and delicious! Afterwards we went to a Shakespeare theater, for their rendition of "Twelfth Night". The cast was really funny and the show was a ton of fun! In the morning we packed up and went home. Shortly after we got home Leslie arrived with Maddox. It was so great to see Maddox again!
A few days after we got back I took my staff sgt. test... Ill let you know how I did when I get my results next month.
Then I went to Vegas for a week. I was attending a conference representing the deployment that I just got back from. I was really excited about the trip, I thought our hotel was going to be really nice and luxurious... It was nothing close to nice or luxurious. The entire place stunk of smoke. Every morning when I woke up, my throat hurt, and that continued to get worse as the week went on. We also weren't staying anywhere near the strip, so I just stayed at the hotel except for when I was at the conference. I figured I will save the strip experience for when Mary and I go.
Im home now and still trying to get over being sick. Maddox is glad to have me home, she has re-introduced everyone to me (just incase I forgot).
Maddox and Mary are both sleeping now and Im watching football.
