Veterans Day Weekend :)

I would like to start out by saying how grateful I am for everyone who has served and is serving this country as part of the military. I have thought a lot about how you can honestly appreciate many things in life you have no experience with (i.e. military service overseas, medical professionals in emergency situations, the miraculous process of creating ice cream ;), etc...), but when you actually experience that part of life for the first time, you are shockingly humbled. When Mitch was going through ROTC in college and his parents told us about the intensity of pilot training, we were like, "Oh yeah! We are so prepared! We got this!". Then we got to Columbus AFB and the intensity of the program slapped us across the face and reality checked us. I can honestly say it is one of those experiences that you cannot possibly comprehend until you go through it. I have always seen Mitch's dad's pilot training awards in their basement and I've recently come to understand that I only thought I was impressed with them. After Mitch went through training, their worth and merit meant an incredible amount more to me; I am now truly impressed.

The further we get along this road to real Air Force pilot life, the more impressed I am with those who have gone before us. Likewise, the more I learn about what happens behind the scenes of military service, the more amazing it is to me. I wish I could have an opportunity to go back and express to my grandparents and dad my new, more genuine appreciation for their service. I'm not sure I ever had a chance to thank any of them a first time, to be honest. My mom's dad died before I was born and it never before occurred to me to thank my grandma for her sacrifices as his spouse and baby mama. My dad's dad died when I was young and I'm unsure if I ever thanked him, but I am sure I never thanked my grandma before she died. My dad had a short stint in the army, but a stint nonetheless. He never talked about his service and I honestly never thought about it until the honor guard members presented my sister and me with a memorial flag at his funeral. Despite the fact that we should be (and mostly are) appreciative of our military every day of the year, days like today hopefully inspire people to vocalize it when they otherwise may not have. So, happy Veterans Day to all service members, past and present! Thank you so, so much.

Now, onto our weekend adventures!

Friday we went to go try out the Italian restaurant in town, Roma's. We are so excited to have a good Italian restaurant to eat at without having to drive an hour! We splurged and got a bottle of wine and some delicious tiramisu. It will definitely be a go-to restaurant for us while we are here.

Saturday we had plans to head to Oklahoma City to celebrate our friend Melanie's birthday with some friends from our time at Columbus. We went to dinner at Royal Bavaria Brewery, an amazing German restaurant and brewery! The beer was awesome and appropriately came in liter or 2 liter boots. The food was equally as amazing!

Mel with sparklers in her birthday bread pudding :) Note: beer in boot to the left!

We went out in Bricktown after which was a ton of fun! We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott that was right at the edge of Bricktown. The hotel has a complimentary limo that will take you to and from the bars downtown, so of course we had to take advantage of that. :)

We were lucky that that same night our friends, Rachel and Evan, were stopping in OKC on their way to Albuquerque from Alabama for more helicopter training! We keep thinking that every time we see them is the last time, and we keep getting pleasantly surprised by our travel plans working out. :)
Oklahoma City was a ton of fun and we will for sure be making another trip before we leave!

Since Mitch had the day off we decided to take a trip to the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge (about an hour east of Altus) to do some hiking and visit the city of Lawton (the closest city that has real 'things') to take advantage of some Veterans Day Perks. The refuge is seriously breathtaking. They have a ton of different animals there that roam freely and enjoy a protected habitat. There is even a sign as you are coming in that warns you that buffalo and longhorns are open range and are dangerous. It was awesome to see them just eating grass on the side of the road in a natural habitat, though. During the hike through the mountains we saw them in the distance but nowhere near the path we were on. Mitch and I read in the visitor center that the buffalo can run up to 30mph...the dogs could probably beat them but not so much for us. It wasn't so much that we thought they would randomly charge us, they actually seemed quite content to have no interaction, but we figured the dogs would bark at them and disturb the peace.

They are hiking pros! They navigated up and down the rocky paths so well!

Super smiles :)

If you look closely, there were people hiking along the bottom as well. We plan to make that our next trip!

Buff Buff

Dex rode like this most of the time there! He loved looking at the buffalo and longhorns!

After we left the refuge we went to Lawton to do a little shopping and got dinner. Luckily there was a Chick-Fil-A in the mall so we could get the pups their usual grilled nugget treat during trips. :) We figured since we made them wait in the car while we shopped and again while we ate dinner, we could treat them. (AKA- we always find ways to justifiably spoil them) A bunch of corporate restaurants have great deals for veterans and active duty service members on Veterans Day, which we are very grateful for! We had decided on going to Olive Garden, but their wait was over and hour...not okay with pups waiting on us. I asked the hostess if we could get food to go, but she said that the free meal was only available for eating there. To our pleasant surprise, she apologized and gave us a rain check and told us to come back and get the meal whenever we wanted! What an awesome way to really go the extra mile to say "thank you"! We were super impressed. We ended up going down the road to Outback and they had no wait! Outback doesn't offer a free meal, but the service member gets a free drink and a bloomin' onion. Dinner was delicious and we even made a pit stop at Starbucks on the way home to get a couple free coffees. Starbucks was offering tall coffees to not only the active member, but any active duty spouse as well. :) Score! It was the perfect end to a fun day.

Our first bloomin' onion ever!

Even though Altus is a small town in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma, it is just more proof that every assignment is what you make of it. I will be the first to admit that I didn't have the greatest attitude about our move to Mississippi in the beginning, but I miss it a lot now. If I have learned anything from what I've been through in the last few years, it's that every moment of every day is precious. I wish I could call my parents and tell them about the silly buffalo walking down the street, but at least I went out and saw silly buffalo walking down the street. The best you can do is to do what makes you happy.