Vacations and Celebrations

On the last weekend in June, Jordan and I decided to take a quick overnight trip to the coast. We found a cozy little dog-friendly bed and breakfast in Great Yarmouth, and packed our bags to stay for one night. We walked around the coastal town, saw the attractions along the pier, and made some friends at a little pub in the afternoon. The next day, we went for a 5-mile hike along the coast, which Cooper absolutely loved! It was really nice to get out of town and have a change in scenery, even if it was just for one night.

Cooper enjoying Great Yarmouth.

Hiking

Beautiful view! So worth the hike!

I had planned on telling all about my new job in this blog post, but guess what?? I got ANOTHER new job! Two weeks after I had started working at the University of Maryland, I was just beginning to get to know my new co-workers really well. It was then that I received a call from the Marketing department at RAF Mildenhall to inform me about a position opening. I scheduled an interview, and was offered a job as a Marketing and Commercial Sponsorship Coordinator for the base! It's a full-time government position, and it sounds like it will be a lot of fun! So far, I know that I will be responsible for helping to publish a monthly magazine, updating a website, and going out and making contact with local business owners to gain sponsorship for base events. My first day of work will be on the 27th, so I'm getting really excited to start!

Two Friday's ago, (July 3rd) we went down to visit Leed's Castle with a bunch of friends. All six of us piled into a friend's old Land Rover Defender, and drove about an hour and a half to the castle. Much to our surprise, they offered segway scooter tours around the castle grounds! We decided to give it a try, and had tons of fun. We rode through herds of sheep, over a couple bridges, and up and down hills in order to see the beautiful castle from many different angles. After the segway tour, we ate lunch, found our way through a hedge maze, and walked through the entire castle.

How do you take a picture on a segway without looking cheesy?!

Leed's Castle from a distance.

On the 4th, we had some friends over for a barbeque, and then went to base to watch fireworks. It was a little ironic to be celebrating our independence day in the country we gained our independence from, but we managed to have a good time! The weather held out, so we were able to spend a good part of the day playing yard games and hanging out in the sun.

Playing Polish horseshoes

Somehow these guys always find a way to throw something over the hedge rows...

The following weekend, Jordan and I had hoped to celebrate our anniversary with a trip to Bath. Unfortunately, he was put on the schedule at the last minute for a trip to Spain! The base he stayed at was near Seville, so they spent both nights out and about exploring the city. Too bad I had to work, otherwise I would've gone in a heartbeat! Luckily, he came back Saturday evening, so we were still able to spend all day Sunday (our anniversary) together! We didn't do anything too remarkable...just hung around for most of the day, enjoying eachother's company. We did play a lot of Grand Slam Tennis on the Wii... and I highly recommend it! :) We both had sore shoulders the next day! That night, we dressed up and went out to dinner at a really nice restaurant called the Boathouse in a nearby town called Ely. The food was fantastic, and the scenery was unbeatable. I wish I had pictures to show, but our camera was laid to rest on Jordan's first night in Seville. :( Anyhow, it was a great way to spend our first anniversary! For our gifts to eachother, we both stuck with the first year "paper" theme. I gave Jordan tickets to an Arsenal football match, and he gave me tickets to see "Wicked" in London's West End.

Four short days later was my 25th birthday! The 15th was my last day of work at UMUC, so I was fortunate enough to have the day off on my birthday! Jordan had to fly early that morning, so I spent the day working in the garden, running a few errands, and relaxing. That night, I opened my gifts, and then we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. Jordan gave me the Wii fit, and a promise to take me shopping sometime soon. :)

Today, we are off to see Arsenal beat the pants off of Barnet in a pre-season match! The forecast is calling for rain, so hopefully we won't get too wet! We bought kits (jerseys) yesterday, so we are guaranteed to look like true fans! Go Gunners! :)

And now, I just wanted to post some random pictures that we have taken recently:

We see hedgehogs like this one all the time on the roads at night! Isn't he adorable?

This is a picture of the smallest pub in all of Great Britain, appropriately named The Nutshell. It's located in Bury St. Edmunds, which is about 10 minutes from our house.

Jordan came home looking like this one day, and scared the crap out of me! He had to do a refresher course on survival and evasion that day.

New job, Special Visitors, and our First Venture to the Continent!

We have had so much going on in the past few weeks. Let's see, where do I start... Ah yes. On June 3rd, my Mom, Dad, Aunt Mar, and Uncle Dick came to visit! Jordan and I were extremely excited to have our first set of visitors, so we spent much of the week prior to their arrival cleaning each and every corner of our house, doing some gardening, and even washing our cars. (If you know my Dad, you'll understand) ;) Let's just say that this is a big house for two people to maintain! We were exhausted! I promise to create a Facebook album soon with lots of pictures of our house looking spic-n-span!

The night before they arrived, Jordan went on his first "real-deal" overnight mission. It was my first night staying in The Langtry alone, so Cooper was allowed the special privilege of sleeping with me that night. :) I was so excited for my family's arrival that I couldn't sleep a wink! I made it down to London and navigated through Heathrow all by myself, (quite a feat if you ask me!) and met my family at the car rental lot. We rented an MPV--Multi Passenger Van, as they call them here, because between the Accord and the itty-bitty Miata, we didn't have enough space to squeeze in four guests AND their luggage. We figured it would be easiest for my Dad to follow me in the right-hand drive van, since the Accord is left-hand drive. Little did we know that we had reserved an MPV with MANUAL transmission! SORRY Dad! Pulling out of the lot, I couldn't stop laughing, because my Dad had the windshield wipers going full speed for several blocks...it was nice and sunny that day. No worries though, it happens to us all the time. We made it home safely, with only one close call when my Dad accidentally turned into oncoming traffic. Yikes!

The next day, I scheduled a last-minute interview for a part time Field Representative position with the University of Maryland University College. I was obviously a little flustered because I didn't have much time to prepare, but I took a few deep breaths before I walked in, and the interview went off without a hitch! UMUC offers both undergraduate and graduate degree programs for military memebers and dependents, and I found out that they offer 100% tuition assistance for all of their employees!!!! I was told that they would contact me the following day (Friday), after they completed all of the interviews.

On Friday, we packed up the MPV and left for the continent! We drove to Dover to hop on a ferry over to Boulogne, France. As we were sitting in the car, I received a call from UMUC, informing me that I got the job!!! Jordan saw this as the perfect opportunity to embarrass me, so he led the entire car to cheer while I was still on the phone with my soon to be supervisor. Gotta love him. :) Luckily, she thought it was funny. I begin working this coming Monday--good timing, eh?

The one and only picture I got of our MPV...Imagine six people+luggage crammed in there! We were lined up and waiting to drive onto the boat.

Group shot on the ferry.

Anyway, we rode the ferry across the channel to Boulogne, and then found a restaurant to have dinner. We stumbled through the menu, and quickly realized that it was a mistake to not have a translation book along. Just trying to order a glass of water was painful! We spent the night in Boulogne, and enjoyed coffee and crepes the next morning at a cute little cafe with an adorable Cocker Spaniel who greeted us at the door.

Waiting for our yummy crepes!

Looking down one of the streets in Boulogne.

After seeing some of the sites in Boulogne that morning, we headed to Brugge, Belgium. We enjoyed tapas for lunch, drank some amazing beer in fancy glasses, and of course stopped for some Belgian chocolate while walking around the beautiful town.

I loved this place!

Mmmmmm.

We went on to spend night #2 in Brussels. Our hotel was located right across the street from the beautiful Bascilica of Koekelberg, and we had the opportunity to walk inside it on Sunday morning.

View from a distance across a park. This place was huge!

Later on Sunday, we stopped in Bastogne, where the Battle of the Bulge took place. We walked around a beautiful monument called the Mardasson Memorial, built in the memory of the American soldiers wounded or killed there.

We went on to spend Sunday night in Clervaux, Luxembourg, which was absolutely breathtaking. The architecture reminded me of what Colorado ski areas try to replicate, and the hills and trees surrounding the village were incredibly lush and green. The town was really quiet that evening, so we took a relaxing stroll around, enjoying the beautiful scenery, and climbing a hill to the Chateau de Clervaux.

See the Chateau on the left?

Pretty view.

The next day (Monday) we drove through Luxembourg, with a stop in Nospelt, the town that my uncle's family came from. It was really neat to see headstones with their family name engraved in them.

We spent Monday night in Heidelberg, which was amazing. We stayed in a homey little hotel, and went for some schnitzel and big glasses of hefeweizen in a cute little beer garden for dinner. It began to rain shortly after we finished eating, and we decided it was the perfect opportunity to go for a walk along the Rhine River with umbrellas in hand. The town is beautiful during the day, but to see the lights glowing at dusk with a little rain mixed in was incredible. The next morning, we made the long, arduous hike up to see the Heidelberg Castle which towers over the entire city. The view from above was totally worth it. We then spent a good amount of time walking around town, having bratwurst for lunch, and checking out some of the shops.

Heidelberg Castle

The view along the Rhine.

Looking down from inside the castle.

Beautiful.

Tuesday afternoon, we went on to drive through the Alsace region in France, which is where my Mom's-Mom's side of the family is from. I can't wait to go back through this area for a wine-tasting trip! We spent that night in Metz, France, and got up on Wednesday morning to complete the drive back to Boulogne. Somehow, we found ourselves on a toll road with the most expensive tolls I've ever paid in my life... I think they totaled somewhere around 35 Euros, which is nearly $50! I guess you can call it a learning experience.

When we returned back home, my parents and aunt and uncle still had a little over a week left to their trip. (It was about this time that I realized that for every picture I was taking, my Dad was taking five, so I left it to him to document the remaining days.) We spent time at all of our favorite local hang-outs, such as the Bell, The Lancer (our favorite Indian restaurant), and the Cock. We caught up on some much needed down-time, but also spent some days checking out all of our local attractions. We took Cooper on several walks at the heath, where my aunt and uncle and my parents were able to find lucky horse shoes! We went for a picnic on a sunny day at Framlingham Castle, visited Madingley American Cemetery, watched some F-15's land at Lakenheath, went to the outdoor market in Bury St. Edmonds, went to church and walked around in Cambridge, saw the Norfolk Lavender grounds and distillery, and the boys spent some time at the Imperial War Museum. WHEW!

My family also came along to watch Jordan and me play slow-pitch softball on Wednesday night. That's right, I'm playing with his squadron's team. It can be a little intimidating for a girl my size to play softball with a group of grown men, but I'm making the best of it. Jordan is playing 3rd base, and I'm playing 2nd. I somehow managed to squeeze out a base hit this week, which made me ecstatic!

The fam was also very generous with their time at our house, and helped us tackle the stinging nettle forest in our back yard! Come to find out, underneath all of those weeds, we found a raspberry bush, numerous blackberry bushes, an apple tree, plum tree, and a peach tree! By mid-summer, we will have quite an array of fruits and vegetables! (We also have a grape vine, and I planted some tomatoes, green beans, carrots, chives, basil, parsley, and rosemary!) All of us suffered from various nettle burns for about a day and a half, but our yard looks 100 times better than it did before!! Thanks Mom, Dad, Mar and Dick!

Unfortunately, we had to bring everyone back to the airport this morning. Cooper is really moping around now that everyone's gone, so I will probably be bringing him for a jaunt at the heath later this afternoon to help cheer him up. I will really miss having our company around, but I am looking forward to starting a new chapter next week with my new job!

A Memorial Day to Remember

Growing up, Memorial Day weekend was always something I looked forward to. It's a Quintana family tradition to spend the long weekend camping near Estes Park, our neighborhood pool would open, and it was a sign that summer was just around the corner. I always knew the significance that Memorial Day served, but I hadn't truly spent the day honoring the thousands of brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice defending the freedom that many of us take for granted. This year was different. Jordan volunteered to take part in a ceremony held annually at Madingley American Cemetery, which is located in Cambridgeshire. The land for the cemetery was donated to the United States by Cambridge University, and it contains the bodies of 3,812 soldiers who died during WWII. Many of those buried at Madingley are British-based US Air Force heavy bomber crews. They flew aircrafts with a Box-D painted on the tail, just like the planes that Jordan flies today.

The ceremony itself was very impressive, and the cemetery was absolutely beautiful. Jordan and many other men and women in uniform marched in to present over 100 wreaths for a wreath laying ceremony, and we listened to General Jimmy Doolittle's granddaughter tell some stories about her grandfather. We heard the firing of volleys and listened to taps, then we watched a KC-135 from RAF Mildenhall fly overhead, followed by a missing man formation of F-15C's from RAF Lakenheath. It was the most meaningful way that I can think of spending Memorial day, and it made me even more proud of my husband in uniform.

And as promised... here is a picture of Jordan in his nifty new leather jacket! :)

Horsing around...

On Thursday of last week, our friend Leslie (and the owner of The Bell pub) gave us a wonderful tour of the Meddler Stud. She introduced us to the new babies, some of the race horses, and the big stallions. I have never spent much time around horses, so visiting the stud and then seeing the races from the owner/trainer section was an exciting experience.

All the mommas and babies lined up.

Smiling for the camera! :) This one had just been born earlier in the week, and was still a bit clumsy. Sooo cute!

The foals tend to stay in close range of their mother at all times.

On Saturday, Russell (the stud owner) and Danny (Leslie's husband) invited us to the races in Newmarket. We were excited for the free tickets, but did not expect the first-class treatment that we received. Russell had two horses racing that day, and he wanted us to truly experience horse racing from start to finish. As we walked in, he handed us a button-toggle pass, which allowed us access to the owner and trainer section located right at the finish line. Then he led us to the club level area in that section and bought us a drink. We quickly finished just in time to go down to the paddock, where Laminka (Russell's horse) was being saddled and prepped for the first race. We listened closely while the trainer briefed the jockey on her tendencies, and then watched her trott around the parade ring. It's incredible to see such powerful animals up so close.

We did the same routine for the last race, as Russell's horse named Millfields Dreams was running. This time, he came in fourth place! As soon as the race was over, Russell pulled us away, and led us down toward the parade ring. We weren't sure where we were going or what we were doing, until he told us that he was leading us to the winner's circle! So exciting! We bet small amounts on each race, and ended up picking 4 out of the 7 winners! Not bad, eh? We won enough to pay for several rounds of drinks for us and our new friends, and dinner at The Bell later that night.

All in all it was an unforgetable experience, and we feel so lucky to have met such amazing friends. Below are a few of the pictures that I took that day...

I was on cloud 9 after watching the first race.

The saddling boxes, where the horses are prepped before the race.

The July Course in Newmarket is a straight course, but the racecourses differ throughout Britain. The turf differs, and so do the course layouts. It makes for new and different competition at each and every race.

This is the best picture I could get close up, because they go by extremely fast. Pretty cool, huh?

This is the view from the owner/trainer box, where they serve complimentary tea and sandwiches. No big deal. ;)

Congratulating Millfields Dreams in the winner's circle!

It's been a while...

Sorry for the delay in posts (again). I know I keep saying this, but we have been really busy! The weather has been beautiful lately, so we have been spending any "extra" time outside.

To start off, I must tell about our trip home from Spokane (which I am now realizing was nearly three weeks ago!). I was lucky enough to sit in the cockpit of the airplane when Jordan took off! How cool is that?! I got to wear a headset so I could hear him communicating with the tower and the aircraft commander, which made it even more interesting. It made me realize how many things he has going on all at once when he's flying! From Spokane, we flew over Canada, the Hudson Bay, Greenland, and Iceland. I was able to sleep for a good part of the flight, but about half way through, Jordan came back to wake me up. It was dark outside, and he wanted to show me the Northern Lights in the distance...so sweet! It was such an amazing sight.

We spent the next few days recovering from jet lag and trying to get back on a normal schedule. Then the following weekend (1st weekend in May) we celebrated Cooper's 2nd birthday with a top-down drive to a castle called Castle Rising Castle (yes, I know I said it twice) in Norfolk, which is about an hour north of us. This time, we brought along a blanket and a picnic with a bottle of wine. We spent the afternoon playing fetch, snacking, sipping red wine, and enjoying the scenery. Not a bad day if you ask me!

Castle Rising Castle is one of the largest, best preserved, and most lavishly decorated keeps in England.

Cooper patiently waiting for his piece of ham :)

This is how you enter the castle. I thought it was pretty neat.

Cooper likes this place too!

Happy Birthday, Cooperdog!!!

Jordan has spent that last couple of weeks refueling F-16's, Tornadoes, F-4's, and A-10's over Germany, which means that he has been waking up at about 2:00 AM on a regular basis. He is now mission qualified, so he will be getting his fancy leather jacket any day now!

Last weekend, Jordan's friend Jake was in town for a day. We went and toured a huge cathedral in a nearby town called Ely, and then went to dinner at an Indian restaurant in Cambridge. We were lucky enough to visit the cathedral on the one and only evening of the year that they were offering free admission! This place was gorgeous inside and out.


This past week, we were invited to visit a local stud (basically a stable and nursery for race horses), where we got to see brand new foals up close! Tomorrow we are going to the horse races with our new friend Russell, the stud owner. One of his horses will be racing, so we are hoping to see some action behind the scenes! I will post pictures of the stud and the races later this weekend. I just wanted to be sure to keep everyone posted about what we have been up to lately. Thanks for reading!

You Can Take the Girl Out of Colorado...

I woke up early this morning (Colorado time) and realized that it has been a while since my last post. We have been really busy lately! I had promised to post some pictures from our morning out watching the racehorses, so here they are:

These horses are so powerful, yet graceful. It's such an amazing experience to just see them train, so we can't wait for race season to begin!

They walk right past you after running up the hill in the distance.

We were laughing at these guys, because as they passed one of the jockeys was singing Beyonce's "Put a Ring on it". That's the town of Newmarket in the background.

Last week, Jordan's flight to the Azores went really well. He was happy to be back in the jet again, and he had a a lot of fun. I have been trying to convince him to write about it for you all, but as you can see I haven't been very successful. He came home with a few pictures (one being of his fish and chips that he had for lunch), so I was really proud of him! As you can see below, the island is really green, with mountains all around. Apparently landing can be tricky, because there is lots of wind up until you get below the elevation of the mountains, and then the wind just stops.

In other news, Jordan had his M-9 (i think) training, and shot expert!! He was really proud of himself, because he hadn't picked up a gun in quite a while. Unfortunately I did not get the OU job, but let's face it--who really wants to be a Sooner anyway? ;) I'm sure that there is something else out there that will be a much better fit for me. In the end, I got a practice interview out of it, and my resume is finally up to date!

This past weekend, Cooper got a haircut at a little doggie grooming salon in town, called "Bubbles". It is all the rage with the dog owners at the gallops in Newmarket. During his brief stay, the spa owner and her daughter fell in love with Coop and didn't want us to take him home! Afterward, we went to visit a castle in a nearby town called Framlingham. They allow dogs, so Cooper came along for the ride. (Have I mentioned how much we love England for this reason?!)

Here we are outside of the castle. Wikipedia tells me that it was founded between 599 and 624 A.D.
This is inside the castle walls. I fell in love with this tree behind us.

Now can you see why?

In order to take the self-guided tour, we had to climb the winding stairs shown below. They were incredibly steep, without much depth. Not to mention, the hand rail was just a rope with quite a bit of slack! Cooper skipped right up with ease, but I took my sweet time.

The breathtaking view outside of the castle... Definitely worth the climb!

The view of the castle from the inside.
After finishing the tour, we spent some time on the grounds outside of the castle. There were lots of little trails to hike on, and some great picnic spots! As you can see, Cooper thoroughly enjoyed himself!

After walking around for a while, we decided to find a place to eat, and of course no day of site seeing is complete without finishing with a pint of ale from a local pub!

On Sunday, Jordan flew to Fairchild AFB in Spokane, WA. His crew is to stay there through this coming Sunday (the 26th) to help with their local mission. Since I had nothing going on, I decided to come along for the ride! Under USAFE Command (United States Air Forces in Europe), spouses are allowed to come along on some of their husband's TDY's! Sweet!!! I was able to take a couple of pictures of the inside of the plane, and I even got to sit in the jump seat in the cockpit while Jordan had the controls!

This is what the KC-135 looks like on the inside, looking toward the tail. The seats are made of red cargo net, lined up along the sides of the plane facing inward. All of our luggage is strapped down in the middle. Surprisingly, it was a fairly comfortable 9.5 hour flight because once we hit cruising altitude everyone stretched out with sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows.

This is looking toward the nose of the plane. The door is still open, so it makes it hard to see. There are 4 little windows in the "pax" section of the plane like the one shown in the middle, so it's fairly dark when the lights are turned out.

Jordan came back to "visit" for a couple minutes. However, it's extremely loud in the plane. In order to communicate, we had to be right next to eachother, looking directly at one another, and yelling at the top of our lungs. :) Quite an adventure if you ask me!

After spending a couple of days in Spokane, I flew home on a commercial jet (not quite as exciting) to sunny Colorado!! The weather has been in the 70's all week, so you better believe I've been working on my tan! I surprised all four of my nieces before their softball practice on Tuesday, and have been enjoying spending lots of time with my family. Yesterday, my parents took me up to Boulder and we had sushi for lunch. We spent a couple of hours walking around the mall on Pearl Street, and looking at all of the beautiful tulips in bloom--the reason that this is one of my favorite times of the year. I couldn't have picked a better week to come home!

My mom and me enjoying the sunshine on Pearl St.So all in all, it's been an awesome couple of weeks! Thanks for bearing with me during this long, drawn-out blog post. I will try to be better about posting more often, so you don't have to spend a half hour reading a single post!