Eric leaving on a business trip

I left on Sunday for some training in Norfolk. I'll have some more training along the way and will be in Iraq sometime in late November or early December. By the time I was actually on the plane it wasn't too bad, but Sunday afternoon just before leaving for the airport and the drive there was not easy. From now on out, I feel like everything is going to be easy because Sunday afternoon was the hardest thing I have ever done.

The picture is at Heather's parents house right before we left for the airport. Just the idea of taking a family photo on the last day we would be together for a long time was pretty sad. Once we got to the airport the very nice lady behind the counter offered to let Heather and the kids through security to see me off at the gate. The security lines were quick and we had about 45 minutes in the terminal to talk and play. Ethan practiced taking pictures with the camera (representative sample shown at right). He also managed to take a couple of short videos and several other photos of his finger
over the lens. As always, Kailey was a doll the entire time. One of the few photos that I took was of a new skill that Ethan has developed over the last few weeks. He lays down on the ground when he doesn't want to participate in whatever is going on or he doesn't want to do what you want him to do. He used to occasionally lie down when he was REALLY tired, but this, unfortunately, is happening a little more often. One of the problems we've encountered is that he typically likes to do this in the middle of street when we're crossing from the side he wants to be on to the side of the street that mom or dad wants to be on (i.e., where we need to be most of the time).

I miss and love you.