March
St. Patrick's Day!
Yes, he decided to wear this nice ensemble out in public...
Johnny, Cari, Ben
Since the year started off a little crazy we thought it would be nice for the two of us to get away and go on a vacation! These are the places that we got to visit!
Mexico
My horse Martha was wild and secretly wanted to buck me off!
The police officer stopped directing traffic to take a picture with me!
Found a beautiful wall of art.
Belize
Caye Caulker
Honduras
February
As soon as Ben got home from Haiti his parents met up with him in Florida (where he lived at the time) because on the 8th was Ben's 24th birthday! They had been wanting to get dive certified so they figured they would kill two birds with one stone and did it that same trip. It had been a little over a month since I had seen Ben at this point and so I was really excited to not only see him but also to be celebrating with him. We had a little birthday get together with the teammates who were in the states and had yummy italian food! At the end of the night we surprised Ben with a cake!
January
January 12 was the day the 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook Haiti.
December
Ben arrived back in the states at the end of December. We both flew into Destin around the same time and reunited at the airport. Having him home in time for Christmas was the best present I could've asked for. Since he had been gone for all the holidays we decided to go to Minnesota to spend time with his family. We drove all the way from Florida to Minnesota. It was nice being able to catch up with Ben and actually have a real conversation with him. When we got here we did a lot of fun activities that I had never done before. We went ice fishing, snow shoeing and I had the pleasure of eating lutefisk for the first time.
Ben was deployed September - December '09. This was the second time he was out in the field. During this deployment he spend time in both Iraq and Afganistan. During the summertime of '09 I was about to move to Florida when that came to an abrupt halt. He found out he was on the schedule for a deployment. I was so upset because even though it was only four months it really feels like forever. During this time I went back to Las Vegas and continued to work at Bellagio. Having my family, new nephew and friends around kept me pretty busy. I always kept my phone around me at all times because you never know when you're going to get a call. I knew we could do this because by this time we had become champs on the phone! I give props to all the families who have someone special in the service. I'm also very thankful we have people who are willing to fight for our beautiful country.
