Reece Family Photos

Yesterday we took family photos for the Reece family at Hachinohe beach. Sachiko does Sarah's hair and keeps her looking beautiful, so we were excited to be able to do something cool in return.

It was fun for us to get outside away from the "safety" of the photo studio and take some pictures at a beautiful beach that we hadn't been to yet. We all had a great time and got some great photos...and ice cream afterwards!

To see the rest of the photos from the shoot, visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cross-photo/sets/72157622060916549/show/

Hawaii!

Hey everyone, we're back and going strong again in Misawa and wanted to share some pictures from our Hawaii trip. If you hadn't heard, we got to go to Hawaii for 3 weeks in July because of a work exercise for me. The trip basically boiled down to 8-12 hour days in the Hickam CAOC staring at computer screens and the "big board" (if you've seen Dr. Strangelove, or been in a CAOC, you know what I mean). So for the most part I didn't get to see much of the beautiful weather of Hawaii. I did manage to get some days off and we were able to explore and do some cool things.
So, after 3 weeks of Hawaii, 3 different places we stayed in, numerous bottles of sunscreen, Mai Tai's, and an impressive credit card bill later, here's a brief look at our trip (we took way more photos than right here...go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/cross-photo/sets/72157621853032255/ to see more)

Us overlooking Kanehoe Bay

Who let Micah jump on the bed?

Micah's first lemon!

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Misawa Senior Photography - Amanda Meyer

Last month, Sarah took senior photos for Amanda Meyer and with all the excitement going on, we hadn't posted these up on the blog. We wanted to get them out there real quick because we really liked them and wanted to show them off. There were so many great pictures to choose from, we had a tough time narrowing them down. This is what we came up with though, hope you enjoy them!

Ryan's Alaska Trip

I had planned on posting these pictures earlier while I was still in Alaska but (the dog ate it, I was too busy, I didn't get the memo...you know how it goes...). I got back Monday night and found out on Tuesday night that I will be going to Hickam AFB, Hawaii for a three week exercise. Luckily, I'm able to bring Sarah and Micah along, so we will be able to vacation a little when I'm not working.

The Alaska trip was really cool and the pictures don't even begin to do it justice. We participated in Distant Frontier and Northern Edge exercises while we were there. Distant Frontier consisted of dropping bombs, shooting the gun, and firing some air-to-ground missiles and doing some larger scale air-to-air engagements with the F-16 agressors stationed at Eielson. After that was done, we did the Northern Edge exercise which was a huge exercise with F-22s, F-15Cs, F-15Es, F-18s, F-16s, B-52s, bombers, tankers, AWACS, and lots and lots more.

On the few days that we didn't have to work or mission plan, we tried to get out and see what kind of outdoors Alaska had to offer. I wish that I had some pictures that really showed how beautiful that place was, but I don't. We hiked two days in Denali National Park and went on a weekend King Salmon fishing trip. Denali was an awesome park that you could spend years exploring and not even scratch the surface. In just two days, we caught just a glimpse of what the park had to offer and wished we could have stayed several weeks. Denali is the park where the John Krakauer book "Into the Wild" took place. The fishing trip did not dissapoint either. An F-16 aggressor pilot gave us the contact info for an awesome fishing guide who knew exactly where all the fish were. All twelve of the guys from our squadron caught a King Salmon (one fish per year limit) during the trip, which is pretty much unheard of. We had a great day out on the boat and saw some amazing sights. Unfortunately I didn't get many of them on camera. Anyways, enough of me bragging about my trip, here are the pictures. Enjoy!

Korea

It always seems that I remember taking more pictures then I come home with and with Micah on my back or hip these days, it's not easy to grab the camera and snap shots of everything that catches my eye as a photographer. For the most part I took pictures of what I could. We truly had an amazing time and my travel partner, Tracy Danaher, was the bomb digity! She helped out with Micah so much.

We were in Korea just two full days. Saturday we headed up to Osan and did some serious shopping. I was able to get some GREAT deals and we met up with a friend of ours who's husband just got stationed in Kunsan. We ate some great Thai food recommended to us by all the friends who have been there in the past and are still there. Then we returned to Seoul. We stayed at the Dragon Hill Lodge in Yungson. It was an outstanding place to stay and had great service all the way around. We traveled mostly by taxi. Saturday night we ate at the most amazing French resturant called Le Cigele. I had Duck, Tracy had chicken, and Claire had Mussels....and Micah ate a little of everything.

Sunday we went to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ.)Which is an area of land encompassing a 4 kilometers-wide strip of land straddling the 151 mile long Military Demarcation Line (MDL). The 27 July 1953 Armistice Agreement established the DMZ along the approximate line of ground contact between the opposing forces at the time the truce ended the Korean War. It was very interesting and a little scary feeling at times. We walk into the third tunnel. The 3rd Tunnel was discovered on October 17, 1978. It is located 52km from Seoul. It was estimated that it took approximately an hour for 10,000 soldiers to move through the tunnel. When this tunnel was first discovered, North Koreans insisted it was made by South Koreans in a plot to invade North Korea. However, this theory proved eventually to be false. They also smeered coal on the walls and later said that the tunnel was an abanded mine, which goes against all geological findings.

We finished the day with a walk through one of the local palace grounds and sitting in the Civic Center park listening to a wind Ensemble. Micah even got to play on a splash pad with all the local Korean kids. I think they loved him more than he love the water.

All in all is was a truly amazing trip and really opened my eyes to how awesome our God is all over the world. As I was walking Micah around the civic center park talking to people, I ran across a local youth group. They told me they were Christians and I truly felt a fire light up inside me. They took some photos with Micah (they love chunky,bald, blue eyed babies). God is everywhere! Thank you for all who prayed for a safety and that everything would fall into place.