On top of Radar Hill, waiting for Felicia to come through.

Sam wanted to go on a bike/run around the fish ponds on base so we packed up and headed over the day Felicia was going to come through (Tues I think). I thought we might see the storm, some planes taking off to go survey the storm (P3s from base) and who knew what else. So Sam biked and I ran the 4.7 mile loop. We try to catch any Marines we see out running – if they pass us during a water stop, we like to run up on them from behind (they are often listening to ipods) and enjoy passing them. Not fun for them so much but fun for us. Well, we couldn’t catch one this particular day. Every time we gained ground, someone needed to stop for water, run through a mud puddle, or something. Sam wanted to know why we couldn’t catch him so I explained how tough Marines are. Then we hit the playground, then had to go up Radar Hill (in the truck by now because we were all borderline starving) to see if we could see the storm coming in. We found a Marine camped out up there doing a training exercise, so we talked to him about what he was doing. Sam is always interested in the “good guys” and the “bad guys” and learns a little more each time we’re there about what the Marines do, where they go, and why. Anyway…here’s what it looked like from Radar Hill. The storm ended up being mild. As we left this Marine, we told him we’d keep him in our prayers when he deployed. We got his name, and said we had a pretty good track record with God – almost all those we’ve prayed for faithfully have either been born (we pray for embryos, too) or came home safe and sound).  I asked how much all his equipment weighed and did he hike it up there himself. 135 lbs – he weighed 155 pounds. So on the way home I was talking to Sam about how I could load up my pack with 100 lbs of weight. Or at least 60 lbs, since Ben is walking most of the time on hikes now. I thought about barbells but those are so unwieldy. What about dog food bags? A couple of them in the child carrier? Dressed up like a dog? or a pig? Sam said “No mom! No bein’ silly!” Dave also said no. Mostly because I probably wouldn’t be able to heft it and Ben if something should happen. BUT I do think it would be fun to hike up Radar Hill with a ridiculous sack for weight. Ideas? Kathy, you in? Kiela? Molly? It’d be a great butt buster!