The Avery Family

I figured I could take a couple of minutes to update everyone. Our move from GA to KS went rather smooth. We did most of the driving the first day and didn’t stop until we were in MO. The second days we only had about three hours to drive to Fort Riley. Once arriving here we checked into a hotel and looked around on post and checked out the housing developments. The next day we had an appointment in the afternoon and signed for our beautiful home. Our home is a historical home and it was redone June of last year. It was orginally three bedrooms but made into two bedrooms with two bath’s upstairs. We have a half bath downstairs along with a sunroom that was turned into a study. There is a full basement which is where the man cave and the washer and dryer are. We are very blessed to live in the historical area. Our neighbor has about ten duplex’s so about twenty families. I have met only four of our neighbors and look forward to meeting the rest.

Let me give you a little history about Fort Riley……

Fort Riley is located in Northeast Kansas on the Kansas river and between Junction city and Manhattan (where Kansas State University is). Riley is huge and covers 100,656 acres and has a daytime population of over 25,000 people. When Grandma Pearl came to see us she said Fort Riley was it’s own city and I have to agree with her This base is named after Major General Bennett C. Riley who led the first military escort along the Santa Fe Trail. Riley was established in 1853. Allen and I believe that may be around the times our house was built. The purpose of Fort Riley was to protect the movement of people and trade over the Santa Fe and Oregon-California trails. In 1865 George Custer was stationed at the fort and his house is currently untouched and you can take a tour through it. That is just a little bit of the history of Fort Riley. In August 2006, when Allen and I were heading to Vilseck, Germany the Big Red One was relocated to Fort Riley from Leighton Barracks, Germany.

Allen and I just love the area and I believe Sarah and Chloe do as well. Sarah loves all the parks and Ms. Chloe loves that there is a huge dog park which I believe once stored buffalo. While our house has been completed redone there are many features inside the home that give it that cozy historical feel. We sure look forward to having tons of visitors (hint, hint). We may only have two bedrooms but we can always find places to keep our wonderful family and friends. Thank you all for your prayers as we began and continue our new chapter in our live. God Bless.

I can not believe it only ten days until the movers while be here. As most of you know The Avery Family is heading to Kanas. I never thought I would be excited about this move but I actually am. Hopefully my expections while be met and exceeded. They should be as my only expections are to met some “good” friends, find a good family church, and to have a good time. Is that to much to ask? I sure hope not seems pretty simple. Anyway as the move gets closer I am starting to get a little worried. It never fails as any military family knows something always breaks or gets “misplaced”. I am not looking forward to seeing what it might be this time. Feel free to start those prayers going I will keep everyone updated as the move get’s closer.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Why do toddler love sauce some much? I can remember the day Allen gave Sarah just a little Ketchup with her chicken nuggets and it was over after that. Now when we eat if she sees the ketchup, grated cheese, butter or even salsa she has got to have it. I am amazed at how much she loves chips and queso but who can blame her the stuff is amazing. Anyway we will give Sarah a little bit of ketchup and she will eat it before her nuggets So cute but oh so gross!

As we all know when you are in the Army you move a lot and you have to adjust a lot as well. Today Ms. Kendall and I decided there was no sense in fighting the strong willed child (aka Sarbear). She said if we were staying a couple more months she could play the bad guy but she didn’t want to give Sarah a bad taste in her mouth for the next speech teacher. Ms. Kendall is a great speech therapist and Fort Gordon is very lucky to have her. She has a lot of patience which I guess is a job requirement .

Sarah has only been going to speech for a little over a month but she has made improvements or maybe I have. Ms. Kendall taught me how to encourage Sarah to talk. For example today after speech we decided to go to the playgroup on post since it had been awhile since we have visted. As we pulled up to the building Sarah got excited and I asked her if she wanted to play and she began to do her grunt so I asked her again and more grunting so I said “okay let’s go” and backed up the car. Shortly after pulling out of our parking spot she said “mama play” so I said “You want to play?”. She said “yeah” so of course we pulled back into our spot and went to play Easier enough? Of course if you child talks a lot but for Sarah that is a big step. I am so proud of her and look forward to the day when she is telling me crazy stories and we can talk.

By the way Sarah has been tested and she just has a speech delay. Ms. Kendall said she is a smart child just very stubborn. Hmmm sounds about right. Sarah and Mommy will miss Ms. Kendall.

This afternoon while Sarah took a nap I watched Indescribable. This is a talk done by Louie Giglio. Indescribable is a talk where Giglio uses pictures to go on a journey through the cosmos, allowing us to see God’s universe and to discover the amazing magnitude of His greatness and grace. I must admit I have never been into Astronomy but have always enjoyed looking at stars and the night moon so I wasn’t really looking forward to this talk in particular. However after watching this I am in completely amazed at our God (as always). He created this amazing planet and didn’t stop there. Giglio tell us that for our power companies to light the sun for one second it would take the gross of seven million years…..amazing for ONE second. This talk is about fourty five mins and well worth the watch. Just leaves you speechless.

Below is a picture called “The Pale Blue Dot” and that little blue dot is the Earth 3.7 billion miles away. WOW how Great is our GOD.