June Gloom is OVER!

Its Pehrson… and IM BACK!  I’ve been back for 3 weeks now and it has been awesome!  Officer training school didn’t turn out to be all that bad.  I did have to march everywhere I went, I did learn how to salute, and I even got yelled at once for scratching my face.  What an experience! ha But, in the end, it turned out to be a really cool leadership-training course, like something that a company would pay to send their managers too.  I learned a lot about myself and was happy to have the chance to do something like that. 

As good as it was though, it has been amazing to be back with Kate.  I had to fly to Oklahoma and get our car and then drive to CA.  I left at 4:30am and drove straight for 19.5 hours to get home to Kate at exactly 10:00pm.  It was so ridiculously good to see her.  One of my buddies in Alabama told me “a characteristic of true love is being able to fall even more in love with someone while you are not with them.”  While I was gone, I definitely fell more in love with Kate and realized how much I really do appreciate and care about her. 

Kate had a radical day planned out for us the next day; complete with Jet Skiing out of Dana Point Harbor, surfing at Doheny together, and a fresh homemade chicken parmesan meal.  Life is so much better when you get to live it with someone else.

We were home together for 5 days and then we left for Utah to go to my family reunion.  We had a 5-bedroom cabin for 30 people.  Yikes!  A lot of them were kids under the age of ~10 and there was a big loft that most of them slept in.  It was super fun to see everyone again.  It was my mom’s side of the family, and everyone grew up in Ventura, CA, but has since moved and now people live in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, and Oklahoma.  So it is pretty hard to get everyone together these days.  We did a little swimming in the pool, hiked around a lake, played some games, ate food, had a bonfire, and went 4-wheeling. 

As far as the family goes, Kate was a little nervous, but everyone loved her.  She fit right in with everyone and it turned out to be a great reunion.  

Just a side note.  I don’t know if anyone has ever been with Kate on anything that has a motor besides a car (in a car she drives 10 under the limit).  But if you don’t know, SHE GETS CRAZY!  She’s not one of those girly-girls that holds back.  She flew all over the place on the ATV’s in Utah and on the Jet Ski it was full gas.  I was worried that I was making her nervous with my driving, but she actually made me nervous and almost threw me off a couple times!! ha I don’t know many girls that are that daring, but I was very pleased to have her as my wife!