Catoctin Mountain, not Mountains

Olivia crossed another milestone: she completed her first hike.

We took her, along with our friend Melinda, to Hog Rock, a 1-mile easy loop in the Catoctin Mountain Park, which is part of the National Park Service. According to our Fodor's Virginia and Maryland guidebook, the Catoctin Mountain Park is eight square miles of forest and rocky ledges. Add in mild temperatures on this particular Friday and it was the perfect recipe for Olivia's first hike.

Follow the arrow

We brought the hiking backpack to carry her, but she wanted to walk solo, so she did that (at a slow, slow pace stopping to collect sticks, leaves, and worms) until the vista. At that point, she told us to stop and take a photo "here!" We obliged.

Family photo on the mountain

Then she ran around, despite my plea to walk, while I took a photo at the vista with Melinda. Of course, Olivia fell. She wasn't upset until Benny took a photo of her on the ground. She tried to wave him off while Melinda and I laughed.

Don't take my photo, Olivia cries.

Meli and I

We finished the hike (with Olivia in the backpack) by identifying trees and poking at a harmless caterpillar.

Olivia loves to hike

Olivia loved every minute of it, even if it lasted more than the 45 minutes it typically takes to complete that loop.

I forgot

I forgot how wonderful spring can be. It's been a long time since I've experienced the season of spring. Since 2002. Almost a decade. Without a spring.

I returned to the States in the winter and found the Midwest to be cold and covered in snow.

Olivia's minature snowman

No sleds, only swimsuits,  for sale in the stores in March.

I arrived in Maryland to find no buds on the trees and a chill in the air. Then suddenly without warning, the wind shifted and soon birds were singing in the mornings, tulips had popped through and opened on Easter Sunday in front of my new home and yellow and white daffodils bordered every farm house in our county.

In front of our house, April 2011

In front of our neighbor's house

Spring had arrived. Olivia's new hobby was picking dandelions and handing them to me for safe keeping.

Picking at the Washington Monument

Picking at the local library's lawn

My new hobby was photographing the beauty of spring.

Random tulips in D.C.

This weekend, the temperatures reached the 90s and the humidity pushed down on us. It left me thinking about how much I missed spring and how could I ever forget about it.

The Mandatory Photo

A long, long time ago, I lived in Wichita Falls, Texas. In this temporary home, I met my first of many friends, who happens to be a military wife. Brye, an Air Force spouse, taught me a lot about military life and some of that advice, I've taken with me and passed it along to other newbie wives and girlfriends (like I was at the time) in the last seven years.

One piece of advice that stuck with me was the term "mandatory fun." Mandatory Fun is an endearing joking term that encompasses those social events that are organized by your husband's workplace. It may a Friday night party to welcome new folks to a particular command or it's a Sunday afternoon baby shower for the wife of your husband's boss. Some are family-friendly picnics; some are babysitter-required dinners. Mandatory Fun is the social glue that seals military families together. I often wonder if Mandatory Fun happens in the civilian cooperate world. I would love to hear any insight on this one.

Officially Mandatory Fun activities are optional for the spouses, but if you want to spend time with your husband on the weekend, you find yourself there.

On May 19, I found myself at a Mandatory Fun event. It was the annual ball for the base here. It's an opportunity to reflect on military history and tradition. It's a time to introduce yourself to sailors who work with your husband and their spouses. It's a chance to get dressed up for an adult Navy prom.



Mandatory Ball Photo

 For this year's ball, I bought a new dress instead of wearing one of the dresses in my Navy ball closet. I brushed my hair for the first time in days. Heck, I even curled it! I also wore contacts and make-up. Olivia stayed home with a babysitter for the first time since we left Okinawa in February. It was an adult night on the town for this new stay-at-home mom.

In the end, it was a good time with our new Navy friends. It just shows that mandatory fun can simply be fun.

May all your days be circus days

When I was a child, my mom, my sister Colleen, and I along with my aunt and uncle went to a circus in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I can't remember if it was the Ringling Brothers (fun Iowa fact: The Ringlings lived in Iowa for a bit before getting their start in Wisconsin) or Barnum and Bailey ... or maybe those two American circus companies were already one at that point. But anyway, it was a long time ago and it was one of those great childhood memories. Everything seemed to be from a movie. It was magical. The night we went to the circus!

In February, I read in my hometown newspaper that a traveling circus was coming to Guttenberg while we were in Iowa. Immediately I emailed my mom and asked "can we take Olivia to the circus?" Her answer, "of course." It was very more fun after we found that Benny had never been to a circus. Never? Really.

Going to the circus in Guttenberg, we had low expectations. There were rumors circulated in town that an elephant would make an appearance in the high school gymnasium. No elephant was seen. But there were poodles (one of my favorite circus animals) and a pony.

We sat next to my grandpa and his wife and enjoyed the show. The gym was packed with children. I didn't even think that many kids lived in G-town anymore. We had great seats on the bleachers where we could see everything. Olivia went into Olivia the Observer mode, where she watched and listened without moving. This column that ran in The Guttenberg Press sums it up well.

And for the grand finale, there was foot-juggling, a lost art in the circus world, according to the MC.

Then a few days after we arrived in Maryland, we saw an advertisement for a circus that was coming to a town near us. Benny was out of town that week for work, but Olivia and I decided to go together. A mother-daughter day at the circus.

In this circus, there were nine tigers, three elephants, four camels, four horses, and a whole gang of dancing poodles. We got our photo taken with the poodles. Olivia begged me to also let her ride a horse, a camel and an elephant. I told her she had to be three years old before she could do that.

For the grand finale, they shot a guy out of a cannon. I think Olivia liked the foot-juggling more.

Mother's Day

I recently read in a Parents magazine that in motherhood "the days are long, but the years go fast." Looking at Olivia this Mother's Day, I definitely understand the meaning behind those words.

Card from Benny and Olivia

Last year, we had a special day spent with my mom. Olivia was 14 months old and wasn't walking yet. She barely talked and instead perferred to use baby sign language.

My first Mother's Day was only two years ago. But it feels like a lifetime ago.

Hit the Restart Button

On Saturday, February 25, we left Okinawa, Japan. We said goodbye to our friends the days prior to our flight. Many of these friends are in the Navy, Marine Corps or Army, so it wasn't hard to say goodbye to them-- in all likelihood we will see them again.

It's the friends who are Okinawans, like Benny's co-workers, my co-workers, and Olivia's daycare providers. These men and women taught us (with patience) about Japan for the past three years. Ask what I miss about Okinawa and without a doubt, it's the people.

Olivia received this Hello Kitty pillow as a farewell gift from her daycare.

After checking in for a military flight at 7 a.m., boarding at 9:30 a.m., stopping at two military bases in mainland Japan and surviving another (and hopefully last) Pacific flight, we landed at around noon in Seattle. We caught our flight to Minnesota and gathered up our six bags of luggage (!), two backpacks, one diaper bag, one purse and one toddler without losing anything or anyone.

I planned to take a photo of us with our avalanche of suitcases, but I was too tired, confused by the time change and plain dirty to orchestrate the documentation. Take my word for it: six suitcases. Picture it. It wasn't pretty.

I don't remember what was my first reaction to moving back to America. Mostly I felt like I was on vacation. In some ways I still feel that way. I keep thinking that I'm going back to Japan. I wonder how long until I realize that we aren't going back.

The first week back meant a lot of running around reestablishing our American lives. The restart button on our lives was pushed. The first thing we did was buy a brand new car, that was made in Japan.

Olivia's sweet 16 birthday gift.

Yup, our 2011 Subaru Forester was built in Japan and sold to us in Burnsville, Minnesota. No, the irony is not lost on us.

The Blog Break is Over

Happy Easter from the Volkmanns!

Standing in front of our new house

You are probably wondering what the three of us have been doing and seeing for the last two months. We were homeless surrounded by friends and family members who were excited to have us back in the USA.

We are in the process of unpacking and settling in this exotic and faraway place called Maryland. But today, we took a break from the brown boxes and celebrated Easter in our new location.

On Saturday night, we hosted Jason and Melinda (Navy friends who live south of us in Virgina). Olivia welcomed them with a tour of our 3-bedroom, 2-bath duplex by saying "chair, TV, Olivia's jacket," pointing to random items. Yes, our little girl is talking more and more everyday, but most importantly she is repeating and repeating more phases that Benny and I say. Must think before I talk now, thanks to Olivia.

Today, after church Olivia participated in her first Easter egg hunt. Rookie mom that I am, I forgot the camera at home. But I did take a photo of her "scrambled egg" basket when we got home.

Olivia's scrambled egg basket

Olivia found an egg, opened it, dumped the candy out on the grass before putting the egg in her basket.


Olivia was happy with her basket of goodies from the Easter bunny. Including some new sunglasses.

How do I look?