One Year Gone By

I can't believe we have been here for a year. It still feels like we just arrived and are new to the area. July and August flew by that I don't remember all that we did. I got to enjoy another girls night out on the town. We had a great time just being girls, not wives or mothers for a few hours. As for Owen and I we took a weekend and went to Coventry and toured a cathedral, Kenilworth and Warwick to see a couple of castles. We went with the Houston's and the Lamer's. It was a great weekend to just get away and spend some time with friends.
Owen has been busy with work, if he is not flying he is doing work in the squadron. He has just been flying local flights and not got to go anywhere to cool. We had planned to take a vacation on his TDY's this coming week but things fell through and none of the spouses got to go. So he is enjoying a week in Iceland without me. I will have to post pictures when he gets back. He claims it is like nothing he has ever seen before. I am still working at the CDC with the babies. It keeps me very busy and exhausted at times.
We don't have anything planned yet for the next couple of months but are looking at taking vacation in November or December to Austria or Switzerland for Thanksgiving or Christmas (since we didn't get this TDY for vacation). I will definitely be ready for a break by then. So if anyone needs to get away in the next couple of months come on over. I would love to see some familiar faces. We are missing you all very much and hope everyone is doing well.
With love,
Sara and Owen

Girls Night Out

All of us piled in my car

Hotel in Coventry

Coventry Cathedral
(old part that got bombed)

window of the new part, I thought this was just interesting

Kenilworth Castle

Warwick Castle
(one of the largest ones we have seen that is still standing)
Outside view

Warwick Castle - inside view

The Trebuchet

Here is a video clip of them launching a fire ball .



Hope you enjoyed the pics and I will try and post sooner next time. Sorry I have been slacking.
talk to you all soon .

June Happenings!!!!!!!

Hey everyone,
Well June was here and went by extremely fast. As must of you know Owen made it home from his deployment on the 15 of June. It has been so wonderful to have him back home. With that we have been pretty busy. He got about 10 days off of work but I still had to work so we didn't get to go anywhere. Then Owen's friend Jeff Finley came on the 20 of June and we showed him around parts of England. He was here for a week. After that we both got pretty busy with work. We have been going to a few BBQ's and hanging out with friends. Our friends Christina and Paul welcomed a new member to their family on 2 of July, Ariana Renee. We are so happy for them. I even got to skip out on work to watch Bella for them while they were at the hospital. It was a day well needed. Her and I had a great day together.
Well that was June in a nut shell. Now that July has started we are still busy. Owen has started to fly again and has put in a few long days at work. We are hopefully going to get away in August or September for a week and go somewhere other than England :) We are thinking Germany or Italy, who knows we will just have to see. But for now we don't have any plans of going anywhere, for one I don't have much leave left and work is being pretty stingy as to how much you can take. :(
We did get to celebrate the 4th of July here. We went to RAF Feltwell, a base near by. They had rides, food and drink vendors, and they also had a pretty decent fireworks show put to music. It was an enjoyable night out with friends.

Here are are few pictures we have taken lately so enjoy.

Owen's room while deployed.

The day of his return.

Herbie the Bug ( we saw this while in London, not sure why it was there)

The Back to the Future car

The Prime Meridian in Greenwich

Standing on the Prime Meridian

Gary Sinise and the Lt Dan Band played at RAF Mildenhall.
(For those of you who don't know Gary Sinise plays on CSI New York and was Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump.)

Gary Sinise

Fireworks on the 4th of July

Sarina and I enjoying the fireworks

4th of July

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow has it been awhile or what. The crazy and wonderful thing is I have been keeping really busy while Owen is away. Let me get you all up to date with us. When I last wrote I was getting prepared for my first trip back to the states on my own. Well let me share with you how that went. I will tell you first off Thank God for military hops. If I ever have a choice between that or flying commercially I will definitely take the hop. It may be a little loud, cold and uncomfortable but it is so worth it. I just took my laptop and watched movies and my sleeping bag and slept on the floor. My flights were both 8-9 hrs nonstop to Wichita and back home. It was great. I had a few crazy moments like our flight back getting pushed back 24 hrs but all worked out. I got to go spend some time with Deb and Mark Shelly and their family, see Owen's brother Arlen, and eat lunch with Amanda. I want to say thanks to the Shelly family for taking me in without notice. You are wonderful people.
While at home I was blessed to get to actually see a lot of family. I got to see all my siblings and spend time with Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. It was great. I did though have to go back a few days early so I didn't get to see all the people I wanted to or spend as much time with some as I would have liked. But I am glad I got to see as many people as I did. It was a great trip. Oh and I spent way to much money. Shopping here is difficult unless you want to spend a fortune so when I got home I just went crazy and felt like I wanted to get a little bit of everything. :)
Well now that I am back here, I have started work again and didn't realize how much I missed my kids. I was glad to be back there. Work has been having a few difficulties but getting to see my babies everyday makes it worth going to work every day. Besides work I have been hanging out with the girls. We just went to the movies and I and Sarina hosted a baby shower for Christina. She is due in about 3 weeks July 4. We are so excited for her and can't wait to help spoil the baby.
As for Owen, we are still getting to talk about every 2 day. Technology is fantastic I don't know how people back when survived times in the military. I find it tough but then I have to think of how lucky I am that I even get to talk to him at all. Anyways he is doing good. He is soooo ready to be home. He said the other day, I can't wait to not sleep on a hard bed and sleep in my own bed, not have a roommate, not have to walk 100 yards every time he has to go to the bathroom, and see more than the same two people everyday. He sounds so ready to be back to civilization and a little more normalcy in his life. We have only 6 days and counting. He should be back this Saturday 14 June. We are excited and anxiously awaiting his return.
Well that is about all that has been happening in the last few weeks. This week I am going to be pretty busy getting stuff done before he returns and working. I hope everyone is doing well and would like to hear from you all soon.
Missing everyone dearly,
With love,
Sara and Owen


I woke up one morning to this little deer eating my flowers. I think this is as big as they get here. He was so cute.
I got to see Kinsey and Lydia while I was back and get caught up on life with them. We had a wonderful time and I miss seeing them. But it was good to see you girls again.

This is my favorite niece, Zahara (ZD) She has grown so much and is talking up a storm now. She will be two in September. I can't believe it. Oh and little Miss Anabelle had to be in the picture.
This is at the shower for Christina. She is in the middle and then Sarina on the left. We had a great party.

Walker Update

Hey everyone,
Hope you are all enjoying the spring weather, even though it snowed at home on Friday.(crazy huh). The weather here has been pretty crazy. One day it is 65-70 and the next it is 40. It has been raining about every day but hasn't been really bad. The trees are beautiful and the flowers are blooming like crazy. I give credit to England for the beautiful scenery. Well not much has been going on. I have been keeping pretty busy with work. We are getting ready for our annual accreditation check it is a pretty big deal so things are really crazy. I have also been busy hanging out with friends, BBQing, going to the movies, and just getting together to chat. As a matter of fact this past Friday I had a girls night at the house. We made pizza, chatted, and played games. It was a fun night with lots of laughter and story telling. Definitely will have to do that again. As for Owen he has just been really busy with flying. He said nothing new has happened, it basically is just the same day over and over again. He don't mind though because he is building lots of flying hours.
I am coming home hopefully next Thursday the 15 and will be there until around the 30. I am so excited but scared. I am taking a hop from Mildenhall on a KC-135 into McConnel AFB in Wichita. I have never taken a hope so just pray that the flight leaves on time so I can come home and that all goes well.
Well I guess that is it for now. I hope to see some of you when I am at home. So until then be safe and keep in touch. I put a few pictures of some tress and flowers for you all to enjoy. And then a picture of the girls night.
Talk to you soon,
Love,
Sara

(l to r) Courtney, Andrea, Sarina, Lauren (expecting in Oct), Christina (expecting in July)

Walker Update

Hey everyone,

I hope everyone is starting to enjoy the spring weather. Here in England it changes so much one day it is just beautiful, sunny and warm, and the next it is freezing, raining, and windy like it was still winter. Pretty crazy. Well not much is going on for us. I am keeping busy working and hanging out with friends. Just this weekend I went with a group of women from my bible study to a heart spa rally. It was wonderful. We went to Alconbury RAFB, about 1 hour from Mildenhall, on Friday afternoon. We had supper and then got to make some home spa remedies. On Saturday we got pampered with pedicures, manicures, and facials. We had a wonderful speaker who talked to us about being a light for God in our everyday activities. It was just a great weekend to get away and hang out with other women who love God and not be stuck at home.
As for Owen I get to talk to him about every 2-3 days. He is keeping busy with flying but loves it. He is on the night schedule so he sleeps most of the day. He said it is getting pretty hot there so he is glad to be flying at night when it is cool. He said there is not much to do there but eat, workout, and watch movies but it is not that bad, could be worse. A friend from church who was there sent me a picture so I would sort of know what it was like there.
Well that is about it for now. Just keep us in your prayers. If you want to email Owen is address is owenkwalker@gmail.com
Talk to you later,
Sara

The girls I went with

Kristy, Me, and Sarina

Michelle and Me

A place at Quatar

The Plaza (social focal point)

He's Gone

Well it is pretty quiet in the Walker household. Owen left bright and early yesterday for his 2 month deployment to Al Udeid in Quatar. He should return mid June He will be quite busy, flying as much as possible. He is living in a trailer that is split into different rooms with each room holding 2 people. The bathrooms and showers are in another trailer and they have a food hall where they can get things to eat almost 24 hrs a day. They are allowed a TV if they can find one and one computer that has to be wiped clean before they can use it. Not too pleasant but could be worse I guess. We are able to email and he calls whenever he gets a chance. I talked to him yesterday just long enough to let me know he made it and was doing fine. As for me I am doing better than I thought I would be but I am trying to keep as busy as possible with work. The nights will be the hardest and the longest but I guess I will manage, right. I am planning a trip home the end of May for a couple of weeks to help pass the time and I can't wait to see everyone again. Well that is it for now. I will keep you posted. Feel free to write or call I would love to talk to everyone or just come visit that would be great. :)

Here is a picture of Owen taken on the morning of his deployment.
Here is a picture of Owen's latest project that he took on during the month of March. ( hint: Mustache March)
Talk you soon,
Sara

A Day I will never forget

I had an experience of a life time. Owen's squadron set up a spouse's orientation flight for us this past Tuesday. We were able to go onto the KC-135 and experience a flight and a refueling. It was so amazing to view an actual refueling. We refueled 4 F-15 over the North Sea. Our pilots were Col Clifton and Capt Jessen Malathu. They were wonderful. We also had a pax monitor Lt Andy Nickles and our boom operator was A1C Jon LeMessurier. We had a show time of 6:05 in the morning, where we went through the events that the pilots go through when preparing to fly. We started by watching the weather briefing. Then they took us into the conference room and we observed the pre-flight briefing. We then went out to the plane and observed them going through all the check list on the pre-flight. We were on the plane for about 1 hr 30 min before take off. Once we took off we flew just east of England putting us over the North Sea. There we circled in the pattern until the F15 arrived to be refueled. We were there about 2 hrs. They let us go down into the boom pod to watch the refueling take place. I was so amazed at how close the planes really do get. I told the boom it would sure take a lot of nerves to do this because of how close they get. It is only about 30 feet from where we are looking from. The boom operator was Owen's boom from when we were in Altus, OK so he let us play around with the boom for a little bit. I got to move it all over. That was awesome because Owen told me later he has never got to even do that. After we had refueled all of the planes we then headed home. We landed around 12:00. It seemed like a long day for us but they said to them it was really nothing compared to what they normally do on a daily bases. I had a great time and would love to do it again. Below are a few pictures and a video I took during the flight. I hope you enjoy.

Col Clifton and Capt Malathu

The boom pod.
They actually lay on their stomachs the whole time they are refueling the planes.

A view from the boom pod
An F-15 we just refueled
Me and the boomA video of the refueling