Vacation!! We're officially on vacation!!

Dan, Cat and I left this morning at 4am for Orlando to visit with my parents, Scott and Barbara.  Some of you may have met them at our party last weekend.  We made great time and got here at about 4:30pm.  The condo is beautiful!!  I made a point of making sure that our camera and video camera are working and have extra batteries so we have actually taken some photos and we've only been here for 2hrs!!  We just got back from Macaroni Grill for dinner.  It was pretty darn good J  Enjoy the photos and thank you, again, to all for the well wishes on Dan’s advancement.  We truly appreciate it!!

Master Chief Boe Golf Outing & Family Photos

Brad Boe, Dan's brother, and photographer extraordinaire :)   Thank you for taking photos, Brad!!

Caitlyn!  What a smile :)  We conveniently forgot that she had a sprained ankle this last weekend .... she stopped golfing halfway through but still had a great time :)

Family Photo :)  From Bottom Left to Top Right (Dano Boe, Caitlyn Ulrickson, Lance Boe, Dan Boe, Heidi Boe and Brad Boe)

Dano Boe ... we were really happy to have him here!

Our neighbor Ed Rybat.  He and his wife Anna are fantastic!!  Ed is a retired E9 Master Chief.

Family Photo :)

I think it must have been a little warm out :)  Lance and Dan ... do you think they are brothers?

"I am the Master (Chief) of all I survey"

Paul Lombard our incredible neighbor (with his wife Kathy of course :) and his nephew Tony.  Paul is a retired E9 Master Chief, as well!

Jerry Lausen (on the phone ... working .... as usual ... Sharon you really must do something about this :) and Ed Rybat.  Jerry is a retired W4.

Its great to have the kids together.  Dano has a tee in his mouth :)

Scott Grainger (Heidi's Dad) on his practice swing.  Heidi's Mom and Dad came out for the weekend from AZ.  We really appreciate that they came out :)

Master Chief Dan Boe!!  I love this man :)

Paul ... you and Kathy are the best neighbors EVER!!  We love you both!  Thank you for everything that you do for us.

Jerry ... I know you had a better time than this :)  Thank you to you and Sharon for all of your help this weekend.  I really appreciate it!!

Mike Watson a retired W4 ... we hope he had a better time at Dan's advancement than his retirement ... he was sick at his own retirement party so we're looking forward to actually celebrating with him on his own day very soon :)

We have more photos from the party/weekend that we'll post soon.

Thank you, again, to everyone!  We had a great day and hope you did, as well.
Dan and Heidi

Ankle Sprain, Master Chief Pinning & Gardenia Tip of the Year!!

Good Evening - We must be livin right! We got to the Portsmouth Hospital in 32 minutes and we were out of there in less than an hour!!! That just doesn't happen on a holiday weekend, but we'll take it! Fortunately, Caitlyn only sprained her ankle so she has it wrapped and already had crutches and a boot from her stress fracture in April. Caitlyn wasn't exactly pleased that I brought my phone/camera in, but pictures were taken :)

I was hoping the Dr. wouldn't notice all of the bruises she has and question my parenting :)  We're not sure what happened to her legs, but it appears as though she is beating herself up at night with a quarter size object.  She has little round bruises all over her legs and arms.  Very very strange!

Here are some other photos that I have had to post for a few weeks.

Caitlyn and her friend Donovan at the Styx concert

Picture of Heidi on 7-4-10 ... with her "flippy" hair :)

Dan's pinning ceremony on 7-1-10.  His best friend and mentor Chuck Thompson (far left) and I pinned on his Master Chief anchors at a ceremony in his building in Norfolk, VA.  Caitlyn and our good friend Donna (used to live next door to us) were there to share in the momentous occasion. It was quite emotional and took me forever (I'm not kidding) to pin his anchor on, but I got it on without poking it into his shoulder.  Captain Nagle is the one to Dan's right.  He presented the award which was wonderful!  Dan has a lot of respect for him and it was really fortunate that he took the time to do this. 

I swear that we did not Photo shop this!!  Caitlyn took this of Gunner this weekend and it reminded us of those "Big Dog" cards you can get at the Hallmark store.  He was a little "crazed" because we had just given him a bone to eat from the pork butt that Dan smoked.  Can you tell that he really liked it :)

Another photo of Gunner ... this summer he has decided he doesn't mind the water so much.  He actually just climbs on the rafts with us now.  He's 11yrs old and the vet thought he was the youngest of the 3 of them.  We just spoke with someone who met a couple that had a German Shepherd that was 18yrs old and still really healthy.  They said that when he turned 11yrs old they fed him an Ensure drink for breakfast every morning.  So, I think we might just try that with our pups.  Gunner has joint problems so maybe this will help with that, as well.  We'll see :)

GARDENIA TIP OF THE YEAR!!!

I love gardenia's!!!  My grandparents had a huge gardenia at their front door and I remember walking into their house and smelling the beautiful scent of the gardenias.  Needless to say ... I have killed my fair share of Gardenias since we moved here.  Its been an ongoing bet between Dan and Caitlyn whenever I buy another one on how many months (or weeks) it will last.  On our last "Gardenia Home Depot Trip" where I convinced Dan to buy one more ... a woman was in front of us and she gave us the tip of the year!!  She said to put PICKLE JUICE on them!!  They like acidic ground and she said it will help them live.  She was right!  Our gardenias are flowering and growing like crazy!!  You wouldn't believe it.  I successfully emptied 4 jars of pickles on them leaving Cat with very wimpy pickles after sitting in the jar with no juice :)  Dan finally gave in and bought me the BIG jar of pickles at the commissary and I ground up the pickles and juice in our Vita Mix and put the mix on them.  I think its helping with bugs, too.  Its no wonder our backyard doesn't smell like a garlic farm :)

House of Boes Update

Happy 4th of July!! We hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday and are enjoying an extra day off. Dan and I biked over to our friends, Donna and Craig, for a BBQ yesterday. Cat joined us for a bit and then went to her friends, Donovan, Grandmothers house and enjoyed fireworks at the beach. She drove Cat home afterwards so that she wouldn't have to drive with the crazies. She lives on 9th street across from the beach so Cat has enjoyed spending time with them and not having to worry about a parking spot. Very nice people! Donovan goes to Cats school and will be a sophomore this year.

Speaking of driving ... We would be remiss to not mark the historical event of Cats first fender bender ... July 4, 2010. It was very minor .. No one was hurt AND she was in the TBird NOT the Acura :). All in all it could have been a much more eventful day. She handled it well and got all of the pertinent information. The other car wasn't scratched and we just have to replace a front turn signal cover.

Dan and I have been enjoying riding our bikes on all of our errands ... Home Depot, commissary and down to the beach. Its been a lot of fun. We were riding before work until my tail bone was so bruised that I could barely sit at work!! I really couldn't sit without my entire staff hearing me cry. So, Dan had to ride by himself for a week and after I got a new bike seat. Its amazing how much you use your tail bone. If the new seat doesn't work I am contemplating how to attach one of those doughnut seats to my bike seat. The gentleman at the bike store said he deals a lot with men/womens rear end "issues" so I am thinking that this might be a new invention :)

Well, its time to go enjoy the pool with lots of sun block on. Until the next time we send our best wishes to you and your family!

Dan, Heidi and Cat

PS - I am now preparing to send this from my cell phone while we drive to Portsmouth Naval Hospital .. Caitlyn either twisted or broke her "right" ankle. I emphasized the right ankle because she won't be able to drive if its either of those. Hmnnmm seems that the man upstairs has his own way of disciplining for not paying attention at the wheel! Dan and I figure that getting out of the hospital any earlier of 12midnight will be a bonus. Well keep our fingers crossed for overreaction and that her ankle is fine.

House of Boe 1997 - 2003

Here is a video that we put together of photos from 1997 - 2003 from the House of Boe. It is amazing how many people we have in these photos. Not everybody, but darn close :) We hope you enjoy!

Save the Date ... July 10, 2010 to Celebrate Dan advancing to E9!!

Help us celebrate Dan's advancement to E9 - Master Chief!! 

We will have a golf and BBQ/swim event at our home on July 10th.  We hope you will save this date and plan to join us.

More details to come later this week via email from Heidi.  Also, please feel free to email any photos you have of Dan from his career to houseofboe@earthlink.net.  I will be putting together a digital photo collage.  Please feel free to invite anyone that has been left off of this list.

Heidi Boe
(757) 544-3103
houseofboe@earthlink.net
2484 Windy Pines Bend
Virginia Beach, VA  23456

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Its Official!! Master Chief Daniel Boe as of July 1, 2010!!

Dan just received the official advancement notice for July 1, 2010!! He will be a USCG Master Chief!!!! We are so very proud of him!! This has been his career goal and its official.

We will be having a part to celebrate in the very near future!!

Congrats Dan!!

Walneck's Tip of the Month in VIDEO by Mike Brown

New video tutorial for Walneck's Classic Cycle. I am testing to see how this video embeds into our blog for work. I manage Walneck's Classic Cycle and I am working with Mike Brown one of our incredible writers to create a video version for his monthly editorial called "Tip of the Month". This is his first video and I think it turned out great!