Overwatch for the Elections

The second presidential election in Afghanistan was held on August 20th, 2009. The previous election held in 2004 was won by President Hamid Karzai, who was running for re-election. The President serves as the head of state and the Command-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Afghanistan. He or she is elected by receiving more than 50% of the votes. If none of the candidates for President receive more than 50% of the votes in the first round, a run-off election is held within two weeks. In this round, only two candidates with the highest number of votes are allowed to participate. In the run-off, the candidate who gets the majority of the votes will be elected as the President. The President serves a 5-year term.

The picture above is of Robert providing coverage on the day of election. His mission was to provide overwatch from Alexanders Castle to the City below, keeping an eye out for suicide bombers, ambushes and attacks on the polling stations. Two rockets, a few indirect fire attacks, a firefight between Taliban and the ANA, and an IED made up the days significant activity.

Tuscany

This place is absolutely beautiful! I've been diligently hunting for a wedding venue for the past month. After looking at literally everything in Utah, this was my last stop. I couldn't be happier!

They're Sisters!!!

Long story short, I met a lady who mentioned my dog (Adah) looked just like her daughters dog. They are both Chessapeake Bay Retrievers, both around a year old, and when I told her we got Adah from a breeder in Rupert, Idaho. . . we realized they are related. Not only are they related, they are sisters! From the same litter! The other dogs name is Mia, and they met again for the first time since puppies, last week. They played so cute together! They have their similarities and it was fun to talk about their personality traits. :) Here are some pics of them playing!

Labor Day Vacation

My first real vacation since Rob left. Kristen and I went to her cabin at Flaming Gorge for 3 days of relaxation! We didn't take many pictures because we were busy playing with all her nieces and nephews, watching fireworks, and tubing on the lake! :) Soooo fun!

Foot Patrol in Sha Joy.

Meeting with a Village Elder, going over projects that need to be completed in the area.

Crowded Bazaar in Sha Joy. (A bazaar is a permanent merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold.) Everything here is built out of mud, so when it rains the mud can be knee deep. They are hoping to pave this area to allow for a proper gutter and drainage system.

"Acoff, where the heck did you get a watermelon?" Acoff says, "Sir, I hope it's ok. . . I've been craving me a melon!" :) Rob told me the story of the picture above. I was laughing so hard because of the way he told it! I had to post this because I think it is such an adorable picture and it makes me smile when I think of Robs reaction to him having a watermelon!

Rob found an easier way to send me pictures! These are the first 4 of hopefully many that he will be able to send over. He tries to take a significant amount of video of their missions , which he then uploads and is able to take snapshots of the video and send them by email, to me. The picture quality isn't the greatest but I told him I'd take what I could get! :) Anything was better than nothing! So I am excited because I think that I should be able to post pictures of him at least once a week, as long as he keeps them coming!

The election is this week which means an expected increase in violence. Robs leave has now been decreased to only 7 days from what used to be 14 days. He isn't even sure when he will be able come home. There was talk of September but with the elections going on this week, he is thinking it will continue to get pushed back. I will keep everyone posted!

I have been sending him at least one box a week. This week I sent 5! (See post below) I know he doesnt like to eat a lot of the food over there so I mail him snacks to munch on in between meals, along with lots of protein to keep his body mass up so he will have the strength and endurance needed to get through his daily missions. He continually asks how things are back at home, how friends are doing and what his family is up to and why they haven't kept in contact. He said that he did receive a letter from a lady who was a pen pal of the soldier that was in Rob's position before he arrived in Afghanistan. When the previous soldier returned home, he passed on the soldiers information that would be replacing him, which happens to be Rob. :) This sweet lady sent him a letter and package with some M&Ms and popcorn. I thought that was the cutest thing that a complete stranger would send something to show her appreciation of his efforts over there! What a blessing it is to have good people like that in this world! Thank you to whoever you are. . . :)

Upon receiving his popcorn, we realized there was no way for him to cook it. The base does not have a microwave. . . so I decided I'd try to find one that was small enough to fit in a flat rate box but still had enough "juice" to cook a decent sized meal. So. . . I found this microwave at Costco. I am going to try to ship it to them so that the guys at his base can have a microwave to cook the food sent from loved ones back at home. We all know that a guys idea of dinner is anything that they can stick in one of these right?? :) I'm positive it will get some good use! :)

Sending Daddy some boxes of goodies! :) She always tries to put her toys in the boxes. . . I take it out and when I go back to the box there is another one of Adah's toys in it! Next time I will get it on video. . . Cutest thing ever!

We miss you babe!!!

My dad came to visit from San Diego! He was here for 4 days and I spent every night that I could with him! The first night we hung out at my Grandma's house while Adah was the center of attention, playing with toys and refusing to let anyone relax. :)




The 2nd night we had dinner at my place and played cards while enjoying the view of the valley and a wonderful sunset.

The next day, I took a half day off work and we went up to Sundance and walked around while waiting for our river rafting bus to arrive. We then rented a 4 man raft and went down the provo river! It was an absolute blast! Took us about 2 hours to get down the river and when we were on the last leg of the river, we got soaked by some teenagers that thought we needed to cool down. :) The water was 46 degrees so it was quite a shock at first but gave us a good laugh! On our way down the canyon we decided to hike up to bridal veil falls. What an incredible feeling it was to be misted by the freezing water while standing on the edge of the waterfall. :)

On his last day in town, he worked on my brothers bronco, and we enjoyed a late lunch before saying our goodbyes! It had been 9 months since I saw my Dad last, hopefully I'll get to make a trip down to Cali before too much time passes. Sure enjoyed having him here!