Fort Polk Louisiana – Act #3 :)

October 18- November 15, 2016

Kaylee and Sierra love to wear Grandma K’s glasses! 🙂

Such a gift to experience four weeks of daily life with our daughter, Lauren, her husband, Justin, and our 3 exceptional grandchildren, Kaylee-4 years old, Sierra-2 years old, Caleb-7 months old and Ruger, their Boxer dog-4 years old. We were reminded of the on-going duties of parenting 3 little ones and how the days can be arduous, exhausting and a bit monotonous. There’s unending cooking, cleaning, planning, piles of laundry, bathing, diapers, potty training, feeding, interrupted sleep, tears, high decibels, comforting, training, teaching, correction, discipline, understanding temperaments, differing parental styles all in a dynamic universe!! I’m sure you get the picture!! Even though the mission and responsibilities can undo you at times, we are totally confident and abounding with encouragement that Lauren and Justin are learning and growing with the process and will climb out of the trenches victorious, spending the rest of their decades together, blessed by their adult children!! Lauren shared this quote that says it clearly, “The days are long but the years are short!”. They are enjoying the victories, snuggles, joys, fun, smiles, laughter, wonder, rewards and miracle of each unique child in every stage all the while growing personally! We are incredibly blessed to share in it all!! Thank you for inviting us in to your home and hearts!!

Ft Polk is a (JRTC) Joint Readiness Training Center in the middle of no where but the military does provide numerous parks in their housing developments which we visited almost daily with the kids.

We also spent a beautiful day at Toledo Bend Reservoir on a pontoon boat. Toledo Bend is a 65 mile long reservoir on the Sabine River and straddles the Louisiana and Texas border. It is only 10 miles wide with an average depth of 60 ft but it has 1,200 miles of shoreline with its numerous fingers. The Army has a campground and recreation site for use by military families on one of the fingers. We all got to practice our casting but the fish were elusive. Kaylee and Sierra had fun helping daddy drive the boat and Caleb just enjoys being outside.

Halloween is a special time in their neighborhood. Everyone sets up outside and welcomes the steady flow of kids and costumes for 3 hours. Neighborhoods on Base, remind us of how life used to be as we were growing up. Interactive, jovial and safe.

Kaylee is attending an excellent Christian preschool Monday – Thursday. They are very welcoming to parents and grandparents so we had the opportunity to attend a field trip to Anderson’s Pumpkin Patch and attend Chapel service in which Kaylee’s class shared a song and what they were thankful for. We also had lunch with her one day. Kaylee is thriving with the structure and challenge of her school and Lauren gets a little reprieve while Justin works multiple days and hours as an observe trainer.

On another day we drove 1 1/2 hours to the Children’s Museum in Lake Charles. Timing it between naps,  everyone had fun discovering and being a kid for a few hours.

We stayed at Ft Polk’s Alligator Lake Campground so BBQ’s and one night roasting marshmallows is always a big hit.

We enjoyed non-humid, mild weather for a month which we are grateful for!! We were also visited by the wild horses who freely roam the base since the days of the Calvary.
The month quickly passed but we are taking our treasured memories with us as move on to Texas!

THANKS BE TO GOD FOR HIS INDESCRIBABLE GIFT! HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL.