Happy Holidays from the Vollmers!
7536 Rexford St.
Navarre, FL 32566
(850) 939-6771

Greetings! This year, in the interest of time and your attention spans, we’re going to keep this year’s newsletter simpler and more chronological.

I guess we should start with our “BLUF”. In the AF, a “BLUF” stands for “Bottom Line Up Front” so we’ll give our biggest news first. We have moved once again! The new address and phone info is above at the top of this letter. As I’m typing this to you, we’ve only been in our house for a week. Dave will be doing a squadron command tour here at Hurlburt Field, on the Florida panhandle. We are renting a lovely house in Navarre, about 15 miles west of the base, just east of Pensacola. We have plenty of room for visitors, so don’t be strangers!

As many of you had heard, the first part of 2010 for us was just one snowstorm after another, flanked by cold spells. So we were more or less proceeding along in the status quo, just trying to keep up with the boys' school and Dave’s job. Mom got a chance to visit the Mall of America on a weekend trip with her friend and neighbor, Shannon.

From 2010 01 09 Mall of America with Shannon

Timmy had a small 5^th birthday party at the house. We invited over his best friend Roger’s family, the Reitjens, and Timmy enjoyed his Mickey Mouse cake!

From 2010 01 23 Timmy's 5th Birthday Celebration

Winter and Spring 2010 kept us involved in Cub Scouts, soccer, school activities, and my volunteer work at the boys' school and with the spouses’ group at Air Force Weather Agency, where Dave worked most of 2010. It was just too cold to do much else. I also kept up with my Reserve work at Offutt AFB.

Once school was out for the summer, we let the travel games begin! We wanted to fit in as much travel as we could. By this time we knew that we'd be leaving Nebraska by the end of 2010, so I wanted to make sure we could go to Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone. Unfortunately, Yellowstone didn’t work out for us, but at least we could enjoy a spectacular long weekend in the South Dakota Black Hills!

From 2010 05 29 Black Hills Day 2 Mt. Rushmore/Crazy Horse

Also in May, Dave went to his annual Conrail weekend event in central Pennsylvania. The Spring 2010 Rail B-Q and membership meeting. I looked at Dave’s photo collection from the event and couldn’t find any pictures with Dave in it, so I stole one from his friend Lee Weldon’s collection.

June was busy for the family, as I performed a two-week tour with my Reserve job. Also, my sister paid a short visit during her family’s cross-country trip to Las Vegas. It was fun cramming in as many Omaha-unique sights as possible in one day, ha ha!

Dave flew the boys to Lancaster County, PA for the annual family reunion. They did a boys-only Day Out with Thomas Event at the Strasburg Railroad. After the family reunion weekend, Jacob stayed in the Northeast with Dave’s parents.

July brought another set of travels – with Jacob in New York already, we dropped Timmy off with my parents in West Virginia and Dave and I took a trip to Niagara Falls, Toronto and Penn State. After our “Without-the-Kids Vacation”, we picked up Jacob in New York, Timmy in West Virginia and drove back to Nebraska.

From 2010 07 07 Niagara Falls

From 2010 07 09 PSU Meteorology Reunion

Dave and Jacob attended their first Cub Scout camp in late July, and the family also got to attend a family campout at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha. At camp, Jacob came home so proud of his great work in archery and firing a BB gun. Be still my heart, my baby’s growing up, but at least he didn’t shoot his eye out!

From 2010 07 24 Fiesta Party & Rosenblatt Campout

In late July/early August, Timmy got to spend a week with Grammy and Grampy Vollmer in New York, and I flew out briefly to pick him up and bring him home.

Two days after Timmy and I got home from New York, we were off to our final road trip of the summer: Colorado! We were invited to our friend Rose’s wedding in Denver, and then we spent a few days in Estes Park hiking at Rocky Mountain National Park. We stayed at a YMCA Resort and it was a great time. I couldn't believe what great sports our boys were in some of the toughest terrain even *I* had ever seen! At 10,000 feet, the boys kept up with us with so little complaints. Dave and I were so proud of them!

From 2010 08 06 Denver Trip & Stoor Wedding

From 2010 08 09 Rocky Mtn Natl Park Day 1

Not long after we returned from Colorado, it was time for the boys to start school again, and Mom did some more Air Force Reserve work. Timmy started KINDERGARTEN (yikes!), and I was found with some time to myself on a regular basis for the first time in years! Of course, with yet another military move coming up, I spent a lot of the time preparing for that.

From 2010 08 16 First Day of School & Timmy's 1st Day of Kindergarten

Dave got a promotion! In late August he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel! Of course, as is typical Air Force fashion, it’ll be nearly a year before Dave gets to wear his new rank, so we’re expecting his promotion ceremony next summer sometime. We’ll let you know when we have a better idea.

By September, we got busy again with school, soccer, Cub Scouts and piano lessons. We were also preparing for our move, which was creeping up on us quickly! Jacob had his 8^th birthday in September, which he celebrated by inviting two friends to “The Amazing Pizza Machine”, which is like a Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant, except better! The games are better, the food is better, everything was WAY BETTER! We all had a great time! We even managed to catch much of the Penn State-Alabama game in the sports club part of the restaurant.

From 2010 09 12 Jacob's 8th Birthday

In October, Dave had to have yet another surgery. For those who might remember our past couple years, in 2008 Dave had his appendix out and in 2009 he had his gall bladder out. This fall he needed a hernia repair and we shoehorned it in mid-October just before Dave was supposed to fly down to Florida to search for a new rental house for us.

Dave’s parents made one last visit to Nebraska over Halloween weekend. We had a fun relaxing weekend, which included taking the boys to their last soccer games, plus Jacob’s end-of-season banquet.

From 2010 10 31 Halloween 2010

After his parents’ visit, I had another two-week tour with my AF Reserve job, this time with a lot more traveling. Dave was dealing with out-processing while playing a single father…and then right after I got back, it was time to pack out! Which brings us up to these past couple weeks. As we typically do, we packed out, slept in sleeping bags and air mattresses in the empty house. As we typically do, we said not "Goodbye", but "See You Later" to the friends we made in Nebraska, and we headed south.

We spent Thanksgiving with our great friends Hugh and Rachel Freestrom, who are currently stationed at Barksdale AFB, LA. It was fun to spend a couple days with old friends, and their sons are such darlings! Jacob and Timmy had fun playing with them, too...

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we arrived at our new home in Navarre, FL. The boys started at their new school in Navarre on November 29th, and we moved into the house on December 1st when our furniture arrived. So far the boys are enjoying school and Dave's really looking forward to his new position, first as a squadron Director of Operations, then this summer as the Squadron Commander.

So there you have it, the Vollmer Year-in-Review. Never a dull moment around here! Happy Holidays and we look forward to hearing from you too!

12/11/2010: This just in! This morning we took the boys to a Breakfast with Santa event in our neighborhood and we got some cute pictures. Enjoy!

From 2010 12 11 Breakfast with Santa Holley-by-the-Sea

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