Queen Tanya - Queen of her domain!

5 October 2007 - We sold the house today! Yippie! I am on terminal leave and basically retired from the US Air Force with the completion of 20 years, 1 month and 28 days of active duty military service. Next is packing the house up and looking for a house in Lacey, Washington.
15 September 2007 - Yesterday was my last work-day in the Air Force. We have put our house on the market for sale. See website. Tanya is in New York and Virginia until next week. The boys and I are cleaning and prepping the house for sale. Tanya has been approved for a lateral transfer to McChord AFB, Washington. That means we are moving to the Seattle/ Tacoma/ Olympia area around 1 November 2007.
3 September 2007 - Today marks my 20th year in the US Air Force. My retirment paperwork has been approved for 1 November 2007. My ceremony is on 24 Sept. Here's pictures of the Day With Thomas, B-day party and much more.
3 June 2007 - We had a successful garage sale, relaxed a bit and went to the Badlands. see the pics here. I found some pictures of this past Spring. please check them out. The kids are getting big.
28 May 2007 - Memorial Day. Many thanks to all of the troops out there in harm's way and their families left behind. We went to Hot Springs overnight, swam at Evens Plunge and drove back through Custer, went to Wind Cave and visited the Mammoth site. Auntie Budusha is here visiting too. Here's the pictures.
30 April 2007 - Easter has passed and we have returned from our trip to San Antonio, Texas. Life is busy, but it is beautiful here in Spring-time. I will have more pictures soon.
23 November 2006 - Tanya and I have been married for 4 years. Today is Thanksgiving. Happy TurkeyBird Day! Tanya started working on the base. The kids are adjusting to daycare well. Winter is coming. Here are a bunch of pictures from the 1880 Train, Halloween and around the house.
11 Sept 2006 - Five years since 9-11 2001. We won't forget!
We spent the day in Hill City. Here are some pics of the kids and us.
7 Sept 2006 - Summer is winding down. Fall is almost here. We went on a road trip to Seattle and Portland with the kids. We did a lot of things and saw a lot of stuff. Enjoy the pictures. Here's pictures of Jack and Julian's Birthday. It rained all day, but we made the best of it. I just met my 19th year in the Air Force. One year to go...maybe. Please keep in touch.
29 July 2006 - It is HOT! REAL HOT! 100-111 everyday. We are still having fun. The boys are doing well. Jack is walking very well now and Julian is talking better everyday. Tanya is doing well. She leaves no garage sale unchecked for good loot. Here's some pictures of Marissa's Birthday party at our house and the kids playing in the sprinklers.
21 July 2006 - Hello, we are doing fine. It has been in the 100's for days but everyone is doing great. Jackie is walking. Here is a video of Jackie walking. It is like 12 MB in size and will require a high speed connection. Enjoy. The 28 Bomb Wing Operational Readiness Inspection went well. We had to work 3 days in 100+ temps in full chemsuits and masks. I had the begginng of strep throat too. It has been rough, but it is all over. Tanya took great care of the family and we are recovering.
24 June 2006 - Summer is here and I have finally posted new pictures 6 months old. Jackson is growing and is almost walking. Julian is talking much better and plays well with his little brother. Tanya is out and about with her new friends. Marissa will be here in a few days. Now for the pictures: Winter 2006 | More Winter 2006 pictures | Marissa took some great pictures here. Here are the Easter pictures. Last pictures from May 2006.
26 December 2005 - Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas is now over. New Years is on its way. Jackson is growing very fast. He does not fit into most of his 6-month old clothes. He's only 4 months old tomorrow. Tanya took the kids to visit grandma and her aunt in Texas in early December. Julian is learning to talk and help take car of his little brother. Winter hit us hard 2 weeks ago. -24F with a 70 MPH wind. Today it is the day after Xmas and it's 65F. Here are pictures of Halloween + Jack's Christening and pictures of Thanksgiving timeframe and some oddball pictures too. Here are the Xmas pictures too. 2006 is going to be great year. We hope to hear from all of our friends and family. Take care. Aloha
16 October 2005 - Julian turned 2 on the 30th of September and is quite the handful. But you may have already knew that! Jackson is now 1.5 months old and is already 13-14 pounds. Tanya joined the quilters guild and the YMCA. Both are workingout great! Fall is here but going fast. The indian summer has been great. 70's and 80's can't last much longer. Winter will soon be upon us. We are getting a fireplace insert to keep the house toasty this year. Enjoy the pictures of Karen's visit with Ken. Here is a bunch of pictures of all kinds of things. We'll write again soon.
31 August 2005 - Everyone is home and doing very well. Tanya is bouncing back super-fast and Julian is getting used to his lil brother. Julian got his first haircut today. See the pictures here.
27 August 2005 - Jackson Kealoha Elliott was born this morning at 0224 hours. He was 8 pounds and 5 ounces and 21 inches long when delivered. He is very healthy, strong and alert. The delivery went very well. It only took Tanya 2-3 pushes. She is now recovering at the hospital. Julian and I are hanging out at home. I took him to visit his little brother and his mamma this morning. He doesn't know what to think of it yet. These pictures are from before the birth and only seconds afterwards.
21 August 2005 - Marissa is back in Portland. We had a great summer, but it went by so fast. | Tanya is still carrying the baby. We are expecting it to born any day now! | Julian is dong good. He is into everything. He cannot stay still for a second. Here are pictures of Tanya and Julian. | Here are some pictures of our annual trip to Mt. Rushmore. | Here are pictures of Sturgis 2005 and some great shots of a petting zoo. Love to hear from you.
16 July 2005 - Hello to all! It's been another few months since the last update. Much has happened. We went to California to visit friends and family and attend Kelly Marriner's wedding. It was awesome! Here are some pictures. We spent time at Rachelle's house, where we swam in the pool. Marissa is here with us for the summer and we are all having fun playing around the house. We visited Shirley in Sacramento and Nilke in San Fransisco. Tanya is measuring 3 cm too big and the new one might come early. Stay tuned... I just finished the Hawaii Surf Auction website. Here are some "around da house pics".
12 May 2005 - It's May and it snowed 9 inches last night. Here are the pictures for April and May so far. Tanya is over half way into her pregnancy and she is already getting big. It's all belly! Julian has learned a few words and keeps us very busy. Spring is very pretty, minus the snow. Give us a call or an email. We would love to hear from you.
20 April 2005 - Spring is here and it was 88 degrees last weekend. Julian was rough-housing with me and was slightly hurt and had a cast on his arm for the last 2 weeks. He just got it off yesterday. He's alright. The Amnio came back fine. It looks like the new baby will be normal. Tanya's brother, Rob and his girlfriend had a baby a few days ago. My father, Bill Elliott, died yesterday at his home in California. He was 55. He had been battling throat and stomach cancer. He fought till the end. The service is on Saturday. South Dakota is beautiful and we are planting a garden.
27 March 2005 - All is good in South Dakota. Tanya and Julian went to Hawaii for a month or so. I have been slacking on updating this website. I will do more this week. Pictures for Easter and of March, plus February and January.
29 December 2004 - We made it through Xmas and I am back to work. Please check out our pictures of Xmas Day and then we had 20 degree freezing fog. You have to see these pictures. Check out Julian with his Pooh sweater. So Cute!
24 December 2004 - Merry Xmas! It was 10 below ZERO yesterday! Here are some pix of our snow day.
23 December 2004 - Merry Xmas again to everyone. It is a fun-filled snowy day and the sun is shining. We miss all of our family and friends. Here are some more pictures. Enjoy...Aloha.
22 December 2004 - Merry Christmas! We are home in South Dakota sitting by the fire, watching the snow fall. Julian is all over the place and Tanya is cooking great food, like always. I have the week off and spending a lot of time with the family. Marissa is at Phyliss's house for the week. Check out the pictures of Julian and the snow. Have a great holiday season. Please give us a call or an email.
2 December 2004 - Winter is upon us here in S. Dakota. Julian is a joy to be with. I put my Master Sargeant Stripe on yesterday. It has snowed a few times. More later, but here are the pictures.
29 October 2004 - Tanya and Julian are in Texas and then New York visiting friends and family. I am home by the fire working on websites, home improvement and other things. Fall is here and winter is around the corner. Marissa is going to be a princess for Halloween. Here some great pictures of our recent travels. Various fall pictures, Sturgis at the park and the AFS reunion.
10 October 2004 - Tanya's email has not worked since the 2nd of October. If you sent something to Tanya@queentanya, please resend it. I have more fall pictures and some cute ones of Julian. I will post them soon.
4 October 2004 - Julian turned 1 on Thursday. Can you believe he is already one? We had a quiet, fun-filled night of blowing up baloons and making them into animals in between eating cake and ice cream. We bought a 1995 Nissian Pathfinder so Tanya will have a car to tool around the town. Fall is upon us and the weather has just a little bite to it in the mornings. A few more weeks of fall and then winter will be knocking on the door. We are still working on the home improvements. Got new windows and new rain gutters. See the pix of Julain's Birthday and other various pix. More later.
16 September 2004- Julian is running around at full force. He is quite a handful but we are having so much fun! Marissa started 3rd grade last week. She is very excited about all of things she is learning. Tanya is doing fine and has been cooking a lot of great food from scratch. Karen and Phyiss visited last week and we had a good time. They just loved the little Julian. Here are some pix of their visit. Fall is here and winter soon enough. More later.
23 August 2004 - Marissa is back in Portland, we miss her so much. She spent some time at the YMCA summer camps, we rode our bikes, and other fun things. Julian is walking very well now. Tanya is doing well. She has been cooking all kinds of great dishes, cookies, cakes and bread. I worked the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally selling my car product. Bobby and Teri was here for week and enjoyed Rapid City. See all of the pix from this time-frame. Mid July Pix with Cave pix and Sr.NCO Family Gathering, Julian in August and Julain walking in late August.
18 July 2004 - Went to the Mammoth dig site and that was an incredible experience. See the pix and more here. Summer fianlly hit. It is over 100 degrees everyday.
5 July 2004 - Happy 4th of July! We had quite a weekend. We went to Custer State Park, and boy is that place nice! It's only 20 miles from our house. We went swimming in this great, newly built indoor pool that just opened. I tried to trim the large maple tree and it didn't go too well. I spent all day yesterday and half of today, in the rain, cleaning it up. Julian is poking out 3-4 teeth at a time and tells us all about it. Marissa is doing fine. She went to a sleep-over at the next door neighbors house with all of her grandchildren her age. Tanya is holding up the fort and taking care of all of us. She is great! Just look where I put a carving of her head at.
24 June 2004 - Hello! It's been a while since the last update, but here it is. Marissa is here with us and we are having a blast visiting different parks, swimming, bike riding and much more. Tanya is with Marissa everyday as she takes care of little Julian. He his getting so big and strong. His 2 bottom and two top teeth have poked out. He's well over 20+ pounds and almost walking by himself. Tanya is helping with the key spouse program. She calls the spouses of deployed personnel to see if they need any help with stuff while their spouse is gone. I am still learning my new job. I take over next week by myself. 800 people to look over is a lot, but I can handle it. Today I found out that I was selected for E-7 (Master Sargeant). The base had a large picnic to celebrate. I should put the stripe on December 1. We are excited. Marissa and my birthday's are on Saterday and we are having a party at our house.
Here are some pictures. 1. The trip to Denver. 2. Pics of Julian 3. Pictures of our trip to MOunt Rushmore. 4. Military Appreciation day at Storybook Island. A ton of fun. More later..
5 May 2004 - The floors are refinished, stairs are carpeted, the lawn is trimmed, and the creek has 4 new spillways made of rocks. Tanya and Julian arrive from Texas this weekend and I'll pick them up in Denver. Here are some pix of the work I have done so far.
29 April 2004 - We finally moved into our house on the 21st. We are having the floors refinished and other things updated and modernized in our 1959 ranch house. Tanya and Julian went to Texas for 2 weeks to visit her grandma. I am learning my new job and sprucing things up too. Our household goods arrive in a week or so. Then our 4+ months in limboland will be over. It's great to have a house of our own. Pics of the house and pics of Julian on a swing.
11 April 2004 - Happy Easter! We all made it South Dakota and we are settling in well. After house hunting for 10+ days and numerous disapointments later, we finally put a bid in on a 1959 Ranch-style house on the westside of town and it was accepted. It has 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms and hardwood floors. It also has a creek running through it! I will add more pictures later, but here are some during the home inspection. Here are pix of my drive to South Dakota. Here are pics of Craftsman style houses in Oregon. Here are some of the first pix I took after arriving in South Dakota. Here is Marissa playing in Grandma's yard. Here are Pix of Easter day. It snowed.
23 March 04 - Tanya and Julian are back in Kona and I am still in Portland with Marissa. Here are some pix I took on their last day in town.
21 March 04 - We are all together as a family and things are great! Marissa is with us too. Here's some pix of Julian in Hawaii. We bought a new 2004 Subaru Forester yesterday, went to the tulip festival, and visted family in the neighborhood. Julian has grown a lot and is very fun to be with. He keeps us very entertained. I am off to S. Dakota 28 March. Let us know how you are doing. Aloha.
15 March 04 - I am leaving Mississippi tomorrow and flying to Portland. I will meet up with Tanya and Julian and Marissa. I will post new pictures of Julian soon. Here are some pix of my class on our last picnic this weekend.
22 February 2004 - Tanya is back on the big isle and has a cold. She booked plane reservations for 9-25 March to Portland. I'll be there in the 19th of March. School is half over. Marti Gras was this weekend in New Orleans and here are the pix I took. Very Crazy! I was glad I was sober.
17 February 2004 - Julian is now over 16 pounds and has more than one tooth poking out. Tanya is finishing up work and is going to be going to Portland, Oregon at the end of the month. She will be there for about 2 weeks. I went to Sarasota/ Bradenton, Florida in a rental car this 4-day weekend. 11 hour drive, one-way! I took a bunch of pictures. Some of Alligators, tropical rain forest, Japanese-style dinner and of the beaches in winter. Enjoy, here they are... School is going good. I miss everyone. I'll be home sometime soon.
8 February 2004 Tanya and Julian are in Kona. Julian is turning over and and teething. One tooth already poked through. More teeth coming in, so he is not too happy about it. I am Biloxi, Miss., pretty cold here, but it is getting me used to it before going to S. Dakota. School is not very hard, and we do a lot of things as a class...off-duty. I am going to Sarasota, Florida next weekend to see my long-time friend, Rob. I am renting a car and driving about 8-10 hours to get there. As a class, we went to New Orleans last weekend. It was early in the day, so the craziness had not started yet. Here are the pictures. My mailing address in Miss. is: TSgt Elliott 500 B street Box# 23749 Keesler AFB, MS 39534. I will be here until 18 March. Here are pictures of the tourist stores and of the huge, man-made beaches that are packed in the summer. Deserted today. Well, that's all for now.
29 January 2004 It's been more than month since the last update. Sorry, it's been really busy. The movers came and took all of our stuff, we cleaned, painted and cleaned the apartment to sell, sold the cars, I outprocessed the base, left my career as a heavy equipment operator, and went to Biloxi, Mississippi. Tanya is in Honolulu finishing up the house and running last minute errands, plus finishing up her work before she and Julian go Kona. All of this while taking care of Julian, at almost 4 months, he needs constant attention. I don't know how she does it, but I know it is NOT easy. Julian is 15 pounds and is already trying to roll over. Our cells are still work and will until Mid April. Give us a call. Check out the pictures of the past few weeks of Julian, Tanya, my going away party and the close-to-clean house. Aloha for now.
25 December Christmas Day! - Julian's first Xmas... We are still house sitting in Kailua. I got my orders and now we are making arrangements to leave the island, sell the house and the cars. Here's a great picture of Julian with Santa last night. Aloha....
13 December- We are getting ready for XMAS and life in Honolulu is bustling. It will be nice to live a slower paced lifestyle for a while. Julian is better. Fussiness is not a bad as it was. Tanya is doing great. She is a natural at all of this. We went to a Somoan-Style 1 year-old birthday party today. Food was great! See Marissa's pix and the latest Julian pix. The next project is to sell the house and the BMW. We are house-sitting for a few weeks, so try us on our cells. -Aloha
7 December - The date that will live in infamy! Yes, the attack on Pearl Harbor.We set up a monument at the base flagpole today. It is dedicated to the WWII veterans. Julian is doing good. Now 12 lbs and full of laughs and smiles. We went to a Xmas party on Saturday and had our 1 year anniversary on the 23rd. See the latest pix of the day. Tootles.
21 November 03 - Julian is beginning to smile and have some fun. The crying is under control (for now) and we are looking forward to our move to S. Dakota... Until we heard about the blizzard happening this weekend. Anyway, Tanya's mom "Teri" is here to watch the baby so Tanya can finish up her work and pass on her job. Check out these cute pix of Julian here.
15 November 03 - Karen is on her way home and we had a good visit. She loves Julian so much. See the pix. Julian is over 11 pounds now and getting bigger everyday. Sleep is still not abundant, but we look forward to day it is. Tanya is a good mommy and I am a bit crabby. Please send help..HaHa...
9 November 03- Karen (Dave's mom) is here visiting for a week. Bobby was here to a few weeks ago. Julian is now 10 pounds and growing. I guess that's his job. We are getting ready to sell the house and the BMW. Xmas is coming and so is our move. See the pix of recent days. Tanya is tired. Julian is making us into insomniacs. Aloha for now... More soon.
25 October 03 - Julian is doing well. He has gained almost a pound in a week and is now almost 9 lbs. He keeps Tanya very busy all day and night long. Thanks to all of the friends and family that have been visiting. See the latest pix. The President was here in Hawaii yesterday and I worked 20 hours preparing some of the security precautions and blocking traffic with barricades. We paved a shop record of 946 tons in one day the day before. No rest for us. We will put up more pix soon. BTW- We are going to be stationed at Ellsworth AFB, S. Dakota! Yes South Dakota! It is by Rapid City, S. Dakota near Mt. Rushmore. The base might be closing in 2005, so we might only be there 2 years. Can you say Burrrrrr?
14 October 03 Time for me to go back to work. Tanya is on her own while I am at work. She has done great learning to be a mama. She wants 9 more. See the latest pix here
7 October 03 Hello, we are doing great. We are learning/ relearning all of the parental do's and don't of early parenthood. From cloth diapers to going with little sleep for days on end...it all is working out for us. Julian is doing well. He his feeding every 2-3 hours and sleeping alot. Thanks for all of your support and phone calls. We will have more pix in the next few days.
3 October 03 - Tanya gave birth to Julian K. Elliott on 30 September at 9:23 pm. The delivery went well and we are pleased with the way Kaiser Hospital treated us. We are all at home now and getting to know eachother. The kitties are freaked out a bit, but getting used to Julian too. Tanya is exhausted and it is now time to rest. She did great getting Julian out and into this world safely. I have the next 7 days off to take care of everything that I can. We are very happy and would love to hear from you.
Please see the birth pictures. Here are the "coming home" pictures...
See the video too. (let it play once and click play for the second time...it has to load first to play right)
We will post more news and pics in the next couple of days. Aloha, -Dave