what i wore to the field.

We've been sick all weekend so there is no Sunday best outfit to share since we didn't make it to church. So instead you get to see what I wore out to the desert this summer!

One of the things I was absolutely clueless about when Rob joined the Army were things called "Field Problems." I knew about OCS and Basic and deployments, but nothing about "The Field." Ends up, it is necessary for soldiers to conduct training away from where they work (called "in garrison"). Which now makes sense, I mean, you can't train to use a tank in a parking lot. But not knowing about field problems meant not realizing they're gone away a lot because of them.

And since Rob is currently non-deploy-able he gets to go the the field a lot instead (oh joy!). And when I say a lot, like he is gone for 3 months. Fortunately he can come home for some weekends, but that's almost harder because you have to say goodbye again.

Anyway, last spring and early summer Rob was gone. But I was very fortunate to get to go out to the field one day to see what they do out there. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Rob since he was way out in the desert, far from where our little group of dependents (spouses. I would just say wives but there was a husband with us) was. I'm SO glad I got to go, it was an eye opening experience. (one that I'll hopefully write about one of these days).

And here is what I wore. This area is blistering hot in June, so I tried to plan accordingly. In addition to what I'm wearing in this picture I had a lightweight long sleeved button-down I wore when we were in the sun (the indigenous people here have dark skin for a reason. My Irish skin doesn't stand a chance against the El Paso sun). And I had a lot of sunscreen on, for the same reason. If you are curious what I'm pointing at, it's the layer of dust on my boots. Made me VERY grateful I wore high boots instead of tennis shoes or hiking boots. We were pretty much walking through lots of small sand dunes.

shirt: Old Navy
pants: Old Navy
shoes: Minnetonka Mocassins (soft soled, the only way to go)
bandana: no idea, we just have a bunch

I was really happy with this outfit, I was able to protect my skin without getting too hot AND I felt kind of cute. I credit it to the boots. They make any outfit feel cute.