One Year Ago Today...

I was crying amazingly happy tears b/c we had just finished our 2nd (and hopefully final) deployment! It seems a little surreal that we have been able to actually be together for an ENTIRE year!! No extensive trainings or anything for one whole year--this is the longest we've been able to be together since we got married in 2004.. WOW! Trust me...I'm still eating it up and loving every minute of it...and never ever taking it for granted.

Changing Jobs Already...

I got a new job! It's a decent jump as far as responsibilities go, but more importantly it is closer to the career path that I want to pursue. Being a secretary just wasn't my thing. Especially when I spent half the day cruising the internet b/c there wasn't anything to do. So I will be the new Administrative Officer for Facilities Engineer starting in May (the next new pay period). I'm really excited!

Also in May, Michael is slated to become the new Bravo Company Commander for H&S Battalion, MCB Butler. He'll have about 640+ Marines to keep in line (hee hee...this should be fun!)... soooo....lots of changes are in store for us next month!

Great Song and Video

This artist was stationed at Lejeune during Michael's deployments (and I think he may have even been over there at the same time at one point) and copies of his CD were distributed by local radio stations -- this is a great song :)

The artist is Mike Corrado.

Check out this video: On My Watch Tonight

Zipline in Maui

My dad finally got to do a zipline in Maui! He has been wanting to go for ages and we were the lucky ones to get to experience it with him! It was absolutely breathtaking. I'm not sure I've ever had a more beautiful view, with a shot of adrenaline on the side! I was really nervous to go (since I'm afraid of heights), but I'm really happy I did it - and it wasn't really that scary since you never got that "stomach dropping" feeling. These were some of the longest and fastest ziplines in Maui (currently there are 3 different adventures). What an experience!!

My dad practicing "starfish" on the beginning line (it helps you slow down so you don't slam into the breaks at the end...it was that fast):

This was the first tower (after the "beginner" line):
Saddled up and ready to "zip away"!There I go!

The view from where you started the 2nd line:

Michael took a picture while ON the 2nd line:

My dad going down the 2nd line:

My dad and I after the 2nd line:
This was the view from the start of the 3rd line (you can see the start of the 4th line):

My dad had a slow track and didn't make it all the way to the end of the 3rd line (see video at bottom)...it was pretty funny :)
They had to throw him a rope to bring him in (again, see video at end b/c it was funny): I guess we forgot to take pictures from the beginning of line 4 to the end of the course, but it was a massive line! Here is a picture from the bottom:
It was the fastest and the longest run of them all...
What a rush!!

Thanks Dad!!

Here's a video with commentary from Michael, then seeing my dad not quite make it to the end:

Maui Ocean Center

Taylor was so much fun to take to the Maui Aquarium! Everything was "Nemo"...and he really liked the little jellyfish and the touch pond.



Here's a short video that captures **some** of Taylor's enthusiasm while looking at the fish/crabs, etc. :)

Maui Fever

I'm just going to narrate the pictures...they pretty much sum up all we did!

I'll post pictures of the zipline and the aquarium visit soon too.

Here are my "Hawaii Toes":

Taylor and his sword from the Lahaina pirate store:
Taylor and one of the boats in the hotel:

Dinner the night before they flew back down at Longboard's:

One of the beautiful sunsets (from the ocean front lanai):Cheeseburger in Paradise:Michael on the lanai with a morning cup of coffee:Ryan and Tay coming back from swimming at the pirate ship:
Papi and Tay swimming in the big pool (he's like a little fish!):

One of the hisbiscus at the Hyatt (they're so much bigger in Hawaii than Okinawa):

Taylor heading down to the pool area:

...and feeding the fish: The Blank boys and King Kamehameha:
The Forrest Gump shoes in front of Bubba Gump's:
Waiting for our seats at Cheeseburger in Paradise:My parent's down at Whaler's Village at sunset:

US :)

Our Adventure

Flying Space-Available is an adventure! We arrived at the Air Base bright and early Wednesday morning (read: 0445) and thought it was a sure shot to get on when there was just a handful of people there. By "roll call" there was about 25-30 people there...for 10 seats. Uh-oh. We started sweating it then. Luckily we were the second two-some called! Using the EML paperwork is generally a MUST (they tell us now, but glad we had enough common sense to use it anyway without prior knowledge) to get on the Hickam-bound flights. So we have a 2 hour delay. Yeah. Not too bad...my nerves are okay...and then we head out to our plane. This is when they hand us earplugs. Because we're flying in a C-135. This means seats (at least we had them!) facing the back of the plane, a sack lunch someone on the crew made (??) for ~$4, and NO windows. Hmm. This could be interesting. All in all it was a pretty uneventful flight...wait a minute, except for when we hit a good bit of turbulence and the plane started to drop a little and the little kid behind us started SCREAMING "We're all gonna die!!". Have I ever mentioned I'm not all that comfortable flying anyway?!? That was fun. On to more fun adventures... (I took pictures of our plane b/c with the 2 hour delay we had plenty of time to look at it from the terminal, but Michael kindly reminded me "No pictures of the flight line without authorization". You'd think I'd never seen an AFN commercial before).

Soooo....we land in Oahu about 11pm and try to call billeting to see if we can possibly snag a room. No scrimp. There was a place willing to let us crash for the 4 hours we needed -- cash only. Huh? I'm not staying in a hotel for 4 hours just to get robbed or catch some sort of disease. Thanks, but no. Out of the other hotels, the cheapest was $160 ...remember what I said about 4 hours?? Not so much. So we opted for our last choice available...we grabbed a cab and headed to the Int'l airport where we promptly set up shop outside the terminal at midnight (b/c they wouldn't let us in to the closed terminal) and camped out like vagrants for 4 hours.

Here is Michael trying to get us a room:

Our vagrant-style camping outside the terminal (with more than just a few quizzical looks from the roaming security guards):
At 0430 the doors were opened and we were able to catch a hop on one of Aloha Airlines last flights to Maui. We arrived bright and early to get our rental car and then promptly headed North to wake up my parents, brother and nephew -- Good Morning! Note that this is STILL Wednesday morning. We flew out at 11am Wednesday and arrived on MAUI at 0630 Wednesday morning (meaning we arrived on Oahu on Tuesday night after flying all day)...love that 19 hour time difference and crossing the Int'l Date Line!

Here is Michael with our much needed caffeine boost at the Kahului airport in Maui :)

I'll post pictures of the stuff we did...but I need a break.

A little behind

To catch everyone up...
Here are pics from before our vacation. To post all of the Maui pics will take awhile...and to add to it, I've found pics on Michael's camera (that I never use) from back at Lejeune! Good thing they gave us a 59 at work today (we got out an hour early).
Bailey was being silly while I tried to clean the house:

This was the arrangement at the chapel on Easter Sunday--GORGEOUS!!(and smelled amazing!)

We had dinner at Kitakaisen the night before we left. Michael learned not to order the California Rolls DX again. Here is a comparison of his rolls with my shrimp tempura rolls:

Yuuuummmmm.... I get hungry just seeing the gyoza!! (small fried bits of deliciousness on the left)