Just saying hi

Hi all, I hope this finds you well. Not too much to update you on, but I promised weekly updates, so here I am. Branden is doing well; his ship made a quick stop in Hawaii last week. Unfortunately, he had some aircraft issues, so he spent the port getting needed parts and repairs while they were in town. Luckily, the fellas over at HSL 37 (his sister squadron in Hawaii) helped out and they were able to get everything fixed before continuing on their way.

Up until Hawaii, email was down and this ship doesn't have a phone, so it was great to finally hear from Branden after ten days of unreturned emails. Since he left Pearl Harbor, email has been working fine (knock on wood!) and we've gotten to be in touch every day.

Since he had to work all three days while in Hawaii, his boss is rewarding him with a full week off in one of his ports in April. This is great because I will be joining him for the full week! I've booked my ticket and now we just have to cross our fingers that nothing changes (as is the norm with the Navy). Needless to say, we are very excited to break up the six months with a week together.

Other than that, the only other news is that I turned a whole year older last week, as many of you know! It's sad, but true. I am now 28 years old. Branden had lots of laughs at my expense, but he'll be joining me when he turns 28 next month. I had a great b-day, with my dear friends joining me for dinner at my favorite restaurant, Buon Appetito. I'll post some pics once I get them off the camera.

My bff, Rachel, came out for the long weekend from Chicago, and just left this morning. It was great to see her and we enjoyed the beautiful San Diego sunshine all weekend long.

That's about it from here! Sorry I don't have anything more exciting to blog about, but life is good. I can't ask for much more than that. Check back next week...

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

Well, as you can gather from the title, Branden has left on his second deployment. After a busy weekend spent packing, organizing, and sneaking in some quality time, Branden left yesterday for a six month deployment. Since this great blog is out on the www, I can't say exactly where he's headed, but it's west and it's not where he went before (if you want to know, give me a call). We were both sad to say goodbye, but we're hoping the next six months go by fast and that I can go for a visit to one of his scheduled ports.

This time around, Branden got to fly out to meet the ship, so I went out to the Cabrillo Monument on the top of Point Loma to watch him fly out. He was able to get pretty close and give me a little rocking of the wings to say goodbye. The tourists up there with me all thought I was crazy (I was jumping up and down and waving to make sure he saw me), but once I explained, they started waving too!

Thanks to my dear friend, Kari, for keeping me company while I waited for the fly-by and for all the great pics she snapped. Thanks also to all of you who have reached out to me in the last day...we both feel so grateful to have such caring and thoughtful family and friends.

This is the view from the top of Point Loma. The land in the picture is Coronado Island, on the other side of the bay from the point. The area of the island you see is "North Island", the Navy base where Branden works.

Here, you see Branden flying by, with Coronado and Downtown San Diego in the background. You can make out the Coronado Bay Bridge on the right side.

Though you can barely see him, Branden is the pilot on the right side, closest to me.

All the stockings were hung...Part 2

We kept very busy during the Marty's visit...because Christmas was over, lots more things were open during their visit, so we had the opportunity to see and do a lot around San Diego. Our first day together, Branden managed to get us into his flight simulator, show us around his squadron, and give us a tour of the ship he'll deploy on.

We also spent one day exploring the La Jolla cove, home to lots of seals and seven caves.

A beautiful afternoon at the Hotel del Coronado.

Dinner at our other favorite restaurant, Buon Appetito.

Christmas with the Marty family

Showing off some of our favorite gifts, playing with our new Wii games...


















Our last day, we checked out the Cabrillo National Park in Point Loma. It's a gorgeous place where you can explore all sorts of tide pools, hike, and watch surfers take on the crashing waves.

All the stockings were hung...

Happy New Year, everyone! We hope you enjoyed happy holidays with friends and family. As you know, we were lucky enough to host both families this year! The Deals joined us from December 21-26 and then the Martys were here from Dec 27 until this morning. All in all, we're tired but happy to report a wonderful, fun-filled ten days. Seeing as how we have over 300 photos from our ten days together, I think it best to show you our favorites and let the photos tell the story of our holidays this year. Here is part one...Enjoy!

Branden and Mom hard at work in the kitchen, prepping for one of many yummy meals.Chrissy single-handedly preparing Christmas dinner while we were at the ER with Mom. She did a great job; everything was delicious!
We have been blessed with blue skies and warm weather all week! No white Christmas here, but no one seemed to mind.

Checking out the holiday lights around San Diego...

Dinner at our favorite restaurant, Donovan's. Yum!

Christmas morning at the Marty's

After Mom and Dad left, we had one night alone with Chris and Daniel, so we headed out for a night on the town.

San Diegans are a healthy bunch, so they have an annual 5K and parade each year on the morning of the holiday bowl. Since this was our first and last Christmas in San Diego, we decided to partake...we started with the 5K, hit the parade and ended the day at the holiday bowl, where ASU lost badly to Texas.

Here we go, huffing and puffing to the finish line...it was my best time yet, but as you can see on the clock, I am a slow runner! Not having run since my last 5K (smart, I know), I hobbled around for the next few days. My sweet husband ran with me the whole time, despite being able to run much faster on those long legs of his . Thanks, B!
While we checked out the parade, we also did some touristy sight-seeing along the Embarcadero. This statue is fairly new to SD, and B tried to recreate...

Enjoying the Holiday Bowl!

As you can see, we had a great week with my family! I'll work on photos from the Marty visit next.