We are finally in the home-stretch of Jordan's Australia training detachment, with only a week left until he returns. And while the time has passed faster than I had anticipated, when I look back at photos of the day he left, I realize just how long ago that now feels.
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| We spent our last day together enjoying the always-magnificent Officer's Beach by our house. |
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| They told Jordan he could bring A bag... He made the most of it! |
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| Saying bye and seeing the giant C-17 aircraft Jordan (as well as two cobra helicopters) would be flying in to Australia |
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The inside of the C-17, with two cobra helicopters. Once they took off Jordan found a way to string up a hammock and slept most of the flight.
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| Nothing like returning home to a spectacular and GORGEOUS sunset to turn my frown upside down, after saying goodbye to Jordan. |
Thankfully, as I said, these last 7 weeks have passed by quicker than I had anticipated, and I owe much of that to the wonderful group of girlfriends I have made here in Hawaii. With the majority of our husbands gone, between the Australia detachment and a 6-month deployment rotation, many of us wives found ourselves alone again, but thankfully together during this overlapping time period. There have been quite a few training detachments in this past year: 2 weeks on the Big Island in January, 4 weeks to El Centro (and Legal School for Jordan in San Diego) in September, 2 weeks to Japan in August, and 2 weeks on the USS Peleliu and Big Island again back in July. And while the husbands are away, the wives get together to "play" often, to keep one another company during this time. Looking back at pictures from this past year, I have realized just how much fun us girls have had together. And while time away from your husband is never something we look forward to, I am so thankful to be surrounded by such fun-loving, upbeat and positive women that make the most of a hard situation by celebrating and enjoying the luxury of girl-time! Although this isn't officially a Flash Back Friday Post, while we are on the subject, I thought I would include some fun memories of our adventures in the past while the guys have been gone.
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| Meeting for Brunch and Mimosas and our monthly Officer Spouse Club meeting while the guys were gone in October |
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| During the 2 weeks in January when the guys were gone, I threw an engagement party for Ashley. I love an excuse to throw a party, mostly because I love decorating for them! |
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| I probably went a little overboard with the decorations! That tends to happen when Jordan is gone and I get wrapped up in a projects and just can't stop myself from shopping! The popcorn box labels say, "All because he POPPED the question." |
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| Sarah and Victoria helping me prep a few last minute things in the kitchen |
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Popcorn and a movie! Watching the video of Luke's proposal!
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The Fourth of July is one of my all-time favorite holidays. I love everything about it: the backyard barbecues, the neighborhood block parties, enjoying the sunshine at the beach and the simplicity of the outdoors, playing old-fashioned lawn games, time spent with family and friends, the red, white, and blue and the overall, all-American patriotism that is in the air! Everything about this holiday reminds me of the good-old-days, of simpler and more innocent times, of close communities and friendly neighbors, and happy people coming together to celebrate life with one another.
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| I recruited two friends to sign up to do the freedom run with me in Kailua. It was only a 10 K, and after my recent half-marathon I thought it would just be a fun, easy run. I may have been a little overconfident, especially after taking a month off from running to let my hip brusitis and peroneal tendonitis heal, but nonetheless it was still a great way to start the day, as well as, raised money for a great cause. |
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| Later that afternoon, we walked down to the beach on base and enjoyed these magnificently blue and clear waters! Not to mention, an empty beach!!!!! We are so lucky to have this private beach, walking distance from our house! It was so nice to not have to deal with crazy parking lots and crowds of people covering every inch of the beach. |
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| Did I already mention how much I love decorating for parties?! Once again, I went a little overboard, but I just couldn't resist all these little red, white and blue touches. We were all feeling a little down about the holiday with the guys gone, so I wanted to make sure we did it right, even if it was just us girls! |
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| And these were just the appetizers! Our potluck was quite the success, and we had lots of leftovers, which we all enjoyed for the rest of the week! Yay, for not having to cook for a week! |
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| When your hubby is away, sometimes you just need to text him a festive selfie to wish him a happy 4th, knowing he may not even get it for days/weeks! |
After our potluck, we walked down the street to Katie's house, where we watched the fireworks over Kailua bay from her backyard. As we sat out on her lanai together, we wondered how, and if even ata all, the guys were celebrating. Come to find out they were relieved of their MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) rations, and bbq'ed hot dogs and hamburgers, the first "real" food they had in 3 weeks.
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A recent trip to the North Shore for shopping and lunch with the girls. On the way back, we stopped at the beach and saw these two magnificent sea turtles, sun-bathing on the sand.
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2 weeks ago, we celebrated a few of our birthdays a little early with a Waikiki staycation at the Modern Hotel in Honolulu. We have all been dying to check out this swanky hotel, with its rooftop pool, and secret lounge located behind a bookshelf wall that rotates at 5pm every evening.
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| Don't you love these touches in the hotel room? A ukelele, starfish, and sarongs! And the beautiful sunset view over the harbor from our room. |
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| Don't mind the party-pooper hiding under the giant, floppy hat in the middle, she wasn't part of our group. There were only so many lounge chairs for our big group, so we sat around her, haha. Needless to say, she didn't stay long! Sorrrryyyy!!! |
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| The rooftop, adults-only pool was so relaxing. |
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| Cheers to a fabulous staycation and great girlfriends! |
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| The Modern surprised us with 3 cupcakes in our room. |
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| Happy Birthday to us, the 3 birthday girls! |
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| All dressed up for dinner, in front of the bookcase that swings open, revealing the secret lounge. |
Also helping to pass the time while Jordan was away, was my recent trip back home to see my family. Usually Jordan and I go home twice a year, once at Christmas, and a second time for an event. Well this year was the first year there hasn't been a wedding back at home in all the years we have been away, so I wasn't quite sure I was going to make it home again before Christmas. And while I love to come home for a visit, regardless of an excuse, the ticket prices were twice their normal rate this summer! Well my mom generously offered her flight miles, so last Tuesday we booked my ticket, and Wednesday morning I was on a flight home! The timing could not have been more perfect, I had a little more than a week left before school started, it was my mom's birthday, and there were already two family events planned for the time I was going to be home, one with each side of my family!
A week always seems like a long time to be away when I am booking a trip, especially when coordinating favors from people to watch Gunnar and take care of my new plants, but it always flies by far too quickly and I am left wanting a few more days before leaving. However, we crammed a lot in those 7 days together. When I arrived on Wednesday evening, my mom secretly picked me up from the airport and we were able to surprise my dad, who had no idea of these last minute plans to come home. My dad happened to be telecommuting on Thursday, so we were able to enjoy a lazy morning all together drinking coffee and grabbing a late breakfast on the patio at the old-classic, Bagels and Brew. I was also able to see my Aunt Brenda, my cousin Sandra, and sweet little Shelby that day. It was so entertaining watching Shelby giggling hysterically as she played with giant Smokey Bear, and so precious watching her release my mom's butterflies that she has been growing in our backyard. We enjoyed an afternoon of (successful!) shopping and then had a delicious MEXICAN lunch outside on the lake. Mexican food is something Hawaii does not do well, and something I have missed dearly!
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| This gentle giant was happy to see me and thought doing sit ups in the backyard meant cuddle-time! |
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| Shelby releasing the newly hatched butterflies |
My mom and I continued shopping that day with a trip to Homegoods to look for some accents for their renovated home office. Walking into Homegoods was like the heavens opening up, glorious light shining, and all the angels signing!!!! My girlfriends and I have been (trying) to do home shopping lately, and there's just no great stores or resources like this on the island. I could hardly contain my excitement, but had to live vicariously through my mom as my suitcase only had about 10 lbs of buffer weight when I flew out to California, and I fully planned on using those 10lbs for clothing shopping (that which we are also deprived of here on the island). Later that evening, Troy and I spent time together, just the two of us, and hung out watching movies, while my parents attended a previous commitment. On Friday, we went to Happy Hour at the Chart House in Dana Point with my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Brett. I greatly enjoyed sitting on the patio, carved into the cliffside, overlooking Dana Point harbor and the Pacific coastline. It was beautiful, and a bit chilly! Anything under 80 degrees now gives me goosebumps!
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| Accessorizing the office with pillows, a side table, lamp, and florals. Next up, artwork! |
Saturday was my mom's birthday and it was exciting to be able to spend it with her in person this year. There was a family get together already planned down at my Aunt Gayle's in Oceanside with my mom's side of the family, and it was such a great opportunity to be able to see so many people at one time. Well, once we finally got there that is. Nothing like sitting in California traffic and a 30 minute drive taking an hour and a half! And although we were only able to visit for a very quick couple of hours because of our delay in arriving, it was great to briefly talk with everyone, to visit with my grandparents, and to watch all of my cousin's young kids play together (which was also quite entertaining and made for a lot of laughs)!
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| Yay for spending the day together... |
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| Sitting in traffic, not so much! |
We went out to dinner later that night to celebrate my mom's birthday, and Kyle came up to join us, bringing his not-so-little-anymore puppy, Champ!
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| Double trouble |
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| We don't spoil our dogs in this family, not at all |
On Sunday, my dad and I drove up to San Bernardino to my cousin Jessica's house, where they were celebrating Paisley's 1st birthday, and I was again, so lucky to be able to see most of my dad's side of the family all at one time and in one place! It was so great to see little Paisley, since I've only ever been able to see her one other time, when she was only two months old. She is quite the little sweetie pie! It was so fun watching her with my dad, who sounds and looks like my Uncle Pat (Paisley's Grandpa). When we were little, my dad and Uncle Pat would play tricks on all of us cousins, pretending to be the other one when calling and leading all of us on for minutes before they finally cracked, laughing at pulling one over on us, once again! Poor Paisley is already being initiated into the tradition!
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| Isn't this just the cutest little Hawaiian outfit for Paisley? I was wishing they had that Fedora in my size! |
Monday was my last full day in California, and it was time to go shopping! My mom and I hit the Irvine Spectrum and stumbled upon Nordstrom's anniversary sale. It was basically a one-stop shop and I was able to find quite a few new work outfits! My dad met us on his way back from LA and treated us to one last delicious Mexican meal at Javier's.
On Tuesday morning, my mom dropped me off at the train station in San Juan Capistrano. I decided taking the train down to San Diego, where I was flying out of, would be better than risking sitting in horrible traffic as we had on Saturday. It would also guarantee that I would be able to spend at least 2 hours with my friend, and fellow military-spouse, Amy before I had to get to the airport. Although lugging my giant, nearly 50-lb now, suitcase up on the train and then, up the stairs to the second floor was quite the ordeal!
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| All the window seats were taken, and I was especially annoyed because half these people were SLEEPING and not even enjoying the views I was straining over their shoulders and between the seats to see! |
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| Amy picked me up at the train station downtown and we caught up over lunch in the always-adorable Little Italy. And although we only had two hours, thankfully we wasted no time because we always pick right back up where we left off! |
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| So long beautiful Southern California, until next time! |
