Port Call: Hong Kong!!

Jay was just in his very favorite and last port of this deployment, Hong Kong in China. Most of the goodies Jay brings home for us come from this port and there is so much to do and see here. This time around Jay got to take a tour of a Budist Temple.  Most of the photos he sent me are from that tour.

 Jay told me that each one of these statues is hand done and very unique.

 They went to a fish market

 This is a wall of the names of a family's ancestors.  It is in a Ancestrial shrine.

 This is the outside of one of the largets ancestrial shrines in Hong Kong.

One of the neat things Jay got to do this time around was go to the Hong Kong temple and take in a session.  They actually ended up doing inititories for over an hour before they did the session and then some of the members took them out to dinner.  The Branch President gave Jay a tie that has in the Chinese writting a quote by Pres. David O. McKay.  I don't think Jay will forget that experience any time soon.  Next stop for him....HOME!!!!!!!!!

Valentines Day/Anniversarry make up

As we've come to see with being in the navy there are times where Jay will miss holidays and special occasions.  This current deployment seems to be showing us that in spades.  Jay told me a few weeks ago that he ordered me something special for Valentines day and to make up for missing our Anniversarry, which was back in Janurary.  Well since then I've been wondering just exactly what he was up to, until yesterday.

Yesterday the first of my gifts arrived and boy was I suprised with what he did.

 3 dozen roses in a vase

 A cute little teddy bear

 Bath stuff, chocolates and a very sweet message.  The message almost made me cry because of how much love he put into it.

Then today the second part arrived.  This was to make up for missing our anniversarry thanks to the deployment.

 It's an Eternity Pearl Necklace to symbolize our love and our marriage for time and all eternity.

It's small and elegant and I can't wait to wear it (and yes those pearls are real).  Jay really went all out this year.  I am truly greatful to have him in my life.

Port Call: Malaysia

Jay just had a port call in Malaysia.  It wasn't exactly the best of ports for doing things.  Jay and one of his port buddies, they have to go out in groups of 2 people or more for safety, stayed in a hostel with internet so we got to do a lot of webcaming with him.  The kids just loved that.  Kaden fought with me regularly for Jay's attention and did awesome at interacting with his dad.  Jay loved seeing the kids and especially thought it was truly wonderful that Kaden was interacting with him and just telling him everything.

One day they did some archery as an activity.  Jay did the best, mostly because he was the only one who was sober in the group.

 They had some open markets to shop in and so Jay did that as part of his time there, picking up souvenirs.

One thing that is popular in the Asian cultures is to have these fish clean your feet.  They eat all of the dead skin off the bottoms and sides of your feet.  Jay did it and said it was an interesting experience, but that his feet did feel better after having that done.

Overall, there just wasn't much to do in this port.  Only one more port to go until he is home.  Our time apart is winding down and we can't wait for him to be here. 

Port Call: Thiland

Yup thats right Jay hit another port: Puket, Thiland (no I can't spell so get over it).  This was a short port and it happened at the same time as Kaden's birthday.  We got to webcam with Jay for a bit over the few days he was there, one of which was Kaden's actual birthday, and boy did the kids love it.  The ship going to Thiland means we are that much closer to them coming home!!!!!!!

Like every port that Jay goes to he did a tour of the area with a group from his ship.

 At a waterfall during the tour.  By the way this is one of my favorite pictures of him.

 Holding a python, another part of the tour.

 Him and a good friend of his from the ship (David) on top of an elephant.

The tour group from the ship during a break.

It was so wonderful to see him after a month of them being out to sea.  We are already starting to prepare for the big day that the ship pulls into home port here in San Deigo.  Each day is another day closer to being reunited with him.

Kaden turns 5!

Last Wednesday Kaden turned 5 (I know I'm a week behind, but its for good reason).  I can't believe he's now 5 years old.  This birthday was truly special for him because in the morning he got to webcam with Jay while opening some of his birthday presents. (hense the reason why)  Both of them loved that hour together and just had a great time.  The theme for Kaden's birthday: Transformers.

Kaden loves them so that is what the focus was on.

 Kaden showing Jay what he got for his birthday.

 The Transformers: BumbleBee(yellow car), Dead End (Bad guy, black car), Croma (blue bike), Sideswipe (the actual robot) and then Skids (green car that you can't see).  He loves these toys and is constantly playing with them and "transforming" them from cars to robots.

 His birthday cake: Transfomers Optimus Prime mask

Kaden said the best part of his birthday was getting to talk and visit with Jay over the webcam.  That made Jay's day when I told him about it later on.

Lunch at Olive Garden

I have got some truly wonderful and amazing women that I have had the privilage of not only getting to know but become friends with over the last year.  These awsome gals from ASA are the best support system you could ask for.  We're all navy wives (and some army) and so we get the struggles of deployments and the frustrations that come with being a military family.  Every so often all of us San Diego girls get together for lunch of other fun activities which are always a lot of fun.  Today was one of those days.

Wendy is leaving to return home and we got the chance to meet Kathrine for the very first time.  So we met up at Olive Garden for lunch.  It was a lot of fun.  I made sure to bring my camera and so we got some great photos.

 The ASA San Diego Girls: (left to right in back) Janny, Kristen, Sarah and her daughter Katty, Kathrine and her son Daniel, Krsitina.  (Left to right in front): Nicole, Wendy, Marriah, Kaden, and me holding Annabelle

 Since today was also Jay's birthday I got some White Chocolate Cheesecake togo in honor of it. 

 Us at Lunch

 Marriah, her husband and their baby boy Felix

 Wendy's little boy LJ

 Wendy

 Kristina

Kathrine and her son Daniel

 Marriah and Nicole

 Sarah and Katty

Me

Kristen

Lunch was great.  The company was wonderful and we're already talking about doing a few more of these get togethers soon.

Water everywhere

I've basically given up on getting caught up from my trip last month.  For those who haven't heard the news, SO CAL area has been slammed for the last week with rain.  And it was a lot of rain.  We started getting rain on Monday and up until this morning we were still getting rain.  What had once been only 4 storms turned into 5 and that last one was bad.  I love the rain, but this got to be even too much for me.  We had tornados, thunder, lightning, massive amounts of wind, hail and loads of rain.  Thursday night was one of the worst nights of the storm.  The wind was horrible and the thunder actually woke up Kaden. 

 I took these on Monday morning of the storm.  This is our front yard, right outside Kaden's window.  We had our own mini lake.

 The rain was just coming down like this all week long.

 On Friday morning as I opened Annabelle's blinds this is what I see across the street.  The wind was just that powerful as well as the rain that just kept coming.

 Ten minutes later Kaden asked me to see if it was still raining, it had tapered off some, and the same tree was now broken.  The wind just snapped off the limbs of the tree.  Throughout our part of the neighborhood there were 4 trees all affected like this or worse just from Friday's storm.

In between storms the maintence crew was scrambling to get all of the damaged trees cut down and out of harms way before it once again started raining.

Today we're actually seeing the sun and I can't wait to get out of this house for a lunch get together with my fellow navy wives.  It will be so nice to get out of this house for once this week.

Oh, and before I forget today is Jay's birthday and I'm eating some dessert at lunch today in honor of it.  He's still deployed and we miss him like crazy, but he'll be coming home soon and we'll celebrate all that he's missed at that time.