Kane'ohe Bay Airshow!

Friday afternoon we headed down to the flight line for the Military Appreciation Day for the air show. It was basically the entire airshow minus the "wall of fire" act with the Blue Angels, the suped up drag racing truck, and all of the vendors. It was still a great afternoon without those!

C-130, I'm standing in the door that Quinn parachuted out of!

C-5 Galaxy, this thing is HUGE, it can hold tanks!

Red Bull stunt plane.

Red Bull stunt plane & squirrel suit/parachuters.

I believe this is the C-17 - Quinn jumped out of this too!

"Leap Frogs" - Navy Seal Parachute Team

Fat Albert & the Blue Angel's pilots and crew preparing for take-off!

Ear protection for me... none for him... silly boy.

The beautiful sunset from our house.
Left = front yard, Right = back yard
(NO EDITING)

Blue Angel's Practice

Quinn had today off work so we made a delicious lunch and sat on the lanai enjoying the breeze, little did we know we'd have front row seats to a non-advertised "show!" The actual air show is this weekend so the Blue Angels have been flying all over base, but today they did their practice run for the show and they flew straight thru our backyard!

They are so cool & so loud! I can't wait to go to the military preview show tomorrow =)

Dinner with the "nieces & nephews"

Kim & Andy always treat us to a delicious homemade dinner when we are in town, I'm glad we got to spend our last evening with them! The kids treat us to whatever they fancy at the moment... this time around we got a tour of the new house, backyard, got to see Elli play her video game, sing & say the pledge, they showed us toys, books, pictures, and more...

Getting all four kids to sit still for a picture, now that was a chore... these are the best 3 of the bunch!

Zeke looks like he's plotting something...

There she goes saying the pledge of allegiance again!

Whoa, they're all looking!

Of course we had to get some "adult" photos too...

Healing Field & D'backs Game

On September 11th we headed down to Tempe to check out the Healing Field. It never ceases to amaze me how moving/emotional it can be to witness all of those flags. Stuffed animals signified children, boots signified military/police/fire fighter, and every single flag had a card with the name, age, and location of the person it was symbolizing.

That evening we headed down to Chase Field (although it will always be "BOB" to me...) to catch the Diamondback's game. I think Quinn must be good for AZ sports... Cardinals win, Diamondbacks win... hmmmm....

Arizona BBQ

Quinn & I cleaned up after the lake and headed over to April & Eric's house for a small BBQ with some good friends!

Justin & Meaghan had actually just gotten back from a Hawaiian vacation!

Emily & Jordan posed together since their men were working...

The wonderful hosts of the evening!

We ended the night with ice cream sundaes and good conversation, it was nice to see all of them.

A Day at Saguaro

This morning we packed up the boat and headed to Saguaro Lake! I didn't kneeboard or wakeboard since my pectoral muscle was still a bit sore from kayaking and Quinn's back was bugging him (we're pretty awesome 20-something year olds, right?!), but mom & dad water skied! The upper part of the lake was a disgusting chocolate brown color from all the run-off due to the monsoons, but the lower part was the nice green color it normally is.

We floated, swam, dived, enjoyed lunch, fed the ducks, and soaked up the sun. It was a great day out on the water!

Cardinals Season Opener +Family Photos!

Sunday was an eventful day! We headed out to Glendale early so Quinn could check out Cabela's and we could grab some lunch prior to the football game. We ended up eating at Margaritaville because the line/wait everywhere else was much longer and we never would have made kick-off, as it was we barely made it in time for the national anthem.

After the game we enjoyed surf and turf homemade by mom, then took some quasi-family photos, because we aren't actually THAT die-hard of Cardinals' fans, it's just what we had on at the moment and the only opportunity where we were all together looking presentable. Haha!

Swimming Saturday & Four Peaks

Saturday morning we headed over to check out Alexis' house, it's really cool! I like the way she's decorated it so far and can't wait to see it when it's "done-done." Mom & I helped her make soccer shirts for her adult co-ed team then dad, Quinn, and I swam with Zach's (her roomate) puppy Ollie.

 

That evening we headed down to Four Peaks with Ashley & Tena. They treated us to dinner so we bought them dessert at AJs to eat while watching a movie back at their place. I was so happy to squeeze in an evening with them while we were home. 

Birthday Dinner for 4!

Friday night we headed out to Red Lobster for their endless shrimp, oh... and to celebrate all of our birthdays! Nick & Quinn in August, Alexis and myself in September.

I don't know if they didn't believe we were actually there to celebrate but we didn't get any singing, cake, or ice cream! *sad face* It was great to get everyone together though and Lex enjoyed her gift from us.

Kayaking the Salt

We loaded the kayaks on the trailer, packed up the soft ice chest, grabbed the paddles and headed up to the Salt River! It was a pretty perfect day- sunshine, horses, and cool refreshing water. My pectoral muscle got a bit sore towards the end so mom & dad each took a turn "towing" me.

After we finished and carried the boats up to the parking lot... we realized we didn't have mom's car key to drive dad back up to get the truck (uh-oh!). The only people around were very drunk or missing (a random car with its doors open was just hanging out), until I spotted at green truck headed down the road, luckily Quinn flagged down the Forest Service guy, dad explained the situation and caught a ride with him.

Once we finally loaded up we headed to Smashburger so everyone could try the new "hit place" in town. It was pretty good, I'm not sure it lived up to the hype especially with the cost.

It was a great day over all.
We all slept very well that night!

Goodbye MD --- Hello AZ!

Monday morning we headed out to brunch with Aaron, Jeremy, and Lauren. The rest of the day we hung out with Jason & Gini and made sure everything was ready to go for the next morning.

Tuesday morning came early, we snapped some photos before we headed off to the airport.

Once we got to the rental car return I realized we still had an unopened bottle of water in the back seat, since I obviously couldn't bring it on the plane I thanked the guy who took our keys and asked him if he would like some water. He said that was such a nice gesture and then told us to leave our luggage in the car, I was confused since I had already started unloading my stuff while Quinn was signing the paperwork. We had arrived really early for our flight to leave time for the rental car shuttle and security... but this man insisted on driving us to the departure area in our rental car! So crazy & nice. We wandered the shops and grabbed lunch before settling in at our gate to wait.

6hrs later we landed in Arizona, this time around I wasn't the sick one... We went out to dinner with the family at Serrano's, because you can't go to AZ and not eat there!

Maryland BBQ +Friends!

On Saturday our old Journey Group threw us a BBQ! It was so great to see everyone again, we really miss these people. Sadly we haven't been able to find a mini-church to attend together with Quinn's schedule here.

On Sunday we went to our old church (Severn Run!) and enjoyed the sermon by Pastor Drew. We also ran into a few friends that weren't able to attend the BBQ. After church we headed out to see our old piggies Beans & Twix...

 
Then we visited some friends and their little girl, and finally ate at the Greene Turtle with another of Quinn's (former) Marine buddies Brian.