Navy Test/Florida/Australia

PC-9

Hawk 127

Flying the F-18.

In Florida flying the Huey.

I am about 2 months behind on my blogging, but it has been a busy 2 months. Let's see if I can touch on the highlights.

When I last left off, Iain was on his World Tour. He went to the East coast first to fly with the Navy Test Pilot School and visit our great friends the Drowns. Then he went to Australia to fly with their test pilots. Most of you probably know this already, but for those of you who don't, Iain is a native Australian. For those of you who don't know Iain at all, no he doesn't have an accent. Not even a hint of one, but his parents still do :) Anyway, he enjoyed his time there very much but it was quite rushed. He was not able to visit as much family as he would have liked to. He did, however get to spend a bit of time with his cousins who live in Sydney. Peter and Nicole and their 3 sweet kids. Iain loved just hanging out with them and spending some great family time together.

The planes he flew in Australia were the PC-9 and the HAWK 127. I will post some of the 100's of pictures he took on his trip. He had a super time. When he got home it was time to gear up for the final days before graduation and boy were they busy ones. (I won't include pictures of our cousins or our friends the Drowns becaseu I haven't asked them permission, but know we love you if you are reading this and that Iain loved his time with you. )

Day at the lake

We hung out at Lake Elizabeth today after church. It was lovely. Aren't the kids cute as can be?!

A few Family pics

Just for fun....here are a few pictures of us at the Getty museum. The best one I am leaving out as a potential for our Christmas picture!

Baby shower

My good friend Kelly and I threw a big shower for our good friend, Kerry this week. It was so much fun. Kelly is an AMAZING chef who spoils us with her delicious food. So, she cooked us up a big Italian feast for 22 people. She cooked for days and everything was totally excellent. My contribution was to set up my house to do a sit down dinner. My house is 1,300 sq. ft. BUT, thanks to my amazing husband and our amazing freind, Ryan, WE DID IT! It was like a restaurant! WE had so much fun. The whole night was about friends and food, and of course Kerry, who we love to death. Here are a few pictures. Well, now that I look at them, I didn't get too many great ones. I know some of the other girls did. When I get their pictures I will upload them. :)

Next Airplane(s)

This is the Extra 300.

Iain right before he jumps in a Mig for the first time.

This is the Vista, which is a modified F-16.

Oh boy am I behind on airplanes!! And, I am getting out of order. I haven't even had time to post all about Iain's trip to Australia yet. He just took so many pictures and flew so many different things, I haven't been able to keep up. I figured I could do a quick post now for those of you who like to keep up with Iain's flying.

Graduation is right around the corner (Dec. 13) and we are really excited. Academic classes are done. Now Iain just has to finish up a few more flights, right a couple more reports, he has a BIG oral exam after Thanksgiving and his TMP (test management project) to complete and he is DONE!!

Pink flag

Jessica, Maria, Kelly, Kerry, Annet, Vicki, Charisma and Me

Cab ride home from some bar in Santa Barbara. Sadly, I was never carded for anything. :(

Kelly, me and Vicki seated ourselves in some VIP section of this place called "Throb" or "Viper" or maybe it was called "Thrasher", I really can't remember. I hadn't had anything to drink, I just honestly can't think of the name.

Me and Vicki leaving the Wine Cask

The "pink flag" gang at the restaurant.

Charisma (the one Sean Penn has a crush on), Kelly, Me and Vicki

On the beach right in fromt of our hotel.

Oh where to begin?? I guess first I will explain what a "pink flag" is. Well, it has its roots in fighter pilot traditions. I guess fighter pilots go on a "red flag" weekend every year to Vegas and practice "war". Somewhere along the line the fighter pilots' wives decided they wanted a weekend in Vegas too and thus "pink flag" was born. Now a days, "pink flag" basically just means.....girls weekend. So, that is what we did. We packed up and took a girls weekend, but not to Vegas, to Santa Barbara.

It was unbelievable fun and relaxing and just all round fabulous. We got to our AMAZING hotel that Vicki booked for us (Hotel Mar Monte) on Friday evening. The hotel was right on the beach, it was just perfect. Saturday morning we all woke up and hit the beach for an hour long walk. It was perfect weather, which is amazing considering we were there in October, you never know what the weather can be like. After our walk we got cleaned up and headed out for a GREAT day of shopping. I had a few fun finds, but the best was the shoes I bought at Nordstrom!! LOVE THEM. They looked so good on me that my good friend Kelly bought a pair too......TWINS!! After shopping, every girl needs a spa treatment. So, off to the spa that Charisma booked for us. I had an hour long fabulous ....thing. It involved salt and hot stones and hot water and massage and it was just so wonderful!

After our spa treatments we hit this fabulous restaurant that Kelly picked out for us called the Wine Cask. I can not say enough. It was an "experience" to eat there and so much fun! We were there for like 4 hours. Just in the other room Tim Robbins was celebrating his birthday with all his hollywood friends. One of those friends, Sean Penn, saw my freiend Charisma getting out of her car and said to her, "nice dress". Okay, we all died. Sadly, I was already in the restaurant and missed the whole thing!! UGH! But charisma was workin' the bod in this very sexy black dress and Sean baby noticed. I don't think she has taken that dress off yet!! :) I have to say the best part of the whole night was when we got our bill. Seven of us rang up an 800$ bill that night. THANKFULLY Maria had a COUPON for 25$!! I mean, what a relief!! WHEW! HAHAHAHAHAHA. I laughed so hard at our 25$ coupon for our $800 bill. Maria was so cute...."OH!!" she exclaimed excitedly, "I have a coupon!!" It was totally priceless. :)

After dinner a few of us were not ready to go home and a few of us were. So, those of us who were not ready to go back to the hotel stayed out. Let's just say that through a series of events we ended up at a couple of college bars and it was a scream. We couldn't have been more out of place. Kelly in her 16" pearl necklace and Jacki O sweater ensamble and Vicki with her coat drapped over her arm..... We really did look like a bunch of moms there to find and drag our teenage kids out by the ear. Maria fit in the most, but watch out Maria, you are now closer to being like us than you are the college crowd. It's a harsh reality I know.

Anyway, we headed home Sunday. Kerry passed out in the car on the way out of town and 911 was called, but other than that, no major drama. Kerry turned out to be fine......just trying to steal all the attention I guess. :) Well, here are some fun pictures! Thanks to all my friends for such a great time away. You guys are LEGENDS!

Our Song

So, thanks to the help of my good friend Jessica, I figured out how to have a nifty playlist. Thanks Jess. So, who can guess which of these songs is "our song"? ("our" meaning me and Iain)

Abbie the photographer

A bunch of moms and kids came over for a pot luck while our hubbies are travelling the world. We had a great time. Abbie was our photographer. Here are some of the cutest little eight balls ever!!

Next Airplane

 Iain is now at the Navy Test Pilot School in Pax River. Today he flew the F-18. I only talked to him for a second but he said it was incredible. A couple of questions to ask him when I talk to him next.....1) is this the Navy version of the F-15? and more importantly.... question numero 2) Is this the model of airplane that was flown in the movie Top Gun? I can hear the theme music now. I wonder if they play it in the cockpit every time they take off. If they don't, they should.

Up next.....

Iain is in Florida right now. These are the two aircraft he will be flying while he is there. A Th 57, a Huey and a T-34. He is really excited. After Florida he heads to Pax River to Navy Test Pilot School. After that he goes to Australia to fly with the Aussies! Fun times!

Next Airplanes....

Oh, I am so behind!! Okay, Iain has flown a couple of different planes this week and these are some of his own pictures. I think the little one is an L-39, but not sure. The bigger one is an Albatros and it lands on the water. Iain and some others flew it up to Lake Isabella, landed on teh lake and went for a swim. He had a great time and ranked it as one of his most favorite planes to fly.

Have no fear....

"Again your ear can hear, my dear." (Dr. Suess)

So, Mollie had what we thought was a rock in her ear. It was large and black and so far down in her ear canal that she had to be put under to take it out. she was so good about it all. We had to go in very early in the morning and she couldn't have anything to eat or drink. She was in very good spirits right up until when the nurses had to take her to the OR. She did not give up one bit of a fuss, but two streams of tears quietly trickled down her little cheecks. Oh, it broke my heart to see her trying so hard to be brave and feeling so scared.

Turns out it was not a rock. It was this little foam die cut that we use in art projects sometimes. What a blessing because that meant it came out so soft and easy, no scratching like a rock would have done. God is so gentle with His lambs.

I got to go and be there when she woke up. It was all a snap, really. A blesssing that Iain got permission to miss class so he could be there as well. Here are some pictures.