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.

Swiss Miss

So, I can't believe I haven't written about our Spouse Naming ceremony yet!! Well, in a nutshell.... It is a tradition among pilots to have a call sign. Iain's call sign is "Hack". Usually when pilots are synchronizing their watches together they say "ready, ready hack", or something like that. Anyways, it turns out that Iain tends to run "nearly" late to almost everything. So, based on several different circumstances observed by other colleagues of his, he earned the call sign "Hack". It is quite a process to be given your name. The guys have a big ceremony and lots of "secret" things go on.

Well, the wives didn't think the guys should have all the fun and so we began planning for our own naming ceremony. So, the fun began as we all started to submit potential names for each other based on various events of our year together. After about a month of planning it all came together. We decided our goal for the night was to have fun, and do things our own way.

So, the way it worked was you had a list of names submitted for you. You then had the option to work 2 of those names off. You could chose to drink the name off the list, do a dare or sing karaoke. Then you leave the room and everyone votes on your name. Once you were officially named you had an eightball painted on your forehead. (In case you didn't know, we are the Eightballs, becaseu our class number is 08A) It was great fun and I pretty much acted like a dork the whole night.

I have never karaoked before for some very painful and obvious reasons...... So, I decided to this night. My great friend Vicki, aka Poptart, sang a duet with me. We, of course, chose Summer Lovin. I sang Travolta's part.

I guess all that leaves now is to tell you what my name is. Well, it is Swiss Miss. This comes about because of my efforts to remain very diplomatic and not take sides when dealing with "spouse leader" issues. Also, because I gave away a lot of hot chocolate last winter. So, there you go. Here are some pictures.

PUMPKINS!!

The kids and I hit a pumpkin patch this week. We had almost the whole place to ourselves. We had a great time. We just have fun hanging out. Dad had to work. We missed him!! Here are some pictures!

Next Airplane

So, today Iain flew the F-15. Our very good friend Daron Drown brought a plane out from Florida to fly with our class this week. Iain and I have known Daron and his wife for several years. What a wonderful couple they are, with their 5th beautiful child on the way. Sadly we have not been stationed with them since way back in Pilot Training in Mississippi. But we love it when Daron comes to town. It was fun for Iain to get to fly with him this today!

Next Aircraft....

Well, it isn't an airplane, but how cool is this!! It has been a couple of weeks since Iain got a chance to see what it is like to fly a helicopter. This is an HH-60. I was particularly thrilled about Iain having a chance to fly this because it is the same model that my dad flew and the one I have the most memories of watching him fly. Watching this helicopter fly all over North Island, down in San Diego is really where my love of "all things on a flight line" began. I LOVE this stuff. I love watching planes zip around the sky out here, I love hearing the roar of the engines over my house, I love watching helicopters hover, I even love the smell that all military "things" give off. It can be a giant aircraft carrier or a helicopter or my husbands flight suit, they all give off this very distinct, particular smell. I don't know what it is, but I have smelled it my whole life. You know how smells can bring up such powerful memories. For me this smell reminds me of how I felt everytime my dad came home from work. I was happy that he was home and I was proud of the work he did. I have that same feeling now with my own husband. I know this must seem corny and strange to most of you, but I love it. It is all I know.....flight suits, pilots, deployments, moving, combat boots, crew rest, welcome homes and military pride..... I am a total sucker for all of it.
Anyways, all that to say, Iain got to fly a helicopter and I was really proud! By the way, he had a BLAST!