My baby brother graduates from HS!

Bryan and flew to Columbia, SC to meet up with my family and to celebrate my baby bro graduating from high school and mimi graduating from middle school. It also happens to be Maddie's birthday June 7th, so we celebrated that too!! I was so happy that she, her Captain Awesome boyfriend Rick and my aunt sharon were able to fly cross-country from Los Angeles. My mom drove my grandparents up from Clearwater and some of our cousins drove in from Charlotte. We had such an amazing visit!!

Bryan in the background, Grace, Maddie, Mom, Grandma and Grandpa, and me with Chase post-grad


the girls with the graduate back at the house

Lots for Grace to celebrate... Not having to change schools, go to Iraq, or get older. Congratulations Grace!!

Bryan and I were bumped to another flight at the airport. Luckily, instead of having a 2 hour layover in Atlanta, we were moved to another airline with a direct flight to PHL that left later and arrived earlier at PHL. Maddie and Rick came back to the aiport to meet us and Dad and the girls met us for lunch... yummy Zaxby's.

We got back to PHL in the afternoon, we got some delish CPK takeout and I got to finish packing and we just relaxed for our last night. On the 6th I leave for San Antonio for combat skills training before heading to Iraq at the end of the month. Thanks to all the family for coming!!

The last few weeks

Memorial Day weekend was a blast. Bryan drove up to NJ and back to DC every single day the week prior in order to get all of my stuff moved out of my apartment by the 28th of May. We dropped off my keys and drove away from my NJ apartment for the last time. We drove down to DC and unpacked a little before settling down to watch North by Northwest, a classic Hitchcock film that features a delightful scene on a train from NYC to Chicago which has inspired an obsession with traveling the country by train... we. will. do. it. someday. promise. That weekend I got to spend a lot of time with Kristen and Alex! We lunched at Zaytinya, saw Sex and the City 2, sangria'd at La Tasca and watched Twilight (Alex and Chris' first time seeing the movie). Bryan joined us to watch New Moon (now Chris is all caught up to go see Eclipse with Bryan and Kristen while im deployed) and we went to a housewarming/memorial day BBQ of dear friends. It was a delightful weekend with great friends.

At the end of the weekend, Bryan and I returned to NJ for me to out-process McGuire for my deployment before we boarded a plane to SC for Chase's HS graduation!!

Our first trip to Newport News

Our dear friends the Gheeslings from Dayton have moved to Newport News, Virgina and they were nice enough to host us for a weekend visit the week they moved into their new house. We had a great visit with them, eating every meal on their patio watching their adorable 13 month old Hank get into everything :) What a joy.

Us with Russell, Julie, Hank, and Cash Gheesling in their backyard.

They took us to Williamsburg and we got to walk around all of the great colonial buildings and eat at a great retro restaurant with corn dogs and root beer. Delish.

We so enjoyed our time with them, watching baseball, playing the Office version of Clue and eating great food. Thank you so much guys for allowing us to come visit your new home!!

A visit from the elder Bells

This is the amazing wedding quilt that Bryan's mom has been diligently working on. Isn't it beautiful.
This is me and Sue with the quilt.

We were so happy that Bryan's parents were able to come to DC for a visit before I left for Iraq. Sue's friend Sandra was able to give us a private tour of the Pentagon. What a truly incredible place. We had dinner in Old Town Alexandria. On Saturday we drove out to Annapolis and walked around the Naval Academy campus and the waterfront.

On Sunday we went to church at National Cathedral.

Sue, Bryan, and me at the Bishops' Garden at National Cathedral.

The elder Bells and us in our apartment. We had a great visit with them. Love you both so much!!

The best. dinner. party. ever.

My dear friend Kristen and her amazing boyfriend Chris were nice to enough to throw me a little farewell dinner party at their house. They cooked up a delish dinner that we enjoyed on the roof deck of their building. That's Greg and Alex, Minday and Dave, and Bryan and me on the deck. It was crazy windy but we had a wonderful time.

Bryan and me at the dinner.

We were also so happy because our friend Bodhi and Dave (and his fiancee) from ROTC were able to come to the party. We havent seen them in years! It was so good to see them and see that they are each doing well. Thank you Kristen and Chris for such an amazing party!!

quick overnight and then off to San Francisco

I got back from South Carolina late one night and Bryan was at my house to surprise me. So lovely... the next day we drove down to DC for the bridal shower of my dear friend Kathleen!! After the shower we drove back up to NJ because I had an early morning flight to San Francisco for a professional development conference. Of course the moment after I checked into the hotel, I strolled down the waterfront and stumbled upon an In 'n Out Burger. Delish.

2006 was the last time I was in San Francisco and I took a picture at this exact same spot at Fisherman's Wharf. You can see the Golden Gate bridge way in the background.

These next two pictures are with some of the new friends I made at the conference.

Sarah and Rachele are both stationed in Utah, Erin is actually from my base but it took traveling cross-country to meet her. I actually know Margot from Services tech school and Protocol school from years ago. This is us at a fabulous tea room in Ghirardelli Square.

The ladies at our Dining-In

I was so happy to get to see Clarissa. She and I have been friends since the first grade. She has lived in San Francisco since we graduated from high school, so I hardly ever get to see her. Love her!!

The rest of SC trip

My last night in South Carolina I was lucky enough to get to go to my sister Mimi's final middle school band concert. Me and Chase at the concert.

Me and the girls at the school.

On my way back from SC to NJ I had a layover at Reagan National in DC. As I was walking towards a news shop I saw a woman that I recognized and starting calling to her, "Mom! ... Mom! ... Mom!" Then realizing that there was no reason my mom would think to answer to mom in a random airport I called, "Stephanie!". She turned and was shocked to see me as I was to see her. needless to say mom and me had about 10 minutes to chat before she had to board her plane to Florida. We knew we were both traveling that week, but didn't know that our connecting flights would be at the same airport, at the same time, at gates directly across from each other. God works in mysterious ways. Love you mom!!