Our First Visitors!!

We moved in in November, and we have now had our first out of town guests come to stay with us. Mike's high school friend Kelly stayed one night and then Mike's aunt and uncle stayed with us for a weekend.

Mike and Kelly reminisce about their high school days by playing Smuggler's Run and other PS2 games. Mike took the PS2 down from the shelf along with all his old games and they plugged it in and played for a couple hours. Their conclusion was that this game system didn't stand up to today's tech and how did they ever think that those games were so cool. Kelly was only with us for a night so we stayed in and just hung out at the house. We had a good time though .

The day Kelly left Mike's Uncle Dan and Aunt Ginger came to stay with us for the weekend. Friday night we showed them all the Lemoore had to offer, dinner and a movie. But Saturday we drove to Paso Robles and did some wine tasting. Our first stop was Tobin James.

Tobin James was a neat place. It looked really cool. The mosaic to the right is the Tobin James starburst. This outdoor fireplace was really neat. Their wines on the other hand were non too impressive. Although we didn't have to pay for the tasting so that was plus. The place was packed, there were so many people there that Ginger and Mike couldn't even stand at the bar... they had to stand behind us. The pourer was more a bartender then a wino. Don't know that this will be on any future wine tasting stops.

The next stop on our journey was to a place called Falcon Nest. We had asked a "wine line" driver where there was good place to get some lunch and taste wine at the same time and he recommended this place. And it was awesome! We were the only four people in the place. To pull up to it was nothing special, to be honest I wasn't even sure if they were open. It was all run down and shabby looking. 

We walked in and sat at stools to taste the 4 wines that they offered. This tasting was $5 but well worth it. These wines were so good. No whites, only reds. Their merlot was probably the best the I've ever had, and I don't usually like merlot. Carol, her and her husband own the winery, was behind the counter pouring our wines. She was friendly and knowledgeable, and answered any questions we had. She treated us like we were old friends stopping by for lunch and some drinks. Her husband is the chef that cooks. He had his training in Italy, Spain, and France. The food was awesome! We had four different things from the menu and they were all really good. I would highly recommend this place to anyone who wants an off the beaten path winery where you get some one on one.

Life in Lemoore

So we have been for a bit now...and nothing too exciting is happening.

Mike has started the last part of his training before he is "fleet ready." He is a member of VFA-125, the Rough Raiders. All this means is that he is actually flying the F/A-18C for a few months being observed by instructors to make sure that he is safe. He will spend a few weeks learning how to drop bombs and missiles, a few weeks learn how to dog fight and manuever, and he will have a week of carrier landing at the end of all of it. In between he will fly formations, and at night, and just get comfortable and knowledgeable about Hornet.

Two pictures of the plane Mike will fly. The one a little to the right is the single seat hornet he will fly in the fleet. The one a little to the left (sorry it's so far away) was the first hornet Mike flew here at Lemoore. It is actually a two seater, meaning there is an instructor in the back.


I have met lots of wonderful ladies since I've been here. The job market is not too great, so up until recently none of us had jobs. Two have now gotten jobs, and no I am not one of them yet. I am hoping to find some openings that interest me soon.

New toys!!

AH, Christmas! Mike and I made out this year. We got a Tom-Tom GPS and Wii Fit from his parents....and a DSLR camera from mine. Along with lots of movies and other little gadgets. We've been using the Wii Fit and took the camera for a test run to Paso Robles Wine Country the other day. Here's a little selection of pics. (The camera is still on Auto setting as I have yet to learn all the fancy doohicky buttons yet!!)

These two are using the "close-ups" setting on the camera.

Pics of Sunset.

These three are from different points on the drive through Paso Robles.

This is one of the wineries we stopped at the day. Apparently the owners have a thing for castles, cause they built their own!

New Abode...

Welcome to our new home!

When we found out we would next be stationed in Lemoore, CA we called to see about getting a house on base again. They informed us the wait list was 3-6 months, and we wouldn't go on the list until we detached from Meridian. Well we decided to go ahead see what would happen so we filled out all the paper and went on the October 14, a week later we got a call saying they had a house available did we want to take. So much for 3-6 months!! We hadn't even made it to Lemoore when they called us. We said we would tentatively take it but we wanted to walk through before we signed anything. We walked through it and the selling point was...

The Kitchen!!

This kitchen is so much bigger than any of the kitchens we have had so far. Look at all the counter space!!!

We have gotten all of our stuff and have started to unpack and find new homes for everything. This is the living room you see when you first walk in the door. The kitchen is to your right, and three bedrooms and two bathrooms are to your left. There is a ton of storage space in the house, and shelving in the two car garage.

I can't wait to get all settled in!!

Doggie Beach

I was in AZ for two weeks while Mike was at survival and p.o.w. training in San Diego. When he was finished Sunset and I met him in San Diego and we stayed for a night there before going to S.B. for a night. While in San Diego, we took Sunset to the Ocean Beach doggie beach.

She played for awhile, and then she was all done and layed on the beach refusing to come back in the water!

Arizona Trip

As I was driving into AZ from CA, I took this picture of the sunset. Something about the moon high about the purplish mountain, and then the changing colors of the sky. It struck me as gorgeous. This picture, and the others I attempted, don't even come close to the true majesty of the sky that night. This is what I missed about being on the east, the sunsets and the being able to see for miles and miles. It is incredible the vast difference in climate and vegetation from one side of the country to the other, a testament to the painting and architectural powers of our Creator God.



Anyways, on to the rest of my trip home. Mom and I spent a day with Melissa, Amanda, and Abby at Out Of Africa in Camp Verde. It's about an hour north of Scottsdale. If you are in Phoenix/Scottsdale and are looking for something to do for a day, take the trip out it was amazing. And it is a day trip, not because it's far away but because of all the amazing things you can see and do out there.

You go on a safari ride, and the animals literally come onto the front steps of the bus...There are a few animals that you as a guest can actually feed, the zebra not being one of them because of their massive teeth.....I wouldn't want to loose a finger to that guy!!

The giraffe is one of the animals that you can feed. Their tongues are HUGE!! For the safari ride you load onto an old school bus with no windows and no door. You then go out into the "Serengeti" where there are all sorts of animals from the African plains. Out of Africa started as a big cat rescue and has since expanded over the years. As far as I know the same owners that started it are still owners and a large part of the day to day runnings.

The camel is the other animal on safari that you can actually feed. Our bus driver, Bob, really liked Humphrey, the camel. All the workers are so in love with the animals and it really is all about their interest, humans come second. The animal trainer relationship is incredible here as well. You would assume that with a camel that wouldn't be too difficult, but how about with tigers....

Out of Africa does a show called "Tiger Splash" where three trainers bring in two tigers, or a lioness and a tiger, or various other animals and play around with them. You can't see it in this picture but there is a pool in there that they jump in and swim around. The trainers have all these crazy toys filled with balloons that they run around to get the tigers to chase and then jump in the pool. The day we were there for the first few minutes it was just the trainers in the pool, the tigers would always stop at the edge and watch the trainer get soaking wet, almost as if to say "HA, I made you do that!"


This one particular tiger was something of an acrobat and would often jump up against the fence to get at the toys!

The day we were there was feeding day for all the predators cats. We followed the meat truck around and watched them through racks of ribs, legs of horses, whole turkeys, and various other meats into the pens for the animals to eat. This white tiger, was patiently waiting for his meal trying to look innocent and sweet. He was talking and purring while his neighbors were being fed.

Boom-Boom, the Rhino

Boom-Boom the rhino has an amazing story. He came to Out of Africa in an unusual way. He was bought by a hunter who was going to put him into an enclosure as game. He was bought to be hunted and killed. Someone from Out of Africa heard about this and they offered to pay the hunter double what he had payed for Boom-Boom, in order to save his life. The hunter accepted and Boom-Boom now strolls around the desert in his new home.

All the animals at Out of Africa have similar stories. They are mostly rescued from people who buy them to hunt them, or people who purchase them as pets and then can no longer take care of them. The entire admission you pay goes back to help the animals, Out of Africa gets no outside money. I know this sounds like a sales pitch.....it was an amazing experience though!!



A few more pics of the day

Mike and I have now moved to Lemoore, CA!! No more MISSISSIPPI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prior to us coming here we were in the hands of the Navy waiting on housing...so we took a drive down to Santa Barbara so as not to completely annoy our friends who were letting us crash at their place. My mom's brother and his family live there so we spent a few days with them.

I love Santa Barbara, it is this cute little beach town that has your typical CA feel to it. State Street is a blast to walk up and down and go into all the little boutique shops, as well as your name brand stores. There are two, yes TWO, Starbucks on State Street!! (Oh and did I mention that in Lemoore, the base has a Starbucks??? And Target is now only 15 minutes away AND it has a Starbucks in it as well!!! I'm a little stoke to be out of MS if you can't tell!!)

Anyways, back to our little two day vacation.... We went down to S.B. on a Tuesday with the intentions of staying only one night. We stayed two because it was just so nice.

I had not been back to S.B. to visit my aunt and uncle since I was in high school. I had remembered the Santa Barbara Mission to be amazing and so Mike and I took some time and went there. (We also went to the Natural History Musuem, which might have been alright if we had kids, maybe). The mission was not a disappointment.

This picture is an attempt to recreate and amazing postcard I saw where the mission was reflected in the water, I think I kinda got the effect.

The gardens and the cemetery at the mission are also picturesque and amazing. This one is the center of the complex and at one point was a prayer garden for the monks that lived there. The flowers were blooming and the sun was shining. Just an all around perfect day to be wandering around outside. We attempted to take a picture of Mike and I with this in the background, but there was no one near by and no where to place the camera without having a tri-pod. Maybe I should get one, I could be a real tourist then!!

We have since been back to Santa Barbara for a weekend. At that time we enjoyed a four year old's birthday party and his older sister singing in an opera!!