Here is our new normal

     Ok people, one last post to get us up to date.  I’ll sum up the last few weeks quickly!  I promise.  David’s job has been a little bit different than we had anticipated.  He was supposed to be working directly with the Submarine Search and Rescue, but it’s only a small part of his job.  The rest of the time, he helps to coordinate Midshipmen summer cruises, arrange foreign sub visits, and work with different commands to coordinate training opportunities.  He is the only one in his rank at the office; so unfortunately, we won’t have work friends like we are used to.  However, the schedule is night and day from what it has been the last few years, and we live in a beautiful place, so we really can’t complain! 

     We are still looking for a church and ultimately for community, but we’re working on it!  I have tried out a few women’s Bible studies and we have tried a few churches out here.  We’ve been to both extremes, the ultra traditional and the urban, hippy, homeless church.  We are hoping for something in between.  But God is providing, and we are hopeful!  While I was out for a jog the other day, I stopped a woman coming out of the church near our house.  She was carrying a Bible Study booklet so I got her contact info and she was thrilled to pass along the info about the study.  She has turned out to be such a blessing!  Her name is Sylvia, and she is a precious elderly British woman who has reached out to me and made me feel so welcome.  We are to visit her church next week where she said there is a wonderful Navy community.  She has also offered quite extensively to babysit Nathan, whom she would not relinquish to me for even a second while we were at the Bible study. 

      There is so much to do here and the weather is so incredible that no matter how hard the day, or how lonely it feels, we can never really have that bad of a day.  We have loved exploring the area.  My uncle, Rob, and brother, Matt, came to visit en route to their business trip nearby and we had a wonderful time exploring Torrey Pines golf course, the breathtaking cliffs and the hang gliders that jump off of them in La Jolla, the beautiful views in Carlsbad (Rachel Gallo, you grew up in an amazing place!!), and admiring the gorgeous sunset at the lighthouse near the top of Point Loma.  

Other than that, we have hit up several Diners Drive-Ins and Dives (Caleb and Jennifer, we are preparing for our arrival), 

several surrounding beaches,

David had his first day of surfing,

We got a zoo membership

bought matching tank tops

and we have been practicing lots of new skills!

   Basically, life is good here.  God is faithful, His creation is beautiful, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to deepen our marriage through more time together, and we have a son whom we adore.  We are so blessed. 

House Hunting and Wedding Festivities

    Our week was spent combing through Craiglist and Zillow, and looking at numerous housing options.  Back when we were looking for a place in Norfolk, we were so blessed to meet Kristen Caddell and her mom, the close friends of David’s cousin.  We could have never found our place without them!  It was a little daunting to try and find a place this time around without our Norfolk tour guides to help us out!   As we continued our search, we were really blessed to be put into contact with some friends of my aunt who gave us a few pointers, as well as tips from some random people on the street that we stopped to ask questions about the area. 

      We ended up narrowing it down to three places at three different price points, with three distinct sets of pros and cons.  We felt just like we were on House Hunters International.  We took a long walk on the beach, discussed the options, and made our decision. 

This is the view from our patio

so many boxes!

Our traditional "first meal in a new apartment" dinner

Now that we are settled, we can really see God’s hand in bringing us to this place.  We weren’t quite sure about it at first.  We were hoping for a house, it didn’t seem to be in walking distance to much, and it wasn’t the adorable beachy place we had imagined.  However, we are so glad we are living here.  We have loved the amenities.  Nathan loves the pool 

and does a great job playing in his stroller so David and I can play a little tennis.  Also, it turns out we are actually within walking distance to a lot!  We are about 2 miles to the beach, 1.5 miles to Trader Joes, and Target and the best thing of all, there is a donut place half a mile away!!  The complex has grown on us a lot as well.  Everyone is so friendly, and the money that we are saving by not being in the “beachy” house is going to be our “travel money!”  We are hoping with David’s more flexible schedule, to be able to really explore the west coast while we are here. 

    Also, our landlord has been awesome.  His son is a senior at the Naval Academy and he was so excited to find out that we were Navy as well.  He has taken wonderful care of us and even had a get-together at his house and invited us, along with several other Navy friends and neighbors.  He and his wife have given us lots of helpful tips on getting to know the area.   
   During our house hunting, we were able to attend the gorgeous wedding of our friend Joel and his beautiful bride, Kelsey.  The views were incredible, the ceremony was beautiful, and we were so glad we could be there to celebrate their special day.  

Made it!!

 We made good time in the morning thanks to Nathan taking a fabulous morning nap.  We hit another long patch of nothing, but driving by Palm Springs was beautiful.  

Then we got incredibly excited when we saw our first sign for…In-N-Out Burger.  Let’s just talk about In-N-Out Burger.  We have been excited to stop here since we found out we were moving to San Diego.  So many people have told us how good it is so when we saw the sign, it was a necessary stop.  Despite the fact that it was 10:45 am, lunch had to happen right then.  We tried our best to order like a local and not seem like tourists, but I think taking a picture with the In-N-Out sign gave us away. 

     After stuffing ourselves with ginormous burgers, fries, and sodas, we struggled out of our food comas enough to drive our last few hours to San Diego.  Folks, around 2 pm we finally made it.  We checked into our hotel on the very southern tip of the Point Loma Submarine Base.  By 3:00, David had cracked a Corona, we had traded our shoes for flip-flops, and we were sitting in the sun watching the sailboats from our hotel balcony.  Welcome to Paradise. 

The most beautiful place

       Sedona was our favorite stop of our whole trip.  The Grand Canyon is the most enormous and overwhelming place I have ever been to, but Sedona is just peaceful and breathtaking.  We got to spend a little bit longer here too which we loved.  We skipped Flagstaff in the morning to let Nathan get in his morning nap on our car ride and got to Sedona mid morning.  We went to Red Rock State Park, strapped a sick little Nathan into the wrap, slipped into our tennis shoes and decided to attempt a hike with baby.  It went fabulously!  This could be because Nathan got a healthy dose of Tylenol right before our hike to help with slight fever, but either way, it was great. J We hiked the short loop and then decided that since Nathan was sleeping, we would go all the way to the top!  It was a little over 3 miles round trip, but it was worth it.  The view was spectacular.  It was so peaceful we just stood at the top and marveled as we looked at beautiful canyons and mountains as far as we could see. 

       After our hike, we had worked up quite an appetite, so we grabbed some delicious lunch at a cute little restaurant in downtown Sedona.  Side note – if you need reliable travel reviews, use the Trip Advisor App!  It never let us down.  We used it for everything from good hotels to restaurants to things to do.  It was super helpful. 

    Unfortunately, we weren’t able to stop in Phoenix either because Nathan was sleeping (notice a trend here?).  In our defense our poor little guy was really not feeling well at this point.  It was the first time he has been sick since he was born so I was a little over anxious about doing everything we could to make him feel better.  So much for the relaxing and not being so controlling thing on my part. Well, I never said I had mastered this concept or anything. J We hit another stretch of nothing and ended up staying the night in Blythe, California.  Most hilarious town ever.  It had one stoplight, about three hotels, and was in the middle of nowhere.  This is downtown.  I laugh every time I see this picture.  Who names a bank "Rob a bank?" 

The hotel where we did end up staying though was clean and felt fairly safe.  We put Nathan down early and decided to pass on eating out since one of the top choices for restaurants on Trip Advisor for Blythe was Subway.  We grabbed salads and a movie from the local grocery store and enjoyed a quiet night in, at least until we went to bed.  We woke up every 30 min to an hour that night with Nathan.  It was so awful. 

I am in even more awe of parents who deal with kids who are sick often or are seriously sick.  He had a horrible barking cough and would wake up screaming and having trouble breathing, which would induce awful coughing fits.  It was exhausting and so hard to listen to!   Thankfully, morning came and with it a Venti Starbucks.  Next stop – San Diego!