the kiddos will play:)
brian is amazing and took care of the munchkins by himself for 10 days while i was gone! dad of the year for sure! i couldn’t call them while i was on the boat so i sent a couple of emails begging for pictures. this is what i got…
troublemakers!!! now you can tell their daddy had his work cut out for him!!
thank you to cc for helping out and giving brian a breather now and then :)
what an experience!!
dad & i’s trip started by flying overnight from houston to phoenix, phoenix to las vegas, and then las vegas to hawaii. super glad that i was sans kids for all of those plane {and terminal} changes!
when we got to hawaii, we decided to try to find where james’ carrier was going to pull in. we decided to head for the uss arizona memorial at pearl harbor and see what we could find out. the park ranger told us that usually carriers dock right next to the memorial so we decided to hang out there and wait.
while we were waiting, we decided to get tickets to go out and see the uss arizona memorial and figured that if they came in while we were out there, we’d just have that much better of a view. before you take the boat out to the memorial, you watch a film describing what happened at pearl harbor on december 7, 1941. when the film was over, we headed out the doors to the boat and this is what we saw coming around the corner of the harbor!! SWEET!!!! perfect timing!
our view from the uss arizona memorial.
we probably had a different experience than most on the uss arizona memorial. it was anything but somber and quiet. everyone was so excited to see an aircraft carrier coming in and tried to find a spot along the edge to get pictures of the stennis. we did try to take a little time to see some of the memorial even if we were completely freaking out about how lucky we had gotten with our timing.
oil still coming up from the uss arizona.
headed back from the memorial. 
once we got back to the dock, we spent some time watching what was going on with the carrier and even found some family members of others on the boat. unfortunately, we also found a know-it-all mom who knew everything about everything on the stennis. come to find out, she knew not very much at all but whatever. dad and i got a little sick of listening to her so we decided to walk over to the base just to see if they would let us in.
after looking at our driver’s license, they let us right in onto the pier next to the boat. we had a front row view of everyone coming and going from the boat. sweet!! what we didn’t expect was to still be sitting in the same place three and a half hours later completely sunburned, starving, and still no james in sight {or anyone else for that matter!}. we saw families and friends reunited and daddy’s mommy’s reunited with their kiddos. everyone should experience that once in their life. it’s indescribable!
about an hour into waiting, i jokingly said to dad that he was probably sleeping. what we found out later was that was exactly what he was doing. we finally decided to head to our hotel and figured we would find a way to catch up with him later. about an hour after getting to the hotel, we get a call from a certain naval aviator. he asked me where we were and because i was feeling very smart alecky at this point, i said “hawaii genius…where are you?” to which he said “you’re here??” apparently somewhere along the way, his boat was supposed to get in the day before we flew in. navy plans changed {shocker!} and they got in a day later but in his mind, we were still getting in the next day. dork! we made sure he heard about it for the rest of the trip! when asked what he was doing that whole time we were standing on the pier, he said, “sleeping” must be nice!
after dinner, we headed to the hotel where i fell asleep and the boys left to go out.
the next day, we decided to take a drive to the east side of the island. we got to see hanauma bay, the blowhole, and other gorgeous beaches!
that night, the boys took me to my first luau at germaine’s. fun!
sunday, james had to sit duty so he gave us a tour of the boat before everyone got back on.
one of the catapults. 
view of uss arizona memorial at pearl harbor from the boat. 
flight deck. 
the roone. 
the view from our hotel room. i loved watching the rain clouds come in each day. 
beachfront at night. 
monday morning, we picked james up at the boat and took a trip to the north shore. while we were driving, we came across the dole plantation so we stopped in for a bit…
north shore! 
there was traffic so james was in charge of finding us an alternate route. this is what he came up with. genius! 
gorgeous beaches! 
we had to be back on the boat monday night so we turned our rental car back in and headed back.
the hangar bay… 
the next morning we got up and headed to the flight deck for our departure from pearl harbor. the sailors manned the rails as we pulled out.
slayer & rooney. 
a plane landing at the honolulu airport. bet they weren’t expecting to see and aircraft carrier out their window. 
that afternoon, james took us to the fan tail to watch the pilots practicing for the air power demo land. it was crazy!! we were directly below the centerline as they were landing!
the sunset wasn’t bad either:) 
wednesday was the air power demo. the small boys {destroyers} came alongside for awhile and then the air wing took over…
fluffer & tj flying by… 
nemo going supersonic… 
james is one of the guys who waves and helps the pilots to land. i don’t know much about it but it’s my understanding he tells them more power, less power, or abort. i could be way off but whatever:) anyway, this is him with his paddles clan.
that afternoon, they had a change of command ceremony and we got to stand on the LSO platform {VERY close to the landing area} and watch the landings. AMAZING!!
view from the LSO platform of one of the smallboys. 
oh so important james keith & our bailout area. 
that afternoon, we had a replenishment at sea with the usns rainier. check out those waves!
thursday, james took us on a tour of the tower {i’m sure there’s a more technical name for it:)}
the view from the admiral’s chair. 
yep, that’s us in the admiral’s chair:) 
next stop was where they control the carrier. i got a lesson in how to drive :) 
oh yeah, and i got to drive for a little while! 
then we headed to pri-fly. by far, the best view! 
the official stennis plaque. 
the next day, we went up to the flight deck for a FOD walk. this is where you look for any little thing on the flight deck and pick it up so that it can’t get sucked into the engine of an aircraft. while up there, we took some more pics of jk next to his jet and his xo decided to jump in :)
centerline & an arresting cable. 
brother & sister and an OCS reunion. 
the lens. 
explaining how his bombs and guns work. 
nice view! 
bomb chute. 
the LSO platform folded down. 
james and the deavours. 
the horseshoe that stops the jets. 
the ward rooms where we ate most meals. 
that night, we had a meeting with the new DCAG. james can never keep a straight face!
the ready room where we spent most of our time. 
saturday, we just kind of hung out around the boat. here, they are moving the warhawks painted up jet onto the elevator to go onto the flight deck for fly off.
sunday, all the guys that were flying off were launched in the morning. we got to watch from pri-fly since james had pri-fly duty.
pmuger {the co} launching. 
monday morning, we arrived in san diego. all of the sailors were manning the rails while we pulled in.
some of our crew – the smiths and the mundes {+flounder}. 
you can see what james thought of flounder:) 
the families and friends waiting. 
it was an amazing trip!! we experienced things we never thought possible! everyone should watch an aircraft carrier come home once in their life. we’re just lucky to have experienced it from a different vantage point:) thanks baby bro for taking us to work with you!! we’re so glad you’re home and can’t wait until you get back to texas!!!
