Summer 2010 Update

Greetings from San Diego, land of lots and lots of Navy ships! What a summer it's been - so much has happened in the past three-ish months! We packed up our stuff in June, said goodbye to many dear friends (it's getting harder to do), and drove down to SoCal. After the briefest of weeks, the move showed up and I took off for work. I had to fly to Hawaii and was then helicoptered to the USS Bonhomme Richard. After 2 days of turnover (yes, 2), I took over the medical department and prepared for a month of sea time. Oh yeah, right in the middle of a huge international exercise (what could go wrong?) In all honesty, it was a blast, despite the painful learning curve. I'm now 'salty,' which to me means I'm good enough to speak the language of the 'real Navy.' Sure it does.... I'd love to write more about the ship, but it will have to wait until another post. At a minimum, though, I've attached some spectacular pics from the international exercise - Bonhomme Richard is the 'mini-carrier' behind the big one. I'd love to give you a tour of the ship if you ever come to San Diego. We have the largest medical department afloat, second only to the hospital ships. Yup, even larger than carriers. 6 operating rooms, 16 bed ICU, 40 bed ward (expands to 600 - yes, three digits). So much fun.

USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6):

And the rest of our armada:

Okay, on to the really cool stuff. We welcomed a new niece, beautiful Victoria, born just before Alex's 1st birthday.


I was out to sea and missed it. I also missed Alex's actual birthday, but I was NOT going to miss his birthday party, which of course is much more important! Poor little guy, he didn't quite know what to do with his muffin cake.

What an incredible year it's been since the little guy changed our lives - so much has happened, and it has flown by in the blink of an eye. I hope the pace will slow down considerably, but I know that it won't. He is walking, not quite talking, has 4 teeth, and learning all kinds of facial expressions. Thankfully, 98% of them involve smiling, which will do him fabulously well when he's older.

So here is the next chapter of our lives: near family, with a toddler, and out with the "real" Navy for a few years. Thoughts of returning to Europe after this tour are high on the list right now. At this pace, I'll be back in Italy and STILL be working on posting pictures from our first time there!

Come visit us, we'd love to see you. All the best.