lucky for us, the navy decided that the USS kitty hawk needed to retire and at the same time japan decided that it would be OK to have a nuclear (not nu-cu-lar) aircraft carrier stationed in atsugi, japan. so, the kitty hawk got traded in on a new model- the USS george washington.
why are we lucky, you ask? well, because the navy decided that the change over would happen in san diego.
our three good friends- josh thompson, logan ridley and caleb mcdow, who were stationed on the kitty hawk, got to come to SD for a while. so, we didn't have literal japanese visitors, but we did have three japanese residents come to visit.
it was great. these three guys and their wives (minus logan who remains single, girls ;-)) were great friends of ours in pensacola. logan went through OCS with john, we met caleb and his wife our very first sunday at covenant OPC church, and we met josh & sabine soon after moving to p'cola through another good friend matt (now of matt & alayna).
one thing that i loved about p'cola (among many, many things) was the AMAZING friends we made. have you ever had a time in your life where you just felt so good and so blessed to meet and spend time with an amazing group of people? well, for us pensacola was like that. maybe it's the fact that we were all away from home and were all new to the navy thing but it was so wonderful. and though in some cases we only got to spend less than a year with these friends- they are so special. i couldn't gush enough about how much all of them meant to us.
not that i don't like you, dear reader, if you are not one of the p'cola buddies. but you know i love you, because i've known you for so looong.
anyway, we only got to see josh for an evening- when he graciously agreed to attend a squadron function with us. unfortunately we don't have any pictures of us together, because we both forgot our cameras. i know that is probably killing sabine as much as not getting to be there for the mini reunion.
logan and caleb spent the weekend with us (josh got to go and see his sister- who of course outranks friends).
since we're homeless (to be discussed in a future post), the guys stayed with us at john's dad's house. it was so much fun.
we really love these guys.
one small complaint. we never get to see their wives!!!
apparently, this is MUCH more comfortable than a "rack."
and this is much more comfortable than a bed.
and caleb is way more fun than mommy.
and a 5 year old and a naval aviator may be an even match at checkers
(at least at this point in the game).
and sitting between logan and caleb is dreamy when you're five.
not a big shocker, but john's son enjoys beer.
and the claim jumper remains a fun place to bring visitors.
i guess it's only fair to include a shot of daddy's first meeting, 6 weeks later.
and of course, big sister's too. well, not their first meeting, but one with fewer tubes and things so she could actually get to see a bit of him. 
actually, josiah turned one on july 16th. mommy isn't very on top of things, so josiah's birthday party wasn't until august 21st. i don't even know if you'd call it a "party," it was really just an opportunity to get his picture taken with a face full of cake.
