Navy Wife, Navy Life. Watch me sink or swim.: Our Navy Journey

J and I were married and had Landon before he went into the Navy. I feel this is a huge blessing. I remember the struggle. I remember how hard it was some months to pay the bills. Before the Navy I was going to have to work, no way could I stay home with how much J was making. The Navy changed that. We want for nothing. While we are by no means rich, we have more then we ever could have asked for.

These are two of my most favorite pictures. They are from the day J graduated from Boot Camp. It was so amazing to get to see him again after months apart. We got to spend all weekend with him. He didn't get to stay the night but we spent the days lounging in our hotel room together as a family.

Our first stop with the Navy was South Carolina. We drove from Washington all the way there. It was a lot of fun but definitely not something I want to do again (the Uhaul and the one year old made it not so easy). We had a cute little house on base, not the best, but perfect for a first home.

I liked the area a lot. Downtown was amazing and the food!!!! Ahhhh the food!!! I'd never been to the south so I didn't know what to expect. I hated the heat, but the history beat anything I've ever seen before.

After living in South Carolina for a year we were given the option to go to New York or stay put. We decided to move! It was the best decision we've made. I loved it! I LOVED our house, I LOVED the town.....I just loved it! I was sooooo sad when we had to move.

After New York, we moved to Connecticut.

We lived in this great three story town house for almost 4 years! I really liked it...except for sharing almost every wall in the house with a neighbor....ick.

After bugging housing for a few months, they let us move into this house. It was tiny(even though we gained a bedroom and bathroom), but we weren't connected to anyone! It was great!

I love where we are now. It's not a place I want to stay forever, but it's great for now. We're close to NYC and Boston and we have a lot of fun things to do.

EDITED TO ADD: Years later(I think I wrote this 3-4 years ago), I love it here so much that we bought a house! A house that could very well become our dream house after a little adding on! Little got into an amazing school and we are staying put!(more on that in a bit)

The only HUGE downfall is....my husband leaves. We have survived two and a half Deployments(A surge 2 summers counts in my book as half and we are currently on our third). We're also done countless underways ranging from a week to 2-3 months. We make due and the time apart definitely keeps our marriage strong. We don't have time to bicker and fight and we never take each other for granted.

These pictures are from our first big Deployment in 2008. The first one was our goodbye picnic on the pier and the second is homecoming.

I've gotten really lucky and I've been able to see J in port 3 times since we've been here. Twice in the states last summer and once overseas last deployment.

This is a picture of my trip to Bahrain in 2008.

A friend and I flew to Bahrain to see our husbands kinda last minute. It was the longest flight I've ever been on (14 hours!) but it was sooo worth it! We got to spend just over a week in Bahrain with them. We went to the tree of life and got to ride camels. It's a trip I will never forget.

These next two pictures are from the instate port calls. We went to Georgia and Florida on whims to get to spend a few days with J after they had been gone for a while.

Those trips were full of trips to the pool, lounging in bed and even a trip to Disney World!

This I think it one of the best pictures I've ever had taken. It's of Landon and I watching the boat go out to Sea. I love to chase the boat in and out. It's closure watching them slowly drift out into the water and the excitement of watching the boat come near is so amazing when they've been gone for a while.

Pictures from Deployment 2010.

Here are a ton of pictures from our "Goodbye" Picnic on the pier and of us watching the boat leave.

I always want to get a picture of just the boys on the day J leaves. It's so special to Landon to have them.

Our little family at the picnic.

This is when they were tugging up to pull out to Sea. Thanks to a great friend of mine all of these pictures were possible. I couldn't ask for better ones then she took.

These next two are us watching the boat drift out. We chased them all the way down the river and ended here. If you look you can see the boat in the background of each picture.

Deployment #2 got extended and J ended up being gone 7 months. It was soooo hard. Thankfully, they came home a week before Christmas!

Here are my favorite pictures from homecoming. It was a beautiful December day. It could have been freezing out! Thank goodness it wasn't! We woke up early, got dressed, got cocoa and headed out to the river to chase it back in!

The first time I could see him...now we had to wait for them to hook up and be able to get off! It was the longest wait!

After 18 amazing months together...he has deployed again.

As always, we had a picnic on the pier to say goodbye and chased the boat down the river. At the end of this deployment we will officially be on shore duty!(no deployments for at least 3 years!)

We've decided to stay here for a long while. We bought the most amazing house and have plans to add onto it making it our dream home! Little got into a Science based Magnet School and we couldn't be happier! We even got a new puppy!