Update:

Gil is doing well! This past week another Lt. made pancakes and was nice enough to not only feed my husband but take a picture!

These are the first pictures I have seen of him since he left. I have been begging for weeks for him to send me a photo and he finally did last night.

I was so over joyed that I thought I would share my excitement with those of you who read my blog.

So...finally...here is Gil in Afghanistan eating pancakes!

Doesn't he look good!?

Well I hope you enjoyed the photos...there are two more to come once Gil gets his hands on them. Hopefully by the end of October...

Hawaii + Amanda + first 24 hours = SUNBURN

After spending a week visiting family we began our life together. (I don't know why it couldn't wait for a decent hour though.) We were up at 4 am and sitting in a cab by 4:30. After a short flight to D.C.,two 6 hour flights and a 6 hour time difference we finally landed in Honolulu, Hawaii.

We were car-less for only a day which was nice but we have been kitchen-less since we arrived on Saturday. Which means a lot of fast food, and it gets old fast.

Being car-less our first full day we decided to walk around base (for any of you that lived at SHAPE with us it isn't much bigger than that base.) Everything is very accessible. We walked to one of the many beaches on base then stopped by the PX (military version of Target) and Commissary (military grocery store.) By the time we got back to the hotel we had been out for over 2 hours. Of course I wasn't thinking when we left and forgot to put sunscreen on, so if you imagine a lobster, that is what I looked like. To make it worse it wasn't an even sunburn, it was just my arms and neck! I won't make that mistake again.





This is one of our beaches on base.

On Monday we got down to business and checked Gil in and also checked into housing. The previous day we had seen a lot of the housing. Some were beautiful, brand new houses with solar panels while others look as if they were built in the 1950's without central air. Of course I was really hoping the newer homes were for us but they weren't. Once we got to see inside, it wasn't bad at all, plus we got a 3 bedroom.

On Tuesday we packed up our things and got ready for our honeymoon. We also scheduled a bunch of activities for our honeymoon that I am VERY excited about!

First we will be going on a submarine ride over 100 feet under water and they say the path of the sub is frequented by sea turtles and sharks! That night we will be going on a sunset dinner cruise. Friday night we get to have the unique experience of seeing Cirque Hawaii which is apparently the number 1 show in Hawaii. To top it all off on Saturday we will go swimming with dolphins! After the dolphin adventure they take us to go feed sea lions. In between all of these things we plan to enjoy the very uncrowded beach we see out of our bedroom window.








There was a rainbow over Honolulu this morning. (Sorry for the picture being upside down I will try to fix it.)



There will be more posts and hopefully more pictures to come, probably next week.

Aloha!




-- Post From My iPhone

Am I Going To Be Left Behind On The Main Land!?

We said goodbye to my parents yesterday and drove to Albany, NY. Gil thought the goodbye went really well till I got in the car and started crying. Of course my parents know me so well that they called me after we left the house and all my dad said was "You need to stop crying." Which of course didn't help. We will see them again when they come to visit us in Hawaii next spring, which is nice to know.

We only spent one night in Albany. We took Gil's cousin out for ice cream and a little shopping. We were up bright and early this morning to take Gil's car in to the shop. Since we can only bring one car to Hawaii we are leaving his car with his relatives in NY. So, we got it all cleaned out and up to date on all it's check-ups and it is ready to go into hiding for 3 years.

Gil's Aunt was nice enough to drive us to Boston so we didn't have to lug our 4 suitcases on the Greyhound Bus from Albany to Boston. We made really good time and met up with Gil's brother, Anthony before his class. During our drive though we got a call from the travel agent as well as the transportation office in Quantico, Virginia. Apparently they were having a problem issuing my plane ticket for Saturday. The tickets were under my married name but Gil's orders were never changed so they had my maiden name. Of course that doesn't fly with the military and it has to turn into a worst case scenario of me not flying to Hawaii with Gil on Saturday! Lucky us we were able to get in touch with just the right man who had the power to change Gil's order on short notice even though he isn't associated with Quantico anymore. He said he would "take the blow for this." As my parent's like to say, "Welcome to the military." Nothing can be easy with them. I am sure we have many more years of this to enjoy! If our first move is this difficult maybe it can only get easier....right!?

No need to fear anymore. All is well with our flights and we will BOTH be flying to Hawaii early on Saturday morning!

Now that we are in Boston we are just waiting on Gil's youngest brother to fly up from Tampa and we will spend tomorrow with them before we leave.

Now I have to go get ready for dinner because it isn't much longer until the new season of The Office starts! Hope you all watch it and enjoy it!