Dave's Second Big Vacation

Seven months of deployment to Southeast Asia and the Middle East summarized in 23 photos with expert captioning.

Going through the Strait of Malacca, enjoying some stiff breeze and sunshine. And the feeling of the wind whipping through my mustache.

Having an in-depth conversation in the ready room about air-to-air tactics with real-life fighter pilots Chef and Tranny.

Sitting in a jungle LZ in the Malaysian jungle, waiting for the extraction call.

Took a nighttime boat tour in Singapore. My cheap camera doesn't do the colors justice.

Had the pleasure of spending a week "camping" in the Djiboutian desert. Nice to have the option of the "Boeing Hotel" everywhere we fly.

Spent a few days in Bahrain while the ship was getting some repairs.

Did some exercises with the Omani defense forces.

Looks like I'm about to snipe somebody, but I'm really just trying to take a nap.

Here's an exterior view of Oman.

Went to Jordan to get some equipment washed down. From my interpretation of the map, my vantage point gave me a view of several countries at once.

R&R in Malaysia (island of Borneo). Stayed at one of the nicest hotels on the island, and didn't see any reason to leave it all weekend.

Hong Kong for more R&R. A good way to experience Chinese culture without any of the drawbacks of going to China.

Disney Magic!

We took Lena to Disneyland!  It was all that I had hoped it would be, and we can't wait to do it again.  We spent two days there, spending the night at a "castle" hotel.  We stayed open to close the first day and until the fireworks the next night :)  It was amazing!

When we first got there we had breakfast at Minnie's place, breakfast with the characters!  Lena loved it!

 If I didn't know better, I would have thought this really was the fairy godmother from Cinderella, come to life! She was so so sweet.

So this is Gepetto from Pinocchio, but Lena was convinced that it was "Belle's Papa" from Beauty and the Beast :)  We let it go :)

 Our first intergalactic ride at Disney!  Do you think she enjoyed it? 

 Driving with your eyes closed Lena!  This doesn't look good for your drivers test!!!

 She LOVED the tea cup ride.  Bu who doesn't?!  We had so much fun watching her expressions...

We waited over an hour to see the princesses...and it was absolutely worth it.  She was awestruck. 

Snow White..her second favorite after Belle.  It was amazing.  Though....GET YOUR FINGERS OUT OF YOUR NOSE!!!  I swear 1 out of ever 5 photos has Lena's finger by her nose.  Ok, so she's not always picking it, but she had a large scab just below her nose from an incident at church nursery a few days before, and she just wouldn't leave it alone!

I can't believe I forgot to take off her pants!  Oops.  Anyway, the princesses were so sweet--Snow White even danced with her!  As Lena was walking away she turned and said to Snow White, "I saw you on the White Horse, and you have dwarfs!"  Referring of course to what she'd seen in the movie...too cute. 

 So we were a bit bummed that Belle wasn't at the princess walk, so we thought we'd wait around for a minute to see if she might come back---so we let her get her face painted... :)

....and just moments after she was done  sure enough, we saw Snow White leave her 'post' at the princess walk.  Lena said  "where's snow white going" so we said loudly enough for Snow White to hear, "She's going to tell Belle to come out...right Snow White?"  Snow White said "Oh yes!"  and just  a few minutes later, Belle came out, we waved and she walked right up to Lena and said "Snow White told me you were looking for me!"  And she took Lena back, behind the rope and talked with her for a minute and let us take photos.  It was the best.  The absolute best.  Lena was just in heaven.  Magical. 

At least her eyes are open this time Dave!  And this car is stationary!  Drama...

Lena's first roller coaster ride!  It was pretty legit too for a kids roller coaster!  This was the way up--she quickly grabbed the bar and looked terrified on the downhill part.  Afterwards she kept telling us it was scary, but then she instantly said "I want to do it again! Again PLEASE!"  And we did :)

 So...this is the Buzz Lightyear Ride.  Above, is me taking the photo with my arm outstretched.  A split second later, I dropped the camera!  We are on a ride we can't get off of, its moving right along...and I dropped it out of the car!  So I look out of the car, and sure enough!  It is riding along with us on the conveyor belt or whatever that our car is on!  Dave says...just wait till the end and get it, but I couldn't, I was so worried!  So...I lean over the edge, as far as I possibly could, butt straight up in the air--and I got it!  We get off the ride...go check the photo that they took during the ride and this is what we see...(ok I added the arrow for emphasis)...

 I'm still recovering from laughing at this photo!

All in all, a GREAT two days!

Dave's first real experience with fireworks with Lena...again magical.  And have you seen the fireworks at Disney?!  Holy moly! A real life Tinkerbell flies around!  Its amazing!

Photoshoots

So pretty much since Lena's been born I'm always trying to take the perfect portrait of her...and I continuously fail in trying to get a true smile out of her in front of the camera.  But here are some ones that I tried lately.