Our First Visitor

This week has been exciting because our good friend Ren came down to visit for a couple of days. She drove down to Phoenix on Monday with a friend from nursing school, but spent the day with James and myself yesterday.

I met up with her at a cute cafe up north for lunch, where we enjoyed catching up over sandwiches and freshly made potato chips. Then I took her on a brief tour of the base. She enjoyed seeing all of the jets zooming over head. We couldn't take any pictures in front of the operational F-16s on the flight line (they kind of frown upon random people standing behind the barriers and aiming cameras at them.) But we did get a few in front of the Viper on display in the park at the center of the base.

After that, we went back to the house and had some fun watching our wedding video while waiting for James to get home from work. Then we all got dressed up and went out to dinner at In-N-Out. It was a ceremonial rite for James and Ren because they both grew up in California and would call and tease each other whenever one of them got a chance to eat there. But now, after years of this playful competition, they got to eat In-N-Out together! It was quite tasty.

After dinner, we went over to our friend Greg's house and hung out with Caleb, Jordan, and all of our other Del Rio AF friends. She got to know a lot of them during our wedding week and so it was a big reunion for all. The best part of the night was when Greg took us out on the lake behind his house in the pontoon boat his landlord lets him use. It was 9:30 at night, but all of the lights from the surrounding houses were enough to see by. Ren even got to drive for a while, which was fun. Greg lent her his black captain's hat just for the occasion.

It was a short visit, but definitely fun. Now we get to look forward to both of our families coming to visit in the next month! Hopefully we can come up with some more creative ways to use our time than just sitting around and talking. Sadly, the heat makes it hard to do much more than that... Here's hoping the temperature drops a bit in the next few weeks! (Unlikely, but we can dream.)