Pre-Deployment Leave

Four years (and 11 days ago) I posted my very first entry on this blog. Hard to believe I am writing almost an identical entry four years and two weeks or so in the future.

As you may remember from my last entry Ryan took Rylie down to South Carolina to see his family for the first half of his leave while I worked. While he was there my parents drove down to pick Rylie up and they kept her so we could go to Myrtle Beach for the second half of Ryan's leave. We basically had a repeat of our vacation from two years ago with a few minor differences... but we even stayed in the same hotel!

The week was spent sunning on the beach, avoiding afternoon thunderstorms, staying up late (usually drinking), meeting awesome people, and eating really good food! Our hotel had an outdoor beach bar the was open until 11 every night with live music, an indoor club that was open until 2am, and a bar down the street that was open later on certain nights. My poor liver went into shock!

We ate at some amazing restaurants, RIOZ and the Flying Fish are two I highly recommend. Now they are pricey, but worth it for a big night out. RIOZ is a churascurria, a Brazilian restaurant that basically carries big slabs of meat around to your table and slices them as you request them. Plus they had a huge salad bar (I got to try quail eggs!), side dishes and a heavenly dessert cart. The Flying Fish had delicious seafood and was worth the hour wait we had.

There was one night we opted to bar hop and then we met some people from our hotel that invited us to hang out once the bar closed. We played drinking games and talked until it turned gray outside. Ryan and I headed back to our room but then as I laid my weary old head down to finally sleep Ryan decided he wanted to go on the beach and watch the sunrise. Now, once my husband gets an idea in his head it is pretty hard to break him of it... when he is drunk it is impossible. Hence the reason I found myself watching a sunrise on the beach in my pajama shirt and sweatpants with my husband in my sweatshirt with all the morning joggers and shell collectors. We obviously were the only ones who had not yet gone to sleep! It was beautiful though and I am glad he forced me down there.

We also went back to the Boardwalk to play arcade games and spent time at Broadway at the Beach. Our newest favorite find was the mirror maze. It was so fun! For a decent price you can go through as many times as you want until closing. I am not lying when I say we did it at least a dozen times. We also had these trippy beer goggle-esque glasses that they gave us which made it even more difficult. We went through with the glasses, without them, forwards, backwards, starting from separate ends and racing... it was a blast. The employees liked us so they walked us through the "quick" way and showed us the mirrors that are actually doors (for emergencies and the break room, important!). We caught some fireworks and had a blast.

Even though we've done the Myrtle Beach thing before I didn't mind doing it again since Ryan really wanted to go. Our next trip anywhere should be international and post deployment, so I am really looking forward to that for many reasons. Thanks for sticking around with my lack of posting... just trying to spend as much time with my husband as I can!

Quiet

It has been a quiet week here. Ryan is out of town spending time on his predeployment leave with his family. I sadly have to work all week so I couldn't go. Even stranger Ryan took Rylie with him so my parents can meet him and take her so we can go out of town later on. No husband and no Dup makes my house eerily quiet. 

No one is at my feet begging when I have pizza at the coffee table or rolling their eyes when I turn on a chick flick (you can guess which is which). I've been without Ryan before but since getting the Dup I've never been without them both. I'm not sure I like it. Sure the first night was peaceful but now I'm antsy. I've read four books this week and I'm starting a fifth and watched more girly tv shows and movies than I care to admit. Work is fine but when I get home at night I'm almost at a loss on what to do. 

Last weekend Ryan's best friend Josh came into town. It was a weekend of no sleep, catching sunrises and drinking more than I had since college! After Ryan dropped Josh off at the airport he went all over town to find me roses. Apparently Sundays are not a good day to do that since he was gone for ages and I had no clue what he was up to. The roses are gorgeous and they were for, in his words, "Putting up with the two of us all weekend." 

Every time I walk by my roses and the Mickey Mouse thank you card I smile. 

At least he will be home tomorrow. And at least when he deploys I will have the Dup for company. At least there will be noise aside from my own breathing and the tv. 

Pre-Deployment Leave

So my first entry will be about one of the best times of my life. Pre-Deployment Leave. We were together from the sixth til the twenty eighth. It is officially the longest amount of time we have ever been able to spend together in the year we have been dating.... 22 whole days. It was amazing. Part of me was worried we were going to get sick of one another, but it never happened. Ryan said so himself, "I didn't think it was possible to fall even more in love with you, but I did."

Ryan came up to DC with me and we packed up a lot of my stuff and put it in my car. I am moving at the end of July so we decided to use this chance to bring home some extra stuff I don't need anymore, like winter clothes and stuff. From DC we went to Atlantic City, NJ. We were there about three days and stayed at the Caeser! A friend of his had a comp room so we got it for like, $26! For two nights! I gambled a little. I had about $40 I was willing to play with and over the three days it became about $170. I stuck with Black Jack and quit when I was ahead and did well. Ryan went with Roulette and a bit of Black Jack and lost $400. We had fun though. We built a sandcastle on the beach and swam in the frigid ocean and had free drinks at the casino... a good time overall.

After Atlantic City we went to my family's home in NJ. We hung out with them for a few days and were setting up for my Graduation Party mostly. That Saturday we had about 60 people, family and friends, at my house for the party and it POURED the entire time! We still had a blast and my friends from high school got to meet Ryan and they all got along great. We were in NJ until that Monday at which we left at 4:30am. I slept the whole way to DC, about four hours, where we switched from my car to his, then drove the rest of the way to South Carolina. We got there after 5pm, so nearly 13 hours in the car!!! Ugh it was a long long time. I've never done a trip that long in a car.

South Carolina is where Ryan is from, so we stayed with his family and spent time with them. I got to try lots of Southern foods, boiled peanuts, sweet tea, squash casserole, yellow bar-b-que sauce at Maurices, Sonic, and lots of other things. I met his entire family and we bonded which was great. I played golf for the first time with Ryan and his uncle and fell in love with it. I want to play golf! We also went with his other uncle to a shooting range and I got to fire a gun for the first time, it was something Ryan really wanted to teach me to do and be safe with so it was great. We saw Transformers opening night, went out to his old hang outs, celebrated his mom's birthday, had a party at his uncle's lake house, and went bowling.

It was the best three weeks of my life.

On the way back I even somehow convinced Ryan to stop at South of the Border! He wasn't too thrilled about it, but he got some fireworks in the store there and was ok after that.

Now the bad part comes. His deployment. It is soon. Like wicked soon. So soon I feel like I want to dig my fingernails into time and make it drag to a stop so he doesn't have to go. For security I know not to post when but girls, I am so scared. It is the first deployment for both of us and he will most likely be gone until February. My mom is coming down for when he leaves and his family is coming up...it will be the first time our moms will meet. I don't want him to go! I am so nervous and scared and worried and trying to keep a brave face. When he dropped me off at home after the leave vacation I sobbed for ages with him.


It has been two days since I have seen him. He will be gone in less than 10. I hope I can see him this weekend... but this will be IT. The last times together. God I am so scared. I didn't expect this all to ever sneak up on me.



Oh, the second part of my blog title hasn't kicked in yet, the Disney part. Starting in August I will be an intern at Disney World, so the double Ds will kick in. Not those kind. You know what I mean.


All for now,

Allie