Military: Welcome Home, Tom!

It may have been a May gray day here in San Diego, but I was surrounded by all the sunshine of cheers, smiles and happy tears as these five helicopters landed back on Coronado Island. I totally feel for all of these families as this squadron is assigned to my husbands ship and we have had two back to back deployments. They left last January, came home for three months and then left again. So we obviously have not had much time with the ones we hold closest to our heart.

Helicopter homecomings will always have a special place in my heart since Travis is also a helicopter pilot. It was so fun to watch them do a fly by and land right in front of us. The kiddos took off to hug their dad and let me tell you, really put my non-running skills to a test! Hahah! Thank goodness for zoom lenses so I could get the first embrace, where their dad lifted them off the ground. Mom was nice enough to let her two kids say hi first and then came in for her kiss.

After the welcome home hugs we made sure to get some family portraits with the helicopter in the background. Now that these helicopters have landed that means my husbands ship is that much closer to pulling into port and I get to have my own homecoming!!

I asked the daughter what was the first thing she wanted to do with her dad when he got back. She told me she just wants to relax with him. I am pretty sure that is exactly what her dad wants to do too after a long deployment. Welcome home, Tom!!