What a year!

As everyone knows, we haven't been the best at keeping in touch over the past year... But we thought that if we told you what we've been up to - and why we've been so busy - you'd forgive us and we could start fresh with this new blog :)

January actually had both of us at home but that soon changed in February when Matt went to Halifax for training and Amber went to Sydney, Australia and Hawaii with work.

Not soon after Matt got back in March, he was packing up for a 4 month deployment to the Far East onboard HMCS OTTAWA, stopping in Dutch Harbour, Alaska enroute.

As luck would have it, Amber flew t0 Okinawa, Japan - for work - but also got to meet up with Matt once there. Amber sailed from Okinawa onboard HMCS REGINA for a few weeks, while Matt stayed onboard OTTAWA. After a transfer at sea, Amber ended up onboard OTTAWA with Matt where we sailed into Kagoshima, Japan, a beautiful little town that has an active volcano 'watching' over the city.

From Kagoshima, we sailed to Incheon, South Korea and spent time exploring Seoul and the Demilitarized Zone on the border of North Korea. Both got to step-into North Korea... but only for a second!

From Korea, we sailed into Shanghai, China, just a few weeks after the earthquake had struck. After a short visit, Amber flew back to Canada while Matt continued on to Manilla in the Phillipines.

Matt then headed towards Hawaii for the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) and met back up with Amber, who was there for work. While Matt was enjoying the good life on our Canadian ships, Amber sailed onboard the USS KITTY HAWK for 3 weeks - what an 'interesting' experience! Amber then flew home to wait for Matt's return in August.

Now it was finally time for some vacation! We spent a week in the Okanagan enjoying the beautiful scenery and sampling lots of the local wineries. We then flew to Toronto to visit Amber's family and on to Nova Scotia to visit with Matt's family. Matt stayed in Halifax for some more training while Amber got back just in time to leave for India for work.

She flew into Chennai, India and met up with the two Canadian ships that were leaving the Persian Gulf for home and then visited the Indian Eastern Fleet in Vishakapatnam. From there she flew to Phuket, Thailand for a few days and then on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Before Amber had even returned home, Matt went to Penticton, BC for the Mountain Flying Course. November is finally here and looks like we might actually be in the same city for a few months - which is a lifetime in military terms! We have tonnes of great pictures from our adventures described above and promise to post them soon.