Jon has winged! Hip! Hip! Hooray!
He finished his last flight (here in Texas anyway) back in January and had his winging ceremony about a week and a half ago!
{The wonky winging banner that I made Jon. It’s ginormous. haha}
With such an important event, we were so happy that all of the parents were able to attend from out of state. 
The festivities kicked off Friday morning with a tour around the base.
We had a fabulous tour guide… Jon.
Gotta love that background. haha
First stop… The Simulator!
I have to land on what?! I can hardly see it! 
Next stop… Radar room and Air Traffic Control tower.
We only had to climb 5093 stairs to get to the top.
But the view was worth it.
…and it’s not every day you get to go up in the tower.
Out on the catwalk. It was windy!
Our next stop was the Ready Room and Hangar.
Isn’t this creepy? It’s like two stories up…and it gives me the willies.
And now for the winging ceremony!
At the ceremony…
Pinning Jon’s wings on him.
I was terrified that I would fumble around and not be able to poke the wings through his uniform. (It is actually really difficult to poke through!!) Not to mention I had to remove his first wings (NFO wings…think Goose from Top Gun) and put the new Pilot wings on.
Got it!
We celebrated with the family at dinner and then later that evening we attended a “Winging Party” at the Officer’s Club. They always have a theme and this time around was “Jersey Shore”. Yes. It is true. I actually had to YouTube the show to see what it was all about. I had no idea, but apparently it is all the rage. Not really my cup of tea but it was fun dressing up. More specifically, it was really fun putting bronzer makeup and drawing metro-sexual eyebrows on Jon. haha
Yes. Our tans look oompa-loompa ridiculous. GTL. (Gym. Tan. Laundry.) That’s their motto. Seriously?
Pure ridiculousness.
Jon loses his marbles for shuffleboard.
The next day we visited the USS Lexington.
Out on the flight deck…
Oh, you’re welcome Lex. Thank you for having us.
In between that was a whole lot of eating. haha I don’t think I have eaten out that much in a long time. It was nice to have family visit and to be able to show them around South Texas a bit.
With Jon’s winging, we also found out where we will be stationed next. Yes, our Texas adventure is now coming to an end. It is bittersweet. I’m ready for our next adventure…but will really miss Texas, too.
Without further ado…
Jon will be flying F-18 SuperHornets and we are headed to Lemoore, California!
{via}
Lemoore is near Fresno in the central valley. Don’t worry. Wikipedia considers the central valley “a prairie” so I’ll still be legit. I sensed your concern. And there is no need for it.
We will be around 3 hours from LA, San Francisco and Sacramento. It is a pretty central location and considering my family all lives in Southern California (which is where I lived all my life)…I am happy to be a reasonably short drive away from them.
We will be moving sometime in March (we are still waiting for the exact date). So change is on the horizon.
And there you have it! The current scoop with our military life!
