Chad & Najah

We met Chad at a scuba diving certification class in Sicily. He was the guy that kept messing up and kept us laughing. One time he unwittingly put his snorkel in his mouth rather than his regulator and when he jumped off the boat into the ocean he took a deep breath expecting to inhale oxygen and gulped down a gallon of sea water instead. Another time he kept complaining that his new fins were killing his feet. He just couldn't understand why they were so uncomfortable and constricting. After the dive he anxiously removed the irritating fins to find that he had never removed the stiff plastic inserts!

Chad soon became one of our best friends. He came over for dinner often (hot wings are his favorite), he babysat our dogs whenever we needed him (one time he actually took professional portraits of the dogs to surprise me), and he was at the hospital the day Currier was born (with flowers and a little card that read "Welcome to the family"). But just like all of our military friends, Chad moved onto his next base (Virginia Beach) and we said goodbye, wished him luck and hoped to stay in touch.

On St. Patrick's Day, Chad married his longtime girlfriend Najah in Georgia and as they passed through South Carolina on their way home to Virginia they stopped by and spent the night with us. Can you imagine a more romantic honeymoon than staying on an air mattress in our living room? Throw in two ridiculously needy dogs and a very cranky toddler and you've got paradise! We still had some laughs and just like old times we drank cocktails and played poker until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore. We wish Chad and Najah a long and happy marriage!