I have a user with a collection of addresses. i load the user by calling Session.Load(typeof(user), userKey). i then retrieve one of these addresses from the user.Addresses collection and call Session.Delete(address) on it within a transaction that is commited. it appears that user.Addresses still contains this deleted address. i believe this is because the address is now transient, but that it still exists in memory.

at this point, if i call Session.Load to reload the same user, i still see the same Addresses collection and it is only if i call Session.Evict(user) that i can then load a user with a address collection that reflects the data within the database

is my understanding correct and are any suggestions for a better way to have the user's address collection show up-to-date data?

session.Delete only marks the object to be deleted from the database on next flush. It does not remove it from any collections it might be in, that's your responsibility.