Family weekend recap 11/9-11/11

I have wanted to recap about my brother's family weekend and I finally have some time to do so!!

We had a great weekend, and it was soo good to see Matt. At this point we had not seen him since the middle of August when he was loaded onto a bus and shuttled to bootcamp.

He has done SUCH a great job, they even made him a squad leader and he has about 8 guys under him. Hearing him tell us stories and refer to those in the group as "my guys" made me even more proud. The boy was born to do this, even though it makes his older sister nervous and sad about him leaving.

My parents went up the day before we did, which was Thursday, but since my husband and my sister both had to work, we left on Friday. Mom and dad went to the base and after a short ceremony finally saw Matt and took him for a big breakfast!! (We did alot of eating that weekend, Matthew was taking full advantage. Ha!)

We arrived later that evening and went to a big BBQ dinner. It was great to see him, and he looked so grown up in his camis. The next day we all got ready and headed to shop for some of the things he needed to pick up. New boots, flash light, things like that. We went to Ranger Joes, which is a great military store located in Fort Benning, and took our time looking around. Then we went to the Infantry Museum. It was incredible. If, for any reason, you are ever in the Columbus area, please do yourself a favor and go to the museum. I promise it won't disappoint. Here are a few pictures from the museum, and me and Matt outside the museum.

Wahhh he is so official!



Infantry!!!



My bud! He's single ladiesss :)


The rest of the weekend was spent eating, shopping, and laughing. He had to return to base with a fresh hair cut, so that was one of the last things we did.

We had to have him back on base at 6pm, but we got him there a little early so he wasn't late. They were told they don't want to know what would happen if they were late getting back!

This goodbye was harder than the first. I think it was because it all became so real this trip. He is really in the army, and he is leaving in January for Air Assault school. This is right before he left for the barracks. In a letter he wrote me he said that they did 1-2 hours of PT that night...poor guys!

There he goes :( This photo makes me want to cry.


Well, since I am so late getting this recap done.....it is already time for us to leave for his graduation! We leave tomorrow, he has a turning blue ceremony on Thursday (where my dad will pin his blue cords on his dress uniform and he will officially be an Infantryman) and then graduation on Friday morning.....bring on the tissues!! Can't wait to share pictures from this weekend!





It's almost vacation eve!

Seriously, y'all....I feel like a kid on Christmas eve. I am so excited! We are going out of town on Friday and tonight is my last night at work for 14 days. Yes, 14 glorious work-free days full of laying on a beach sipping a bud light lime-arita.

My husband's family has a reunion every year in North Carolina and this is our first year going together. B hasn't been in 5 years, and not counting the stop we made 2 years ago for an hour, I have never been. To be honest, I'm not looking forward to the reunion that much, but we have plans to go stay at my grandad's beach house in Virginia and I cannot wait.

Our plan is to leave Friday, stay in North Carolina Saturday and Sunday, and first thing Monday morning drive into Virginia for the rest of the week. We actually just decided to for sure go about a week ago. We are both in school so I am missing one class while he is missing 3. Unfortunatley, poor timing occured and I have a test in my Monday class, but the teacher is working with me so instead of a zero, my final exam will count twice. That can either help me or come back to bit me. (Did I mention the final is the Monday after we get back from vacay? Yeah...terrible.)

Even though the school aspect stresses me out just thinking about it, what made me decide that it would be 1000% worth missing an important class? All of this time with my hubby. We work really weird schedules and on certain days don't see each other at all. For instance, this past week I have spent one night with him and at most 4 hours together during the day. He works late nights (up to 4 a week) has a morning class twice a week, and one night class. I work one day, one night, and I have a morning class once a week. (I know, we are lucky that we see each other at all....I have alot of friends and family who are military and have spouses that are deployed.) So a week with basically nothing but being together....hurry up Friday!

We have been on a few road trips together before. For our 2 year dating anniversary I bought tickets to an Atlanta Braves game so we drove to Atlanta for that.

A random roadtip where we ended up in Siesta Key, FL. For B's 29th birthday we packed a weekend bag, got in the car, and just drove wherever the road took us. This might have been my favorite weekend trip!

(If you are ever in Siesta Key, look this place up. Then thank me:) )

We drove to Virginia about 2 years ago and spent a week with family at my Grandad's beach house.

(sadly I don't have a picture of this on my phone or this computer. I will put one in later, for sure)



And one of our favorite things (that we havent done in a while, actually) is to wake up early on a Saturday morning, drive to Orlando and spend the day/night on Universal's City Walk. Normally this isn't a planned trip, just a spur of the moment 'Let's get out and do something' decision.

(One of many daquiri's we have enjoyed on city walk!)

Well, I am off to finish my night at work. 4 hours down, 8 hours to go. I think I can, I think I can.......