Day 2 - Graduation

Thursday was graduation day. The ceremony started at 9 am, so we were there bright and early. After the welcome one of the sergeants that was picked by the class spoke. Then they said they were honoring 2 graduates. The first one was a "distinguished honor graduate" and the second was an "honor graduate". The second one was Andy - he was second in his class. We were really proud to hear that!

Here he is standing in front after being recognized. They tell them to stand straight and be serious.

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They had one last formation after the ceremony. Andy is in the middle with the sunglasses on. This was probably the most relaxed formation they have had!

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We had to wait for 4 hours while he had all his papers processed, and then he was allowed to take us to the hanger where he worked and studied the Apache helicopters. Bob was able to get in one and Andy had a great time showing us all the different Apache's in this hanger. You should have seen the smiles on both of their faces!

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This is Andy with Sgt. Keyes. He was Andy's favorite instructor.

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Here is the building he has been living in since September.

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The name of his group was the "Gators". This little display of alligators was in the front of the building. There were a few more ceramic alligators in the flowerbed.

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After we had him and his belongings all packed up, he took us all around the base. This is the James river which runs alongside the base. It's a pretty river. They didn't show up in this picture, but there is a whole fleet of boats that are stored by the Navy down the river. It was quite a sight.
That's enough for today. Tomorrow I'll tell you of our driving adventures after leaving the base.

We're going to see Andy!

It's time for an Andy update! He will be graduating from this portion of his training on April 24. We learned that there will be a ceremony and there will be special opportunities for parents if we can be there. Andy will be able to show us the helicopters he has been using to train on, which will probably be way over my head, but Bob will love! We plan to fly to Virginia on April 23 (my first time ever on a plane!) and attend the graduation on the 24th. We will be renting a car when we get there and driving back home with Andy. This way he can travel back with us. He gets 3 weeks at home, before he goes to South Korea where he will be stationed for at least a year. I'm so looking forward to seeing him again and having him at home, but I
dread the time he has to leave again. I'm learning that army life seems to consist of many hello's and goodbyes. For now, I'm just counting down to the hello!

The graduate!

Well, it is official. I am getting old. It all started with a few gray hairs and now my youngest child has graduated from high school! I can't say I am sorry to be done with the school part. I won't miss school schedules, parent teacher conferences (and those never ending lines), forms to be filled out (in triplicate, with your life story and could you please include all the phone numbers and insurance numbers you have?), homework and never ending projects... You know what I mean. However - It is also hard seeing your kids move on. When mine were younger my parents told me to enjoy them because they would grow up fast. It didn't seem possible at the time, but as usual, my parents were right. I did enjoy my kids and l have always (well, most of the time) liked having them around. However, we don't raise them to stay kids and with each change comes it's own joys. It was a joy to see Andy graduate. The night was hot and the ceremony long, but we are proud of Andy and the young man he has grown into.

Here are a few pictures of him. I am always bothering my family for pictures, and as you can see they are not always cooperative. It appears they may have learned this bad behavior from Bob. Here you see Bob and Andy goofing off as I tell them to "stand up straight and smile".
You can see here, that they behave much better when I am there to keep them in line.
This blur you see is Andy recieving his diploma. This shows that I should stick to nursing. I am obviously not going to make a career of photography. Thank goodness they have a professional photographer to get pictures of the kids as they are handed their diploma. I'll have to use that one for the scrapbook!



Following the ceremony, the kids went to an all nighter. Andy is sleeping this morning and I heading out to get the last things I need for the Open House which is Saturday. I guess I'll have more to share after that. Have a great weekend.