Graduation, Part 1

What a trip! Air travel with Lily was quite a bummer...round one she screamed for about 20 minutes before falling asleep...20 minutes before the plane landed! :o) Round two wasn't as bad. I was thankful that no one gave me dagger eyes...everyone was very kind and gave me sympathetic smiles even though their flight was ruined by a crabby eight-month-old! (Jumping ahead a little, our return flights were much better...she slept good and didn't cry much. The flight attendent gave her "wings" to celebrate her first flight!)

We got into San Antonio a bit tired from the day of travel and baby crying. It was so nice to settle into the hotel room. I was a little nervous and plenty excited...and all the adrenaline was good because none of us got much sleep that night. (Lily! And having to get up early to leave). We found a decent place to get coffee and we navigated our way to Lackland Air Force Base...which is HUGE! The size of Corning, people! :o)

Let me just say a little blurb here about bases...they really are like little cities! And it's so weird because the only way to get in is with your handy dandy magic military pass or ID. They have everything you need...grocery store, gas station, Starbucks (X2!), movie theater, churches, bowling alley, lots of restaurants, department store, dry cleaning, day care, bank, and a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting.

So we got to Lackland and started lining up down the road that the "Airman's Run" would take place...this was our first glimpse of Jesse in 8.5 weeks! I got a little teary-eyed. It was impressive. We didn't really get to see much of him...he was in the middle somewhere...but it was so cool to see his Flight run by. After that we went to a parent/spouse briefing about all the rules and what to expect for the weekend. In the meantime Jesse and the guys were changing and getting ready to march back down to us for the Coin Ceremony.

This was a little funny because we got pretty bad seats, so we were mostly seeing them from behind. So I'm standing there staring at his Flight trying to find him. I found a guy with what I thought was a scar where Jesse has a scar on the back of his head...but I couldn't be sure cause this guy was so darn skinny! :o) Now don't get me wrong here, I knew he was going to lose weight...I was just a little unsure that it was actually him. (So enter the embarrasing dilema of taking pictures of and staring at what you hope is the back of your husband's head and not some other guy!) But it WAS him! He lost 14 pounds! It was so cool to see him in his dress blues. Handsome as always. But he carried himself with a sense of pride that I'm sure only comes from getting your butt kicked for 2 months! :o)

Oh yeah, and it's really really hot in San Antonio. I tried not to whine too much but I was always happy to get inside! And we were even lucky...it was overcast or rainy due to hurricane Alex so we didn't even get much direct sun. Just blistering, humid heat! I am so not going to like being a southern belle for the next year or so! ;o) But I think I can manage, for the sake of my darling hubs and the wonderful Air Force that will tell me where to live for the next four years...and I will cheerfully say "Sounds great, Sir!"


After the coin ceremony they were released for Base Liberty...free to hang out with us anywhere on base. We drove around, explored the base a bit, and took him out for dinner. Seeing him again was SO AMAZING! I mean, it wasn't a big huge thing...just such a relief to be with him again! He was a little nervous about following the rules and kept checking my watch for the time...it was pretty funny to see him so antsy about it! :o) But we got him home before bedtime and headed back to the hotel.

My husband was officially in the Air Force. It was so weird to say!