YES DRILL SERGENT!

Most of you know that my younger brother, Jonathan, graduated from Army boot camp this past week in Ft. Leonard Wood, MO. Clint was brave enough to send me out on my own while he stayed behind with the children. He'll have to blog about that "experience" but as for me I had an amazing trip! My other brother, Jared, and I met up at the airport in St. Louis where Mom and Dad picked us up and we finished the trek to Ft. Leonard Wood together. We got there Wednesday night, Thursday was family day with the soldiers plus a briefing for the families to know what had been going on for the last 9 weeks, and Friday was the long awaited graduation. It was a hoot trying to find Jonathan in the middle of all the other soldiers... it is amazing how they all looked a like in their uniforms. All four of us cracked up laughing at the songs they sang as they marched. HILARIOUS!!! Family Day was great! We tried to provide Jonathan with all the foods that he had been wanting to eat like Brittney's brownies, IBC Root Beer, and peanut butter M&Ms. We shopped for Army goodies, watched a movie, and just hung out together before we had to return him that evening. Early the next morning (and when I say early I mean before the sun was up EARLY) we were at Gammon Field for graduation patiently waiting for Jon-boy to march across the field. The good thing about the Army is if they say graduation is at 8am you can guarantee that it will start at 8am. Mom and I were extremely glad about that because it was freezing, extremely windy and we had been out there since 6:30am. The two fleece blankets we had were just not cutting it! We got to follow the soldiers as they marched back to their barracks after graduation and prepared to ship out. Now, the Army maybe punctual but they definitely did not seem to be as organized as they could of been when trying to ship out that many soldiers. They finally all got to where they needed to be and were on their way. Jonathan was actually going to the same airport we were so that was a good thing. We got to see him for a few more minutes before we all had to catch our separate planes. The good news is he gets to go to Jared's for Thanksgiving and gets to come home for Christmas. HOORAH!