My weekend at Ft. Benning

Okay... this might be a little long.

We left Thursday morning around 11 am... Michael had a turning blue ceremony that morning but we skipped it b/c we were told it was a small ceremony AND b/c Heather and Michael wanted to spend his free time alone.

On our way down we ran into traffic just north of Prattville.... we were stopped for probably at least 40 minutes! During this time I called Heather to let her know where we were.... she was having a bad day... The turning blue ceremony had just finished and she discovered she'd locked her keys in her car :( The Brocks were with her... I told her to just have them drop the two of them off at the hotel and they could have their alone time there. After hanging up with her I realized I had her spare key!!!!!! I called her back to let her know.... i felt like the hero :) She said they were going to the hotel.... well that was their intentions but the Brocks didn't listen! They went to the hotel but the rooms weren't going to be ready for another 15 minutes... they said they'd wait there but Mr. B insisted that they get a 'quick' bite to eat. Well the quick bite to eat turned into a 2 1/2 hour lunch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Poor guys :(

During our journey down Wire Rd, Darcy got restless.... it was time for lunch.... well Wire Rd between Auburn and Columbus is bare!!!!! So we pulled off onto a dirt road (someones driveway) and feed her lunch.

We finally arrived in Columbus, Ga around 2 or 3 their time. We had to go and get Heather's car from the base. It was Me, Matt, the kids and Mr. & Mrs. B.... Mr B drove Heather's car back.... as we were pulling into the hotel he called Mrs. B cell phone to ask what he should do with the key.... I told him to leave it at the front desk and i'd call her cell phone and leave a message. I called and of course she didn't answer... so i left a message... just as I hung up mr. b called back and said tell her where we parked the car... mrs. b said that i had just left a message... he said well i'll call em.... i said NO! don't worry its not a big parking lot they'll find it.... but no he called and called till they finally answered!!! Then wanted to chit chat! He can be soooo annoying!

After we got the car issue squared away we had Lupper at Longhorn Steakhouse. Yummy!!!!!!! By the time we got back to the hotel Heather had gotten back from droppping Michael off at base. (He only had a four hour pass on Thursday.) We went back to the hotel and went swimming (me, matt, darcy, jessica and heather). Mr. B watched for a little bit but ended up taking Darcy back to their room so we could swim. She was getting sleepy. We made friends with another couple from Texas... they had a son that was doing the same thing Michael was doing... well except he was going Ranger's not Special Forces. They were a really nice couple... they were telling us about the other son... who was a twin of the ranger one.... he's a 18 and is very heavly involved in drugs... we all talked for hours!

When we were done swimming we ordered pizza and bought some cards.... Heather had run into some girls in the hotel lobby that she'd gone to Southeastern with... small world... so she didn't make it back to our room for cards :(

The next morning we left our hotel around 8:20am for the graduation ceremony. IT POURED DOWN RAIN!!!! At first it was sunny but it started to drizzle then with no warning it started pouring!!!!!!!!!! If you haven't figured it out by now.... the ceremony was OUTSIDE! Luckily we had an umbrella! But there were lots of people without :) The ceremony itself was really interesting... the did this drill in the beginning with the tanks and the soldiers playing war... it was really neat... loud but neat. They had several speakers but my favorite was the OLD (old in age that is) Mayor... he was fired UP!!!! He was talking about all those folks that wanted us to pull out of Iraq... he was saying how we wouldn't turn our backs and run now but that would be cowardly... that the US didn't turn the backs on innocent people who needed our help... man the crowd was going crazy... he was really good at getting everyone fired up.

At the end of the ceremony they said we had 15 minutes to join our soldiers on the field.... i was little puzzled b/c they were all in attention and we were supposed to just go out there... i thought i hadn't heard the instructions clearly... but nope I looked and there's Mrs. Heather leading the pack of women heading onto the field. hahaha!!! We visited with him... Did you know that if a soldier is in uniform he's NOT allowed to stand under an umbrellla OR wipe his face off!!!?! Crazy! I took some pictures of Michael with everyone... everyone but Me... I didn't get my picture made with him :( I wanted to have one of my family with him but oh well... I even got to take a picture with Mr. B's camera of everyone but ME! hahahaa oh well. I took one of him and the girls... he's not to comfortable holding Darcy. But it was funny to watch him. As we are all standing around... mr. and mrs. B tell him bye b/c they're heading back... he was getting the weekend off but he and heather were going off by themselves (don't blame them)... he wasn't going to be released until later that afternoon... but we made the brocks think that they weren't going to see him again so they should just head back... well as we're all standing there Michael says to Matt... hey we're still hanging out tonight right?... I hadn't told Matt that were hanging out b/c i was just waiting to see if he would actually get off... so matt had this real confused look on his face but at the same time Heather was kinda giving Michael that look like... shhhhh so his parents wouldn't hang around.

We were told Michael would be dismissed around 4pm... so we went back to the hotel and swam... then we got ready and headed back to the base.... we made friends with one of the staff sgt. .... heck we're on first name basis! His name was Dave... he's one of the ones over all the airborne students. He was telling us about the things michael would be doing... he even told us that we were allowed to watch them jump! So i'm sure i'll be going back to see that! Needless to say they weren't released until prob after 6pm!!!!!!!!! We went to IHOP and then back to the hotel so Michael could take a shower. We sat around for a little bit talking... michael was telling us some funny stories. But then it was time to say good bye. After they left Matt seemed a little upset... after airborne Michael and Heather will move to South Carolina... Matt's really going to miss him.

Saturday we went to the infantry museum and to the military mall (the PX). We rode all over Ft. Benning... we may have been in some places we weren't supposed to be in :) We finally made it back in Alabaster around 7pm.