So Proud

Well, my little brother did it!!! Chris graduated from boot camp! I am so proud of this kid! He has such a good heart and always wants to help his family in any way he can. He lived with us for over a year and during that time we never got in one fight or tiff. He is so funny and everyone just loves him!!!

We were all feeling a little bittersweet when he made his decision to enlist. Bitter because we aren't really a military family and have never experienced someone close in the armed forces. There is always the fear that they will have to go to war. But on the other hand sweet because he wants to serve our country!!! He survived 8 hellish weeks of boot camp and my sister, mom and brother David were all able to go out and support him. I sure wish I could have been there too!

So now that boot camp is over what will he be doing? He will be a cryptologist which according to www.navy.com that means: Cryptologic Technicians Interpretive or CTIs specialize in foreign languages. CTIs not only interpret and translate information in foreign languages, they use their skills to advise top-level decision-makers. And in order to protect U.S. interests, CTIs develop tactical and strategic information about our enemies on an up-to-the-minute basis.

Pretty impressive!

My beautiful mom so proud of her son! Those 8 weeks were probably the hardest weeks of my mom's life as well as Chris'. Saying goodbye to him and knowing he was enduring so much was just heart wrenching for her. She literally wrote him EVERY day!!! He said getting those letters were what kept him strong enough to keep going.

Out to dinner! I know Chris was so happy to finally eat real food. He especially missed steak dinners and Chipotle!
Sara and David supporting Chris with Navy shirts. They are so proud of their bro! Sara bought me a pink Navy sister shirt, yay!

Here is a pic of Chris' graduating class. I guess they had to stand like that for an hour straight. Chris is in the 3rd row from the left, 6th one from the back.

I can only imagine my mom, staring at Chris the whole time. That is what she does when she hasn't seen us for a while....just stare:) Love you Mom!

Look at that grin on Chris' face!! Free at last!

Sara and Mom just beaming at Chris.

Chris is probably in shock right now that he can act "normal" for a few hours:)

Climb to Conquer Cancer

A few months ago our work sponsored a hike up South Mountain called the Climb to Conquer Cancer. Last year I signed up but slept in and didn't go...shame on me so this year I recruited friends and family so I wouldn't flake. I had already started working out so I figured this would be cake!! Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Well the hike up was a little over 5 miles and we were quite proud of ourselves when we reached the top!! Boy did we feel it in our hips!!! As much as we enjoyed the hike we were looking forward to riding the bus down. Funny thing is as while we were waiting in line for the bus the event coordinators informed us that the buses had broken down and there would be no more for the next 45 minutes. Well, Joe and I had a wedding to go to later that day so we figured it would be quicker to just hike back down. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Going down the mountain was painful and as we were trudging down guess what we saw....buses. We flagged them down but they said they couldn't pick us up. What??? Hilarry threw herself down on the pavement but they didn't care. Sara was limping because of blisters. They could have cared less. So what did we do?? We called our friend who lived down the street to come rescue us!! We were so exhausted from our 9 mile hike that we slept the rest of the day and didn't make it to the wedding:( But at least we had a good excuse. I am happy to know that we hiked for a good cause.