Family Day and Graduation Day

This is Robbie's "why are you taking my picture you crazy Momma" look. :) Looking at this picture I can tell this is when he started to get sick. Mandy had a horrible cold while we were there and she managed to pass it on to all of us. Rotten Kid!

This is Mandy's group that graduated from Army Basic Combat Training (BCT) on October 29th, 2010. There are 4 Platoons. Mandy is in 2nd Platoon which is the second group from the left. When we went out to find her after the Family Day presentation I had to wait for Robbie to spot her. Everyone looked the same and there were people everywhere looking for their kids too. 

This is the child that has always been walking away from us. She has always been trying to grow up faster than we wanted. She has always wanted to go faster and farther than everyone else. She pushes herself hard to get what she wants and gets it too. Mandy said BCT was fun even though she was sick or sore most of the time she was there. She did a great job at everything she did. I wouldn't have expected anything less from our little go getter.

Mandy was glad to get out of her dress blues and into some comfy clothes. These are the first civilian clothes she was able to wear in about 10 weeks. Of course she could only wear them in the hotel room. When we went out she had to dress up like a soldier again.

Here's Dad trying to figure out what went wrong with the camera. He taped the Family Day presentation but the disc must have been bad because it was blank when we went to look at it. Very disappointing.

Of course Mandy had to get some internet time in too. In this picture you can see how red her face is. She was running a nice temperature for the two days we were there.

The one thing Mandy wanted was to get some good food while we were there. The poor thing hardly ate because she didn't feel well.

Of course no matter how sick she is, there is always room for Skittles.  The bed in our hotel room was humongous.  It was a king size bed but it had such a thick/deep mattress. Rob was thrilled because he could just slide right into bed. For me, I had to climb up into bed because it was too high. The mattress was comfy just too high for me.

This couch pulled out for Robbie to sleep on. It was ugly but pretty comfortable.

"Really Mom, another picture?" At least this one she doesn't look too sick. Every time she took off her dress uniform she hung it up neatly on hangers in the closet. Such a good Soldier.

This is a picture of Mandy saying the Army thing....Huuup or however it's spelled lol. Other than the trash in the background that I just noticed, I like this picture. Hotels give you a place to eat but then give you a teeny tiny garbage can.

Here are all the Soldiers that graduated that day. They all had to sit there and not move or smile or talk at all. It felt like it was over an hour that they sat there like that. There were parents/family taking pictures and flashes going off all the time. I would have had a very hard time sitting still.

This is on Graduation Day. All the Soldiers were seated alphabetically. Luckily, Mandy was on the end of a row so I could snap this lovely picture. Doesn't she look miserable?

They had a great band playing while we were waiting. Of course we did choose the seats diagonally across from them. I think we lost a little more of our hearing that day lol.

Each Soldier had a moment to stand on stage and state their name and where they are from. Poor Mandy could barely speak.

Then on the way out they all sang a cadence about the Drill Sergeants.  Basically it went along the lines of Drill Sergeant why don't you leave me alone, why don't you let me go home.  Everywhere I go Drill Sergeant there you are. It was very cool.

We ordered the Graduation DVD and it will be here in the usual 6-10 weeks. If I can figure out how to get it from the DVD to my computer and online I will post it for everyone to see.

Since Mandy was sick we didn't go out very much. Mostly we stayed in the hotel so she could take some medicine and rest. Even though we all came home sick it was well worth the trip to see our Daughter graduate and become a Soldier.

Mandy will be coming home for 2 weeks during Christmas and we can spoil her then. At least then we will have more time and we won't get lost driving around town...hopefully lol.