Hannah & Hunter keeping busy with football

Hannah is number 72 & Hunter is number 73. Hannah actually got her bubby Kris' old high school football number. Kris loved that one. He's actually sad that he never got to see either of them play football this year.

First Day of school

Every year I take pictures of the kids on the first day of school and much to their disliking momma always wins, lol. This year seemed weird without Kris being here--its like a missing link. Why is it so hard to let them go??? I was OK putting my last baby on the bus--OK a little sad but I made it without any tears. Then on the way to work I heard the Zac Brown song It won't be like this for long and I nearly lost it then and had to call BJ and he told me babe it will be alright, lol. Oh by the way I asked Kris if he missed getting his pictures taken for the first day of school and he um Mom NO. Thanks Kris!

Long Road Trip in a nutshell

At basic graduation & family day we meet a lot of nice young soldiers and their families. After graduation a couple of our families met for lunch at Hooters (the boys' choice) before we all hit the road. We all had a great time and of course Hooters made it fun for the newly graduated soldiers. They brought them all up from (we weren't the only group there) and gave them applause and recognized them for their accomplishments which I thought was great and they so deserved it. Kris & a fellow soldier went and got a tattoo afterwards. It was Kris' first one and he wanted it so badly, lol. For family day it rained really bad so they didn't have the big ceremony with smoke and all on the field like we hoped and have been waiting to see. We adopted a soldier whose family couldn't make it and we had a great time with him with us. I still talk to him and his girlfriend on facebook and he's truely a great young man who will go far.

We got to bring him home for the day before heading to AIT since it was on the way so he got to see a couple of his friends, do some laundry and sleep a little bit before heading onto MO. We went to Anheiser Busch brewery and took the tour there (we have been many times before but his girlfriends hadn't been).

Josh didn't want to make the trip to graduation or AIT because he gets severely car sick so we didn't make him go especially with having to travel through the mountains. I just wish that he could have went with us for a family trip. He enjoyed his freedom here at home though so I can't blame him any.

Dropping Kris off at AIT was hard on the younger two siblings as Hannah thought Kris was staying with us and Hunter says he missed him.
I kinda felt like a bad mom not really missing him while he was at Basic or AIT. As a fellow soldier I knew what he was going to be going through and I knew that he would be alright and can get through it. The hardest part as a mom was not getting a lot of mail or phone calls but I also know what its like to be that soldier having to say see you later over and over again just makes you more homesick even though you want to hear them.

Pictures at AIT

More pictures to come

More pictures to come from AIT blogger won't let me post any for some reason!!!

On to AIT

Kris graduated on Fri from basic training in SC and had to report to Ft Leonard wood, Mo on Sun. We were lucky that they let us transport him to his AIT so we were able to spend some extra time with him even tho it was on the road. Dropping him off was once again hard on Hannah as she thought he was staying home with her. Hunter even shed a few tears when we left him in Mo.

Beach in SC

While we were down in SC we went to Myrtle Beach and watched the sunrise since we arrived too earlier to go on base just to drive around.

Update.....Basic Graduation

So many emotions have been seen by the entire family since the day we put Kris on the plane to start his new adventure with the military. Hannah was the most heartbroken of us all when he left as she just adores him SO much.

He had a rough go with basic training at first with leaving his family and friends behind this summer & the intense heat of the South didn't set well with my Northern boy well so while he made his first steps into the real world and doing what he has always set his heart & life into---with serving his country. He made it through basic training at Fort Jackson, SC and graduated Aug 14th.

Seeing him standing there in the middle of the parade field on graduation day---I can't describe the sense of pride I had for him and his fellow soldiers. I remember being that soldier but that's nothing compared to the pride of a mother watching her son become a fine soldier.