First off, I want to congratulate my dad on his successful military career! This past week has been the first time in my entire life that my dad has been a “Mr.” and not a captain/major/colonel. It’s weird for me to think about so I’m sure it is really odd for my mom and dad since they have spent the last 30+ years in the Army. But they leave knowing that they can be proud of their service to our country. Not only that, but as I was sitting around at the my dad’s party watching all these family friends that have been a part of our lives for many many years, I realized that the military is like a small town – just spread all over the world. Those relationships carry on. And when you are career military like my family, I don’t think you really ever leave. I still say I “am” a military brat, not that I “was” a military brat. Growing up in the military shaped who I am and its a part of who I am now.
Anyway, back to the week’s festivities. We got to my parents on Tuesday along with a bunch of my extended family and old family friends. Over the next couple days, tons of people were in and out. I think one night 19 people were sleeping in our house. It was crazy but fun and Lucy did remarkably well considering.
My dad had his official retirement ceremony Thursday morning. Lucy ended up sleeping through the whole thing, which was a good thing - a sleeping baby is a quiet baby. She even slept through the receiving line which was not quite as good for me. It is really hard to hold 20 lbs of dead weight and shake peoples hands at the same time, especially while wearing heels.
Since Lucy was sleeping in my arms, I didn’t take a single picture during the ceremony. Not of the general giving my dad his medal and awards, my dad giving his speech, us all tearing up over several parts of my dad’s speech, or even my mom getting her awards. But I did get these cute ones of my dad and Lucy after the ceremony.
That is one of the few pictures I took all week, even of the awesome two-family retirement party that went on Thursday night. I can’t believe it since it was the first time I’ve seen many of those people in a long time and I’m not sure when I’ll see them again – but I was too busy chasing Lucy around or collapsing on the couch once I got her to bed. It is not easy to put a toddler to sleep when 100+ people are roaming around the house and yard.
Most of the family, except Uncle Jack and Gael, were was gone by Friday night when Craig was able to join us, save me from post-party fatigue – and take pictures like these :-)
The weekend was a bit calmer but my parents did go to a dinner theatre show with Jack and Gael. Lucy isn’t quite ready for that amount of sitting still and being quiet so instead Craig, Lucy and I headed to nearby Atchinson, Kansas to see the birthplace of Amelia Earhart.
To be honest, Lucy was not real impressed by the museum inside but she really loved the dog statues out front!
Monday we headed home. And since we were on the road, we didn’t really celebrate the 4th of July at all. We ate dinner at an almost completely deserted Panera Bread and the only fireworks we saw were a couple really tall ones we could see out our living room window. I guess there is only so much fun one family can take and we were already maxed out.
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