NIck's Graduation

After 10 weeks we finally got to go see Nick at Basic for his graduation. We were so excited! Brayden had been looking forward to this for quite some time. So we headed to the airport and waited for our flight. When we finally boarded our plane and took off Brayden was so good! He looked out the window and exclaimed " I can see the whole world up here". He was so good on both of our flights out there. We ended up getting in much later than we planned on but he was still a  trooper! We got to our hotel in South Carolina at about 5:30 am. We left MN at 4 pm!

Wednesday was Family day, so the soldiers did a presentation and the Battalion Commander spoke. After that we finally got to see Nick! I am not sure which one was happier to see the other.

We got to spend the whole day with Nick on base, so we took Brayden to the park to play for a little bit. Then Nick gave us a tour of base and we just hung out for the rest of the day.

Part of our tour went by the museum on base. Brayden wanted to stop and look so we did. Here he is looking at one of the guns and wanting to know if daddy shot this one.

He was in awe of the big tanks. All he wanted to do was go outside and look at them.

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. Brayden just wanted Nick to carry him.

Thursday was the actual graduation. We got there early to make sure we got good seats. That left a lot of time for taking pictures and entertaining Brayden. Luckily, he was deep in thought for part of the time.

He was very cuddly the whole time we were waiting he wanted to be right up in my face and with me.

I did pawn him off to Grandma for a few minutes though.

This is the whole battalion

The soldiers all had to walk past the bleachers one final time. Nick is in the second row from the left and the 3rd one back.

Brayden and Nick after the graduation

As soon as graduation was over, Nick checked out and wanted to leave. We got to drive him to his next location but got to spend a few days with him in between. On our drive to Georgia, Brayden fell asleep in the car. He is all boy (notice the placement of his right hand)

Once we got to our hotel in Georgia there was about a 10 minute turn around time from getting out of the car and into the pool. Makes us feel like we are home in Vegas again! Brayden was really excited that he could touch the bottom of the pool and keep his head above the water.

We went out on Thursday night for a nice dinner as a celebration.

On Friday, Brayden and Robin flew back to Minnesota, so we had a nice breakfast before driving to Atlanta to bring them to the airport.

We stopped for lunch and to let Brayden run off some energy before he had to get on a plane. He loved being able to run and play with Dad again.

It was nice to have our little family all back together again for a few days.

After dropping them off at the airport, Nick and I continued on our way to the base. He didn't have to be there until Sunday, so him and I got to spend the weekend together. On Saturday morning I made him come running with me. It was beautiful! We ran along the Chattahoochee River and through this cool bridge.

The view was spectacular and it made me excited to run Grandma's in a  few weeks!

Other than running though, we just hung out and got Nick repacked up for OCS

It was sad to have to drop him back off, but he gets to come home in 12 weeks. The end is in sight and it cannot come fast enough. We miss having him around, but we are so proud of him and all that he is doing!