So my in-laws and I drove to OK to see Brian. Family Day was March 31st at Fort Sill. So Wednesday morning early (really early). I stayed up late the night before to finish packing for our trip. But I made to much noise in our room and woke Iain up so I ended up getting into bed and getting Iain back down to sleep. So I set my alarm for 3:45am and that's when I finished packing. But At 4:30am Iain woke up and wanted to build a train with the blocks. So I let him build while took a shower and packed. I was all ready to go by quarter till 6am (it was 'o' dark hundred. And getting up that early remained me of when I was still in high school). By the time we had the car packed and ready to go it was quarter till 7am. But by the time we got on the road in was 15minutes till 8am (and my mother-in-law wanted to be on the road no later than 6am because we had a 13+ hour drive ahead of us). But we finally got on our way. Iain stayed awoke till 10:30am. Iain was amazing on the drive out (except when we were 30minutes from the hotel. Iain kept saying "me done", "all done", "home now" and "push". He was super excited to see Daddy. And thought that we were going to see him at the hotel. And was disappointed that daddy wasn't waiting for us in the room. When we got to the hotel I gave Iain a bath (because we had to get up and be ready to go eat and be on base before 7:30am). But I stayed up late trying load music so I could sync it to the Ipod (but I never did get it synced). Well we got to Fort Sill and headed over to where Family Day was going to start. After the opening exercises we were asked to go out side to see our soldiers. Well when the platoon march by us I didn't recognize Brian when he went by. Brian is so much darker and leaner than he was when he went in. Though he has only lost 10 lbs since going. Brian has lost quite a few inches all over and he looks great (I will post pictures as soon as I can. He looks really great in his dress blues). Brian picked up Iain and was holding him and Iain was just staring at him like you sound like daddy but you don't look like daddy. And was really unsure of Brian for a few hours after we picked Brian up. Brian had to wear his dress blues all day and is not allowed to drive and he showed us around base. We went to the PX (Post Exchange) and we went to a museum. Marlene wanted to take pictures (so of cause we took a ton). Brian had to follow all the rules that he had learned during training even while he was with us off base. He wanted to go get pizza for lunch (man that man of mine can put food away and he eats so fast). We than went back to the hotel (Iain needed a nap). Brian, Iain, and I watched a movie and talked. For dinner Brian wanted to go to Red Lobster. It was so good. I wish we didn't have to take him back to base for the night. But he had formation (at 8pm so we had to have him back no later than 7:45pm) and he had to do some packing that.
So that brings us to Friday, 1st April 2011. Brian graduated from Basic training from Fort Sill OK. The day before Brian told us that he was going to be singing the National Anthem at graduation by himself and without accompaniment. He sounded fantastic and it was so amazing to see and hear him use his talent. I can't tell you how proud of him that I am. What he has done for us. And the things that he has gone through over the last 10 weeks (the lack of sleep and basic comforts that I know I take for granted). After graduation, my in-laws and I thought that we would have only a few minutes with him (we didn't know when he was shipping out). But we were surprised to learn that we were able to take him for the rest of the day. But we had to have him Back to base again no later than 7:45pm. So we spend most of the time on base with him except for lunch (he wanted Chinese food). We walked around the PX again. Brian and Iain played at the arcade for a little bit. We than took him back to the training field near his barracks. We took some more pictures and talked. I got to meet another of his battle buddies (the work in the buddy system no one can go any where with out a companion and that is what they call it). We than left Brian there at Fort Sill and started our drive back to CO (I felt like crying the whole way back but I didn't). I tried to not cry while I was with Brian (but if you know me you know I'm a big cry baby).
He is amazing and there is no doubt in my mind that he loves me and is willing to go through this trail to give us this chance for a better life together. I miss him every day but its only a little longer that we have to be apart.
Well I told Brian to call me when he was headed to the airport (I didn't care about the time I just wanted to hear his voice). So he called me at 12:30am on the 2nd of April. He said he was at the airport and his plane was going to take off at 1:30am and that he had a lay over in TX and he would call me when he got there. So I got another call later that morning and while we were talking I asked him to call my parents to keep them informed about things. He landed in Richmond VA at 12:30pm. He gave me a call and we talked for a little while and I reminded him to call my parents to let him know that he got into VA safely. I also asked him to keep me informed about everything. The van to Fort Lee finally got there and he said that Fort Lee was about 30minutes from the airport. And he would try and call me later on that evening (as long as they didn't take his phone from him) but he had to turn his phone off for a bit.
[So that's everything I think is safe to post (with Brian being in the Army I don't want to use names and I won't be describing places). And the reason for the two colors is for some reason it's not posting my posts in paragraphs (so each color is a new paragraph).]
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