Yes, I am ENGAGED!! And I will be posting that complete story as well. But I also want to take some time to fill you in on what I THOUGHT last weekend was centered around- Ben.
Ben is B's little brother and some of you might have been around long enough to know he has been in the Army basic training since the end of August. If you are new, and want to read more about that, see this post. So anyway. This past weekend was Family Day so we all loaded up and made the trip to spend some time with Ben.
We left town Thursday morning, and had a really great car ride down. We found our hotel with ease and got all our clothes ironed and ready for an early morning to go pick up Ben! Friday morning rolled around, we all jumped up, got dressed, and headed out the door. We followed the GPS to a road that was CLOSED, so we turned around and thought we had found where we needed to be. We could see families gathering in the stands and soldiers on the field.
And then someone handed us an Infantry Brigade program and we knew we were wrong. So we asked for directions (were told wrong..) and headed out to find the correct spot. I'll spare you the details but we rolled into the right spot 10 minutes before their ceremony started. Panic was on all of our minds. LOTS of panic.
We ran up to the spot, got settled in, and then saw Ben and his troop marching in. Honestly, chills just fled all over my body. These men are the lives we take for granted every single day. These are the men we should be thanking more than we do. These men are the ones giving THEIR time and lives for all of our freedom. To stand there and watch Ben be a part of such a strong unit, I was literally more proud than I expected to be.
Emotions were running high as the tears flowed from eyes and the boys were all so anxious to hug Uncle Ben. It was honestly such a sweet moment and I'm forever thankful that I got to be a part of this moment in their lives.
Once the ceremony was over, Ben met us and we all got our hugs and pictures made. Then Ben was ready to eat! Imagine that! We went back to the hotel to drop his things and then headed to a meal. We all listened as he told stories and explained how his life has been the last couple months.
The whole weekend was full of fun. We ate good food, talked about lots of things, made many new memories, and enjoyed every single moment we had with Ben.
You can tell me we were all happy to see him, and took full advantage of getting some pictures! :)
We had such a wonderful weekend with Ben. And Sunday was a hard moment to leave him once again..
Needless to say, we miss him but are SO PROUD of him.Way to go Ben. I'm proud to call you my brother.
Aaaaaaaaaaand.. speaking of that.. my engagement story coming soon! :)
