SAN DIEGO!

Rudy took Whitney to Meo and John's house Tuesday night because she was flying continental with Meo, John and Ronnie out of Houston. Missy brought Kaleb out here Tuesday night so that we could leave for DFW early Wednesday morning and we did. We were all packed and we got up around 4:30 A.M. Wednesday morning. Mark got here at around 6:20 and we began to load the car. We dropped Missy and Mark off @ Love Field, because they were flying Southwest, then we made our way to the "parking spot" then loaded up on the shuttle headed for DFW. We got there in plenty of time and Kaleb was such a good boy. Thank the Lord , traffic was not so bad. Rudy is such a good planner :) We had a nice quiet flight and were right on time. We got picked up from Brown Field in SD and headed to the car rental agency. We were sitting there waiting for them to bring our car and I heard "Mom", I looked around and there was my Whitter. It felt like I had'nt seen her in weeks.John had already rented his car , a little dodge SUV. It was cute. Then another few minutes and there come Matt, Missy, and Mark, in their Toyota Camry. About that time Rudy say's , here comes our car, I look up and there rollin up is a Mustang convertable...Leave it to Rudy!

Whitney was in hog heaven!
Anyway, we parted ways with M,M,& M. and headed to our hotel. We stayed at the holiday inn on the bay. It was a very nice room. Meo and them had a view of the bay, we had a view of San Diego. There really wasn't a bad view . We had a little patio like porch and we could go out the sliding glass door, outside. I spent alot of time out there reading.
We got up the next morning and went to M.C.R.D. for family day. After some speeches and introductions ect, we see marines lining up for the 5 mile run. We were standing in the section of PLT. 1069, Michaels plt. Before too long , here they come and plt. 1069 stopped right in front of us! I was searching for Michael, as wereeveryone else in our group.

There he is!!!

I was so excited to see him, but we could'nt talk to him at that time. After the run, the recruits went back to their barracks, cleaned up and got ready for the Eagle , Globe, and Anchor ceremony. We walked around the base while we waited.




We made our way over to the stands to watch the ceremony.We found Michael again and watched as he recieved him Eagle , Globe and Anchor, the symbol that NOW he is a MARINE!

After that was over , the new marines were released for liberty until 5:00 pm. We finally got to touch him.




We walked around for the rest of the day. Michael told us stories, showed us places he worked, we ate, bought a few souvenirs, and just enjoyed visiting. At 4:45 Michael left us to return to his plt, for his last night in boot camp.
We went back to our hotels and got ready to go to supper. We were exausted.
The next day was pretty much like the previous, we went to M.C.R.D. and got ready for the graduation ceremony.


Matt wore his Uniform too and wern't they handsome.

After graduation , the Marines were released for leave. We got Michael and headed back to the hotel rooms and started to prepare to get back home. Michael and Matt had to test their strength to see who's the strongest:



After we rested a while we went out to eat at a really nice steak house restaurant and Ronnie, my wonderful nephew, paid for EVERYBODY'S. Thank you Ronnie! The food was great. We then went to a fancy dessert restaurant and the dessert was exceptional, and we could all afford to get a dessert since Ronnie paid for our dinner.
We all went back to our rooms and got packed and went to bed, we were all so tired. We got up the next morning and went to return our cars, then headed to the airport for our early flights. We all made them, and had uneventful flights home.
We really did have a great time and I'm so glad to have Michael home!
Thank you Lord, for our safe trips, for our family, and for bringing Michael through this journey.