Adam at BMT

I received the Photo CD from BMT in the mail earlier in the week and I went through them to pick out the ones that Adam is in. It was harder to pick him out than I expected, so I may have missed some, but there were some really great pictures taken of him and his flight!! He hasn't seen this CD yet or his yearbook and we have 2 movies coming as well, so I am sure that he will be anxious to see all of this while he is home. But, I thought you might like to see him IN ACTION!! We are so proud of him!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

We recorded this message for Daddy, but we weren't able to email it to him because Yahoo had a size restriction, so we are posting it here so he can access it and still see it!! Plus it was so adorable I thought everyone might like to see it!!

DADDY-

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, WE WISH YOU COULD BE HERE WITH US CELEBRATING, BUT WE WANTED YOU TO KNOW THAT WE LOVE YOU AND WILL BE THINKING ABOUT YOU AND WE HOPE TO TALK TO YOU LATER ON THE PHONE!!

GBFGBHUDKLGHUILTGEIWOTGEKGBDKGJBFLGHFGOI

LOVE ANDREW & RILEY

Aviano AFB, Italy

So...this information is still processing in my mind, BUT Adam called last night and he finally got his orders!! He is going to be stationed at Aviano Air Force Base in Italy after tech school. Adam is so excited; for me it is quite a huge move for the first time, but I am sure once we get there and start seeing all the beautiful sites I will fall in love with the city as well. This is an aerial view of the AFB so you can all see the size of it as well as a landscape picture, which looks gorgeous!!

Children's Museum of Maine

Grammy and Grampy also took us to the Children's Museum on Sunday!! There were a lot of awesome things to do there and Andrew had tons of fun!! He had been there before, but you would never know with how much he enjoyed everything!!

Railway Museum

Saturday Grammy and Grampy took us to the Railway Museum in Boothbay Harbor, there were lots of interesting things to see and Andrew loved riding on the train around the tracks!! He called it Peter Sam and we got to ride it twice around the village!! Riley slept most of the time, but we made sure to get him in at least ONE picture, haha!!

SAN ANTONIO TRIP

I outlined the days of the trip below. We hated to have to see him go, but we had a nice time together and the weather was beautiful!! A little hot at times being out all day in it, but I loved it much more than Maine weather, haha!! Adam was able to call and leave me a message last night while we were on our flight, but he made it to tech school okay besides the 7 hour bus trip, had a nice dorm room and would start his detail today. Hopefully these 8 weeks will go by really fast and once I get a definite date for when he will be done, I will make a new countdown!!

Wednesday, June 3

This was the day we flew out for San Antonio. Our plane left Portland at 5:30 and flew into Atlanta at 8:00. We had a layover until 11:00 where we had a nice lunch at Atlanta Bread and then flew into San Antonio at 12:45!! We then went to get the rental car (which was a nice Nissan Pathfinder, wouldn't mind owning one!) and then drove to the hotel to check in. We didn't do too much, just had supper at Whataburger and then relaxed and waited in excitement for when we would see him the next day!!

Thursday, June 4

Today was the first day we saw him!! We were very excited to get on base and start our exciting long weekend with him!! First at 9:00 was the Airman's Run where they ran first one way and then turned around and ran back the other. The first time I didn't see him and was really bummed and then we saw them again and that time I was able to see him really well!! Then, while they went off and did whatever we had to wait until 1:30 for the Coin Ceremony/Retreat, but they kept us busy with seminars outlining the weekend for us. The ceremony went really well and as soon as they announced them "AIRMAN" we got to run out to find him in the crowd!! It was so awesome to see him for the first time and Andrew would not let go of him for the rest of the day. He looked so nice in his blues and I was proud to be able to be walking next to such a handsome, professional looking guy!! He had base liberty after that until 7:00 so we went to the Mini Mall BX where we sat and talked for hours at Burger King, had some refreshing coffee drinks (Iced Chai for me though) at Green Beans Coffee and then we went to the comic book store to pick up his purchases he had made during basic (they are not allowed to take anything back to the dorm until after graduation weekend) and we went and got Andrew a t-shirt that says "My Daddy is an Airman" with the Air Force emblem. We couldn't find one small enough for Riley, but I am sure I can find something online sometime!! Cathy also bought Adam a 3-slot coin box to keep his coin in and add to it and even had it engraved with his name, squadron and graduation date!! I also ordered a DVD of all the graduation events along with the BMT DVD Adam had already ordered so we could watch the weekend all over again down the road!!

Friday, June 5

This was the morning of the actual Parade Graduation. It was a breathtaking ceremony and they even had an Air Force plane do a flying tribute.salute to the graduating Airman. We then were given a Dorm Tour which I found very interesting to see where he sleeps and how the room was laid out. They gave me an Air Force Spouse's pin and they gave Cathy an Air Force Parent's pin. Adam also was able to give me his flight and individual photo which both came out very professional looking!! We had a chance to meet Sgt Valenzia who Adam said was the best TI on the whole base and was very down to earth. He then had town pass until 7:00 so we went to Jack in the Box for lunch and then to ATT where Cathy surprised him with an IPhone for graduation!! He was so excited and started playing with it immediately in the car! We then headed back to the hotel together for a little time by the pool. He wanted to relax a little since he said the last 8 1/2 weeks have been non-stop.

Saturday, June 6

Adam had town pass; we picked him up at the Mini Mall BX at 9:00 and went over to the main BX to buy him a military backpack to take his stuff to tech school. He had to be back by 7:00 so we decided to see some stuff around town with him. We went to the Alamo (Adam is a HUGE history buff, so this was great to see him so interested in) and then we wandered around town and down to the Riverwalk (BEAUTIFUL view from the water and even singing quartets and little cafes all along the water) and had lunch at Fuddrucker's (Adam had had this before, me NEVER!) We then headed over to the San Antonio zoo which was very large with over 4000 animals and seperate exhibits with sharks, alligators and snakes! We then had supper at Sonic's on the way back to base. It was a great day but we were sad that we would only have one day left after that.

Sunday, June 7

Adam had town pass again ; we picked him up at the Mini Mall BX at 9:00 where he got a few last minute things for tech school and then we headed to Sea World for the day before he had to be back at 5:00. We saw lots of awesome things at Sea World such as an aquarium, the Sea Lion show, the VIVA beluga show and of course SHAMU!! We didn't ride any rides, but we had an great time walking around just looking around and spending time together! We had lunch there at the Seaside Grill which was really good as well!! We dreaded driving back to the base since we knew it would be our last day together, and even though I did break down a little, we were able to handle it pretty well. It hit Adam hard because every day Andrew would ask him to please stay and after 4 days and knowing that he would not see him again the next day, it was hard to see him go. But, we know the countdown will be on again soon for when we will be together as a family!!

Monday, June 8

Today was the day we flew home. We had lunch at the Alamo grill, the last restaurant before heading home. Our flight left San Antonio at 1:00 and we flew into Atlanta at 4:00, we had a layover until 8:00 amd flew into Portland at 10:35. It was a long day, but Andrew and Riley did great on the flights, so it really wasn't too bad.