I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home...

I apologize in advance for the length of this post. Hope you make it all the way through ; )

At Last! The day had arrived when I could go to Georgia and see Benj graduate! My parents, Benj's parents, and I flew out Sept. 13 to Atlanta. We all met up and shared a mini van and drove down to the Meet and Greet. I thought it was kind of lame that we didn't get to see our soldiers. It was basically a test of the family's knowledge of what their soldiers are up to and introducing the cadre. They did door prizes for those that answered quiz questions correctly and also gave prizes for things like, who had the youngest baby, who lived the furthest away and so forth. I got the prize for being married the longest. (Go figure because most of these "men" are 18 and 19) Nonetheless, I got an Army Wife keychain : )

They also had some of the MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and gear that the soldiers had to wear for us to try out. Benj's Mom is sporting it quite well! You don't mess with her!

The next morning, we got to finally see Benj at the Beret Ceremony. What was torture was that we had to go through the whole ceremony before we actually could be with them! We noticed the whole company lined up a couple of minutes before the ceremony began so, of course, I had to get a picture.

Marching in all professional!




Benj said that they could get in so much trouble if they even move their eyes from the person in front of them so Benj couldn't even peek to see us during the whole ceremony. Poor guy! This ceremony basically is their rite to wear the Beret. They've definitely earned it!

Together again at last!

After the ceremony, we got the whole day with our soldiers. We decided to go the the National Infantry Museum. It had a lot of new exhibits and was quite impressive! They even had this family section where you could dress up like your soldier.

We also took a walk at the Chattahoochee riverwalk. It's the river that separates Georgia and Alabama. It was beautiful!

I thought this was a cute pic of Benj's parents!

The riverwalk

It was not fun saying goodbye to him that night. I felt like we were engaged again ; ) The next morning was the Graduation. Benj was "voluntold" to represent a soldier from Vietnam so unfortunately he didn't get to march with the rest of his platoon in the ceremony because he wasn't in his dress blues. Before the ceremony started, Dad couldn't resist getting a pic of him when he can't break being at attention.

In the portion where they have Benj come out, they give a brief history of the soldiers that have served in the past.

This part was pretty cool. They had these guys come out at the end of the field with smoke and expolosive sounds and then they explain the duty of each member of the team.

Benj's platoon

There's a part where they have any that have served or are serving in the Army recite the Army creed? (I could be wrong, but I can't remember what it's called) It was kind of neat to see mine and Benj's Dad recite it with everyone else!

The whole company

After the ceremony, Benj had to be at attention for quite a while for people to come and see the uniforms.

They finally gave him leave and we had the rest of the day to enjoy ourselves. My handsome man with a very happy wife!

We did a tour of the WWII area they had. It was pretty neat but very long!

Benj and his Dad sporting the battle helmets they had in the tour

Benj in front of the NIM

The rest of the day was spent eating food, where we enjoyed hearing about Benj's experiences. We also saw Harry Potter 7.2 at the NIM. The next day, we met at the airport. We tried to get on the same flight home but they wanted to charge us too much money to do that so I got in before him. Benj's cousin, Cody, and his wife, Hayden were gems! They picked up all the kids, (Will was with my brother, Gabby with my sister, and Lydia with Cody and Hayden) and then picked my up at the airport. We ate dinner at their house and then they went with me to help with the kids to pick up Benj at the airport.

I played a mean trick. I made it sound like we were running late when Benj called to say he landed. But we were right there when he came down the escalator.
Just waiting for Daddy to come.

Will booked it when he realized it was Daddy coming down the escalator. Gabby wasn't too far behind!

The whole clan together again!

We had a fun surprise coming home. Our sweet neighbors had decked out the house for Benj's homecoming!

It took Lydia a while to get comfortable having Benj hold her but she warmed up as soon as she let him!

I thought the grenade balloons were a nice touch!

We couldn't be happier that Benj is home! We are definitely treasuring the time we have together a lot more now. Here's a cute pic to end. It says Future Trooper on all their shirts. (Yes the Mickey Mouses are family now)

10 Weeks of H...

Well, I highly doubt any of you want to hear about how basic went for Benjy from me but considering Benj has been running from one thing to the next since he got home and relief is nowhere in sight, I'm your informant!

The first week was spent recieving all the company. Process paperwork, physicals, haircuts, etc. Benj said they had to hurry up to wait wherever they went. When they actually got to their barracks and were set up, the real work began.

This is part of an obstacle course they had to complete in the 1st week of training. They had to caterpillar crawl under those ropes. These pics were posted on facebook so I'm not even sure if that's Benj but it sure looks like him : )

If you use your zoom, Benj is standing to the left of the rope ladder.



This was one of those problem solving challenges where they had to figure out as a group. The better they work together, the faster and dryer they stay!

The really good stuff! The gas chamber. don don don! They start with their masks on and then have to take them off inside, recite information, and come out without touching their eyes, face, etc. Because if they do, it's a LOT worse! I believe Benj is just about to go in the door.

Grenade training! Benj scored an expert in grenade! There's my man holding that grenade to his chest right by the door.

Benj also scored expert in rifle marksmanship! He looks so serious, eh?

This pic was taken at the 3rd Field Training Exercise. It's 5 days in the field putting all your training into practice. Benj was the Platoon Guide for a couple of weeks and into this training. This is my all time favorite pic taken. He is a hunk!

All in all, Benj sailed through Basic with ease. He said he didn't realize how difficult it would be to not be with the family but was able to handle all the physical and mental demands put upon him! I'm so proud of him and am so grateful for how hard he works! I'm also grateful to the Lord for safely bringing Benj home and for giving us both the strength to get through those 10 weeks!

Z "Scout Camp"

So, unfortunately I was a little too busy at this family reunion to takes pics. I do want to document it though. Around the end of August, my Dad, since he works for the Boy Scouts of America, was able to reserve half of a scout camp for us to have our annual reunion. It was a blast! There were little cabins with bunk beds in it for each family, a gated pool, a trailer to prepare food, a commissary, a horseshoe court, a rope swing, showers, and flushing toilets! My kind of place to camp! There were a lot of my siblings missing a spouse at one point or another but that doesn't mean we didn't have a blast! The kids especially enjoyed the pool! Mom got little flotation devices and they were eating it up!

We had a little scare with Lydia falling off the bottom bunk. She wasn't responding for a few minutes and looked very sleepy. It was super scary! My Dad was amazing and knew what to do. After she started to cry enough to get some oxygen to her brain, my brother-in-law checked her pupils and then the men in my fam gave her a blessing. It was so comforting to know Lydia would be just fine and it was pretty incredible that all the cousins were dead silent during the blessing! The priesthood is such a comfort! I sure missed Benj at that point, but I'm so grateful for my family! My parents especially were so amazing during Benj's absence and I feel so blessed!

Russell Campout

I failed to post these in order but at the end of July, we went to the Russell Family Reunion at Twin Peakes. It was my first venture without Benj so I wasn't as prepared as I wanted to be but we still had a good time. We got there Friday afternoon and hung out by playing games and enjoying the fresh air.

Our site even had this amazing amphitheater just for us!


I had to take a picture of my successful attempt to get the tent up all by myself! (I fully appreciate all Benj does when we go camping now :)

Grandma Russell is always prepared with fun games to play!

And this was Lydia's home for the duration of camping!

Grandma reading The Friend to the kids. They were enthralled!

You can always count on silliness with the Russells!

Aaand more silliness

Miles and Gabby sure liked loading rocks into that bucket

The rest of the night, we roasted hot dogs and marshmellows and chatted. The kids were tuckered out and slept so well for me! We certainly missed Benj and by the next morning, I was all camped out! We took off after cleaning up breakfast, which was good because if I had lingered to go fishing and have lunch, I probably would have missed my first phone call from Benj!

Noni Summer Party

So, you would think that we would just skip out on Benj's work party since he's still at Basic Training but...we didn't wanna miss out on the fun and we were still invited! So I asked my Mom if she would help me with all the kiddies have some fun!

If you can see it, Gabby has a churro and a chocolate shake. They had a 50's theme to the party so they had the appropriate music going and all sorts of yummy food and snacks. They had popcorn, sno cones, nachos, and cotton candy all you can eat! For dinner they had burgers and fries or you could put a plate together from a buffet table.

They had a bunch of carnival games and Will's favorite part was the prize he got to pick! One of the prizes was a cheap toy watch. He kept looking at his watch and would say things like, "My watch says it's time to go to another game!"



They also had a bunch of bounce houses and what kid doesn't like bouncing around?

This one was pretty cool. They harness the kids and then they go up like a space ship and bounce around for a bit!

Will was a sweet brother and painted Lydia a piggy bank. He did a pretty good job!

They also had a camera that would film us all dressed up for 5 seconds and then they would give a flip book of it! It was pretty fun! They had a mini ferris wheel, bingo for kids, a hula hoop contest, airbrush tattoos, and a bunch of other things I'm sure I'm forgetting! We all had a really good time!