Graduation Trip

So first off, this 3 hour time change is totally kicking my butt! I didn't think it would be that bad! ha! Tuesday afternoon we dropped my car off to get worked on and then headed to Portland! My Mom got a hotel through her work so we were able to just stay the night instead of getting up at 4am to make it to my 11am flight. The hotel was ..interesting, pretty much all three hotels I have stayed at this trip were far from nice! This one i'm at now smells like old cigarettes and they didn't even have my reservation when I got here! So I guess i'll take cigarette smell over sleeping in my car! anyway enough about smelly hotels....After traveling ALL day Wednesday I got into Columbia SC around midnight and was picked up by my friend Jessica (her husband was one of Joes good friends though basic) that I met on facebook. She took me to my hotel to sign in and then I just went back to her hotel with her so we could hang out and then I was going to get a ride with her in the morning to graduation anyway so I just stayed with her. Which worked out great because then Joes Dad was able to use my room when he arrived on Thursday..anyway on the way to the hotel we saw this HUGE fire hydrant and had to stop and take a picture!

Then BRIGHT and EARLY Thursday morning we got a text from Jessicas husband saying we should probably leave early because there were going to be a lot of people and we had to get through the check in at the gate and find parking..we left the hotel around 6:30 I think..it didn't start until 10! But he said we might get to see them if we were early, so we went...
We were the 4th or 5th car there...

I was teasing Jessica saying it was soo full where should we sit?

Waiting..waiting...waiting!
When it actually started they threw out all these smoke bombs and then ran threw the smoke into their formations...they started off with a really loud bang which scared everyone!
Here is Joes Company, I couldnt find him..but he's in there!

He told me he was all the way in the back because this is the same formation they used at graduation and he didn't march with them so for Family day they just had him fill in a spot in the very back!
After finally finding him in the HUGE crowd of people! It was really exciting to see him after 10 LONG weeks! But it was also really fun to watch other people find their soldiers..One lady standing near me spotted her soldier and threw everything she was holding and ran so fast and jumped on him! and lets just say she was not a tiny person..haha, she took him out!

I have a super cheesey smile, but I like this one of Joe

Joe and his Dad!

PFC Maxa and PFC McShinsky

Jessica, Josh, Joe and Me!

Me and Joe in the barracks
Joe next to his bunk and locker

For Graduation I got to sit in reserved seating because Joe got special honors for getting the highest BRM in his company..this is a picture of B company.. I totally forgot he wouldn't be marching with them so I took a million pictures of them!

I did eventually remember he was marching somewhere special and switched and took pictures of him! He was in the second row, and the person in front of him was about the same height so you can't see him that well..

Here he is!

DS in the back holding the gun passed out!

She fell straight back hard!

Joe with the commander (I think)

The General (?) and Joe

These are the missionaries from Joes ward, and the other soldier was in his company

In front of the barracks

Friday Joe got to sign out and leave base for the first time in 10 weeks! After eating some yummy mexican food we headed to the Columbia, SC Temple. Wewent to the book store, but they didn't have what we needed so we walked around the Temple for awhile and took some pictures then headed to drop off our stuff at the hotel and to take Phil back to the airport. We hung around the airport for awhile chatting and waiting to pick up my rental car.

I don't have any more pictures after that!
I actually just found these on my camera..Joe took them while I was driving!
Welcome to Georgia!
My first drive from one state to another!
(No worries..I usually am looking at the road! ha)
I think I scared Joe a little..I kinda like to drive fast...shhh don't tell anyone..

We drove to Augusta, GA Saturday morning..Joe had to sign in at noon. The srg. checking him in was LDS, he seems like an okay guy. He gave Joe a pass so he didn't have to report back until today at noon (I just got back from dropping him off..I took the wrong exit coming back to the hotel..man that was fun..thank goodness for GPS!!) We went and ate a Chillis which was SUPER packed. It was kind of funny, Joe was in his ACUs and we went in and asked for a table, they said it would be at least a 45 min wait, but we decided to just wait..(everywhere was that busy!) so we took the little beeper thing and went and sat in the grass outside, it was a super nice evening..not even 10 min later our beeper went off and they sat us in a table big enough for 4! We got to go in front of SO many people that were waiting! Guess there are some benefits of having a soldier! hahaha

So now i'm sitting in my hotel room, editing pictures and watching Harry Potter on tv. My plane leaves tomorrow at 7am so I am hoping to catch up on some much needed sleep today! Thank you SOOO much to everyone who has helped with my babies so I could come on this much needed trip! Thank you Thank you!!