Basic Training Graduation

Do you ever have those days that are just so good that you wish you could just freeze them in time and play them over and over again?

That’s exactly how last Wednesday and Thursday were for me. If you follow on Insta or Facebook, you probably already know that Cory and I were in Fort Jackson for basic training graduation.

Because both brothers were in basic training simultaneously {at two different bases, in two different states}, my family had to tag team the two-day event. So Cory and I drove down early Wednesday morning for Family Day with Jordan while my parents came down Wednesday night, attended Jordan’s ceremony Thursday morning, had lunch with us, and then had to catch a flight to Oklahoma for John’s graduation Friday morning.

But that’s not the part I want to freeze. We literally spent 10 hours straight for two days with Jordan and it was such a precious time to have. We debated not coming down for Family Day so we could save some of our days at work but I can’t believe that thought ever crossed my mind. We will never get this time back and I will remember these two days for a long, long time.

So what did we do that made it so special?

We started the morning off with a short Family Day ceremony where we were able to pick up our soldier!

Of course, we sat at the top of the bleachers to get a good view and didn’t realize we’d be the last ones on the field to find him. Talk about wanting to hurdle over the side. If I could’ve, I would’ve.

Jordan couldn’t leave the base on Wednesday so we played some putt-putt and Jordan and Cory spent most of the time fishing their balls out of the water. I totally whooped their butts :)

We checked out the basic training museum. By the way, we had the most perfect weather on Thursday. It felt so good spending the majority of the day outside.

We found John’s doppelganger in a picture in the museum.

The museum walked us through the different stages of basic training from current day all the way back to WWI. It was really neat to see what the boys just went through.

Jordan was cracking up, telling us about the MREs and how it said it use a “rock or something”. I didn’t completely believe him until I saw this.

After the museum, we had dinner with his company, did a little shopping at the PX, and headed to the bowling alley for some good ‘ole air hockey before he had to be back at his barracks by 8:00pm. It was so, so strange hearing from my little brother that he needed to actually be back around 7:30pm to ensure he wasn’t late. #mindblown

Graduation came early Thursday morning–especially since we didn’t get into bed until almost midnight from the excitement of sharing the day with my parents.

But first…a family selfie.

I’ve never heard a band as good as these guys. They were so entertaining!

I tried finding Jordan because he told us exactly where he was but I was on the wrong side :(

We are so proud of you, Jordan!

While waiting in traffic to get out of the parking lot, two of Jordan’s friends walked by and when I saw my mom get out to snap a picture, I jumped out of our car to grab one too. You should have seen the look on these two guys’ faces when a strange girl started snapping pictures of them.

After lunch, my parents had to head to the airport, so we had Jordan for the rest of the day. We headed to the mall for a little while with my grandparents and then spent the rest of the day trying to occupy ourselves in Columbia. We were worried about traffic getting back on the base so we headed back early and grabbed dinner there. It worked out great because Jordan’s friend Alobaide was able to join us for dinner and driving tour around base :)

If nothing else, I’m pretty familiar with Fort Jackson now.

We said our “see you in 10 weeks” and I have to say, this goodbye was much easier than the last. It really helped knowing that Jordan was heading to Fort Sill and will be with John for AIT {they are roomates!}

I really hate we missed John’s graduation but sent him crazy selfies all day on Thursday so he could be a part of it too. I can’t wait to see the video of his ceremony! Words can express how proud I am of baby brothers!