End of year catchup (long with lots of pics!)

Finally! you say! ;)

What a wonderful whirlwind trip I had to go see Brian at his AIT graduation. I flew to Phoenix where my friend Lisa picked me up. We went to Alicia's birthday party that night, got up early the next morning and headed east. I had such a great time on the road with Lisa!

We stopped in Atlanta to visit one of her online friends, and we all went to the Coca-Cola museum. THAT was a blast!

Refreshing PAKISTAN for 50 years?!? Who knew?!


A Japanese vending machine. If you look really close, you'll see that they have 'Coke Light', not Diet Coke. It's the same for Aaryk in Iraq!


The bear was amazing! The animatronics in it's head were so lifelike!


And lastly, just because it's Christmas!

We went out for ribs after that (Fat Matt's Rib Shack was wonderful!) and then back to the motel. WE got to Ft. Gordon the next day.

All along the way, we saw some amazing fall color-


We got in to Ft. Gordon and went to the Signal Corp museum while we were waiting for Brian.



Snoopy is an honorary member of the Signal Corp!








When we finally caught up with him, we went out to eat and hung out at the motel. Mostly he just wanted to get out of the barracks for a while and relax!

Graduation was the next afternoon and was nice.


There were only about 16 in his class, and it was held in one of the Ordnance Corp classrooms.


Reciting the Ordnance Corp Creed


Announcing his permanent duty station- Ft. Hood Texas!


Receiving his diploma


Being congratulated by the Brass.

After graduation and a safety briefing, the guys were dismissed and we headed back to the motel for some R&R.

Brian has the coolest internet connection. It's actually through a cell phone line and he can access it ANYWHERE! It was very helpful in the car when we were trying to find the movie theatre to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium that afternoon!


For Thanksgiving dinner we went to Golden Corral with his buddy Collier and his best friend Hardin and Hardin's family.


Here they are, the future of our Armed Forces!

We left Brian at a movie theatre to see a show with the guys, and headed west. It had started raining which really matched my mood, but when we stopped for gas we saw this-


We made it to Dallas the next afternoon and got to spend some time with my Dad and Chris there-


We had a delightful visit and pushed on to Abeline that night. The next morning we awoke to....SNOW!!!


Lisa had a blast driving in the snow for the first time! Most of west Texas was blanketed in the stuff!


In case you can't read it, that snow-covered sign reads- El Paso 96 miles!

It was a wonderful trip, a whirlwind, and quite the adventure. It was great to spend time with Lisa, getting to see many of my Phoenix friends, and to be there for Brian.