Quincy's Graduation

December 17th 2010 Quincy graduates USCG basic training in Cape May, NJ. It was a long 8 weeks but it was so worth it when we walked into that gym and saw him standing tall in his uniform ready to graduate. It looked something like this:

{Quincy was part of the recruit drill team which performed a routine at the graduation}

{You can check out a similar drill here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1HM84AmXIs}

{The Chief from Quincy's cutter came and presented his graduation certificate which was a really awesome surprise and honor}

{Foxtrot 184}

{The first hug!!!! A big thank you to Quincy's brother Justin for taking pictures and getting this shot even though I ran off through the crowd to find Q!}

{There are not enough words to explain how proud and happy I was for Quincy at this moment}

{Quincy and a few of his Company Commanders}

{At the Congress Hall Hotel after graduation}

The graduation was amazing but getting my husband back was the BEST Christmas gift I've ever had. What perfect timing.

Check out more graduation pictures here.

Swearing In

It feels like just yesterday that we were waiting for what felt like hours in a little room to watch Quincy swear in and "officially be on his way". We had to send him off in San Diego (since thats the recruiting office he used) so Terry, Gail and I made our way to M.E.P.S. and watched him swear in. Quincy was the only one in this group that was going Coast Guard, everyone else was Army and Air Force. When we got to go into the room all the guys were lined up like so:

Then a man came in and and led them in saying the following:

And of course they had to raise their right hand while doing so:

The man then gave the guys a little "pep talk" which of course choked me up!

Then we got to take pictures and congratulate him.

And finally we got to take him out for his last meal before boot camp and big surprise: he wanted SUSHI! The meal was great but I had to keep reminding myself to stay in the moment and enjoy it instead of thinking about the next 8 weeks of dinners without him.

The next morning we woke up at 4 a.m. and watched him get on a bus. It was rough. There were no tears but it was still rough. It felt surreal to be standing at the beginning of that 8 weeks but there was nothing to do but dive in. So he went off to boot camp in New Jersey and I went home to Penn Valley and the countdown began!