Air Assault Graduation

Recently, Donald graduated from Air Assault School in Oregon, a few hours south of here. The class was about 2 weeks long, and because of the long drive and my busy-ish schedule, I hadn't planned on driving down for graduation.

During the class, our friend Drew was getting ready to move to the east coast, and during his final days here (after moving out of his apartment) he was staying with us.
After several delays, he was finally set to head to his new duty station a few days later than expected, on the same day Donald would be finishing his class.

Drew is a genius.

He saw that the timing was perfect. I was wrist-deep in grey paint when he knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to surprise Donald the next day.
Um, of course!
It wasn't exactly on the way for him, but Drew is a champ, and was happy to make the slight detour.

We drove down together Drew drove the whole way while I slept. It was great.
Donald and I aren't exactly the "surprise type", so this was new territory. Honestly, I wasn't sure if he'd take it well.
He did :-)
They were getting their group picture taken when we arrived.



He was so excited to see me, in fact, that he had to pee.




The ceremony was nothing fancy. They lined up, some Colonel gave a long speech about the purpose and intensity of the Air Assault Course, and then they were pinned with their wings.



Family members were allowed to do the pinning, so here I am, giving SSG Winn his wings:


He was hidden amongst hundreds of other average white guys with brown hair in ACUs, so I almost didn't find him!

Ah, here he is!
...Furthest row back, 4th in from the left!

My handsome soldier rarely smiles for cameras, so I'm sure he's happy that these are on the internet now.







And here we are together, after dismissal:




After the ceremony, we said goodbye to Drew and then headed back home.




On the parenthood front, we're looking into becoming foster parents. Donald has more military training in August and September, so it'd be no sooner than October or November that we'd be licensed and ready to take placements... and that's if we move forward with it.

Until then, we enjoy walking around the house half or fully naked, and are living a child-free life to the fullest.