I know this isn’t proper coffee etiquette, but a time saver for me in the morning (during the week) is to make it the night before, put in in the fridge and then microwave it. 😬

“Hey!!! Pell” translation: “Hey, Siri” (he thinks all smart speakers are Siri), “play ‘Do the Propeller’ by The Wiggles.”

My nephew, Damian graduated from USMC bootcamp in sunny California this past December. Originally we talked about all going down, but with Levi not being a great traveler quite yet it made more sense to have just me go. Then about a month or so after I used miles to get myself a ticket, we decided it would be fun experience for Owen to see and we added him to the flight.

We were able to take advantage of a lounge at the Detroit airport with one of my credit card rewards and that got us some nice breakfast, coffee, and a place to relax since we had some time before our flight.

Owen always does a great job with traveling, he knows what to expect and brings his travel must haves- headphones, Nintendo Switch, and an iPad loaded with shows.

We made it to California the night before Josh, my parents, and Jon & Miyuki so we ended up staying at The Grant Hotel (I had a free reward night so figured we should go somewhere nice). The hotel was nice and most importantly the bed was comfortable! The next morning we got breakfast at the hotel, grabbed a coffee for me at Blue Bottle and then went to meet up with everyone.

The first day, we went to a briefing where they explained what the recruits went through during bootcamp, shared some history, and talked about what they could or could not do during the next couple of days.

Afterwards, we were able to go down and see them marching, before they released them to see their family for the day. It was pretty sunny out, so here’s a pic where we are squinty or just not looking at the camera.

The morning of the ceremony, since the time zone change was in my favor, I woke up around 5AM and had text Josh I could take him whenever if he wanted to leave early. This ended up being a mistake, because I thought we would get there in plenty of time, but we ended up being stuck in traffic for about 3hours, because the base was searching every car that came through and created a hold up. When we got to the base, last minute I told him and Owen they should just get out and walk because they would probably beat me going through the car search, so they did and were able to arrive to their seats right as it began. I ended up being 45 minutes late, because a car in the lane I was getting searched in had brought a gun on the base, so they made all of the cars back up and go to another lane while they figured out what to do with him. This wasn’t a quick process. However, I made it before the end and was able to see him officially graduate. Later on I saw the guy that held everyone up, so my guess is he had a permit and just didn’t realize you can’t bring a gun on a base - not the brightest move.

It was cool to get to see my nephew graduate bootcamp, and to have my uncle there who saw me graduate from bootcamp 20 years ago.

It was also nice to have one on one time with Owen and get to have him experience this with me.

My mom arrived on Wednesday and as is our custom, we went straight to Holy Cannoli.

We also took a walk around my neighborhood since it was still warm out for this time of year.

Drove about an hour to Frankenmuth, where she had lunch with Rachel and Owen. Levi was sleeping hard when we arrived, so I just hung out with him so he could get his nap. He woke up right about the time they were done, so we walked to the toffee shop in town.

Went to church on Sunday morning. Then Rachel and my mom had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant. I took her to a veteran owned winery, which turned into an adventure since the location close by closed about 2 minutes before we got there. We ended up in Port Huron.

Finally Owen and I took her to the airport and ended up getting to walk her to the gate since Detroit allows a limited amount of non flyers to come in. It felt like the 90s, when my uncle would visit and we all got to go to the gate with him.

I would like to say we all had great sleep from Levi sleeping when he was supposed to, but there were a couple of all nighters. Ha.

Another Halloween for the boys. This year they both started off being Stitch, but last minute decided he liked Owen’s old Buzz Lightyear costume. Armada definitely knows how to do trick or treating. When we first moved here and our neighbor told us to expect 600+ kids, I thought he was exaggerating. He was not. So many kids and so much candy to go around from everyone in town.

Owen filled his bag up in about twenty minutes after just going down our street. Levi was loving the inflatable shark costumes, thinking it was baby shark.

I love that this is my backyard right now. Especially this time of year before it’s completely dead, you can still see the colors and you get to peek into the woods and see the sunrise. I still can’t believe they didn’t put the main bedroom on this side of the house though 🤔both boys get to wake up to an excellent view and we are looking into our neighbors driveway 😂

My Dad drove for a visit and brought along my nephews, Nolan and Dallas. They got in on Friday, at the perfect time since I just had taken the steaks off the grill and was starting to cut them up when they walked in. Levi was a little suspisious of everyone at first, but by the end of the night he was already trying to take snacks from my Dad on the couch and run with the other boys. While they were in town, there was a Halloween festival in my downtown that the boys got to dress up for. My dad and I took all the older boys to Lexington, Michigan while Rachel stayed with Levi so he could nap. The boys got to see Lake Huron, do their kites on the beach (apparently my dad just keeps kites in the back of his trunk… just in case) and then hit up the candy store. Sunday, we went to Activate which was a mix of games that light up on the floor or patterns you follow around and try to solve with others. That one actually looked like a lot of fun to do with just adults as well.

The last time we were here, we drove all the way to Red Rock only to be turned away because they had started doing reservations due to Covid and we didn’t have phone reception to make any. This time it looked like we didn’t need any when we googled but when we arrived we did. We went back to town for some lunch (they ended up giving Owen really spicy mac and cheese) and figured out how to book a reservation, so then headed back there to look around.

At the end of deployment we do a Tiger cruise for family and friends and my Dad joined us in Hawaii and rode back to Naval Station Everett.

Swearing into the Navy in Clive and then waiting at the airport with my parents before flying to Chicago for boot camp.