a few extras

We got the professional photos in from graduation! So glad there's a close up shot of me pinning his wings on. Wish she'd gotten the punch though!

View from the front

Harder than it looks.

Still workin on it...

Pretty wings!

All done!

graduation

At last! Jeff's graduation was last Friday and we had so much fun celebrating it with family and friends.

We started the morning off with breakfast at the squadron and then the family was allowed to test out night vision goggles and see just how they work. That was awesome-- it really helped me understand what Jeff has been talking about the last couple weeks. It also helped me understand why he came home with headaches after some of his night flights! After just a few minutes of testing them out I had a headache right above my eyes. They were still neat though.

Then we took his mom out to see the static display of the Huey. A static display is just an aircraft that is on the ground for viewing.

The only time I plan to ever be on the flight line in heels

Then we headed over to the museum on post for the graduation ceremony. Jeff's mom, aunt, uncle, and I went up on stage to pin on his wings. I don't have the professional photos yet but I did have my friend Jamie take a few shots from the audience. The lighting is terrible in them because they had to hold graduation a few hours earlier than normal for a scheduling conflict and the sun was shining in everyone's eyes. But we still got a few good ones.

The aviation museum at Ft. Rucker with the graduation setup in the background

Jeff receiving his wings from the graduation speaker, MajGen Ellis

Me pinning on Jeff's wings. I punched them into his chest as hard as I could (you're supposed to) but I didn't draw blood (You're supposed to! They're called blood wings).

All of us with LtCol Denehan, the squadron Commander

It was neat. I've been to somewhere between 5-10 graduations since I've been here and I think I finally have the first verse of the Air Force Song down. I first heard it at Dining Out when Jeff was in ROTC. So it only took me a few years. Ha.

After graduation we grabbed lunch on post and then headed out to the simulator where the family was able to fly a helicopter sim. I crashed a couple times but that's why I'm not the one with wings!

In the helicopter, the driver's seat is on the right

Flying somewhere over the local area. We looked for our house but it wasn't built yet.

Jeff also did get me my very own set of wings. I love them. Back during WWII, pilots used to give their girlfriends and wives a smaller set of wings before going overseas. They're called sweetheart wings. I've found this tradition has mainly been kept by the Army, but since we are in an Army community down here and I really like it, we decided to bring it over. I got him a handcrafted wooden rack with his name engraved on it to hold his coins (the link here explains what on earth coins are for).

My wings! Earned those babies with lots of love and support

Next up: something for all those patches.

Before Jeff's mom left town we took a little trip to the beach for the day while Jeff was working. It was a beautiful day down there! I'm glad we went because it was perfect weather. We walked along the beach, ate at Margaritaville, and did a little shopping. We had a really great time.

Now everyone has left town and this graduation business has settled down. And yet.... these are still not carved. On October 29th.

Chipper giving us a subtle hint.

drop night

It's here! We finally made it to drop night! This October has been fun but we've really just been waiting day by day for the 18th to arrive. We took Chipper to a pumpkin patch last weekend and picked out a couple of pumpkins that we have yet to carve. Jeff finished up his training on Wednesday and on Friday we welcomed friends who were in Columbus with us down to Enterprise. Shaylee came all the way from Altus, OK and Christy came from Little Rock, AR just to be here! Our other friends Megan and Mitch made the trip down from Columbus on their last weekend before moving out to Oklahoma themselves. They brought their pups and Chipper had a blast seeing old buddies and making a new pal too. I failed at getting a picture of all four of the dogs because they just moved so fast! They barely settled down for even a half an hour the entire weekend.

Chipper and his new buddy Roscoe

Friday afternoon we decorated the squadron in Halloween theme (best part? Punch bowl with dry ice definitely) and got a little dressed up... As in, I wore a witch hat and Jeff wore a huge wig. They were last minute "costumes" to say the least.

Finally, we sat down to watch the class video, then watched the guys compete in a short game to see who would get to find out their assignment first. We listened to roasts for each guy before finding out the assignment. I wish I had Jeff's entire roast on video but I could not video it myself and focus on what was happening at the same time! I was too excited! The game involved tying a balloon to your ankle and not letting anyone else stomp on it. Jeff was the first to get "out" for the game so he was the last one to hear his assignment. Torture.

That is me on the left in the small witch hat below. This is the video of both of our reactions when we found out we were going to Fairchild AFB!

Jeff's slide that was shown during his roast. The following slide would show his assignment.

 

As you can see, we were very excited! This was at the top of our dream sheet and we were pretty sure there were no open slots available. As we went through the rest of the drop and watched others receive their assignments, we both were mentally checking available bases off the list. By the time it came around to us, we were certain we were going to get our number 2 (F.E. Warren AFB) or our number 4 (Andrews AFB). I don't know how or why we got a spot at Fairchild when we were told several times not to expect it and that it was very unlikely there would be anything available, especially when they had filled a spot last month. All I can say is God is good.

I'll backtrack a bit to explain our decision process for Fairchild; Jeff had gone back and forth for several months about which aircraft and which base to put down as number one and when he finally told me he wanted Fairchild, I wasn't exactly on board. I wanted to go overseas or just see somewhere new, anywhere else at all. I wasn't mentally prepared to go back to somewhere I thought I had left for good. So I prayed about it and it was one of those times that I felt I almost instantly had an answer. Spokane was where we needed to be. So I told him to go ahead and put that as number 1 on the dream sheet. As we started to hear more and more that it was unlikely that we would go there, we started to wonder why we felt it was so important to put in for Spokane if we didn't have a chance at going there. Silly us. Obviously with God all things are possible. If He wanted to send us to Spokane, it would happen.

As time has gone on I've warmed up to moving back to that part of the country. We have lots of friends and family up there. It's a short plane ride to Alaska. We don't have to "start over" as much because we are already familiar with the area. I'm confident that I'll be able to find a job in Spokane, and I know that they've at the very least heard of my university! Speaking of University of Idaho, we also really miss Moscow and have been talking about wanting to go back and visit lately. That's also completely possible now that we'll be living in Spokane. I know that this will be good for us. And I know that everything in the military is temporary and we will eventually get to see more places and I'll get to satisfy that wandering bone. As far as the flying goes, Jeff says based on his strengths, Fairchild is the best base to be. He will also get a ton of flying hours there which is great.

All in all, this weekend was fantastic. We loved having friends come down to celebrate with us. But it's not over yet -- Jeff's mom, stepdad, aunt, and uncle are all coming down this weekend to watch him graduate and receive his wings. After that we send him off to survival training and kick off the holiday season. It's only going to get busier around here!

A couple extra photos of the weekend:

Some of the helicopter cookies I made that we all lived on this weekend. Even the dogs managed to get ahold of a couple. We had some casualties while baking them that caused some to be without a tail or rotors. I like to think of that as a good luck charm similar to saying "break a leg" to an actor, and not a reflection on my baking abilities.

Our visitors, minus Mitch. I love these ladies and am certain I've found friends for life!

This one is blurry because Jeff was receiving his new patch for his new squadron. You can see part of what it looks like on the screen behind him. The tradition is that someone who has been stationed at that squadron before rips off your old patch and replaces it with the new one by punching it onto your arm.