Where to Start...

I guess I'll start with Nitro's graduation. In May, we had a party for him at the church. Alot of family and friends were there to celebrate with us. Nitro had told me that, under no circumstances, were we to have a graduation "ceremony". lol So, we didn't. We just had cake, punch, and a slide show. It went really well and we got to see some friends that we hadn't seen for awhile.

But Nitro's graduation was only the prequel to a long summer.

A month later, he left on a plane for boot camp. It all felt surreal at the time. In fact, at the airport, he told Shelby that it didn't feel "real yet". Once he had to go through security, leaving the rest of us, he said he was getting nervous.

During those 13 weeks that he was gone, we didn't get a single phone call...but we got several letters. I read them and re-read them....over and over. Most of the letters to us were very short and to the point. Shelby's letters were LONG...most of the time. They don't get much time to write, so I'm guessing he wrote hers, then wrote ours in what little bit of time he had left over. ;o) lol

He kept us updated on how he did during different stages of boot camp. We were most concerned about Swim Week, but he passed. YAY! That's all we needed to hear. I hope he recognized that he should probably do some swimming now that boot camp's over...they have to re-qualify for that stuff at different intervals during the course of their time in the Marines.

While Nick was in boot camp, I wrote almost every day. I wanted to write every single day, but honestly, I couldn't do it. lol I missed only 2 days, though, so I did pretty good. There were times I would start the letter then not have a clue what to write about! lol I was very glad he wrote as much as he did. On average, we got 1-2 letters a week. Which, for anyone who knows Nitro, is VERY good! lol

As we got closer to graduation, things really started getting stressful. We were trying to plan a trip while, at the same time, trying to plan a rehearsal dinner and make sure we had all the financing done for our part of the wedding. There was so much overlap of the two, that, in fact, I got a call from the cake shop about the groom's cake while I was sitting in the bleachers waiting for the graduation to start! lol

We left for San Diego on Sept. 8 bright and early in the morning and got to the airport about 9:30. It was perfect timing...enough time to get a rental car, get to the hotel, then figure out what we wanted to do for lunch. And the weather was beautiful!!!

There were 6 of us in our group: myself, Muftak, Aravis, Shelby and my parents, so we got a suite at the hotel. It was nice. We had a balcony overlooking the interstate...and just to the other side of the interstate....MCRD! In fact, the last night, Nitro was in the hotel with us and pointed out his squad bay to us! lol Shelby and I stood on the balcony the first night we were there and said, "He's in there...somewhere." lol

We managed to make it to the beach (Mission Beach, to be precise) 3 times while we were there. And it was gorgeous!!!! The waves were awesome! The weather was GORGEOUS the whole time we were there! We even managed to get my dad into the ocean...a man who doesn't like water! Of course, he didn't get in past his knees, but still... lol

That Thurs., the 10th, we spent the entire day at MCRD. Nitro had base liberty from 1-6, so we got to spend time with him then. Everyone was talking about where we should go or what we should do. I suggested that we just sit and talk. I knew he had a million stories about boot camp that he was probably dying to tell, so I was willing to just sit and talk....which is what we did.

Friday, the 11th, was graduation. The HUGE flag on the parade deck was at half mast in honor of 9-11. It gave me goosebumps to see it. By noon, Nitro was all ours and we were able to leave base with him. The flight home the next morning was uneventful. But it was good to be home!

There are so many little "stories" about things that happened on our trip; I think I'll save them for later...maybe tomorrow, if I can get motivated to write some more. I'm actually still recuperating from the weekend. lol Wow! :o)