Leave it to Billy

Billy is amazing!!! Truly amazing. Today was Family Day. It was an incredible day and an emotional day. I have such mixed emotions about what all happened. But in an overall observation, I completely loved every minute of the day. Even the moments that were hard for me ~ I'll explain later.

First, let me just give you a run down of the day's events. We arrive super early and ended up getting pretty good seats despite the wet bleachers. After waiting a little over an hour for the events to begin, the excitement in the air was tangible! Of course, there were about a dozen important people who gave their speeches and then they said for us to turn our attention to the field. Then all these canons started going off and smoke bombs and from the cloud of smoke, through the trees, ran our soldiers onto the field. Louder than any sporting event's applaud I have ever heard... Here's the part we were able to capture on video...

Absolute GOOSE BUMPS!

After that, they let the audience onto the field and we had to find our soldier. It wasn't hard to locate Billy in his BCG's (birth control glasses). But boy howdy! He was soooo skinny!!! He hated those glasses though... really hated them. He had been wearing his regular glasses for the past few days hoping he could wear them today, but no luck. It wasn't a big deal though... everyone else out there who wore glasses had them on too.

Anyway... we find Billy and the tears started immediately! That hug was as close as I was allowed to get to him all day. That really sucked. The whole 'no holding hands and hugging' thing was for real - for real! Billy was afraid to touch me. At one point he introduced me to one of his buddies and wrapped his arm around my shoulder almost involuntarily and then dropped it like I was on fire. But the thing that made it Ok was he WAS able to hold the kids' hands and carry them around and love on them. So, that was good!! I know they missed him and seeing him today was incredible. William even introduced Billy to a complete stranger and said, "My dad is the army" LOL! So sweet! But even though I know Billy was and will always be the one to obey the rules to a T, he was seriously following the rules today. No hugs or kisses for me. :(

All that considering, we had a nice, peaceful and yet tiring day. We had a nice (super hot) picnic while the kids played on the playground. Then we sat inside the community center (big gymnasium with air conditioning) where there were some bounce houses and games. Then we went to the PX (army version of Walmart) and walked around a little. Ate some ice cream ~ Billy was craving it. We walked around the Fort Jackson Museum - awesome place!! Tried to find some glimpse of Billy's granddaddy who also did his basic training at Fort Jackson in 1950, but no luck. Then we went back to the community center. Billy got to listen to his Foo Fighters for the first time in 10 weeks on my iPhone and the kids and grandparents all played board games. I just sat there thrilled to be in arms reach of my husband - even if I couldn't touch him. Then we went to Burger King for some greasy cheeseburgers which Billy probably shouldn't have eaten. And then our last stop was back to his barracks where the drill sergeants were literally standing there watching all the soldiers saying good-bye to their families as if they were hoping to catch someone kissing or carrying on. BLECH! Whatever. I get it. Not even a big deal, I'm going to get to see him tomorrow. And by then he will be DONE with basic and out from under the drill sergeants and can come back to the hotel with us and relax!!!

It was a long day. I had a hard time saying good-bye to him because it wasn't like I got to spend much time with him even though he was with us all day. I'm just thankful that he was able to hang out and share some hilarious and entertaining stories with all of us.

One of the funnier parts of the day was having Jonathan with us. Jonathan is a Sergeant in the Army and all the soldiers that he would come near would get all nervous and try to stand straighter or go to Parade Rest (a loose version of attention). Once a guy that Billy knows leaned over and said quietly, "Hey man, you got a drill sergeant behind you." LOL!!! Billy's like, "really? Nah, he's with me." Jon is a recruiter not a drill sergeant. And then we were in the command's quarters to pick up Billy's orders for AIT and one of his drill sergeants was in there. Apparently they all made fun of Billy's age so when Jonathan comes in behind him, the DS says, "Blackburn, is that your son?" Billy answered "Yes, Drill Sgt!" thinking he meant William. And then the banter starts making fun of Billy having a son that old (talking about Jonathan) Then the DS says, "You own son outranks you!" It was funny!

Anyway, I'm in the hotel now. Trying to make this laptop post some pictures... Let's see if I can get very far.

Blackburn Family Reunion!!

Proud Momma gets a hug

Proud Daddy says Congrats!

Billy and Jonathan

The hotel was very accomidating!

HOOAH!

William waiting on his daddy

Best tasting Dr. Pepper EVER!

William asleep and Billy almost asleep

William picking up an M16 (the gun Billy carried around for several weeks straight)

Emma and her grenade

Big Tank

Cool helicopter

Army Jeep

Sup?

Fort Jackson 165th

3/34th

Echo Company

3rd Platoon Punishers

Billy with his Army face on!

I am sure tomorrow will bring many many more stories and pictures as he finally passes over in the real army as a soldier and no longer a recruit. So super excited!!!!To be continued.....