UPT Graduation Weekend

It's Monday morning, my dog has been walked with his bestest friend Goose, there is a full pot of coffee on that Matt hasn't gotten to yet, and my parents and in-laws have flown back to the Emerald City. Guess its time to write how graduation went!

Wednesday: Matt's parents came in to town. Jack loved having two new best friends, as did Huey. Jack had to give up his bedroom (he's so spoiled) for the kitchen, but he didn't seem to find. Tuesday and Wednesday morning were full of anxiety getting the house ready, but everything turned out fine. We fired up the tiny thing that is our barbeque with charcoal and grilled some hamburgers and hot dogs. I didn't want to serve just regular ol' hot dogs, though, so I had the fixin's for Polynesian, Italian, and Mexican hot dogs. The Polynesian  hot dogs were yummy, with pineapple, hosin sauce, and scallions. The Italian ones were, what else, tomato, basil, and shredded fresh mozzarella. Chipotle mayo, feta cheese pretending to be coteja cheese, and avocado rounded out the Mexican hot dogs. These are SO much better than your average hot dog :)

Thursday: It was a slow morning; I made eggs and we all took turns using the one shower. We went out to coffee before we picked up my parents at the airport. From now on, we would be driving two cars everywhere, since neither the Jeep nor the Mustang can fit 6 people (see Matt? We totally need a minivan). I had to drive back to the coffee shop with my parents so my mom and dad could get some coffee after their long trip. We didn't do much until dinner, when we went to UMI's, arguably the best restaurant in Columbus. Why? Because it's a Japanese Sushi and Steak Hibachi Grill! The sushi here is AMAZING and has turned me into a sushi eater (except raw fish, I still can't make myself eat that. But California rolls, on the other hand...). We decided to eat at the Hibachi grill. Now, if you have never been to one before, YOU SHOULD GO! Dinner and a show! They cook the food in front of you, but they also make it extremely fun. The soy sauce is in a whiskey bottle (why not?) and the water is in a vodka bottle. Get your drink on! When they're making the rice, they throw it to you and you have to catch it in your mouth! Let it be known that EVERYONE caught the rice in their mouth! Even my mom and mother-in-law! AND ME! The food, though... is SO GOOD. All us girls ordered calamari, if you don't think you like calamari, come visit me in the next month and I'll take you there so you can try it. The boys had steak except Dad, he was the odd man out ordering shrimp :)

Friday: GRADUATION DAY! This day seriously is a marathon.

Graduation Morning: I was up at 5:30 so we could fit 6 people in the shower all by 7:30. I also needed to take the dog on his morning walk. At 8 o'clock we were out the door going to the breakfast, where we ate yummy breakfast food (shout out to the biscuits and gravy!) and listened to a rather boring speech by the Commander that the parents would all like, but the students and spouses not so much because we didn't care :) Then it was off to graduation! We listened to 2 star general's speech, they passed out awards, and then everyone got their wings! Immediately afterwards they proceeded to break their wings, because traditionally it's bad luck to wear your first set of wings. Matt kept one half, I have the other, and the wings can never touch until Matt passes and they are then reunited with him to give him luck in the next life. Or something like that. I plan on putting my half on a necklace and wearing it whenever he is deployed so I can be with my pilot in spirit. Anyways. We took lots of pictures of me pinning his second pair of wings on, then went home for about an hour or so to eat lunch and change.

"Red Carpet": This is not what it sounds like. We go hang out in the squadron and the family gets a tour, we also listen to the flight commander give a little speech and give a little roast to all the pilots. Then we went out and hung out in the RSU, remote surveillance unit, or something like that. It's basically the smaller air traffic control unit for the T-38 runway. Because there are so many planes flying at any given time, the T-6 and T-38 runways have their own little ATC run by a instructor pilot and some students. The center runway is controlled by the actual ATC. But anyways. We got to watch some T-38 take offs. Sadly none of them landed while we were out there, that's the fun part because the T-38 is known for being one of the hardest airplanes to land, so students tend to screw it up a lot :) After that little field trip, we headed to the T-38 sim where we all got to screw around in the sim. Matt got mad at me for a second because when I got bored I started goofing off on the computer, clicking random things and moving the airplane around after he had set it up for his dad. It was fun while it lasted. I must say, I had an excellent take off. Landing... not so much. But at least I didn't get the red screen of death like my dad did. After we all finished in the sims, we rushed back home to get ready for the banquet.

Formal Banquet: It started with cocktail hour! The best part! The ladies sipped on wine while the guys nursed some beers, then we went in to eat dinner. The dinner was really good, we all had the chicken and it was scrumptious. The cheese cake, too, was amazing. Matt got two awards, an Academic Excellence Award and a Military Leadership Award. So proud of him! We listened to the general give another speech (I think), and then the married guys got to "serenade" their wives. Instead of a single red rose, I got a bouquet of sunflowers, my favorite :) Once the banquet concluded, we all came home and crashed, after use women took the dog on a walk to get his excitement all out. I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure we even fell asleep with the dog sleeping in between us, we were so tired we didn't even care.

Shout out to our friend Bryan who came over as we were all getting ready for the banquet to walk the dog and tire him out for the night!

Saturday: Not an exciting day by any means, we went out for coffee in the morning and then to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. Once home, we just hung out, walked the dog, and grilled steaks for dinner. I think everyone was still tired from yesterday being out in the sun all day, multiple parental figures were caught napping in the living room throughout the day. The steaks were delicious, and if you ever get the change to grill entire heads of romaine lettuce, please do. It doesn't sound all that interesting, but adding that grilled flavor to the lettuce- especially AFTER grilling the steaks- makes it so yummy. And easy. And romaine lettuce is cheap, so SCORE!

Sunday: Everyone went home. As it turns out, my parents and his parents were on the same flights not only to Atlanta, but then to Seattle as well. It was really quiet in the house after that! Matt beat me home, since I had to stop by work and get my schedule, and he told me that when he first came home, Jack kept running back to the door to look for everybody! Ah, how cute! He has adjusted quickly back to normal. But let me tell you, he could quickly adjust to living in a house with tens of people in it, so many hands to pet him!

And now we just sit idly around and wait for the PCS date to California. We're moving to California baby, whoot!