Wandering Weavers: Pre-Homecoming Celebrations

May, 2007 ~ Our six-month turned nine-month deployment was finally, REALLY about to end and Rodney's mom and dad flew out to join in the festivities.....

Early the morning before the ship returned, we were up and at 'em to take Roger to catch the bus for the Tiger Cruise! Check out his "Navy Dad" shirt....is he a proud Papa or what?!?

We ate breakfast at McDonald's on base, then put Roger on the bus to catch the ship at Camp Pendleton and ride it to San Diego. We would see him and Rodney tomorrow!!! Now, the sweet/funny thing you can't see was----when we were at the commissary the day before, Roger spotted some boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts and knowing Rodney's liking for them and that he hadn't had any now for quite awhile, he asked me if he could take them along? I told him I sure didn't see why not!

So, when Roger went to put his bag under the bus, he held onto those donuts and put them on the seat beside him!! Rodney said that his first sight of his dad, Roger had a grin from ear to ear, his bag and a little flag in one hand, and that bag of donuts in the other!!! I believe those were the best tasting "donuts of the gods" he'd ever had ;-)

So, then Elizabeth and I had some time to "play"!! We made a run to Lowe's, then went home and "played in the dirt"... After we washed the dirt off, we went to the mall for a bit of "girl time"!! I introduced her to the store, Anthropology, where we handled/touched everything!! Then it was off to a mani/pedi...We wanted to "get beautified" for our guys!!! Our running joke was we acted like we had all the time in the world, but we had a party to get to!!!!

We had a carnival type set up that allowed us to give visiting family members information for the ship's arrival the next day, not to mention just being able to celebrate together that our Sailors were FINALLY coming home!!! We had face painting and cake....as shown by my little buddy, Will!!