Jed's An Officer!

Now that Jed's back, I'm going to have to find a different way to keep track of my days and timeline. It's been a week since we've been back together. BEST WEEK EVER!

I left last Friday to fly to Montgomery,Al. I was so excited the night before that I didn't get much sleep so traveled with only 3 hours of sleep. I am definitely not a morning person but waking up at 4:30 a.m. was really easy once I remembered why I was waking up so early. Traveling wasn't so bad either. I got to read (old school style... from an actual book and not my nook haha) and I got to watch the sunrise over the snow covered mountains. I did get stuck to some stinky people though, but after three flights I was finally in Alabama. I really don't think I have ever been so excited to be anywhere. I also got to rent a car. That might seem mundane and not really note worthy, but I got to rent a brand new Dodge Charger. After driving a mini van everywhere I really miss being able to drive a nice fast car. Jed liked the car so much he started looking them up to see how much they were to buy since he needs a car... maybe in 5 years after we pay off our van will he get a nice car until then he's probably going to get a nice beater car. :)

Finally together! 

Anyways, back to my trip... Jed was always telling me how pretty Alabama is and how no one around him thought it was or appreciated it at all so he was really excited to show me the town. It's a bit run down, I'm not going to lie, but the buildings are beautiful! They have an old world French influenced architecture and so much detailing (I'm also a little obsessed with French decor right now). I kept making him stop so I could take pictures of random buildings. There were also lots of civil rights historical sites along with confederate sites. It was a little interesting to see how the site of the Confederacy also inspired so much good for civil rights. We were a little put off by all the confederacy stuff but it was still amazing to see how much history there was in that town.

At the Capitol:

 Oh He's just so HOT!

 I just want this bench

Random buildings:

 the train station was such a beautiful building and even had stained glass windows

 this was one of Jed's favorite buildings

 there were fountains and statues everywhere

This is the officer houses on base! How cute are these houses, it ALMOST makes me want him to put in orders for Montgomery haha

So hopefully, this doesn't offend anyone, but we're not the biggest fan of Southern food. At least not what we ate for the most part. It was fun to try new dishes, but overall it was pretty bland food (I actually salted my food which if you know me is a HUGE deal). Although, I fell in love with this amazing banana pudding dessert. Seriously, I've had bread puddings before but this totally changed my mind about them. It complimented the food so well and it was delicious goodness!

This is the place with the delicious goodness

We did find this one amazing restaurant though. The reviews for it said it wasn't typical Alabama food but still tried to incorporate southern food. It was an Armenian restaurant (part of the reason we wanted to try it was because we both haven't had Armenian before). The food was so good! It was a really cute place too. One of the things I liked is that it had tons and tons of cookbooks everywhere as part of the decor too and they had local artwork. The chef cooked seasonal food and pretty much the menu changed to whatever he wanted to cook for that week. If anyone is ever going to Montgomery, Al you have to go to Michael's Table.

 I was talking to the kids for a nightly phone call

Okay, now to the part you actually want to know about lol... After spending the weekend together Jed had to go back Sunday night and Monday we both had classes to attend. Jed had to do some out processing and I got to attend a spouse orientation. After lunch we were together though. There was an awards ceremony and Jed's flight got an award for best flight. Then Jed was able to give me a tour of the campus. We had a flag ceremony to lower the flag and then we were left to ourselves until the Dining Out.

 Jed's squadron was the Gold Hawks. I forced him to pose here, no one wanted too either

The Dining Out is a formal military dinner. We got to dress up. It's out of my element to dress up so much, but apparently it's something I'm going to have to get used to. It was fun though. They had some funny hosts and even a "grog bowl". There's a list of rules the military have to follow and if you don't follow the rules you can get called out to drink some sort of concoction from a punch bowl in a toilet bowl. There's an unleaded (non alcoholic) and a leaded (alcoholic) drink. The best part about it is that in order to call someone out you have to do it in a rhyme and to respond to the accusation is also done in a rhyme. Luckily, Jed only got called up when his entire flight got called up to do it. It was pretty funny and entertaining.

The next morning was Jed's graduation. It was the moment that we had been waiting for 91 days! It was fun to watch everyone's family try to pin on their stripes too. It seems harder than it should be. After the graduation they had one last parade and they all took the oath one last time together.

 Jed right before he took the oath

Jed taking the Oath

Jed right after with his flight

  Jed's an OFFICER!

It's finally over

We flew back home Wednesday and the kids were so happy to have their daddy back. They are both super clingy right now and just don't want to let him go. Jed's really happy to be back with everyone too.

I wouldn't be a good mom if I didn't take a picture of a plane for Elijah

 I love sunsets in planes

"We're so glad when daddy comes home!"