Family Day with Thomas on Parris Island

Thursday
September 3, 2009

We Woke up at three o’clock in the morning when Shane, Nicole and Haley arrived from Louisiana. We got them settled in the truck and then went back to sleep. We then woke up at six o’clock. We all got cleaned up and dressed and headed for Parris Island. We arrived and found a seat in the drill hall and waited for all the graduating platoons to march in. After that they were all released on liberty. They had five hours of on base liberty. Finally, we all got to give him a big hug and spend time with him. We went by the exchange and then the commissary and picked up some deli meat and went to a park and had a picnic. There was a lot more during the day but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. We had a wonderful day with Thomas and look forward to his graduation tomorrow morning.

All of Us with Thomas


Platoon 1059


A Close Up Shot of Thomas in Formation


One Marine to Another Marine


Thomas standing by His Bed


Thomas finding a New Hat at the Exchange


Thomas with his Drill Instructor SSgt Marshall


Everyone Enjoying a Picnic with Thomas


Nicole, Thomas & Shane


Haley & Thomas


Gina & Thomas

(one very happy and proud mom)


Me & Thomas

Until tomorrow, Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

A Fun Day at the Beach

Wednesday
September 2, 2009

Gina got up again before me and put the coffee on. If she doesn’t watch out she is going to spoil me. I then got up with her and brought her a cup of coffee. We both had already decided that we were going back to Hunter Island State Park so she could collect some more shells and rocks. First, I wanted to get the blog entry written and posted. Once that was finished we headed to the beach. I didn’t get any pictures yesterday since the sky was overcast badly. Today was only a little better but we wouldn’t be coming back. Gina headed off to search for more shells and I sat down to finish my book.

Road into the Day Use Area


Gina Searching for Shells

After I finished my book it was lunch time so I went back to the truck and fixed both Gina and I sandwich. Then we pulled the bikes out and went for a bike ride. The temperature was a nice 74 degrees. We headed north on the roadway until we reach the lighthouse.

Lighthouse

We went inside the gift shop but didn’t see anything we couldn’t live without. From there we headed down a trail until it ran us back to the beach. We then went about two miles farther north and until Gina couldn’t take it anymore. She had to put the bike down and look for shells. She didn’t really find the shells she was looking for except she did find a lot of sanddollars. She finally had enough of looking and hopped back on her bike.

View of Campground from the Beach

We then headed to Hunting Island State Park campground. I wanted to see all the camp sites. There are sites that I could have fit in but the trees were just too close to the roads to safely navigate through the campground. On almost every loop there was at least one hairpin turn that I would have struggled to get around.

View Inside of the Campground

While we rode through the campground we ran across three deer. Gina almost got to pet one.

The First Deer We Saw in the Campground


Then Another Deer


Gina is On Cloud Nine

I don’t know what she was more thrilled over the deer or the shells she found. From there we headed south down the beach.

This was a really Neat Area of the Beach


Gina on her Bike

We stopped a few times so she could look for shells.

Some of the Shells She Found


Three Shells still Hinged Together

We left the beach and headed back home. Gina walked down to the laundry room and put a blanket on to wash. She then gave Angel & Zoey a bath. I then cut up a pork loin and a beef tenderloin and Gina vacuum packed them. I then grilled two nice beef filets while Gina put two potatoes in the microwave. After we ate dinner I turned on the truck’s air conditioner so it would be cool when Shane, Nicole, and Haley arrived. Gina baked a pan brownies. We then relaxed while we watched a little TV.

We have a big day planned tomorrow as we get to spend the day with Thomas on base. Tomorrow is family day where all the families of the new marines can spend the day with them and learn a little about what they were taught over the last twelve weeks.

Until tomorrow, Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Relaxing Day at Hunting Beach State Park

Tuesday
September 1, 2009

We woke up at eight o’clock this morning and then Gina brought me a cup of coffee at 8:30. This is two mornings in a row that Gina got up before me. We enjoyed our coffee together in bed watching the last few minutes of the morning news. From there we both got on our computers. Gina wanted to get back on Facebook and I wanted to get the blog entry written. We didn’t really have any plans for today. So after I got the blog entry posted I asked Gina if you wanted to go to the beach. She said yes, so that would be our destination today. We left home around noon. We needed to stop by a grocery store to buy some bread first. We both just wanted to eat a sandwich for lunch at the beach. While we were heading toward Beaufort Gina asked me if we could stop by this store called Carolina Stamper. She wanted to see if they had some Marine specific stuff for Thomas’s scrapbook. I dropped her off and then thought I would try to find a place to park. However, after 15 minutes of driving around I realized that I was not going to find a place to park. I finally made my way back around to the store and Gina was waiting on me outside. She did find a few items that she thought would work for Thomas’s scrapbook. From there we stopped by Publix and bought a loaf of bread. We then headed toward Hunting Island State Park. We first stopped by the campground and met the camphosts which were very nice. The reviews on this campground were correct. From what we could see the turns were extremely tight and the trees left no margin of error. I’m not saying I couldn’t get my truck and camper in there. However, I don’t think I would even try to bring my camper here since the probability of damage to our home would be higher than I would be willing to risk. From there we headed down the road to the park’s day use area. We paid our entrance fee and then found a parking spot near the beach. We then walked out to the beach and set up our chairs. The sky was overcast but the temperature was a mild 78 degrees with a cool wind coming off the water. I began reading and Gina went walking down the beach looking for shells. She found a lot of different shells and she must have walked up and down the beach more than 15 times during our six hours on the beach. Gina looked for shells so hard that she didn't even sit down one time. I packed up our stuff and got it all loaded back into the truck and then went to get Gina. We enjoyed the beach so much that we decided we would go back tomorrow.

We made it home around eight o’clock. I lit the grill while Gina washed off her shells. We had baby back ribs and sausage with bake beans for dinner. After dinner Gina chatted with Ashley and then hopped on Facebook for a little while. Around ten o’clock we both went to bed. Gina went to sleep and I sat up reading for a couple more hours. I knew it was getting late so I put the book down and went to sleep too.

Until tomorrow, Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Just Hanging Out

Monday
August 31, 2009

We slept in until 8:30 this morning. After we woke up and had our coffee we both decided that we would just hang out for the day here at the campground. I scanned the picture of Thomas in his dress blues so I could add it to our blog along with all the other pictures we took of him. After that I wrote the blog. We then just kind of laid around all afternoon. We did create a business card so we would have something to give people when they ask for our blog address instead of trying to tell them what it is. We’ll take the file to Kinko’s and have them printed once we’re back in Louisiana.

Around five o’clock we decided to go for a bike ride. We did get about thirty minutes of bike riding in until the clouds started rolling in along with a lot lighting and thunder. We turned the TV on and realized we were under a severe thunderstorm warning for the next hour. We had taken out a couple of chicken breasts from the freezer to grill for dinner. With the rain and lighting I was unsure whether or not I should grill them but finally decided that I would take my chances. One thing we learned tonight is that neither one of us like sitting in our RV amongst a lot of trees in the middle of a thunderstorm. The only good part to this storm was that there was no wind just a lot of close lighting. We lost power a couple of times but otherwise it wasn’t too bad of a storm. We finally sat down to a dinner of grilled chicken with penne pasta covered with a pesto sauce. Gina cleaned up the kitchen while I read for the night. She then decided she would get on facebook and look around and then she got hooked. Around midnight I went to bed while she was still playing around with facebook leaving comments. She said that she finally went to bed around 2:30 in the morning. Not a real exciting day but we just needed a do nothing day to let our adrenaline rush calm down after seeing our son for the first time in twelve weeks and as a United States Marine.

Until tomorrow, Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

We Got To See Thomas

Sunday
August 30, 2009

We woke up this morning and had our coffee in bed since we didn’t want to fight bugs outside. However, when I took the dogs out the bugs didn’t seem as bad as yesterday when we arrived. We both got cleaned up and headed off to Parris Island around ten o’clock.

First Sign We Saw Entering Parris Island


Our New Marine

We went to the exchange and started looking around for some marine T-shirts and other marine memorabilia. We didn’t know for sure what time Thomas would get his three hours of time off so it would just be a waiting game. We didn’t mind since it was our sole purpose today. We did learn from a girl that worked in the exchange restaurant that the recruits would be coming in around one o’clock. We went to the front of the exchange and just watched all the new Marines coming in hoping that either we would see Thomas or he would see us. After all the new Marines came in and we didn’t see him we figured he was heading to the phone center to make phone calls. Sure enough we got a phone call from him around 1:15. It was great to hear his voice. I told him where we were and that we would be waiting on him. He wanted to call Haley, his girlfriend and then would come see us at the exchange. The anticipation of seeing Thomas for Gina made minutes seem like hours. We kept watching Marines coming to the exchange trying to see if any of them were Thomas and then finally I recognized him when he was about 200 yards away walking with two other Marines, Bradley Ritter and Jarrett Goff. They are both from Kentucky.

Our First Sight of Thomas


Don't They Look Sharp!!!

We talked for a little while outside and then they wanted to go in the exchange and buy a watch. So off they went. Earlier when all the new Marines came into the exchange they were all buying watches which seemed odd to us. Then Thomas told us that’s how you can tell the difference between a recruit and a Marine since a recruit is not allowed to wear anything outside of his uniform and a Marine can. The exchange must have sold over a thousand watches yesterday.

Thomas Buying A Watch


Thomas's Buddies Buying Their Watches


A Happy Marine


Gina and Her Marine

From there Thomas and his buddies wanted some candy and a soda and Gina & I got a slice of pizza. We then went outside under the trees and visited with them. We got to hear a few stories and took a few pictures of them.

Pfc Ritter, Pfc Goff, & Pfc Thurston

(Three of America's Newest Marines)


Bradley Ritter and Jarrett Goff


Pfc Ritter


Pfc Goff


Pfc Thurston

He had wrote us earlier and told us he got advanced to “Private First Class”. We learned that the Drill Instructors only chose three individuals out of 74 and Thomas was one of them. The time seemed to be flying by as we sat and talked. At 3:30 we said our goodbyes since they had to be back at their barracks by 3:45.

Saying Our Goodbyes

We are so proud of Thomas and glad we got to meet two of his buddies. We felt really special because we got this chance to see him and spend a few hours with him a week before family day and graduation.

From there we called both Jarrett and Bradley’s parents to get their email addresses so we could send them some pictures of their son’s. Gina enjoyed speaking to them and we look forward to meeting them on family day. We left the base and drove around Beaufort and found a TJ Maxx, JC Penny, and Belk’s. Gina had to go into each. She didn’t find anything to buy but she still enjoys looking. In all our excitement we forgot to go to the commissary after Thomas left so we headed back to the base to pick up a few items at the commissary. From there we headed home. I downloaded all the pictures from my camera and then emailed them to Jarrett and Bradley’s parents. I then uploaded them to our online album so Nicole and Ashley could see their brother. Gina called them so they would know.

By this time Gina wanted to lay down so she went to bed and I set up in the recliner reading. I finally called it a night and went to bed.

I do not know how to express the gratitude that Gina and I felt yesterday watching these young new Marines. I know that each one of them volunteered to serve and defend this country even if that means going in harm’s way. These men & women today brought tears to my eyes seeing them in all their excitement and knowing that they are the one’s picking up the torch and carrying it on for the next generation to enjoy the same freedoms that we have enjoyed.

Until tomorrow, Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Travel Day To Beaufort, South Carolina

Saturday
August 29, 2009

We woke up this morning and had our cup of coffee together in bed. Gina went and put one load of laundry on since the washers & dryers are free here. Gina got the inside ready to move while I got everything outside picked up and put in its place. We met a couple Ellis & Dolly who were interested in our Excel so we gave them a tour of ours. They were taking a drive today to go look at one a dealer had in Ocala. We talked for a little while longer about other fulltime rated rigs and what is out there. They are fulltimers but still own a house too. From there I got hooked up and we pulled out at 11:30 heading for Beaufort, South Carolina.

We arrived at Tuck in the Woods campground located on Saint Helena Island at four o’clock. There were a lot of trees to navigate to reach our site but we made it.

Truck & Home Tucked in the Woods


Another View

The wife of the owner wasn’t too happy with my truck for some reason but her husband was nice. The atmosphere and setting here is excellent except for the bugs. Once we got all setup I grilled some hot dogs for dinner. Both Gina and I were starving and hot dogs were quick and they tasted great with chili & cheese. Gina hasn’t been feeling well today so she went and laid down while I coated myself with “Off” and went bike riding through the campground. After I finished I loaded the bike back into the truck and went inside to check on Gina. She was still in bed so I set up and read for a while. Finally went and got in bed around ten o’clock calling it a day. We're excited about tomorrow as we are hoping to see Thomas on base. He is supposed to have three hours of free time tomorrow but we do not know when those hours will be. Our intent is to go on base and hang out at the exchange. Gina is looking for some Marine Corps memorabilia so it can be used in Thomas’s scrapbook. Stay tuned and we’ll let you know if we got to visit with Thomas. It was a nice travel day of only 210 miles.

Until tomorrow, Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.