The boy with wings

For Mike, this has been coming since he was 12 and decided he wanted to fly....he got his little set of gold wings. The part of the little speech I thought was funny (and interesting) was that these helicopter pilots are unrestricted aviators. They can fly fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. That means they can do aerobatics and hover, but hopefully not in the same flight. Then he said he would give some advice and said "make sure every day the number of takeoffs you have is the same as the number of landings." That's some good advice. They call your name and we went up on stage. The honored guest held Andrew while I pinned his wings on and tried not to stab myself or him. The whole ceremony was great. It was a little long for the kids, but they did their part and ran around in the foyer the rest of the time. I can only imagine how he feels about it although I have walked into the room more than once since yesterday and he's just holding them....

This was taken on stage right after the "winging." That's the honored guest standing with us. As we were walking back to our seats Emma said loud enough for all the auditorium to hear "now we go home." Everyone laughed.



Hanging out in the foyer with the wild monkeys, I mean children.


The helicopter he used to fly.....now on to the big helicopter.

Yeah, it's pretty cheesy......we're okay with that.


After the ceremony there was the "lunch" where it's a big formal "toast." A lot of the guys give a "traditional toast" and everyone in the room joins in. I had Diet Coke for the occasion, but couldn't hold onto it long enough since I was corralling my kiddies. At one point Emma was weaving through tight spots to get to daddy in the front of the room and I was trying to catch up to her. I can't fit in as tight of spots as she can....and I caught her right as she broke through to walk in front of the speaker. He said "we can defend ourselves against all intruders, even little children." Everyone laughed as I swiped her up and we slithered away. Little turkey! My favorite toast was "to the Marines: may they always arrive first to the fight and be done by the time we get there." My least favorite was "to our wives and sweethearts: may they never meet." I booed. I don't like jokes like that. The kids had a great time. We were so happy to have Alison, Jakob and my mom here. On the way home at almost 5 Emma fell asleep....and slept and slept and slept until 6:15 this morning. She's still wearing her dress at this very minute.....

I should go change her...