Mom's Day and Sterling's Graduation

Sterling and Valarie invited Lisa down to celebrate Mother's Day last Sunday and I tagged along, besides I just had to take a few pictures of Shelby.

Then today was graduation day for Sterling and his sister, Shannon, which meant another trip to Ft. Collins to visit and eat off the BBQ grill. Although, the steaks we had on Mother's Day were certainly better tasting than the hambergers and hot dogs we ate today.

This first picture is of Cashlynn and Kellee. Cashlynn has decided that dancing is all that makes her happy while she is awake. (Of course, eating is the other thing that makes her happy, but Kellee wouldn't let me take a picture of that.)

Next, a few pictures of Valarie and a lot more of Shelby.

She was wearing her cheerleader outfit to cheer on her Daddy!

Also got to practice a few of her cheerleader moves with her Uncle Tyler, Shannon's husband.

Oh, and there were two graduates at the party as well, so Heeeeerrrrrrreeeesssss --- Sterling

What is this thing anyway? The modern engineer doesn't use these, Do they?

and HEEEEERRRRRREEEESSSSSS --- Shannon

Those two are not nearly as cute as the granddaughters and Grandma Lisa, at least to me.

Then again, "there is still food on the table. We better do something about that," Cale said.

The Official Graduation on Parade Grounds

The Parade Grounds were surrounded by many aircraft which we walked by on the way to the bleachers.

Squadron A & B lined up on the far side of the grounds. We were informed through an impressive historical lesson about how discipline was started in the armed forces in the USA during the Revolutionary War at Valley Forge by a Prussian General who was given charge of 120 soldiers which he trained and they were dispersed throughout the ranks to instill discipline everywhere, and shortly thereafter the Revolutionary Soldiers won the war, and now you know the rest of the Story.

The national anthem was played and I shot this picture across the Parade Grounds of the Color Guard.

The training flights then marched in formation in front of the stands which held dignataries and parents and friends. We were able to pick out Rudy and got this shot at, I mean of, him.

Our seats in the bleachers were exactly (or sakto in Cebauano) in the center between the two exits, and they announced that all should exit using the stairs only, we parents then needed to show our discipline. We were some of the last parents to be able to go to our "airman" and release him from formation while he waited patiently for us to arrive.

Airman Rudy then took us on a tour of his dormatory. He was the "latrine princess" of the flight as his mother had done such a wonderful job of teaching him the rules of "sparkling" a mirror. By the way, his MTI's first called him Minnie Mouse, but by the end they were actually calling him Mighty Mouse. He did well.

I bet these Brazilian flip flops are the first to graduate Boot Camp.

We went to the enlisted club for lunch and finally at 14:00 were allowed to take our airman off base. We went to The Alamo. There was actually an IMAX theatre on site and before going into the Alamo we watched the Reed Smoot IMAX history of the Alamo. Very informative and historically accurate, we were told.


After our day in the Alamo, Rudy had signed us up to go to a minor league baseball game. The airmen who signed up to go to the game were allowed to stay at the ballpark with their families until the end of the ballgame which started at 19:05, instead of being required to report to their barracks at 19:30. We enjoyed his stories and a fair ballgame at the same time.

We did leave in the 8th inning as the Missions (home team) were down 13-7 to the Rough Riders. Rudy also realized that it was dark out and he had left his flashlight in his foot locker. One of the rules he has to live by is no walking on base after dark without a flashlight. This made him nervous until he found that 99.4% of the airmen at the game also had forgotten their flashlights.

When we got him to the parking lot where we could drop him off we waited until another airman showed up to march with to their dormatory. We watched them march off as long as we could. By the time they got to the street at least two other airmen had joined them, also without flashlights.

Well that is all for tonight. We anticipate many more adventures tomorrow.

Love to all,

Dee & Lisa

More Graduation Photos

Two interesting signs from Lackland Air Force Base.

The arrival of the trainees for the Coin Ceremony and Retreat.

Rudy's Military Training Instructor (MTI) awarding Rudy his coin which he now must carry with him as long as he is enlisted. It denotes the progression of the trainee into an airman meaning Rudy is no longer a trainee, but officially an airman. He gained the first strip on his uniform. While the MTI's were passing out the coins the load speakers were belting out a very touching version of "God Bless America".

Rudy was glad we got a candid shot of his MTI since if we had asked for a picture with him Rudy would immediately be asked to drop and give him 20 pushups.

Following the Coin Ceremony the new airmen were asked to recite the airman's creed and to sing the Air Force theme song, "Up and away to the wide blue yonder......", then the flag was lowered in the Retreat Ceremony to be guarded until the next morning when it would be flown again on graduation day. That flag will then be retired in comemoration of this graduating class. The national anthem was also played.
The newest airman of the Air Force!! Hip, Hip, Horray!!

Rudy qualified for a special coin, and ribbon, as well, since he graduated with honors, in the top 10% of the trainees. He will now wear 4 ribbons. One for honor graduate, one for expert marksman with a M-16, one for airman, and another we don't remember.

After leaving Rudy to report to his dorm by 19:30 as Dee was driving back to the motel, Lisa and Ashlee were reading the tourist books and came on an ad for "Nine Lives Bookstore". We HAD to go and check it out. Rescued cats are housed in the bookstore until they are adopted by customers. It was actually very clean and all the employees were definately cat people.

We will add more tomorrow.

Good night.

Rudy's Graduation from Air Force Basic Training

First up was the Airman's Run. The wait was made to pass quicker as we harrassed the trainees who were patrolling to keep "family and friends" out of the restricted zones.

The first to pass was the honor flights, by the way the one on the blue collar is not Rudy!

This was a 2.5 mile jog and each flight was singing as they ran by. You ask what they were singing? It was called jubees, made popular by black soldiers in WWII.

The 2.5 mile jog allowed the flights to run by us going both ways. Another by the way, Rudy is in both of these pictures.

We will see what the afternoon brings.

Dee & Lisa