Alison, Kristin, me, Shelby, Bridget |
After the shower, this lovely group of ladies and I went to Chino Latino for amazing food and drinks. It was such a fun and delicious place!!
R to L: Grandma, Sondra, Bridget, me, Kristin, Shelby, Alison, mom |
Lest I forget the adorable bachelorette decorations Bridget made for me! Later that I evening, I also donned a feather boa and tiara. It most certainly was a fashion statement to say the least.
Anders, Shelby (the Viper Pilot’s little sister), the Viper Pilot, yours truly |
Side note on the above picture: yes, I climbed the ladder to the jet in a dress for this picture. It was probably less than graceful and I can only hope that anyone on the ground did a courteous “oh hey, look over there” and turned their heads in the opposite direction for me…ha.
The Viper Pilot showing off the”other” girl in his life. |
And we took another picture with “Pretty Bird” because I don’t think we have enough. {Pretty Bird is a jet that is literally painted like a Texas flag. Yee-haw!}
Watching the F-16 take off in front of the C-5 was quite a show. The C-5 is huge. Just when you think he is standing on breaks for a stop during take off, the nose goes up. As he is climbing upwards, it is so huge and so slow that it literally looks like it might fall right out of the sky. I like the F-16 better, but it’s still amazing.
That evening, we packed up and went downtown to the Riverwalk for the banquet. We got all dressed up for the occasion. Believe it or not, I did not have my Nikon with me (this is not like me) but I was just trying to focus on celebrating his accomplishment and decompressing from the stressful week (I had literally defended my thesis a week before his graduation.)
pa, ma, the Viper Pilot, me, ma, pa (this was good practice for the wedding pictures!) |
The boys wear “party sleeves” under their jackets. It is an AF tradition. You can’t see it when they have their jackets on but once the party starts…game on. My grandma made the Viper Pilot’s in honor of his Iowa heritage. He was born and raised in a tractor (okay, that’s a stretch) but he is a true to the core farm boy and so it was only appropriate for him to have corn sleeves. His shirt was supposed to make its great debut at the wedding, but this was a special occasion, too, so we made an exception.
Someone’s mother: “Which one is yours?” Me: “The corn.” |
Oh yeah…and the LDR? Mission complete.
There will always be more missions for us to complete. This is just the completion of one of the many we will encounter in our lives. It’s an adventure that we get to call our lives and I couldn’t ask for more. It’s a crazy life and I love it!