Basic Military Training Graduation

So as many of you know, Garrett has been in basic for the Air Force for the last 8 1/2 weeks. Although it's been hard for both of us, we have made it through! I sent him a letter every day he was there... when he added up pages (front and back) I sent over 160 pages worth of letters, not too shabby. He was pretty good at sending letters too, I think on average about 3 a week. It was nice to keep up with each other so well after he said before he went in that he didn't want to. I even wrote one of his other buddies, Nathan McGowan, a few times.
Well, Thursday April 19th started the celebration of Garrett's graduation. I headed out to Lackland Air Force Base at 0545ish for a briefing that was going on at 0700; even with some gate traffic I was still ridiculously early. Could you tell I was anxious? After the short briefing about what our Airman could and could not do, we were sent out to line the 'Airman's Walk' to watch them run by at 0800. I kept searching for Garrett's family, but I couldn't seem to find them anywhere. So standing alone on the road, I got to talk to the people on either side of me. One mother just about freaked out when I told her I came on my own, she thought I'd come from somewhere far away, but was relieved when I told her I was from in town. After a 40 minute wait, the Airman finally came through! The first time past us I spotted Garrett right away and couldn't help but just stare, totally forgetting about the camera in my hand... The second time was pretty much the same, though this time I recovered in time to take a picture of the back of his head... I know, I know, not my best reaction speed ever. After the run, I headed back towards the BMT Reception Center, still waiting to give Mama Bowen a call to find out where they were at. I went through the gift shop, looking for a silver Air Force emblem car decal, coming up empty. As I went out the other side I pretty much literally ran into Brandee, one of my awesome sisters-in-law-to-be. We were both about to say 'Excuse me', when we looked at each other and were like 'HEY!'. It was perfect timing. We still had plenty of time to kill until the Coin Ceremony was to begin so we set out getting Brandee lots of 'Proud Air Force Sister' memorabilia. She also became determined to find me an 'Air Force Wife' shirt. Can you believe that store didn't hold ONE wife shirt? They had ones for the girlfriends, but not wives! I'm just a little bit more than a girlfriend at this point... I said I would just look for one at the BX later and we went to get in line with Garrett's Dad and Grandma and Grandpa Bowen to leave a message for Garrett in the graduation video. After this we staked out our spots in the stands to be right in front of Garrett's Flight for the coin ceremony. By this time we were hungry and had over an hour to kill until the ceremony was to start. Brandee, Christina, and I went looking for food and had a very successful trip. We found a bumper sticker for me that I had been wanting, the Air Force Wife shirt, and food for all.

The ceremony was so great. First the honor graduates were presented and then all the flights came marching in. It was so good to see Garrett out there. We all made comments on how funny it was that his hat was so low compared to everyone else's. I couldn't help but stare the entire time(which Garrett made note of). After the coin ceremony Garrett's family sent me down to fetch him. At first I just wasn't sure what to do. I knew that we could not show PDA and I was a little unsure about what to expect from him. It turned out to be great though.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around base, spending time with Garrett's family, and going to the base museum. We first went to lunch at Godfather's Pizza, and because everyone only had base liberty it was packed! But we got to talk and meet a number of Garrett's flight buddies and find out where they were all going to Tech school at. It was great to go through the museum and have Garrett explain everything to us and relate the different things to his experience at basic. After the museum Garrett's family left us to have some 'alone' time, where we just went to the mini mall and walked around and talked and ate dinner.

Friday, 20 April - Graduation was early in the morning and I met Garrett's family to ride the bus over to the Parade Grounds. We did not have as good of seats as on Friday, but it was still great to see him in his Blues! While we were waiting for them to get into formation and begin the ceremony I was kept entertained by Alex and Ivy (Garrett's nephew and niece) as they played with Brandee's camera and were so excited to see Uncle Garrett since it's been 8 months since they've seen him. Alex is quite the photographer, he loved the air planes surrounding the field. The ceremony consisted of the Airmen reciting the Creed and saying the oath. Again, we were able to go out to pick up our Airman. Ivy and Alex accompanied me as I went to get Garrett again. We are extremely lucky people to have the family we have. The kids were hugging and hanging on Garrett as much as he would let them. Though, again it was not a lot. There were lots of hellos to be said on Friday for at the graduation was myself, Garrett's parents, three sisters, 3 nieces and nephew, Bowen grandparents, Grandma Sellers, and my parents and brother. Garrett is one loved man. After the rounds were made, we went to find Garrett's favorite plane and took some pictures with it.

After lots more picture, courtesy of Brandee Bagshaw one of my fabulous sisters-in-law, we headed out to Red Robin to treat Garrett to non-cafeteria-food. Garrett and I have a 'usual' at Red Robin. We love the Royal Red Robin burger because it has a fried egg on it. Garrett, however, saw the build-your-own menu and got a massive burger with probably about 13 things on it, including a fried egg of course. After receiving our order he continued to snarf the thing down as if he had two minutes to eat and was done well before anyone else with half the size burger. No small feat, since my brother was present at this point. :) When we were all stuffed, we headed back to Garrett's house to hang out, play games, and watch the Basic video that played clips and pictures from the training in the last 8 1/2 weeks. Garrett explained what was going on in each picture and gave us more in depth details of what he did. We finally drew to a close our visit and I drove Garrett back to base. We had some time to kill, because we left extremely early to make sure to avoid traffic and being late for his check in. We ate dinner and purchased Air Force gifts for Alex, Lily, and Ivy. Garrett was set on getting Alex a pilot's jumpsuit in addition to the Navy NWU's that his dad had bought him. We bought the girls teddy bears dressed in a pilot jumpsuit and ABU's. Dropping Garrett off to check in was extremely hard. I knew I still had two more days with him, but they seemed far too short.
Saturday, 21 April - I picked Garrett up from base, and we went to give the gifts to Alex, Lily, and Ivy first thing. After hanging there for a bit to chat, we had promised to go see Aunt Kathy, Uncle Mark, and his cousins Ryan and Jake. We sat and talked to them for a while. Garrett telling stories and giving details on Tech school. Around 1200 we went and picked up our good friend Richard to head back to my house for a game party with our friends. At 1500 I kicked everyone out because it was time for Garrett and I to have a date of our own. I had arranged it with my mom, and while we took Richard and my sister to work, she set up an indoor picnic in our living room. We had fruits and vegetables and candles and popped in a movie. It was so nice to be at ease with him. Our date ended all too soon when we had to leave to get him back to base in time. We became very familiar with the mini mall at Lackland that weekend. It was our 'go-to' place to kill time.

Sunday 22 April - Bright and early Sunday morning I headed out to Lackland for our last day together. I picked Garrett and another guy that happened to be from my ward at church, Todd Hagey to go to church. We enjoyed two hours of lesson and sacrament then Hagey needed to run a few errands at the BX. We went over there, were treated to brunch by Hagey, and spent the time talking to Garrett's buddies. We then browsed around until we were told that a few of them were going to a movie at the theater and decided to join them. I took Hagey back to barracks so that he could do some packing and things. We went to see John Carter because the actor is one our favorites from a TV show, Friday Night Lights. After the movie, Garrett's mom and sisters had been trying to reach us because they were back from their Girls' Weekend in Houston and ready to meet up with us. Brandee had offered to take some more engagement pictures for us with Garrett in his Blues and looking so sexy(my words, he used 'bald and buff' I believe). So we went to do that, and I am so impressed with how they turned out! Our first set taken with my cousin, turned out great, but these were a fantastic addition!

Possibly one of my most favorite.

Aren't they all just amazing? I only posted a few from the day, and these are the unedited copies, but i am totally in love with them. Funny story time: So as I said earlier, Garrett is unable to show a lot of PDA in uniform, which can be problematic for engagement pictures since the idea is to show how in love you are, right? I didn't put any up, but every time we went to take a kissing picture, Brandee would accidentally hit the wrong button and not actually take the picture on the first go. So we ended up doing a lot more PDA than we had planned. She kept promising it wouldn't happen again, and then it would. Kind of amusing. 

After beginning to melt in the sun with pictures, we headed for the mini mall food court to play some games to kill more time until it was check in at 1800. I'm sure it was quite the sight to see one Airman with 6 women around him at one table playing games. It was fun though. I just love his family so much and am so excited to become a part of it. 

I will sign off for now, I'm sorry this is a few weeks late. School started and combined with work and my family in town, it's been a little crazy. But I hope you enjoyed this first post featuring Airman Bowen and the future Mrs.