TALICEE'S JOURNEY

FAMILY DAY AT FORT BENNING, GA AUGUST 22, 2012

On August 21st Lindsay and I flew to Atlanta, Ga and then rented a car and went to Ft. Benning, GA. Talk about 2 very excited girls. We talked all the way through the drive. Arrived out our hotel and settled in. Learned the area and had dinner. We made our plan out for the following day. We drove to the barricks and scoped out where we would be tomorrow to see him for family day.

August 22nd, up way to early. So we relaxed a little and then headed out to the base. We thought we had everything straight. Had our directions of where we needed to park and where we needed to go. As we are driving through, we see signs for different things. We knew where we were going, so we did not read them. Got to our destination. No parents, no cars, no nobody but a new group of guys. We asked and no one knew where we were suppose to be. I did not take my computer so we did not get the update. We were suppose to be back where we saw all of the signs. We parked and headed to our seats. Family Day was only 15 minutes away, so we thought. Great, Tyler will march across the field (which we could see them) and then they would release them into our care for the day. No, we had a ceremony and then each team competed for an award. We were amazed. The team that won was great. I did not see one mistake. So after this and the push ups, the boys were released to us. I tried to get the first smile from him on camera. A picture is worth a thousand words.

We headed out to the museum. He loves History and wanted to show it to us. This is actually where he will graduation the next day. It was a very nice place. We got to see each war and all that was involved. Then we headed out for lunch. Yes, he was ready to eat. We went to Long Horn. He had a big steak and a baked potatoe. One happy boy. He had gotten his Dress Blues that day and he needed to take them home in a garment bag on the plane. So our search was on for a garment bag. Found one and the he wanted to go back to the hotel and just relax. He was so content to just sit in a chair. We talked about his last 2 1/2 months and what was headed of him when he arrived home. He had to be back at the base at 6:00, so we loaded up his stuff and stopped at Chick-Fil-A and got him dinner. He exact words "this is so good." We dropped him off and talked for a little while longer. I wanted to take pictures of his barracks, but once you walked up Sand Hill, you could not go but to the door and leave. We just watched him walk the Hill for one last time.

Lindsay and I headed to the mall to just look around. We are flying and have carry on luggage, so there was no shopping for us. Of course, we have 3 huge bags of Tyler's that would have to fly too. He checked them for free.

After dinner we decided on our plan for Graduation. We thought we knew where we were going and had a good plan. NOT