The few. The proud. The Marines.

For those of you who don't know, my little brother (although not so little), Pete, joined the Marines early this year. He left for boot camp in March, right before Mya was born. A bunch of us took the trip down to watch him graduate on June 19th at Parris Island. It was breathtaking. First of all, seeing all those young men in uniform, in perfect sync, realizing that those are the people fighting for our country. THAN seeing your younger (not little) brother march by, brings tears to my eyes. I have so many memories of him being such a clown (which of course he still is) but he has grown up so much and I can't even begin to explain how truly proud I am of him.
Here are a few pics from our trip.

As they all walked in, everyone in the stands were going WILD as they hadn't seen their Marine in 13 weeks!

Here's our Marine!!!

The first time he met Mya.

We got to see their base, including their barracks. It's exactly what they show on TV, it's no tempurpedic mattress, that's for sure!

After Graduation!!!!!

After graduation day he came home with us, it was a LONG 13 hour car ride. Myas first road trip that went so smoothly, I was so proud of her!

After his 2 weeks home, he had to go down to Camp Lejeune in NC for weapons training. He was there for a month, graduated on August 4th, GO PETE!!!!!!!! So, now he's out in San Diego for schooling. He's training to be an Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) Crewmember, AKA a no joke Marine. He'll be the guy on top of the hummer shooting that enormous gun. So, please keep him, and all of the other military, in your thoughts and prayers. They are fighting hard for our country and, in my eyes, they don't get nearly enough recognition.

So now that he's in Cali, he's got his cell phone back!!!! We all went months without any communication besides letters, so now that we can call and text him, its awesome!!!! He sent me a few pics yesterday and on Tuesday after his weapons training graduation.
This is him and his friend Anderson.


In Cali, he sent this to me and said....I've been in Cali for 10 hours and I never wanna leave!

We love and miss you Pete. xoxo