ATC

Wow what a weekend. We had a BLAST!

We started out at Dennys where we all met up. Breakfast was full of laughs and eagerness to get on the road. The boys were so excited that they could barely contain themselves.
The whole journey took about 3 hours and we were more than ready to get there. Dontes section were going to be presented with Sabers so we were all there a day ahead. Some other folks were there as well and we ALL had the IMPRESSION that the rooms were going to be paid for. At east that's the info that was given out. Imagine our surprise when the rooms were not paid for and on top of that our lovely battalion didn't update my hubbys Government card info so we couldn't use that. He submitted the changes as soon as we got here ......over 6 months ago. Thankfully the lady at the resort was fabulous. We paid for our room and one of the other soldiers rooms and Faye made sure that we were all near each other on the same floor. It took a while but it was well worth the wait. Not only did she get our rooms together but we were all upgraded, we didn't have rooms we had suites. Whirlpool tubs, full kitchens, living rooms with fireplaces, and a huge king size bed. A little slice of heaven!
The first night we unpacked and P (Famous Daves wife) and I headed out to Wally World and stocked up on frozen pizza, drinks, snacks for the kids, and some fried chicken dinners for the room. Dinner was held in our room and was a blast. It was nice just to hang out and spend some time with some of the people that Donte had been working with for the past 6 months.
The kids were ecstatic because Gary (Famous Daves(FD) son) was there for the weekend as well......all three of the boys share a deep love for anything that has to do with a gaming system. FD has two daughters as well that were there and bless them both for putting up with three boys that love to drive everyone a little nuts.
The next morning Donte was off early to do some training and the boys and I were up getting ready for the day. The boys went across the hall to hang with Gary and the girls while P and I headed off to "sign in and get our packets". Donte had warned me but it was still annoying to see that they had misspelled my name. In fact they had misspelled a lot of names....hmmmmmmmm don't these people have access to DEERS?.....isn't it quite simple to see the correct spelling of names? Whats a girl to do. My badge read Sahnez Slade....sooooo Donte found this the prime opportunity to pick on me......my new IRAQI name is SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhnez. HA HA Donte very funny :0).
P and I gathered lots of info about Tricare, Dental, and all that good stuff. They even had different colleges set up so I decide that I would pick up some info for Donte. I spoke to the college guy for awhile and found out that he actually attends the same YMCA that we go to and that he lives in the same town as us. Small world isn't it.....keep that in mind.....you will see why later. We also found the room that the guys were having their Sabre ceremony that was all very hush hush and we couldn't attend. They didn't account for the peep hole in the door....too bad the ceremony was over and we didn't see a thing....DARN...my timing just sucks :0)
We then met up with D (Mere's very preggo wife) and took all the kids down to the worlds largest indoor water park.....OMG what a blast we did the lazy river, the boys had the time of their lives on the slides and I settled in nicely to the huge hot tub with the waterfall. We had a SPLASH!!! We were not quite ready to go but we had the company party to go to.
We went back to the room and to tell you the truth I really could have used a nap but no such luck we had to get ready. We got dressed and everyone met back in our room again. It was nice to share a few drinks and a tom of laughs before the party even began. I got some great pics of everyone. It's so nice to see that our little station was so well bonded. It actually reminded me of the units in Germany where everybody got along so well. It was like family.
Our company party theme was a luau. We went in and grabbed a table for us and a table for the kids. How nice that they are all old enough to be at their own table.....for them and for us. They started out with the awards and Donte had a clean sweep. The first award that he received was an AAM for getting a 319 on his PT test (they grade on a sliding scale so you can go far beyond what the norm is) you know how physically fit Donte is so this was an achievement that had been a long time coming, he also received an Eagle statue for the best PT score, then he received the MVP award and statue for everything that he has done since he has been here and finally his whole station received the top station award for being as good as they are.....can you tell I'm bursting with pride. We then ate and danced the night away. Daniel as usual was the first one on the dance floor and shook his groove thing until he couldn't anymore. He even dance with his Mama. Donnie had nothing to do with all of that except for the cha cha slide, then it was off to play with the other kids. One of the soldiers that work with Donte....we will call him M had us laughing all night long. I swear this guy should be a comedian. He had us rolling.
The next morning we woke up to snow. Oh glorious snow. It had been so long since we had seen that. I hurriedly started the fireplace and started breakfast. It was so nice and cozy. Donte had to run off to training again so P and I made sure that the kids were settled and headed off to the Tanger outlets. I love to shop and just don't get to it often enough these days. After shopping we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the Ball..........

I will finish later that was a lot to post and I have one more post to do....about something so much more precious to me. Here are a few pics in random order...ENJOY