Uncle Don's Graduation

Twelve weeks ago my "little" bro, Don, reported for OCS for the navy in Newport, Rhode Island. This weekend he graduated and we meet up with my parents and sister to celebrate his graduation.

The weekend started on Wednesday night, or really Thursday at 1am when I picked up my sister from Logan airport. We got home, due to middle of the night roadwork it took twice as long to get home, and promptly(3 hours later) got to sleep. When the boys were up at 6am, we got dressed and started what ended up being over a 3 hour drive to RI. Adam was dropped off at work and Cathie and I, on 2 hours of sleep each met up with my parents. Adam road the train into Providence later in the day to join us.

This is Don in his funny parade call or whatever uniform. He was selected for the colorguard which was awesome.

The boys really behaved amazingly for the graduation. Jonathan was a bit restless but Adam and I took turns walking him around.

Alex sat the whole time and even took a moment to practice his thousand yard stare so that he could be just like his Uncle Don.

Here is Ensign Don about to receive his certificate.

This is his group. They are blindingly white in those uniforms. But all very handsome.

I loved this part. Once he graduated he officially became a higher rank then the men who were his drill instructors. So they all lined up to get their first salute by the men who yelled at them for 3 months.

We are so proud of you Don. One more step completed in your Mission to Mars.

After the graduation was finished we all headed north to our place to hang out for a bit.

My mom and dad were shocked to see just how much Jacob had grown.

The boys sure had tons of fun.

I have to give huge thanks to Adam. First he volunteered to stay home with the boys so I could have a relaxing dinner when we went out to celebrate. And then we brought a fairly inebriated Don home and Adam had to take him out to "celebrate" more.