The Trip to Jackson, Part 1: Matt the Marine

*The next few posts are going to be highlighting the events of this past weekend, and boy, it was one crazy weekend!

We had two very specific reasons for going to Jackson, TN this past weekend. One we were going to see Matt while he was on his ten day leave in between Marine Bootcamp and School of Infantry, and second we were celebrating Bryan's mom's 50th birthday although she didn't know that. We headed from BG late Thursday evening after Bryan returned from a Big Brothers/Big Sisters Awards dinner. (He and Morgan won the Best New Match of the Year Award. Yay!)

Friday's Highlights:

• Spent time with Matt while he ate his breakfast
• Bryan and I got haircuts from Amy
• Ate lunch with Matt at Los Portales (our favorite Mexican restaurant ever)
• Visited Mom's kids at the daycare where she works. I read them a book and Seth got introduced to everyone by a very proud Nana.
• Consignment store shopping and spending time with family
• Dinner with the entire Tillery family at the Old Town Spaghetti store to celebrate Matt's Marine Boot Camp graduation
• Returned to my parent's house to console one very upset baby boy who wouldn't stay asleep for his Nana and Pop while we were out to dinner

After getting to spend some time with Matt, he still had the same old hilarious, fun loving, and considerate qualities, but he had definitely been transformed into a MARINE. When in uniform, every inch of his being was in Marine mode. Out of uniform he told us stories of boot camp like eating 8 hard boiled eggs a day and being attacked by fire ants and sand fleas. We witnessed his horrible blisters on his feet, we were told about his gratefulness of having a root canal because he got to rest for two hours, and we learned that a Marine can never, ever wear flip flops (even at the beach, they have to wear their "go fasters" or running shoes). We are so proud of Matt and his willingness to serve our country.
We didn't manage to take any pictures of Matt in his uniform the entire trip. I know it is shocking but it is true, because from the very early hours into Saturday things got very interesting...