Commissioning Week

I know it's been a LONG time since I've blogged.  Understandably.  But now I'm back.  Well, I'm actually still incredibly busy but I'm taking the time to do some updates before I get too far behind.

I'm also back-dating this post because I'm OCD and I need things in chronological order.

I arrived in Annapolis on May 20th, exactly one week before actual Commissioning Day.

The week leading up was full of hanging out with Nick's friends and attending various military functions.

On Sunday, May 22, 2011, I attended the Superintendent's Reception with Nick and his amazing sponsor parents, Lisa and Kel.  This event is also most commonly known as the 'Garden Party'.  This reception was for 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Naval Academy.  It consisted of mingling with Nick's company mates, meeting some of his superiors that I've heard him talk so much about, and most importantly, meeting the host of the party, the Superintendent of the Naval Academy, Vice Admiral Michael H. Miller and his wife.

The next day, Monday May 23, 2011 was the Color Parade in the morning.  Nick's company, 1st Company, was Color Company first semester and therefore they had a key role in this parade.  It's really not worth explaining, it's something you'd just have to see.  But it meant I got VIP seats with Miss Meg (because Matt's company was Color Company second semester) and Nick's company was front and center.

 After the parade we watched Herndon.  This was my first time ever seeing it and quite frankly, it wasn't exciting.  After a few minutes I was ready to go.  (Herndon is a giant monument that they cover in lard and the plebes have to climb it to retrieve a plebe summer cover (hat) and replace with a midshipman's cover).
That evening, was Julius' graduation party and it was a blast.  Many people came out and it was good to meet so many people from Nick's company as well as hanging out with my favorite boys, 'The Crew'.  And Julius' family, well they are just great people!  Very fun folk!  And after the party, we hit up downtown Annapolis.

The next few days were spent with our families (who had also come into town) and we took a few different tours of the yard.  ("the yard" is what they call the "campus" of the Naval Academy.)  We also watched the United States Marine Corps Silent Drill performance which was pretty neat. If you've seen the movie "A Few Good Men", it's like the very beginning of the movie.  Drill is the serious of moves and positions the Marines do, in complete unison, without someone calling out the commands.  They are very talented and it's really a remarkable thing to witness.

One night, Nick's family and my mother and sister attended the Graduation Ball.  I didn't really care to go, I'm not much for dancing.  But I needed an excuse to wear my Ring Dance dress again so we decided to go!  Mom and Leah had to run to the mall just hours before the dance and find something but they looked pretty darn spiffy!  And beautiful!  We ended having a good time and I was able to see a few "USNA Girlfriends" while there (even though we aren't "girlfriends" anymore.)

Our week ended with Dave and Rob's graduation party which was also great because I absolutely love Rob's family.  Mr & Mrs Burdon are some of the nicest people I've ever met.

So that was about 6 days in a very short blog post....well short for ME.  It was a very condensed version with 1000 less photos.  Yes, I have about 1000 photos from May 20 to May 26.  You should all be very proud of me for narrowing it down and not making this post very detailed.  That's very unlikely.  But don't worry, the photos are on Facebook.  Check them out HERE and some more of them HERE.