Weekend Recap: Little Brother, Airshow & Slumber Party

Once again, I had another great weekend!!!!

Friday evening, Julius arrived at our house to spend the weekend with us and attend the Blues air show.
Having Julius here with us cures my homesickness.  He IS family which makes me miss my family back in St. Louis less.

For those who do not know, Julius and Nick were roommates from plebe summer until they graduated from the Naval Academy.  I first heard about Julius in Nick's letters during plebe summer.  He didn't speak about him too often (his letters were more about what he was doing and that he missed me) but when he did, he mentioned how funny he was, how he was happy they were rooming together, and how Julius had quickly become a good friend.
Julius very quickly became a good friend of mine as well.  He was involved in pretty much every single one of Nick and my Skype dates.  Not just because he shared a room, but he would roll his chair over and sit right there alongside Nick through the majority of the webchat date.  When I called the room, if Nick wasn't there, Julius and I would usually end up talking for quite a while.  He was more than a friend to me.  He was the little brother I never had.  We gave each other a hard time just like you would with a sibling.  He's always been there for me when I needed to secretly plan something for Nick or purchase something for him.  He's always there for me when I need to someone to vent to about Nick's annoying habits because he understands (and he can always calm me down).  When I mailed care packages to the Academy, I always made sure to include enough for Julius as well as his favorites along with Nick's. Julius is always offering to help in any way he can.  He's one of the most genuine people and takes care of those he loves.  Julius has always been 100% supportive of our relationship.  He truly is everything you'd want in a best friend for your significant other as well as a best friend for yourself.  Julius is one of the funniest guys we know and after just one hour at our house Friday night, my face hurt from laughing too much.  Julius has a way of putting you at ease and making you forget any worries or stresses.  Anyone would be lucky to call him a friend.  Nick and I most definitely recognize how lucky we are to have that giant goof ball in our lives.

Anyway...enough of my soft side ;)  Not even one hour after arriving, the boys were at what they do best....gaming.  I love watching them play video games.  It reminds of the Academy days which reminds me how much Nick truly loved his time there, especially living with Julius.  I love seeing that little kid grin on Nick's face, having his best friend with him, gaming until the wee hours of the night morning.  When they game, I usually go lay in bed and read or watch television.  I prefer to read so I can hear their laughter and stupid comments.  I can't really explain it, but it warms my heart.  It's just so great that they're still as close as ever and pick up right where they were when they were roommates.

Saturday we all headed down to NAS Pensacola for the Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show.  Their performance season has come to an end and they end this season with a giant show at home.  They bring in alllll sorts of air craft from the Air Force, Marines, and Navy, old and new.  It's a giant static display of helicopters, jets, and planes.  Some you can go in, some you can only look inside.  The boys love it!  I mean, of course, this is their passion!
The air show is amazing!  There are many, many planes that perform.  From very old planes, to super hornets, to a helicopter doing aerobatics!  The show always ends with the Blue Angels and they never, ever disappoint.  It was a great show and I'm happy we attended.  More than likely, we will not be here next year to attend the show.  This is will be our last Blue Angels Homecoming Show for quite some time =(  I'm happy I was able to spend it with my two favorite Navy boys.
I was also happy to run into two of my absolute favorite Navy gals, Jen and Cassie.  Which also means I got to spend some time with the ever adorable Livie!
Talk about a perfect day!  (minus dropping my chair on my foot, completely smashing it, cutting it, and bleeding all over at the air show.  Minor mishap.)

Fat Albert of the Blue Angels

Nick squatted and lifted Julius on his shoulders.  That's 200+ pounds!  

the boys inside a C-1 ....a very very old plane!

{I've grown up knowing who the Blue Angels are because my father LOVES air shows and we would always go to one if it were anywhere near us.  It's crazy for me to think that I now live where the Blue Angels call home.  I have the opportunity to see them practice any day I want.  It's so cool!!!  I feel very lucky for this experience.}

After the air show we stopped downtown at Helen Back for food and something to drinks.  I can honestly say we will never, ever go back there for food.  They have a very, very small menu, NO fries (what?!), and the chicken tenders looked ....gross.  Barely breaded, soggy looking, and perfect little rectangles.  So disgusting!!!!  (Thankfully we did not have to pay for those "chicken tenders").

Once I got home, I threw some toiletries in a bag and headed over to Heidi's house.  Her boyfriend was out of town on his cross country flight so we thought it'd be fun to have a slumber party at her house!  Heidi made us dinner and we made apple cider sangria.  We just sat around drinking the sangria and talked.  Later in the evening Elizabeth had to leave but Jenny, Heidi, and I continued to drink and talk.  That's all we did.  Until 4am!  We talked about pretty much everything you could.  I didn't think I'd be having a slumber party at the age of 27 (I don't care that I'll be 28 in 17 days, I'm still 27!)  But I do think slumber parties need to happen more often!  I absolutely love these girls and feel incredibly blessed to have found such a wonderful group of women.  I feel 100% comfortable talking about anything and everything around them.  It saddens me to no end to know some of us will be leaving soon.  I'm thankful to still have all the other wonderful ladies here, but I've become very close with Heidi and am going to miss her greatly (she's probably the next of us to leave).
But I need to stop talking about this now because it gets me really, really upset because then I think about that I'll have to say goodbye to everyone else.  I think this might be the worst part about the military lifestyle.  Even worse than deployments (granted, we haven't gone through one so I honestly can't say that's true.  But as of now I feel it's a true statement!)  At least I know Nick will return to me. I do not know when or if I'll see these friends again!  All I know is we need a few more of these girls night while I'm here.

The next morning we decided we wanted to go out for breakfast.  Unfortunately, there's not much in Milton.  We searched online and found Ace's restaurant and headed there since it was only 5 minutes from her house.  It was a small restaurant but they had really good food and it was really inexpensive!  If you live in Milton, I recommend Ace's for breakfast.  It's not the most amazing place, but it's good and better than chains like Waffle House.  (They also serve lunch and dinner but I can't vouch for their food for those meals.)


I am really loving having weekends full of friends!  I honestly could not ask for better friends.  I'm thankful for those that drive three and a half hours to visit and for those women who completely understand me....thankful for finding women like me, because we sure are "different" than most ;)
But I wouldn't have it any other way.

To those that were a part of my weekend, thanks for making it a great one!!!