Mississippi, Round 2!

Yes I was most definitely fortunate enough to get to fly to Mississippi for the 4th of July weekend. I truly truly felt so unbelievably blessed to get to spend one more wonderful weekend with him again before. Two weeks before Lance had been at Camp Shelby. Don't let the name fool you, there were no camp fire songs, s'mores or anything like that. The poor guy couldn't shower for over two weeks, he had to eat MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat), the weather was less than ideal, and he ran off of very little sleep the whole time. Already I have the most respect ever for him and then to go through that and survive. Hats off to you without a question. He was able to recover a little bit from the great "camp" and started in on another two weeks of class.
But the day finally came for me to come visit and midnight could not come soon enough. I flew out of Portland Friday the 2nd at 12:45am and landed in Mississippi around 8:40am. It was phenomenal to be able to actually hug him and not just see him across a computer screen. Don't get me wrong though, I'll take whatever I can get :) We went out to breakfast that morning and just got ourselves situated with our hotel and rental car. Later that day we went to the mall along the beach and bought some dinner attire for a pretty dinner at a nice Italian restaurant called Salute. Saturday morning we woke up and went to breakfast at my very first Waffle House which was really close to the beach. There's a reason they are called a Waffle House, that was the best waffle I have ever had. It was as big as the plate and I managed to just about eat it all. After that we went to a little surf shop and bought a kite and a bucket and headed to the beach. We rented a wave runner and took it out into the gulf. It's so different riding a jet ski in the ocean than on a lake, as I'm sure anyone would imagine. But it was so much fun. It's a really good thing I trust Lance so much because according to the guy running the wave runner shack we were vertical at one point, I only screamed a little. But it was so fun especially be able to just laugh and let loose with him. After our time was up we put together our kite and attempted to fly it. The thing should of had a warning label, it was a stunt kite, not easy. However, it did make for a few laughs so it ended well. Following that we decided to build a sand castle which ended up being a lot of buckets full of sand and a "mote" it was beautiful. We finished off that evening with some wonderful southern bbq and a movie. The next day was the 4th of July and we had an adventure to Alabama that ended up with us back in Gulfport about 2 hours later. It wasn't exactly what we had pictured. But just spending time with each other was exciting enough. And we were able to sight see in Alabama...while driving and Alabama is gorgeous. We ended back up in Gulfport where we got dinner and went to watch the fireworks that night on the beach. It was beautiful. I realized a million times over just how lucky I am to be with him. And I know he felt the same way when I sang Lady Gaga to him :)The next day was Monday and we had to pack up our hotel room and head back to base. That night I was able to go to his muster which is a meeting with his whole Battalion basically explaining what they need to finish up that week and what will be going on the next day, kind of. It was crazy seeing how everything worked and is broken down. I was also able to meet some of the guys that he'll be deploying with.
The vacation was everything and more that I could ever ask for. The big count down is starting and this is bringing us one step closer to him being back home for all of us to enjoy.

Lance left last night to Maine where he has so many different destinations in between until he heads to the middle East. I was able to talk to him last night but haven't been able to talk to him today so I'll keep waiting for the call so I can be sure to update everyone else as well when I find more out about what he's up to.
The updates will shift a little bit more now to what's going on with myself and the family so you feel a little more in the loop Lance and so you don't miss out on anything :) We all love you more than we could ever explain and want you to know how much we are thinking about you and that you are in our prayers. We are so so very proud of you and everything you are doing. It truly takes a strong person to go through. Keep your head up like we all know you will and we'll see you soon :) This is the big count down and everyday we're just a little bit closer, so you stay busy and we'll stay busy and we'll see each other before we know it.