The Crucible

In just about 2 hours, our Kaylee will begin what is known as the Crucible.  This is the Marine Corps bootcamp final test of the skills that they have learned these last 12 weeks.  This will be a 54 hour test of fire that will include some 48 miles of marching with about 45 lbs of gear and numerous tasks and assault courses where they use their skills and strength to overcome obstacles and solve problems using teamwork and the military tactics they have learned.  When I was there, we had lots of different things we had to do, but no crucible.  Naturally Christi and I are as nervous for her as we are proud of her.  By the time she finishes the Crucible sometime on Saturday, we will be less than a week from seeing our baby girl.  While she will then be a Marine, she will always be my Cookie Rae!  If you are of the praying mind, please include a prayer for Kaylee and all her Parris Island sisters in platoon 4004.  Also in this crucible will be the male recruits and the other female platoons of Golf and November companies.  Pray for them all and pray for the parents who are nervously awaiting word of their kids success in the Crucible.

Semper Fi

A graduation day surprise!

As many know, our daughter Kaylee is now less than 2 weeks away from completing bootcamp and graduating a United States Marine.  Of course she wants to see us all at the graduation, but she has no idea that we are bringing EVERYBODY!  All 18 kids, 2 grand-kids, one son-in-law, the 3 young men we've taken in who have basically become family and 3 significant others.  We will be renting a second 15 passenger van and hauling a trailer just so that the whole gang can be there.  We have a great trip planned that will be like the ones we used to take, cross-country.  Two days down, staying in 3 great villas in Hilton Head, going to family day and the graduation from there and afterwards, heading north to Gatlinburg to spend 2 nights in a wonderful cabin that can sleep the whole gang!  Not only treating the family to a good time, but crossing off one of Christi’s bucket list items of staying in a cabin in the Smoky mountains.  It will be totally complete when she gets to see the sunrise while having the morning coffee. 

Top that off with a big spaghetti dinner at the cabin (Kaylee’s favorite) and we will have a trip for the books for sure!

Unbeknownst to Kaylee, the whole thing will be filmed for the French TV channel M6 and their show “66 minutes”.  They will be with the family for the whole trip and will capture the whole thing.  It will be part of a special they are doing on large American families.

I can’t give my kids a lot of fancy experiences, but they can always look back to those times when they were on TV and smile.  We always have a good time with the film crews and the kids have a lot of fun trying to out-do each other’s funny.

 I think it will add an extra fun twist to this already awesome event!