The Dearborn Family: May 2009

I know it has been a while since my last post on Easter...okay it's been a month! I promise I'm still alive! I have a lot of pictures that I want to post and events to share with y'all, so here we go.

One exciting event was Matt, my brother-in-law, graduating from Marine boot camp in San Diego. After three long months of hard work and training--that really doesn't describe what Matt went through or do it justice...at all--Mike and I drove over to San Diego with my father-in-law and met up with Donna, my mother-in-law, Greg, Aunt Sissie and one of Matt's friends Jennifer and her sister. We were finally able to see Matt on Thursday, which was family day, and spend all afternoon together. When the platoon first came out I didn't recognize Matt because they all look the same. I even took some pictures of the wrong Marine--but Matt was still in the picture--just not the center of it, oops. Once I picked him out, it was easy to identify him. Friday was graduation day and it was quite the ceremony! Such an exciting time--I'm so proud of my brother!!!

Matt had a 10 day leave here in town with family and friends before heading back to Camp Pendelton for four weeks of combat training, which is now almost over. Boot camp is much more mental than physical, and combat training is more physical. The good news is that they treat you like a human again when you are in Combat training. During the weekends Matt got liberty so he could use his cell phone some and Mike has gotten a couple calls. He's thrown grenades, used a grenade launcher and I believe will even get to shoot a rocket launcher...this doesn't mean much to me, but I know in guy terminology it's pretty sick awesome! After combat training Matt will be based in Twenty Nine Palms for his school training which will be about 8-9 months if I remember corectly. I'm not sure what that training will consist of, but I know he will be doing something with computers. I can't wait to see him again! Hopefully that will be soon!