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Halo for Big Boys

 Jason ended our summer vacation from school the same way he started it -- traveling.  This time he was completing his two week Army Annual Training.  Normally he's off three or four states away doing some exciting training of some sort.  This year they stayed in Alabama (he's in the Alabama National Guard) to do some classwork.  In fact, he was closer than he normally would be for just a drill weekend - Anniston and Gadston, AL as opposed to a town by the Alabama - Florida line.

On the last Saturday (August 3rd) Jason completed his final jump with the military, as he will be retiring in twenty-something months (insert happy dance here) !!!  Since it was only an hour and 45 minute drive, I took the boys over to watch the final jump -- also Jason's first out of a Blackhawk helicopter.
 Jason was the third person to jump and if you look really close, you will see him in the middle of that row of guys.
 Jack's friend Reed came along with us and the boys LOVED it.  As soon as the rotors started going the boys got really excited and said to me, "it's just like a real life Halo game!"  Needless to say after that they were running around "shooting" at everything!!
 Look, up in the sky.  It's a bird, it's a plane -- no it's the Alabama National Guard.
 There he is, falling from the sky.
 Jason is that speck, smack dab in the middle of the picture.

This reminds me of when Jack was about 18 months old and Jason was doing Airborne School down at Ft. Benning.  My mom came into town and we drove down to watch Jason do his final jump before graduation.
 Ethan took a bit to warm up to what was going on, but once he saw everything, he kept his eye on the helicopter every time it landed and took off, and then every time the men started falling from the sky.
 Reunited with Daddy.
After awhile Daddy went back to talk to the men, Jack, Reed and Wyatt found a place to play Halo and Ethan made friends with the little girl belonging to the family behind him in this picture.

It was a great day and so fun for the boys to watch Daddy jump.

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