The Weekend we got Married

Hey all, I just got back from a nice walk with Dakota. It's so nice to walk at night, when the fireflies are out.

I decided it was time to blog about my weekend in Wichita Falls, Tx. Andrew is stationed at Sheppard AFB for tech school. A few short weeks after BMT graduation I decided to head down to see him and get married. Our decision to have a civil ceremony mostly had to do with me being put on Andrew's official orders before he moves to Ohio. There were rumors that suggested life is a little simpler if your spouse is on your orders before arriving at permanent duty station. And as a couple we didn't see the point in waiting who knows how long to get married if we waited for the military to give us time.

So, we didn't wait.

Anyways, Thursday June 1st I woke up at 2:00am and hit the road at about 2:40am. The drive from my part of Minnesota to Wichita Falls is roughly 14 hours, and I don't think Google Maps takes into consideration the amount of stops needed.

I arrived at almost exactly 5:00pm, so just over 14 hours later...and barely any speeding. I called Andrew as soon as I checked in and he had the best news! He was given a special waiver to leave base for the weekend.

I know, you're confused. Well, about a week before I went down and after I had already paid for the nonrefundable hotel Andrew was told the base was on lockdown. Well, at least the trainees. There had been an incident of underage drinking the weekend before and this was the punishment.

But, at this point Andrew was at the top of his class, and had no infractions, so his awesome 1SG gave him a pass.

This was good news, because I drove all the way down under the impression he wouldn't be able to leave base at all. And that our plans to get married were squashed. So, this phone call made me very, very happy.

Thursday night we ate dinner on base, we shared a gigantic sandwich from a place called Charlie's. Very good, kind of like a Great Steak sandwich.

Friday morning I picked up Andrew and we went back to my hotel and he waited for me to get ready...which can take some time. Then we headed to the County Clerk office and got married, just before noon on July 2nd.

That night, we knew we wanted to celebrate in a very big way. During the day we bought a cheap DVD player from Wal-Mart and bought and rented some movies.

And we ordered pizza, and our celebration was moving watching and pizza.

100% us.

Up next: The weekend in pictures...