Camps and Birthdays

We took Michael two weeks ago to his recruit training in Belle Glades, FL.  We got four letters from him while he was away.  In all of them he was very ready to come home but by the end seemed to have been having a good time.  

We left on Friday to pick him up and stayed in a hotel in Okechobee, FL.  I am sure that this town only has people age 55 and up.  All there was in the entire town were tiny trailers surrounding a lake.  Some of the trailers were smaller than campers and they were so close together that you could reach our neighbors house from your porch.  Outside of each community there was a sign that ready, "55+ only".  Thats great news for me because I have no plans on moving to Okechobee, FL anytime soon.

On Saturday morning we went to his graduation.  It was wonderful to see him again.  The kids all looked so cute in their uniforms.  He then got to show us were he slept while he was gone.  They were staying at a camp for troubled teens beside a prison.  Michael is not a troubled teen, thats no why he was there but thats what the place is for.

Michael ate the entire trip home.  He snacked until we got to McDonalds then ate at McDonalds and then snacked until we made it home 7 hours later.  

We are so proud of Michael and all that he has done with his sea cadets.  He really has excelled and stuck with it.  He has been in the program now for 14 months and this makes his 3rd training camp and he still has one more to go this summer.  They are not easy camps.  He has to get up at 430am and run 5 miles every day and then do it again in the afternoons in the hot sun.  He also has to pass a physical fitness test, the same one that they give the men in the military.  It is not all about fitness either, he has to go online and do work as well and it rewarded for his grades in the program.  I can not say enough how proud we are of him and all the cadets who made it through another trough training.

Sunday we got up and went to IHOP for Emma's birthday.  They sang to her and brought her ice cream.  She really had a good time.  Later that day we came home and had a cake for her.  Ricky had to blow out her candles.  She loved her gifts we got her.  This is the first time she has torn into the paper all by herself.  She loves to tear paper now.

Tuesday I take Michael to see his dad and pick up Kaylin so I am sure I will have a lot more to update.  Hope you enjoyed.

Sea Cadets

Ricky spent the day yesterday driving past West Palm beach to drop the kids off in Belle Glades for camp.  He had to get a government car and drive 3 of them down.  It took four hours for them to process in and complete their physical fitness tests.  Anyone who wants to read the updates on how Mike is doing at came you can go to the website @ www.rtfl2008@tk.  Already they are doing daily 2.5 mile runs in the afternoons and working up to 5 mile runs.  I am not sure why those kids love this so much, but they do.

I am still really needing recipes for the kids cook books.  I was hoping to have them finished by the end of the week but I only have about 20 recipes at this time.  Anyone who has any please send them to recipeskb@aol.com.

The last week in June Ricky and Michael headed off to Parris Island for three days with the Sea cadets.  On Friday they returned and Ricky came home while Michael stayed to finish his drill weekend before his year end graduation.  I have some pictures of them before they left for graduation.  They had such a great time in Parris Island.  They got to see what all the Marines do at their boot camp and go through some of it themselves.  It was a really good time for them.  From what I am told, the kids looked and sounded better when marching than some of the new Marines.  Michael really got to do and see a lot of new things.  The one thing he took from the entire experience was, he does not want to be a marine :)!

Michael had his year end graduation last Sunday.  None of his family was able to attend and he was extremely disappointed.  He spend most of the graduation looking around trying to see any of his family other than Ricky, Emma, myself and one of our family friends.  I was very disappointed that none of them could be there.  This was the biggest day of the year for him.  He won every award they gave out.  He won the academic award, perfect attendance, community service award, physical fitness award, and he got an award for graduating from a League cadet to a sea cadet along with a promotion.  He will have two graduations as well this summer.  The graduation on the 21st in Belle glades is a huge deal as well.  The Port ops one here locally on the 26th of July will be fun, but it is not as big of a deal.  I asked Michael if he wanted me to invite everyone and he told me not to bother, no one would come.  So.....to all of Michael's family, you need to make a huge effort to go to Belle Glades @ 9am on June 21st.  We are driving down the night before and spending the night in West Palm Beach and possibly staying another night after graduation because the drive is so long.  This is a huge deal for Michael and he has worked very hard.  He is one of the top cadets and does an outstanding job.  I will only be sending invitations to the port op's graduation to people who make it to the Belle Glades graduation.  I don't want Michael to be disappointed again by knowing who was invited and who didn't show up.

Here are some pictures of Michael at the last graduation.