Shows, Shows, and More Shows!

Monday was truly a day of shows. Showing family and friends what a parade was, showing the campus off (part of it, at least), and finally the USAFA Show Choir's Grad Show! To start the morning off, I took my parents, sister, and Mrs. Hope up to the squadron before escorting them down to the parade field. The rest of the family took the day to go zip lining. I told them that the Grad Show was the most important thing for the day and that Tuesday would be much more exciting and important, so I was glad they were checking out some of what Colorado has to offer. First stop, Cadet Squadron 16, Proud Chickenhawks!!! 

My room, 5F41, and my name plate. I was the Squadron Executive Officer for my last semester handling paperwork and helping the boss (the squadron commander) out! 

A map of the US in our squadron with all the hometowns of the cadets.

There's Collinsville! 

After I escorted the family to the parade field, Stillman Field, I headed back up to get in place for the parade. This was the Organizational Awards Parade, recognizing squadrons that had done well for the past academic year. It also gave Fall Leadership the opportunity to march the squadrons and wing in front of their families. To me, it was just another old parade! I reminded myself, though, that this was the last parade I would do for a long while (probably forever) because the Graduation Parade is different from this parade. 

Since I am short, I get to march at the back left corner. Not sure if you can see me well, but I'm there! 

There I am, just after passing the reviewing stand! 

Side note: If you aren't careful and if the field is muddy, you should hold on to your shoes. Seriously. I have passed shoes before where people just marched right out from them. Thankfully, I never lost a shoe in a parade! 

After the parade, I had a little bit of time to spend with the family before we had to part ways until the evening. I was super excited about this time because this is when the USAF Thunderbirds usually arrive on the scene. Sure enough shortly after we made it up to the terrazzo, here they came; zipping and zooming all over the Academy! I mean, it's like they treat it as their playground. They are low and fast. Low enough to pass below the chapel spires as they zoom past the mountains. I am telling you, I am like a kid in a candy store when they arrive. I had been that way for the past few years (sorry 2013), and this time was no different. Except this time I realized they were here for MY graduation. MINE! I was so excited that I had a moment. Because flying with this team is one of my goals and dreams for my Air Force career, I got a bit emotional. It's something that you always dream of happening and then when it happens it kind of takes you by surprise. I had been working for the past 5 years to get to graduation and I always dreamed that they'd be here for mine. And here it was, the Monday before MY graduation, zipping and zooming around. Plus, like I said it is a huge goal and dream of mine to fly one of those jets, so just even more motivation for my Air Force career that was about to begin in just a short 48 hours! Needless to say, these 15-20 minutes were amazing! 

PLANES! 

WEE!

See, just a bit lower than the chapel spires. A few of them were a bit lower at times too! 

Probably the last time that my crest will be in the center of the chapel wall. And it feels like it just got put up there! 

Mommy and me! 

It's all about the Zeamer class...RTBs!! 

Daddy and me! 

Natalie filmed my reaction to the Thunderbirds arriving and we are reviewing it before submission to social media!

Pointing to the sky! 

Next to the mountains they go! 

Once they were finished "practicing/arriving," we had a quick lunch before I had to go to the Individual Awards Ceremony. There was no need for Mom, Dad, Natalie, and Mrs. Hope to come to that, so we said adieu. I headed to Clune Arena for the ceremony and they headed back to the house. I would see them again in a few hours before, during, and after the Show Choir's Grad Show! After the awards, I went back to my room and took a very short nap before getting my makeup together and heading to Arnold Hall to prepare for my last Grad Show with the Show Choir. I've been a part of this group since freshman year and this was another emotional thing for me. While I only got upset once during the show, I was sad thinking about how this would be my last show with this great group of people. The show went well and I had a blast! 

We performed several up-beat group numbers, a couple of ballads (stand still slow songs), and had solos and duets. I also was blessed to be able to be the choreographer for the group for the year. I was in charge of coming up with the routines for the new numbers and then making sure everyone knew the choreography from the previous years numbers. Because there were budget cuts, we weren't able to get our usual choreographer, so I had to step up. It was fun, challenging, and at times stressful. I was able to dip into my creative side and see what I was actually capable of after taking dance for 20 years. I was mostly pleased with everything except for one song that I felt like I made difficult and strenuous! At least it looked good from the audience! Haha! Here are the numbers we did for my last year with the ones I got to choreograph! 

-Footloose (I choreographed this one. I LOVED it so much and was probably my favorite! This was also the first one that I choreographed for the group!)

-Happy (My choreography)

-Dancing in the Street (My choreography. This is the one that I didn't really like after the fact because of the lifts and partner dancing that I put into it!)

-America the Beautiful (Ballad)

-O America (Ballad)

-Earth, Wind, and Fire Medley (In the Stone, September, and Boogie Wonderland)

-ROCK in the USA

We had a few more numbers, but I am struggling to remember them. Overall, I think the show went well for the last one and hope that the show choir can keep on going for years to come! 

Singing one of our ballads! 

Singing a duet with Laura, one of my best friends from USAFA. This is the song that go me emotional. We sang "For Good"  from Wicked and all the lyrics were very true and it just made me a little weepy. We finished strong and it turned out well. But, man, why did I have to be weepy? 

Another ballad...with my mouth wide open. Lovely! Thanks, Dad! 

After the show was over and we all said our goodbyes (tear, weep, tear, weep), I headed out with my mom and sister to make a quick stop at my friend Aaron's grad house for his grad party. This was a busy week, but I wanted to at least be able to stop by and give a short hi! I was glad I did. The band was pretty neat and I got to see Aaron's wonderful parents and one of his sisters, Elise! After that short stop, we headed by my sponsor family's house to pick up my cake for my graduation party. My sponsor mom, Robyn, made it for me and it looked so awesome! Plus, I couldn't wait to bite into that cake! It looked amazing and looked like it was gonna taste amazing! Once I got to the house, I said a quick hello to everyone and then headed back to USAFA. Tuesday was going to be a HUGE, very long day! But I was super excited about it! :) 

Hopefully the 2 blog posts that make up Tuesday will be up shortly! 

Graduation Week Begins

Well, here we go! I couldn't wait for this week to begin and I knew it would be extremely busy, but let's be honest, I had been waiting for this week for 5 years! I met Mom and Dad first on Saturday at the North Gate of the Academy and from there we headed to the house we had for the week. It was awesome and in a great location...we had beautiful views of the mountains and Colorado Springs all around. Later on Saturday, we picked up my sister and my grandmother from Denver before calling it a night. We knew that the week ahead of us was filled with activities and fun times, so we wanted to relax and get some sleep while we could. 

The first event of the week was the Superintendent's Reception at the Carlton House. This gave cadets and their families the opportunity to meet the Superintendent and to celebrate the accomplishments of the last 4 years. While a lot of my friends didn't go, I thought it would be a great opportunity for my parents to see the house and to meet the Superintendent. I mean, who doesn't love old houses and great snacks! Plus, the falcons were there and some members of the Air Force Academy band. It was a lovely afternoon! 

Natalie and I waiting to get in line at The Carlton House! 

One of the pictures we took every year at USAFA...me pointing to my rank! In just 3 short days this would all change! 

Aaron and his family also attended the reception! My how 5 years have flown by so quickly! 

The family with the Superintendent, Lt. Gen Michelle Johnson, and her husband. Yes, Mrs. Hope is a member of the family! Oh and Lt Gen Johnson's husband was very excited when he found out I was headed to Columbus AFB for pilot training! That's where he went! :) 

Mrs. Hope and I enjoying the refreshments, while I probably explain something about USAFA to her. 

Yay for the Falcons! :) 

An earlier shot of Mom and Dad on the plane headed to Colorado! 

After we finished at the Superintendent's House, we headed back to our house just outside of Manitou Springs to meet up with the rest of the family. By that time Uncle Neil and Aunt Beth along with Jodi, Colton, and Abby had arrived at the house. Everyone was starving (minus those of us that had snacks at the Superintendent's House), so we quickly changed and headed to Rudy's, a BBQ place just 5 minutes away. We figured everyone would love some good BBQ and it was super close. Dad captured some good dinner shots while we were there. Some of my family might kill me if they know some of these pictures are here. Just remember, I love y'all! :) 

Nanny and Alisha 

Jodi, Colton, and Abby 

Me, Natalie, and Mom

I knew this picture was being taken...so sorry that it couldn't be completely candid! 

Overall, I think Rudy's was a great choice! We headed back to the house and chilled out a bit before I headed back to school to jump into bed before the start of 3 full days! 

The Joys of Space A

DISCLAIMER: I'm back after a long and very enjoyable summer and my goal is to catch up on the blog filling you in on everything from Graduation to 60 Days to reporting to Columbus AFB, MS. It may seem a little out of order, but I promise, I'm gonna try to put it all up here! 

Now, here we go! From the beginning we always knew we would do Space A military travel. For those of you who aren't aware of what that is, I'll give you a short rundown. Once you become active duty in the military (any branch), you can use military aircraft to travel anywhere. That's right...pay almost nothing or nothing to travel the globe, the states, wherever you want to go and wherever the US military is going. As soon as you are on leave, you sign up based on your level. There are 6 different level/categories you can be placed in, but all you need to know for now is that 1 is the highest and 6 is the lowest. Once you sign up, you pick the base you want to fly out of, go there, and check in. Once you check-in, you wait to see if you make it at roll call. Even then, even with a ticket in your hand, you might not make it. You never really know for sure until the plane is in the air. Why, you might ask? Well, because there could be military members that aren't flying space available, but space required, and they have to go meaning you get booted off because you are just flying if there is space available. Anyway, hope that gives you somewhat of an idea of how it works. 

Laura, one of my best friends from the Academy, was traveling with me and we were both in category 3 because we had just graduated and had a giant amount of leave. Now, it all depended on when we'd signed up and thankfully, we had signed up at the same time within like minutes of each other. This assured that we'd hopefully get on the same flight. 

We hadn't really heard much about Space A except that it was cheap (free or less than $20 for an overhead charge) and that you needed to be flexible. Most people had told us that we wouldn't get out on our first try and we were prepared for that. So, yeah, we thought we were ready. We set off on Sunday, June 8 to Dover AFB, DE, home of C-5s and C-17s that usually always go overseas. We were hoping to get on a flight to Rota Naval Station, Spain, and work our way up to Germany from there. Well, someone didn't do their job correctly and posted that the flight to Rota was no longer happening. See, that's the other thing...flights can just get cancelled in Space A and sometimes you'll never know why. So, we changed our minds and headed to McGuire AFB, NJ. They had 5 international flights going out on Monday: 3 to Mildenhall, England, 1 to Portugal, and 1 to Germany. Well, on Monday morning, all the Mildenhall flights had been cancelled. Then while waiting at the terminal for the flight to Germany, all ready to go and checked in, they cancelled that flight too. Apparently there wasn't enough cargo to go forward with the mission. Okay, okay, we were told that this might not work out the first time. 

We were extremely hopeful at McGuire because this is what the passenger terminal looked like the entire time we waited for the flight to Germany. 

So, we immediately started looking for new possibilities and decided to try to make a flight out of Baltimore Washington International. Well, our only problem was, we didn't have transportation to get there and it was like 4 hours away. And time was running thin. Thankfully, we had Julie, Laura's younger sister. She came to the rescue via the NJ Turnpike and took us back to Baltimore. We made it with 30 minutes to check in for roll call. Oh and this was what we saw when we entered the BWI Passenger Terminal.

Oh yeah, the crowds were forming! 

We learned that we were competing with almost 200 people to get on a flight to Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Oh yeah...we kind of knew we wouldn't make it, but I reminded Laura that we had to stay positive. Due to the date and time of when we signed up, we got ahead of some of our other classmates that had already been waiting for like 2-3 days. They were kinda pissed at us. But in the end, it didn't really matter because we didn't make the flight that night either. We were kinda bummed though because I was only 5 slots away and Laura was 12 slots away. If anything, I probably would have made it and she probably wouldn't have.  

This is my optimism on Monday evening! 

We stayed at Laura's Grandmere's house in Alexandria, VA on Monday evening, then went back to my house during the day on Tuesday to get my car, so we wouldn't have to depend on others for transportation. Once we had dinner, we jumped in my car and headed back to BWI in hope of catching a flight at 0140 in the morning to Ramstein Air Base, Germany. This was our 2nd attempt, so we weren't too hopeful, but again optimism and positive thinking always helps. My name was called first that night so I went to the counter and checked in. I got my ticket and was ready to go! Now, I just waited for Laura. My name was the last one to be called in my group. Thankfully, a few minutes later, after many prayers, Laura's name was called!!! We were super happy and excited, but didn't want to get too hopeful because we could still be kicked off due to other military members showing up that had to go! After we went through security, we patiently awaited boarding. The whole group of new lieutenants that had made the list were all super excited. We finally began boarding, so we all felt a little closer to our dream of Europe! Finally, we started taxiing and took off in the dead of night! There was no turning back now! We were on our way to Germany.

Trying to keep myself entertained while waiting for Roll Call! 

My AMC ticket...only $17.50 to get to Germany, the Gateway to Europe! 

After a 7 hour and 3 minute flight and 2 flight meals (YAY!), we landed at Ramstein AB, Germany to the sight of a sunny afternoon, C-17s, C-5s, KC-10s, and other shipping airplanes! Our adventure had begun! 

Looking out the window to Germany!