Back from the Islands

Justin and I are back from Hawaii! We had a wonderful trip. When we arrived at the airport the CO, Captain Richie, set up a homecoming and allowed all the boys to meet us at the airport. We were greeted by Echo Marines, wives, girlfriends, children, etc. Justin and Mike were so excited to see "their boys".  It was great for them to be reunited because they had not seen each other since being injured. After the airport homecoming we headed to our hotel. We had a beautiful two bedroom, two bathroom suite (Thanks to a wonderful family member who is a travel agent). It was absolutely beautiful with 4 balconies, we had ocean views and views of diamond head! We were living like kings and queens on the 40th floor!

Airport Homecoming

Saturday night was the Warrior Ball and the boys looked so handsome in their dress blues. During the  speech given by a General he talked about Justin, Mike, and Murphy and everyone gave them a standing ovation. It was definitely an emotional moment and of course I could not hold back the tears. The boys had a great time at the ball catching up with their buddies. There was lots of laughter, drinking, and a few tears! Overall the trip was great minus almost missing our flight to hawaii because of construction and elevators being broken at LAX. Thankfully coming home was less stressful and TSA helped us out tremendously.

While we were in Hawaii it was my 25th birthday so the boys took me out to dinner and we had a great time. I could not believe the generosity of people. The table next to us bought our first round of drinks (there was 5 of us total). Then when we tried to pay our bill our waitress asked us if we were celebrities because her other table paid for our entire bill. We couldn't believe it and thankfully we were able to catch the men to thank them before they left. While we wanted to thank them they just wanted to thank Justin and Mike for everything they had done. Then while we were finishing our dessert another table bought us another round of drinks and left our waitress $60 for additional drinks. We were blown away by everyone being so generous.

We are so thankful both Justin and Mike were healthy enough to fly and we had no complications or problems with the trip. Justin has two more weeks left of leave so he is enjoying being home. Today Justin became the proud owner of a new F-150! Thanks to the VA and the Semper Fi Fund who assisted him in buying his new truck. He will be taking the truck back to Maryland so all the adaptations/hand controls can be modified. (Its still up in the air if we will have it shipped or if dad will drive it back) When he gets back to Maryland he will begin his driving classes and then he can drive his truck around. Justin has been looking forward to getting this truck since before deployment.

Thank you again for the continued prayers, love, and support! We are so thankful Justin is doing so well and so far is heart is not having any problems. The medicine is really working so we are hoping to avoid the surgery all together. When he gets back to Maryland he will be seeing his cardiologist and having another Echocardiogram done to confirm the medicine is working. We are so happy to be back home as a family and enjoying the time together. Mom and Justin will be living in Maryland and dad and I will be living here in California. So we are enjoying these next two weeks of being together as a family.

Please continue to pray for all the troops still fighting for us. Especially our cousin Cody who will be deploying again in the next few months. Please keep him and his unit in your prayers as they prepare for deployment.

The boys out one night

Ball Photos! 

Our Hotel Room

Our amazing view

The full ocean view from Justin and Mikes balcony