This weekend Tim and I flew out to Oakland California for an award cerimony. The Army Reserve has an award that they present to soldiers when they come home from deployments. So after over 2 years I was finally getting mine. It was a crazy week trying to get everything all set up and taken care of so that we could get out there, and God bless the neighbors that we have who were able to take Scott in for the weekend. The Army was more then happy to send Tim there, but wouldn't let me take Scott as well.
Tim and I flew out on Saturday afternoon to Oakland with another lady that is from my site who was also recieving the award. Once we landed and grabbed out bags, we hopped a ride with that same couple to the post where Tim had a car set up waiting for us there. After we grabbed the car, we made a quick stop off at our hotel to get checked in, and a quick check in the mirror and then we were on our way to meet up with friends of ours in San Francisco.
We met Brian and Marci back in May on our cruise, and were instant friends. I had a chance a few months back to meet up with them and they are amazing hosts in their city. After dealing with the traffic on the Bay Bridge and getting there we went to the parking garage, said our hello's and went to a hotel there for drinks. The decorations in there for the holidays were just amazing to see. They had these strings of lights hanging from the celing that were just beautiful to see. They also had a few huge tree's decked out for Christmas in their lobby. After a drink we headed out for our dinner reservations, but before we left we stopped for a few pictures in the lobby, and in the process I almost knocked over their 20 foot Christmas tree! They had a chair sitting by the tree that I went to sit in, only the chair moved about about 2 feet into the tree when I sat on it. That just wouldn't have been good. For dinner we ate at this AMAZING little Italian restraunt. The owner kept coming over to our table to check on us, and kept managing to add on to our order, or talk us into better bottles of wine then we had picked out. 
He was good at his job, that's for sure! By the time dinner was done though, our time was up and we had to get back to the parking garage to get the cars before they closed up. So our good byes were said, and we headed off our seperate ways. I can't wait to see them again. It really is alot of fun getting together with them. By the time we made it back to the room it was around 1am, and we had to be at Camp Parks by 9ish. Unfortunatlly for as tired as we both were, neither of us got much sleep that night. The heater in our room sounded like a freigt train running every time it turned on, and when that would cycle off, the fridge in the room kicked on. So with very little sleep we gave up trying around 7am and showered and got ready for the days events. The hotel there had a little free breakfast for us and then we took off.
Our cerimony was held in a gym type of room that was all decorated for us. After a "dress" rehearsal, we got going around 1030. They had our divisions Col there as well as the Bdg General to give us a speach. It was kind of funny as he talked about the adjustment of being home, and help that was out there...all I kept thinking was,
I went through all that 2 years ago, everythings fine now! When we were called up for our award they asked that the spouces go up with us, so at this time we don't have any pictures of me actually going up to get my award, but I've attached a few that were taken afterwards. All in all it was a very nice cerimony that was long awated for. By the way, the awards were...a flag that is folded in a wooden display case that has the front and back of a coin mounted in it, as well as a basic plaque saying welcome home, and on the side is my name and dates of deployment. We were also given a coin by the general there presenting the awards,
a flag that says welcome home, a lapel pin for me and one for Tim, and a coin in a case (same one as is mounted on the flag case). The other things are nice, but all I really wanted to make sure I got was my flag. I was given a plaque, and other things from my actual mission on was on, but they are all things that will stay in the box, looked at once and awhile, but my flag I am proud of, and will have set out for all to see.
