It sure is quiet around here! I was beginning to wonder if AJ would actually make it on the trip though. Wednesday night, when I got home from work, I asked if he was all packed. "Yes, Mom - all packed". I asked him if he was sure - did he go through the checklist to make sure he had everything, and yes, of course he had. Then, I asked if, since I am a lousy seamstress, and all of his patches had to be replaced on his uniform with Jamboree patches, the patches had stayed on when they were washed. Blank look. Turns out he hadn't packed any of his uniforms, since they were sitting in the dryer. He then went and got his uniforms and was set. I folded the rest of the clothes from the load in the dryer, and found three or four more uniform 'parts' that he was still missing. Heaven help us! We got him all packed up and ready to go.

We had to be at the K-mart packing lot by 1:00 a.m. Thursday morning, so I took a little nap before hand. I say 'little' because Allison didn't want to go to sleep, and Ralph had a hard time convincing her. I think it finally got quiet around 11:00, so, of course, I ended up sleeping longer than I mean to. (I think I set my alarm for p.m., not a.m. or something - it didn't go off at least!) No biggy - AJ hadn't gone to bed, and he woke me up. We loaded the car and left right on time. Except.....a mile or so away from the house, he remembered that he forgot his money! (It was in his wallet last time I asked, but he didn't want to walk around the house with it, so he took it out?!?!?) We still made it to K-mart at the appointed hour, only to discover that he had the wrong hat. One more trip home before he was settled on the bus.

All ended well though. They made it back to DC, and started their tour. They went to the Washington Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial WW II Memorial, Vietnam and Korean Memorials, and even the 'eawagena monument' according to AJ. Good thing he added (via text) "the one raising the flag" or I may have struggled a bit to get Iwo Jima out of that.