A morning at The Citadel

It was Parent's Weekend at the Citadel today so we used it as an opportunity to take the boys up to Trey's alma mater and show them around a bit. We met up with Trey's classmate, James (who is the dad of Thomas' friend Lily (and Parker's friend, Sarah Ellen) and the wife of my friend and fellow playgroup mom, Taryn) and all of his family, too. It took us forever to find a spot to park, so we caught the tail end of open barracks. We decided to go to 4th Battallion as it is the last of the "old corps" (ha!) barracks (i.e. not rebuilt, but it does now have window-unit ACs for all of the rooms!). Trey introduced Thomas to the quad...


We watched a bit of the ceremony where the knobs are formally accepted into their companies, complete with push-ups at the end.


Thomas & Lily were more interested in pushing the stroller around...


The kids wanted to see the helicopter, so we made sure to make that a photo opp...


It's nearly impossible to get them both looking at the camera AND smiling, but this is the best we could do...


Thomas was, of course, most interested when he saw this old Bronco. He pretended to be a three star general and hopped right in...




Lily took her turn, too...


Then parade finally started and the kids were somewhat interested in seeing the band and cadets march out...




And yes, Parker & Sarah Ellen were there too. I don't have a picture of Sarah Ellen to prove it, but see, Parker was there and wearing his best Citadel gear to show his support for the Bulldogs...


Midway through parade, Parker decided he had had enough and he wanted to be fed and take a nap. So I took him over to Mark Clark Hall while the rest of the crew stayed for parade. Mother Nature had other plans. Not long after Parker and I got there, the rest of the group came too because the rain had chased them off the parade field.

After the rains slowed, we decided to leave campus and go for lunch. So even though our trip to The Citadel was short, it was a good time and we enjoyed spending some time with our friends, too!