Wednesday, June 24, 2015

~ Saying Goodbye To The Marine Corps ~

I can not believe how quickly these past five years have gone. 
Our original plan was to make the Marine Corps Aaron career, but, I'm sure everyone knows, things rarely go to plan. 
I was shocked when we received the news that Aaron was not accepted for reenlistment. We knew there was only three spots and eleven people all trying to get one of those spots.
 At first, I did not take the news well; however, over time, I have come to realize that Heavenly Father has a different plan for our family. 
I have loved being apart of the Marine Corps family, and could not be prouder of Aaron and everything he has achieved. 

Here are some highlights from the last five years . . .


Aaron finished boot camp and we were married a week later.
He then left three days later for combat training. It sucked being a newlywed and not having your husband around. (It was good practice for when he would be gone a lot more later)
A month later, he graduated and was headed up to Monterey.



I was in awe that here we were, newlyweds, living less than fifty feet from the beach.
Monterey was beautiful! 
We loved walking on the beach, heading down Cannery Row, and exploring Carmel.

After Monterey, Aaron was stationed in Oceanside. 
We literally went from one beautiful beach to another beautiful beach.


One thing I liked to do was to visit Aaron at work. 
We would pack a picnic lunch for all of us or bring dinner if he was on night duty.


 The worst part about being a military family was always having to say goodbye.
From June 2012 till October 2014 Aaron was home for about six months here and there. 
In November 2013 Aaron deployed to Afghanistan for nine months. 
It was really hard to be apart for that long but thankfully family was never too far away.


Thank goodness for technology. We were able to facetime/skype wherever Aaron was. 
Aaron's fear was Hannah would forget who he was and she would't come running to him when he came home. That fear never played out. Hannah always knew who her Daddy was. In fact, she spotted him sometimes before I did.


We loved having countdowns.
(F.Y.I those kisses from Daddy didn't last very long. Hannah and I started eating two or three a day.)

At first, it seemed like those countdown were not moving, but eventually it was amazing how quickly the time went.

 

I loved homecoming!
I made Hannah a lot of homecoming t shirts.
I can't imagine how much time we spent waiting at the airport for Aaron. 


The best homecoming happened when Aaron came home from Afghanistan. 
(video at the bottom of the post)


I loved seeing these two reunited.


Our little family was whole again.




In five years, we went from newlyweds to a family of four.
It has been a crazy adventure and I can't wait to see what the future brings for the Craig Family.









I know these are random but I love these picture of Hannah with Aaron's cover on.




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