Tristan's first post!!!!

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Update on Will :-)

Well, we never technically said which weekend the posts would be up by...

So Will has been quite busy since the last post (in July!) He has since quit his job at Dell (for those who have been completely out of the loop) as he got accepted by the Canadian Forces! He has joined the Air Force, in the ATIST position. We celebrated our 10th year anniversary (of togetherness, not wedding!) on Wednesday, September 5th, then left on early Saturday, Sept 8th to make the drive to Borden, Ontario where he has been since for Basic Training (he comes home on December 14th and I'm counting down the days!!!!)

Here he is on his second weekend visit from us looking very handsome in his combat gear (I'm not even sure if that's the right term... still learning the lingo!)... this was before he got his "brass" (a shiny pin that sits on his hat - he actually had to pass a test to receive it!)

And here we are in our first picture as a military family :-)

So he had "visitation" for the first 4 weeks of their training - they were only allowed to have visitors from 1-4pm on Sundays, and they were confined to the front of their barracks (the building where they live) and a relatively good-sized meeting room on the first floor of their barracks. So the first two weekends, we drove about 6 hours (little more with baby/food/rest stops) and spent the night in Barrie so we could see him for 3 tiny hours! Let me tell you folks, it's all so worth it though! One of the big things I realized is that after spending 10 years together where I think the longest time we've spent apart has been no more than 10 days, those 3 little hours are so precious, I'd gladly drive more just to see him. And seeing how Tristan reacts to seeing his daddy is an even bigger and better reason - he misses him terribly! He's so cuddly with Will when he does see him, that it just breaks my heart. We're almost done though!
We spent 3 weeks without seeing him at all - since his building had their visitation priviledges revoked (due to some 'young ones' acting up during one of the Sundays they were allowed to have visitors)... but the next weekend we got to have him all to ourselves from Friday night right through to Sunday afternoon! We booked a hotel room in Barrie and had a nice mini-holiday just the three of us. It was great to be a family together again. Last week we had the same thing (and on that trip we brought Watson with us - boy was he ever happy to see Daddy!)

Here are the 3 boys taking a nap at the hotel (Watson's at the foot of the bed...)

Poppa Doug drove Will's car down on the next Sunday so from then on Will's been getting to drive home!
His platoon (all 4 platoons in his building actually) came to Ottawa for Rememberance Day (hurrah for living in the Nation's Capital!) and we got to see him all spiffied up in his dress uniform (I was REALLY looking forward to that! There's just something about a man in uniform...) We got to visit the War Museum with him and then Tristan and I had the honour of joining him and the rest of the platoons for dinner at the Mess Hall where they were staying here in Ottawa - it was so great to be able to be part of his military life, even if it was for a bit! (For now anyway!)

Here he is at the Military Cemetery - it's a bit of a "Where's Waldo" type of picture! (he's smack in the middle, and you can't really see the blue of his hat because of a shadow)

So very, VERY handsome... don't you agree??? (oh, and he looks serious because they don't allow them to smile for pictures in uniform! Seriously!!!)

The Oliver family after the Remembrance Day ceremony:-)At the War Museum (Tristan had a camouflage sweater so he could match with dadda... ) :-)
Well, other than buffing up, learning to maintain a spotless room (yippee!!), how to make proper hospital corners on the bed, to fold a tshirt into a perfect 7" square (in 20 seconds! It's a neat trick!) and learning everything there is to know about the military, Will's been busy making a great impression with the commanding officers there, and being quite a leader among the young ones (he's one of the 'older guys' there! Hee hee!) and overall, really embracing the military life... we're all so proud of him!
Till next time...

Love,
Marcy, Will & Tristan

Sorry we've been gone for so long!

My goodness, we've been so busy!

A thousand apologies to all our families and friends who've been waiting...

So rather than putting one giant blog post, we're splitting them up into an update per person/dog... and we're going by age, so no favouritism is showing :-)

We should have all the posts in by the weekend... please be patient! :-)

Love,
Marcy, Will & Tristan