So we are all in route to Ft.Hood to see my cousin, Brandon before he goes to Iraq, again....
It was kinda fun in the 'burban...just me, Mom, and the kids...and the DVD player...Thank goodness for that invention!!!
It was only a couple of hours there and we were on base....
Well not exactly "on base"......
We were near the entrance to the base, more like at the check-in building...
We had to get a temporary pass to get actually on the base...Cause me being a private citizen and all I apparently can't just "walk" on base...
Okay whatever...
So Kate and I go in to get a temporary pass and Mom, Nate, and Brooke wait in the car....

We walk in.......

Yea, nightmare!!!
Katie and I went in to get our pass and were greeted by no less than 100 people.
Great, surely everyone can't be here for a temp pass, can they???
Yep, they can....
We took a ticket and stood there....Katie then says Mom, what number do we have??? They are calling number 659.....
Oh well honey great news...
We are moving into this building!!!
We are just gonna live here cause we are number 726......
and they are NEVER gonna call us, welcome home!!!
She was not amused...
So after about 40 or so minutes and another 75 people walk in, we are up to number 682..gee, is this how Wal-Mart gets their ideas on how many check out's to open??? I'm just sayin'
Really their are 2, yes 2, people working on temporary passes...
OMG....
1 hour, #700...Ahh finally in the 7's
Then one of the Army guys stands up and says, if your just here for today and can wait, the gates open at 10:30p.m. or he says, if you just need a one day pass these MP's (who by the way have been just sitting there the whole time)can issue those for you.....
WHAT???
Mad rush to the counter....#705
Waiting in yet another line....
#708
AHHHH this is utter torture!!! Then at last we are next for the MP's line..
So after answering his many questions, there for a minute I thought he may want my blood type and DNA, giving him by reasons why I'm in front of him, my driver's license, insurance, and registration....DANG!!!
But finally we got our pass...
We're walking out..an hour and 1/2 later....whoo.freakin.who
Oh that sucked!!!
So now we get to go "on base"...
Finding Brandon's house was another adventure in itself as ALL and I mean ALL of the houses are exactly the same...
So that was fun,
but we did find it....
Brandon and my Aunt were waiting on us....It was so fun to see him and his wife, Victoria. All of her family was there too, so it was a packed house ....
After visiting for a while I wanted to go to the PX Mart to see what all they had, actually I was dying to see if the prices were really much cheaper then Department store.....So Victoria's Mom took us around the base and to the store.....
Here we are at the PX Mart...
So shopping was okay, no great awesome deals...Boo-Hoo...Oh well
We headed back to Brandon's house and had pizza and got to visit with him and hear some cool and kinda scary stuff about traveling and living in Iraq.
Then before we knew it, we needed to get going...
The military has the soldiers go into lock down before they leave so we decided to go before he did....But we did get to take some great shots of us with Brandon...

Here's me and our family's Army solider...We are sooo proud!!!

My Mom and Brandon....

So after many tears and good bye's we were heading back to our house......
Whew, that was a whoopin...
But my Mom was still here and we had two more days together until she went home....I think we shall shop, that seems to cure all...
Yes we all need a little retail therapy!!!

I wonder if they've called my number yet?????