The Long Gray Line

We went to the graduation parade today (Class of '06 graduates tomorrow). It was cool to see all the cadets lined up and marching by to salute the graduating class. Ryan kept zooming in with the camera to get a closer look at something odd on the field. We were pretty far away, so if I didn't know any better, it looked like several cowpies scattered around. He talked to his sponsor tonight, who is a TAC and in charge of a company of cadets, and apparently, some of the seniors thought it'd be funny to leave their shoes on the field. Needless to say, precautions are being taken to avoid antics tomorrow at graduation! Pretty harmless, though, in the scheme of things. There was no mooning......yet!

I'll be adding pics when I can get to a computer for more than 10 minutes or so at a time....

USMA ROCKS!

We've done a little exploring of our surroundings here at West Point. It's just breathtaking! Ryan had some inprocessing to do this morning, so Haley and I went for a walk down to the Hudson. We raced each other on the track at Shea Stadium and jumped some hurdles (didn't even split my pants!) and blazed our own trail through some of the woods (what does poison ivy look like, again?). Ryan brought the latest housing list home and it looks like we stand a really good chance to get into a 3 bdrm in the New Brick housing area. There are a ton of brand new ones on the housing draw list this year and Old Man Keating is in a fairly good position on the list. We're going to try to peek in some windows later today. Most of the housing opens up sometime in July, so the kids and I should be back from our cross-country adventures before we move in. That'll be good timing for our household goods to be arriving, too.

Ryan seems to really be enjoying being at his alma mater NOT as a cadet! Haley is excited about her friend from the German kindergarten moving here soon, too. I have met some wives already, one of which just got out of the Army and was in Ryan's company at USMA. Everyone is really nice and excited to be here. We're making some progress adjusting to life in the States. We just had our first round of Mickey D's and it was sooooo much better than the European version, despite the absence of McBier on the menu.