Yellow Ribbon Event

So we had our Yellow Ribbon event this past weekend. If you are not military you probably have no idea what this is. I actually had never heard of it before this deployment. It is fairly new and was not around during his 1st & 2nd deployments.
Since we are national guard it is considered a "drill weekend". It is a mandatory event that the soldiers have to attend after deployment. Actually they have one pre-deployment as well, but because we only had about 2 weeks notice of his leaving, we didn't exactly make it. It is pretty much made up of seminars and I had no idea what to expect going into it. It was all set up for us we just had to show up. Lucky for us it was in our favorite place, North Conway. It is technically a one night deal, but He and I haven't gotten away alone in a LONG time, so we decided to get our own room the night before and make a weekend getaway out of it.
So Nana & Pape agreed to watch the kids for the weekend at their house and we took off on Friday night and headed north. We stopped for dinner on the way up and didn't actually check into our hotel until about 9:30pm. It was like a mini suite with a little kitchen/sitting area with a table and couch and the best part... the fireplace. All we asked for was bed, so this was a nice treat. Not too expensive either, plus we get that handy dandy military discount. ;)
I woke up around 9:30 to him coming back into the room with a tray of breakfast. I got to eat it while it was warm and I didn't have to share! Then I enjoyed a nice long warm shower and peacefully got ready for the day ;)
We checked out of our hotel and went around the corner to.... The Outlets! (Hey... it was his idea) and I think he had more fun than I did! We got some amazing deals! I mean really it's not every day you save $288.70 on clothes in one store! I mean it was mostly for him, but really I felt like we stole half the clothes.. HAHA..what a great feeling ;) Got a few things for ourselves and a few things for the kids for birthdays and Christmas.. we made out like bandits!
Then it was off to the next hotel, which was right next door. The military put us up in this one, The Fox-Ridge resort, http://www.redjacketresorts.com/fox-ridge-resort.php. It was a bit hectic when we got there considering the unit from the night before was just leaving and we were all showing up and trying to check in. Check in wasn't your conventional, go to the desk and get your key kinda deal.... There were tables lined up with national guard members waiting to check you off their list and give the soldiers their folders and info for that night and next days events.
They had a big tent set up on the grounds and we had our meals in there and listened to different people speak... Captains  and... whoever they were ;) Some of it was interesting, some of it... not so much.. but thats the Army. It was nice to finally be able to put faces with names, after a year of hearing about people he was working with, and occasionally hearing them in the background on skype... or sometimes popping into the screen to say hello. I finally got to actually meet them, and their wives. Some I had gotten to know via facebook and it was nice to sit down and chat and laugh and have a good time.
We were dismissed early enough Saturday night so we decided to head to Cranmore Mountain for some haunted fun..http://www.cranmore.com/ghoullog/lodging_packages. It was quite the experience, and I don't really mean the haunted houses themselves... I actually mean just hanging out with the group of 10 of us that went.... THAT was the experience, and a Hilarious one at that! I won't go into detail, I don't want to disturb anyone ;)
Long story short... they start you off in the Bar, and they drop you back off at the bar and there are really no bathrooms in between.... However there are plenty of masked men with chainsaws to chase you into the woods. Probably a good thing I didn't have my camera for this experience, his first trip up a chair lift definitely did not need to be documented. (we will just leave it at that) ;)
Sunday was when all the seminars took place, so we sat through a couple and then went to the tent again for lunch. The next seminar was going to break us up... sending soldiers to one room and spouses to another. This is when myself and a few other wives decided to ditch the men and head back to those outlets ;) OK, "ditch" sounds a bit harsh... they were actually perfectly fine with it, and kept saying we didn't have to sit through the seminars... so off we went.
We didn't have too much shopping time at this point but it was nice to get out of there for a bit. We went back sat through a short "dismissal" speech and then we were free to head home. I have to say other than parts of it (some of the seminars) being a bit... well... boring, it was actually a good time. Most of all it was a nice escape for a bit and we enjoyed ourselves.
Nana & Pape brought the kids back to our house early in the day Sunday and a friend of ours came by to watch them for the rest of the day until we got home. The kids had a blast the whole weekend with their grandparents and they always enjoy having our friend watch them (thanks everyone for your help) Despite all their fun, they missed mom & dad and were standing at the door with huge smiles when we got home! I always miss my kids when I'm away from them, even if it's only for a day, and even if I really, really need to get away. I just miss them, so the huge smiles and hugs were awesome.
So thats the "yellow ribbon event" in a nutshell I guess. Serves a good purpose and gave us some laughs ;)