Delta Company Platoon 1061

alright so i haven't updated in a few so here we go!!! ok so a few weeks ago i received a form letter from Riley basically he got to write my name and sign his... thats it.. but the info was what i really needed from it anyway. He is in the first training Battalion Delta Company Platoon 1061. I've heard the Delta company Drill Instructors are AWESOME... so lets hope he has a similar experience. a few days after i got that letter i got a brochure with graduation info and such... so i was kinda bummed that i hadn't received any REAL letters yet.. and the week after he left i did get a call from someone who works at the mormon church there. he let me know Riley had a really good attitude and he seemed to be making alot of friends. i was really really worried that Zack and Riley had been separated and somehow were NOT in the same platoon... so i called Kat in a panic and west assured that Zack was also in platoon 1061... YAY. so then this last tuesday i was sitting at the counter talking to my mom. it was pretty early in the day, and my phone rang. The caller I.D. said "Riley's Bishop" cause i'm not sure what exactly this guy does at the church but at least i know who is calling. he kept the call brief but let me know that they had taken a picture at church a few days prior and wanted to know if i wanted him to e-mail it to me. apparently i'm not supposed to be able to get a picture of him while in bootcamp....but he likes me and seems to be pulling alot of strings for me.. so i was the only person to be sent this picture. i was soooo incredibly happy. i ordered prints and brought them to Zack's parents so they could have a copy. and i brought a few to Kat too.. she was pretty happy. Thursday i got my first REAL letter... it was fairly short and mostly directed at me... but if anyone is interested here is a tiny snipet.
"just wanted you to know i'm doing o.k. and that boot camp is bad but not horrible. it's just like what Worthen said about holy crap what did i get my self into :)"
Kat had to wait a few more days for her letter, hers was shorter but kinda funny. apparently Zack lost something and was getting in trouble when he wrote it... I miss the boys!
heres the pic by the way! he's right in back of Zack.. middle left side. Zack is wearing his birth control glasses. and Riley is only like a cm taller :)

so then on saturday i had a christmas party for Riley's family. it was for his mom's side of the family. so his parents and sister drove up for the party. they brought up my christmas presents including one that Riley bought for me before he left and had his parents bring up for me. they had me open it then so that they could explain it... it was a necklace... i'll take a picture today. it's a really nice dog tag and a little heart charm on a girly but still dog tagish looking chain. The dog tag was inscribed with this phrase on it.
"Semper Ibi & Semper Fidelis" Which is Latin for "Always There & Always Faithful" Semper Fidelis is the USMC's motto but i think he made up the other part and put it on there. it was SWEET of him.
his cousin had put together a video slideshow of each family and each family had a different song with it. i should put ours up... the song was PERFECT!  by the end of the 20 sec clip all four of us were crying. and i wasn't expecting that. anyway the party was awesome and i'm really really glad i went.

Yesterday i was invited to Zack's parents house for Gingerbread House night. Kat and I spent almost 5 hours working on the MCRD USMC barracks Gingerbread House. it turned out perfect.. i need to get pictures of that too... so watch out for that this next week... i'll try to load up on pictures and just post a bunch of them!