As some of you may already know, I took a little vacation this week because I was going out of town. I’m getting ready to come home today, and tomorrow will be back to blogging as usual. But I wanted to go ahead and put up a few posts today.

I left Saturday night and drove, literally, all night to get here in time for the homecoming from Iraq. It is a first for me; I’ve never been to the actual homecoming before. But someone very, very important to me was returning from his second deployment to Iraq, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I got to the base around 5:30 in the morning, and the ETA kept fluctuating from about 6:30am – 8:30am. There were several hundred families there, crowded into a little room to keep us warm. There was a giant bounce house for kids, as well as donuts and coffee provided generously by Dunkin Donuts. I, along with everyone else there, was jittery. When the five minute notice was finally sounded, we all trooped outside to wait by the road for our first sight of the buses that would be carrying our Marines. It was a little funny, actually… every time a loud car would drive by, a rush of people would stampede towards the road, eagerly straining to see the buses arrive. Then everyone would straggle back onto the muddy grass. Finally, about fifteen minutes later, it was the real thing, and four buses pulled onto the side of the road.

It might have been one of the most emotional moments of my life, barring the death of my brother and the birth of my sister. Just watching the other families be reunited brought tears to my eyes. Wives were jumping into their husbands’ arms, mothers were crying on their sons’ shoulders, children were getting to see their daddies for the first time in a long time. One little boy in particular I found particularly touching. He was about three years old, carrying three balloons (red, white, and blue of course), and was toddling across the grass as fast as he could, crying “DADDY! DADDY!”. His dad was crouched in the grass in his uniform with open arms, waiting to hug and kiss his son.

As for me, I was reunited with my best friend (and more) of twelve years.

They fell into formation and then the morning colors were hoisted. It was an incredible, emotional morning. Everywhere I looked, families were together again… crying, laughing, kissing, hugging. It was an amazing morning. So, that’s what I’ve been up to this week.

I have some pictures, which I’m going to put after the jump, if anyone would like to see them. Regular blogging will re-commence tomorrow!