Hail to the Chief

It is finally official!!  We have a Chief in our house!!!  His promotion ceremony was Friday since an exercise kicked off Friday and my midnight and everyone would be too busy this week.  Leading up to this momentous occasion I made many attempts to plan Joe a big party.  He. Wasn’t. Having. It!  No matter how many times I tried to talk him into it!  Since he was the man of the hour I decided to honor his wishes -it wasn’t easy lol.  About two weeks before the ceremony one of his best friends called me and said he wanted to surprise him and fly out.  It was fun planning that and I managed to keep the secret!  Yay!! Tuesday night Davis showed up and Joe was totally surprised.  It was the best!!!  I had arranged for Joe to have Thursday off work and he only worked half a day Wednesday so they could hang out.  Davis would have stayed through the weekend but Joe was going to be on 12 hour shifts so the weekdays were all they had.  Davis had rented a 2017 Camero SS (I have no idea what that stands for just that it was a fancy little sports car) and the guys had the best time.  Let’s just say they tested the cars capabilities and left their mark on the backroads of Warrensburg.  

These nice guys even care and helped with some thrift shop stuff on their guys day out.  Moving the thrift shop is a whole other post in itself.  It’s been so much work.  We are getting there though! 

Anywho, back to the Chief.  Friday came and Joe went to work and Davis and I decorated a little and headed to base to pick up the cake.  I have never ordered a fancy cake before; just your standard grocery store cake.  But this was a big occasion so I decided to do a big cake!  I gave the lady a couple of ideas and she did a fantastic job!  

After getting all that ready, Mom and Dad Huhmann arrived.  I picked up Haylee and we all got ready to go to the ceremony.  I wanted to wear pants because it was FREEZING that day.  Coldest day of the year so far.  Well, weight loss is awesome but my pants were falling off me.  I didn’t know what I was going to do.  No worries though.  Grandma to the rescue. She was able to pin the side of my pants and I was able to wear them.  We headed to base and met Chad and Amy at the gate.  There were a few hiccups getting escorted onto the flight line but after freezing to death for about 20 minutes we made it inside the “load barn” and warm up.  Joe was the only promotee for his squadron so the ceremony was all about him.  Fancy!  

Standing for the National anthem. We 💙 America :)

The people :)

Looking official 

After we tacked on his stripes.  ❤️

With his parents 

All the Chiefs, past and present, in attendance that pic might be blurry :/

Col. Mark Riselli re-enlisting Joe. It was fun to see him take the oath of enlistment

Joe really wanted to sit down after this but they asked him to give a speech.  

He thanked everyone for coming and as he started to thank his friends and family for coming he looked at me and started to get emotional. Since he is not about that he just quickly switched gears and told everyone to have a great day.  It was cute.  

Leading the Air Force song 

He and Davis. 

Us with Chad and Amy.  It was so great to have them there! 

Chief (ret.) Ente 

Our family, we really missed HD and Kassi being with us. 

After the ceremony we got to go up in the mock B-2 and sit in the cockpit.  Then we got to drive around the flight line and see a B-2 come in for a landing.  It was awesome!  

This was my “look at all these stripes” picture!  

After Joe changed we went to dinner at a golf course in town.  

Haylee was invited to a Halloween party that night so she left a little early.  I love this pic of her and her dad. 

The day after this she and I were driving somewhere and I asked her “how proud were you of your dad yesterday?” She answered “Ridiculously proud!” It was so cute. 

Here’s the Chief and his cake.

The non party -party peeps.  😉

It was the most wonderful day!!!!  

We are looking forward to all that is to come in this grand Air Force adventure!