10 days with my Marine :)

aghh, soo much has happened since i last wrote, i don't even know where to begin.



in the last 2 weeks or so, i saw ethan graduate marine corps boot camp and we spent nearly his entire 10-day liberty together. 

the entire graduation experience (family day + graduation day itself) was overwhelming, so much that i won't write about it because that would be an entirely separate post in itself.  seeing ethan again was strange and wonderful and sad, all at the same time.  i spent the 2 days on base being torn between laughing for joy and breaking down crying.  despite my feelings, i picked the neutral route and i stayed quiet and smiled and listened to ethan tell his family all the stories and adventures of boot camp and listened to his family tell him everything he had missed while he was gone.  i watched ethan and cherished the changes in him, from the way he held himself to his "yes sir's" and "yes ma'am's" and how he held my right arm in his left. 



anyways, i really didn't like being on base and i was thankful to leave.  once we got off base, the next week was a whirlwind of craziness.



friday: immediately following the graduation, we had a celebration lunch with his dad's family, then met up with his mom's family to go to the san diego zoo and have dinner.



saturday: we spent the morning in san diego with his mom's family,  then drove up to LA for an afternoon and dinner with his dad's family.



sunday: we had breakfast at polly's pies (our favorite place) and spent the afternoon/evening shopping at glendale mall, which was fun fun fun :) 



monday:  his dad drove us up to sacramento.  he shared the evening with his family and i shared the evening with mine, watching brian regan videos on youtube. :)



tuesday: i spent a couple hours in the morning with my stepdad and the afternoon having girl talk with my little sister.  i painted my nails and we talked about boys ;) while we listened to my brothers and ethan jam out.  the whole fam went out to dinner with ethan to celebrate his graduation.  following that, the guys did their own thing and i watched The Proposal with mi madre :)



wednesday: downtown sacramento!  ethan and i visited his stepsister in the hospital.  he took me to lunch at capitol garage (which was uh-mazing) and we visited my mom at the state capitol.  after that, we browsed all the shops in old town sacramento, then headed back to my house.



thursday: was spent in the car driving back to huntington.  i was grumpy and tired, haha.



friday: we slept in and laid around talking until 3 in the afternoon when we finally got up and got polly's for breakfast slash lunch slash an early dinner, haha :) my fridge was looking pretty bare, so we did some grocery shopping and then hung out at my house the rest of the evening, cooking and watching movies.



saturday: we slept in and grabbed brunch at alta's (also mentioned in my New Years blog.  they have the best vanilla chai's in the world, i'm thoroughly convinced.)  after brunch, we headed to downtown disney and spent the afternoon there, enjoying the sunshine, people-watching and eating cotton candy :) after that, i realized i was past exhausted from all the running around i had been doing for over a week.  i dropped ethan off at his uncle's house for one of their big mexican parties and went home and sat in my boxers and watched laguna beach before falling asleep at 8:30.  glorious.



sunday:  by far, my favorite day during our time together.  we had planned to spent the day in los angeles, so i drove up there to pick ethan up and he decided on a last -minute day at universal studios!  neither of us had been there before and  it ended up being sooo much fun.  he paid extra for us to get front-of-the-line passes and boy, was it worth it.  we didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes for any ride or show.  we took a cheesy, hilarious tour of studios and backlots of movies, saw a terminator 3-D show, a shrek 3-d show, and went on a couple rides (the mummy ride, simpsons, and jurassic park), which were amazingly fun.  the park was pretty small and it wasn't too crowded, so it made for a really relaxing day.  plus it was 80 degrees out.  80!  i felt lost and confused wearing shorts in january, but it was a gorgeous and i was not complaining.  once the park closed at 7, we spent the rest of the evening in citywalk (the downtown disney of universal studios).  ethan took me to karl strauss brewing company for dinner and we tried 6 different kinds of beer and ate our delicious food.  it was such an amazing day, i couldn't have pictured a better way to end his 10-day liberty together.



and now it's over and it's back to real life.  ethan goes back to base today where he will spend the next 2 months training for his MOS (military occupation specialty i.e. his job :)).  he gets weekends off and we will spend select weekends together.  after that, he will be stationed somewhere and his life of a Marine will officially begin.



the future for us is unknown.  we did share our thoughts about the future, whether that be together or separate, and neither of us had an answer.  while marriage would be ideal, as it would be one concrete thing in both of our lives, God has not given either of us a peace about it.  we are unsure if that means we are not supposed to be together right now or at all.



this is all still in the works, in prayer between both of us.  we will see what happens.  but if God is in it, whatever is up ahead will be good :) i have no doubt about that.