Camp Dawson.

JUNE 29th

Spencer spent a week at a military camp, Camp Dawson, this past summer.

He wasn't sure what to expect but he was looking forward to it.

At the end of the camp week they had a graduation ceremony.

We coordinated everything before camp to make sure that Spencer's dad would be able to watch his camp graduation ceremony.

We drove to Camp Dawson the day before.....and let me just say it is a drive.

We drove long curvy roads that seemed endless, up a mountainside and then back down again, and then back up again....I was beginning to believe we would never find this place.


We woke checked in at Camp Dawson LATE that night.

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast and then got ready for to go to the ceremony.

Grandad and Grandma came to his camp to see his graduation.

The kids were all marched in as they sang their cadences and did what the instructors told them to do.



Katie recorded Spencer marching in for me while I took pictures.


Jerome was able to watch his camp graduation from Afghanistan.

When Spencer marched in I could tell he knew his dad was watching.




After the graduation they were dismissed.

We walked out into the large hall and found a place where the sound didn't echo so much, so that Spencer could hear his dad talking to him through Skype.

Unknowingly Spencer was standing at parade rest at first while he was talking to his dad.

I guess he had been taught so much the past week at camp which way to stand, that now it was just second nature to do so.


These next two make me happy and sad all at the same time.

The first picture is how he lights up and is himself again while talking to his dad; the second, how he is when he is missing his dad.


One of his instructors came over to talk to Spencer.

Spencer proudly introduced him to his dad and they all three had a good conversation.

He was holding the phone up to see how much Spencer really does look like his dad.


Grandad joined in on the conversation too.



Spencer's sweet girlfriend Danielle traveled up with us too.

They were both happy to see each other.


Then Spencer got his shirt signed by one of his instructors.

A few of Spencer's friends signed his shirt and he signed theirs.

We stopped at the small gift shop there and bought Jerome some nice boot socks to ship over to him.

We started on the road and the first thing Spencer said as we were driving away, "I've never done so many push ups in my life!"