Colonel Brian McCullough

Brian's family came to town to be with us for his promotion to Colonel on Feb 1! Not an easy trek for his parents, but there is no way in the world they would have missed it. Brian's brother-in-law Peter wasn't able to get much time off work, so he drove over on Tuesday afternoon (7hours), and drove back immediately after the ceremony on Wednesday morning. That's dedication. 

The kids loved having their almost 3 yr old cousin Gracie here!

And I always especially love having my awesome mother-in-law here to jump right with homework, game playing or my PTO duties even!

 The morning of the promotion was early. Brian chose to have the ceremony at the National Archives Museum- in front of the Bill of Rights, Constitution and Declaration of Independence. These ceremonies have to be scheduled months in advance, and must take place before the museum opens to the public.

You are not allowed to take personal pictures in this venue. However, you may hire an approved professional photographer from a list the Smithsonian provides. That's what we did. She wasn't anything special in my opinion... But to be fair, it is supposedly a very difficult place to shoot because the lighting is so low to protect the documents and no flash can be used.

But I mean really- was this a shot worth taking?

Before the ceremony started, we all had some time to leisurely look over the documents. If you have ever been a tourist in DC, you know how unique of an experience this was for all our guests! On any given day, this room is packed 3 or 4 deep to take a peek at the glass cases- and you may have busted waited in line for over an hour for the chance!

Fuzzy, or is it my eyes?

Now, these wheelchair pictures are worth every penny we paid her! However, I did have to ask her to snap the photos myself. Because of the amount of walking, and the fact that the ceremony would be entirely standing, both of Brian's parents opted for wheelchairs.

How many other USAF Colonel kids get to wheelchair race in front of THE most important American documents ever?!?!

 And now the ceremony starts, conducted by Major General Martin, whom Brian has had the pleasure of working for over the past year during his latest assignment at the Pentagon.

And now comes the pinning of the new rank that the kids and I got to help with-

And once again, taking the oath-

And now the speeches!

You are limited to inviting only 20 people for a ceremony at this location. Brian's guest list was so special as it had not only members of his immediate family, but a friend he flew with long ago, who knew him before I even knew him, our newest local friends who are like family. a buddy who knew him as Major while he was in Germany, and what was really touching was a handful of people who Brian lead while he was a squadron commander at Travis AFB. Our squadron was the AMOS, and like we always said- once an AMOS, always an AMOS. (However, you don't always have to like your boss, so for the 3 of them to show up form Brian spoke volumes to us!)

 After the ceremony we popped in to see the Magna Carta- which apparently my kids were very interested in. Must be their British blood...

Afterwards we went out to breakfast at our favorite breakfast place in the city, Founding Farmers, and that evening Brian cooked us all an amazing prime rib dinner. We were certainly sad to see the day come to an end, and even more sad when we had to say good-bye to the McCullough's the following morning...

I was delighted when the doorbell rang the day of Brian's promotion ceremony, and found that I had been sent congratulatory flowers from my long time high school bestie, Sarah who lives in Florida. Her grandpa was a Colonel in the Army, so she gets the fact that the whole family makes sacrifices for each new promotion that comes our way....