Saturday, November 12, 2011

Veteran's Day

On my first Veteran's Day as a military mom, I was very lucky. My daughter was home.

She flew home late Thursday from Georgia to Colorado to spend the long weekend with us.

On Friday morning, we had a date with Kylie's third grade class. Danni had agreed to visit and talk to the kids.

When we arrived, there was a group of Cub Scouts out front, learning how to do a flag-raising ceremony.

We were just standing there, and one of Cub Scout leaders came up to Danni and shook her hand, and said, "Are you here to help with the flag-raising ceremony?"

Danni said, "Well, umm...I'm just..."

And the man literally pulled her by the hand and said, "Great! Come on!" And he dragged her away.

Cue me, laughing hysterically. I followed them, because I had my camera.

When I caught up with them, they were over by the side of the school. The guy in the brown jacket who had so thoughtfully dragged her over there, was talking to the boys. One of the boys had noticed that the flag on Danni's uniform was backwards, whereas the flags on the Cub Scout uniforms were not. The leader was explaining that the flag was backwards because it represented the soldier running into battle, with the flag flying behind her.


The looks on the faces of these little boys were priceless. A real live soldier was talking to them!

After she answered a few of their questions, they marched over to the flagpole and had their ceremony.



They had Danni raise the flag. That was pretty darn cool, with everyone looking on and the little boys doing their Cub Scout salute.


When school started, we went into Kylie's class.



We spent about 20 minutes with them. The teacher explained a bit about what Veteran's Day was and then let Kylie introduce her sister. Danni talked a bit about her job as a medic and what she is learning, and then she answered the kids' questions.


She did really well. I would have thought she had been a public speaker all her life. When I mentioned that later, she said that it's a lot easier to talk to kids. I would agree with that.




Can you spot the proud, beaming sister next to the soldier?


Happy Veteran's day to all who have served, and are currently serving. We are grateful for you.