...burning a hole in their pocket, why not chuck a few bucks here?  Turns out there's a group that collects donations via Paypal to help underwrite travel expenses for the families of those Marine recruits who cannot afford to make the trip to San Diego on their own.

There are still two families unable to come to next week's graduation, which happens to be our Dan's graduation.  It means so very much to recruits to have family and friends present in the stands to cheer them on (isn't that right, Beth and Alex and Charles?); it breaks my heart to think of those who know there'll be no one coming to see them. 

I'd think this would be most performers' nightmare....getting the giggles right in the middle of the show. Actually, bless her heart, there IS something worse, and that's missing your cue entirely. There were a few girls who dashed off-stage at one point, to return wearing a belt of blown-up balloons for a "bubble" number, but as soon as they came prancing in, a girl ran frantically across the stage to disappear in the back, then reappear with her balloons in place to take her place at the end of the line.

Clearly crying, poor baby. That must have been devastating for her.  Not to mention her family!   :^(

Here are a couple of additional videos; if you are familiar with Brianna you'll be able to pick her out, though sometimes she's blocked by one of the bigger boys:

But it takes so darn long to upload videos, it may be a bit.  In the meantime, here are a few pix from yesterday's MusiCamp:

Above is Brianna smiling for me prior to the show's start; below is her with Don, looking over the program:

Shortly after the musical began, she began to drive us nuts by ignoring
what was going on when it wasn't time to sing, in favor of playing with
the gold 'fringe" on the stage:

Yup, there'd be the others at least facing in the general direction of
the action, and then there was Brianna, back turned to it entirely.  It
was so frustrating because there was simply nothing one could do about it. 

One thing that absolutely blew me away was that one of the lead
characters was a girl who was adopted from Russia about six months
after Dmitry.  If it weren't for her first name - Valya - one couldn't
tell she was from another country.  Girl has no foreign accent at all. 
Don't know whether she worked on getting rid of her Russian accent, or
if she simply has a good ear and automatically mimicked the
pronunciation she's heard.  She has an older and a younger brother, and
it'd be interesting to discover whether either of them still sound
Russian.  Dmitry has yet to learn to say 'hundred" instead of "hungred,"
and Carolyn and Ravinn enjoy telling the story of the time Dmitry
ordered "free" drinks instead of "three".  Apparently the person behind
the counter was very puzzled. 

Yes, today and tonight we've Bethany with us, so late this afternoon it was on with the swimsuits and into the mud:

And NO, you're not doing it again tomorrow!  Or later tonight!  Or next week!  Or.....!  

Tomorrow is when Alex was supposed to arrive back home in Japan from his multiweek tour of Australia.  Notice I said "supposed."

For some reason the military flight that was to ferry them back fell through, so they're stuck in Australia and will return by ship sometime in the last week of the month. 

All three of them....Alex, Beth and Hannah....are frightfully disappointed. 

Alex's disappointment is no doubt mitigated a trifle by the keen 'snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef' tour he and some other sailors are going on today, complete with a nifty rented underwater camera.  Looking forward to those photos!

The lower half of the planet, that is....specifically, Australia.

Even more specifically, Australian Mexican food.

Do you know those Aussies eat kangaroo fajitas? 

Fact!  They not only eat kangaroo fajitas, they eat crocodile fajitas, too. 

Yuck. 

This is the highly-anticipated week of Christ Chapel's MusiCamp, which both Bethany and Brianna attended last year, and for which they're signed up this summer.

Except Bethany's running a fever and is having to miss it. 

This is not what Brianna had in mind at all, of course....heading off to it without her cousin.  And frankly, it's not what I had in mind, either, as usually they manage to entertain each other pretty well.  C'est la vie!

Seen this morning while taking Dmitry to his last day of summer school:

We'd been behind him on Ridglea Blvd., which was a nuisance as golf carts tend to be a bit on the slooooow side, donchaknow.  Fortunately he turned onto Greenway, but then darned if he didn't beat us through this intersection, crossing Camp Bowie to get to the McDonald's on the other side.

The Will Rogers complex has golf carts for hire so people can get from their cars to the exhibition buildings, which can be quite the hike, but they really aren't a problem as all they do is cross Harley, for the most part.  It's rare to really be behind one of 'em.  Not like being behind this guy for blocks, then have him cross a major street.  I'm not keen on the idea of streets filled with golf carts tootling around.  Traffic's difficult enough as it is.

I don't have a copy of the Texas Driver's Handbook and simply cannot remember...is this even legal? 

Joe alerted me to the existence of a video showing Dan's platoon, so I managed to locate it.  Trouble was, I went through it three or four times but couldn't pick him out.

What a difference a hat makes. Don't recall ever seeing Dan in one before.

Anyway, Joe pointed him out to me:

Many of the recruits had darkened eyes, so I'm trusting that's eye-blacking, not actual "black eyes." 

He's made it through the training event called "The Crucible", a three day, 45 mile march with only three MRE's to eat.  Oooh RAH, Dan!