The Carey Adventures

Thursday, August 31, 2023

August 2023 The "Drop Off" and The Lake House

When we made our summer home visits from China we always landed in Charleston, South Carolina where my sister lived. We had he best summers of our lives and made so many memories in our favorite town. We find it not all that coincidental that two of our three children have found their college of choice in Charleston. We love having every excuse to visit there often.

When booking the family reunion trip, we did it so far in advance that we did not have the dates narrowed down for Garrett’s school drop off. So Garrett unfortunately did not make the Lake House trip and Jordan was able to make it for one night. Also missing in the family crew mix was Alex and Stefanie.

Alex (Greg and Cindy’s oldest son) married Stefanie in April of 2023 and they were on a trip of a life time, Alaskan cruise with Stefanie’s family.

We were able to spend a couple of days in Charleston before the big “drop off” for Garrett at The Citadel. The is not your typical drop off by any means and Garrett’s stress level was palpable. His family rallied around him however and we knew he was ready to start his next chapter. It was very helpful to have Jordan at the same school for support and relieving to pull out of Charleston and head to the Lake house a couple of hours away on Lake Murray.

Arriving early which is not surprising with Chris leading the pack… Garrett was able to secure the bottom bunk, but there was a short term panic when we couldn’t locate his uniform white socks. Lesson number one already learned … Garrett packed his bag and he figured it out. A very VERY quick good bye with a lot of upper class man yelling. We were certain he was going to learn the ropes early on and grow exponentially.

Now Third Battalion, Kilo Company

Beautiful Charleston does not disappoint and will be a gorgeous backdrop to his college experience.

Then off to the Carey/Tiley/Desciak Family reunion on Lake Murray, South Carolina!

Jared, Jacob, Logan and Keegan Desciak

Carey girls

Chris rented a Pontoon boat and we did several sunset cruises and a lot of wake boarding.

Captain and First mate… for boat trip and life.

Loved visiting the purple Martin birds that migrate to Bomb Island every single year from South America.

Pop Pop with his only two granddaughters

Ayden & Katie

Best memories made… are with FAMILY!

Monday, July 31, 2023

May thru July Update 2023

The Count down is on… and Garrett is keeping track!

Graduation from Camden Military Academy 2023

There is no manual to parenting. Making decisions for our children does not always come easily. When were returned from China and moved to Massachusetts, we did a lot of research on where to leave based on the school systems. When we were offered a transfer back to Parkland we knew it was a no brainer. Little did we know that our small town would be affected by a school shooting. We had to consider each child and what would work best for them. While Garrett was marginally resistant at first to going “away” for school and being so far, our decision to send him to Camden was by far the best decision we could make. Garrett grew in ways that we could not teach him and I could not be more proud of him for going outside his comfort zone and graduating from high school as the XO of his company.

Garrett will be attending The Citadel in the fall and he is going into college with 12 college credits he received from Camden.

For those fortunate people that know Garrett… he is always upbeat and will laugh constantly. Very few things get him down. He is so organized with tasks but not at all with his room. I pray that The Citadel changes this.

Garrett has not gotten here without the unwavering support of his family. (Not all included in this picture) From car rides and care packages… support letters and drop ins. We are reminded that having a strong supportive family is worth EVERYTHING!!!!