On Memorial Day Weekend (Sunday), the Cummings invited us over to swim and play, along with a few other people. And she told us a special guest would be there. We arrived and found Reveille and Reveille's handler were staying with them for a few weeks! Apparently, Reveille's main handler (also the first girl handler in TAMU history) was in San Diego for a few weeks for training, so her second handler was in charge. Well, the second handler was from Louisiana and didn't have a home in College Station to stay in (plus in the corps, they live on campus during the school year), so the Cummings invited them to say with them. Reveille has a busy schedule of training on Kyle Field with noise and lights for football games 3x a week as well as a weekly grooming appointment, so she can't just leave College Station easily. And, she has to stay kind of hidden when not doing official events or going to class during the year. So, her handler and her just hung out for a few weeks. And WE got to see her and love on her! We arrived and the kids thought it was neat for a few minutes, but then wanted to swim. I couldn't really get enough of this moment. I mean - it's REVEILLE! And we could pet her as much as we wanted and it was relaxed and easy. Even in her official capacity at events, I'm sure she is pretty protected by her handlers, so this was really neat. We didn't get nearly enough photos and actually, we asked permission first. Her handler said we could take them, but requested we not post on any social media. I did ask him if I could put on my family blog and he said ok. Yay! But, apparently, people sometimes take advantage of posting silly memes about Reveille or other things and so they don't really want photos out there that could cause problems. Anyways, other than Reveille, the kids had a great time swimming! I didn't get in the pool at all, because I was pretty sure that Everly was not going to stay in the water. She was not super interested last summer in a big pool and it's sometimes easier for one parents to be in and one to be out of the water to handle kids in and out. Well, I was mostly wrong this day! She loved being in the water! And this gave Atticus and Grace another chance (they had actually both been to dance and birthday parties in May so they were already warming back up to swimming - especially Atticus!) to practice being in the water after 9 months of no swimming. It was a really fun day!
Her handler was teaching the kids how to give her treats. She has to do certain steps to get her treat, but the kids were not consistent and poor Rev kept messing up. I mean - she WAS on vacation, so she should get a break!
https://youtu.be/sMCYoLbrSoQ
When my kids are older, they will probably regret not playing with her more when they had the chance!
She loved these Minnie Mouse goggles of Grace's.
Scott spent a lot of time teaching Atticus to climb up on his shoulders and jump in the water. The videos are so funny! Here is our video of our day!
https://youtu.be/oTi-FvddDiw
