This weekend was packed with all sorts of events! Brendon and I drove up to Suffern, NY on Thursday night to meet up with all the Merkley fam for Brendon's brother Clayton's West Point graduation. Friday morning we all woke up bright and early and went to West Point campus for the parade. It was really amazing to watch all the thousands of Cadets march in such unison, but I think our favorite part was watching the one cadet in front topple over and faint from the heat...twice. Poor guy! After the parade we toured the campus a little. Clayton showed us the Mess, and was incorrectly informed that we could eat in there, which we were very excited about. It wasn't until thousands of other cadets poured in around us that we realized we were the only civilians there and most certainly out of place. Oops. But it was great food! Clay was awarded a Superintendents award for excellence in Russian, so we went to that award ceremony. We spent most of the rest of the day touring campus and checking out the sites and logging 10 miles on my pedometer! That night Clayton, Brett, Rissa, Brendon and I got to attend a formal dinner at the Mess Hall. It was really a neat experience. We toasted the President, the Army, and West Point, and had a wonderful dinner with the best cheesecake ever for dessert, and General George Casey, the Army Chief of Staff, spoke to us after dinner. After that was dancing at the Hop, and by the end of the day we thought we'd all die of exhaustion. Saturday morning we went to the graduation ceremony in our matching "Merk The Great" yellow shirts courtesy of Jeri, and cheered our loudest for Clay. Vice President Cheney was the commencement speaker at the graduation, so that was kind of neat for Brendon because he had a little insight/input on the speech working with the V.P.'s speechwriter. The V.P.'s speechwriter actually talked to Brendon for a while at graduation, and then when he returned to his seat by Cheney and his wife he pointed out our family to them and told him our story and how Clayton was a graduating cadet. It's kind of fun to think that for a few minutes we were the topic of conversation of the Vice President of the United States and his wife. He he. After graduation Clay was commissioned an officer in the Army at the rank of Second Lieutenant. By this time in the weekend we were all totally exhausted, so we headed back to the hotel for a major nap! Sunday we headed to Central Park for a wedding - Clayton had become an Reverend via the internet and was performing a wedding ceremony for his two friends and fellow cadets. He did a great job. After the reception we conspired to get Rissa to Tiffany's on 5th Avenue, where Jared (Rissa's boyfriend) dropped down to one knee and asked her to marry him. It was so fun to be there when they got engaged! We all celebrated with some sparkling apple cider at Kate and Carrie's house later. Then, as is tradition for NYC trips, we went into the Chinatown and did some purse shopping on Canal Street. Great times! It was fun to have Rissa there for that and get a girl's opinion...although Brendon does have great designer fashion taste. After shopping we did a few touristy things...Times Square and Ground Zero (which ALWAYS makes me cry). We ate at the most amazing Greek restaurant ever Sunday night! So amazing! Monday morning we dined on an amazing spread of breakfast foods courtesy of Carrie, then our weekend was over and we all went our separate ways. It was such a great weekend, but I think we all need a vacation to recover from our vacation!
The Merkley siblings
Clayton and Rissa...nice hat Riss
Brendon, Dad, and Brett posing with the big guns 
You probably can't tell...but all the cadets throw their hats up at graduation...then all the little kids rush the fields and grab a hat and they get to keep it. I was wishing I was a little kid.
The proud Merkley family
Reverend Merkley 
The happy engaged couple
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