Deployment Ceremony

It's hard to believe there are about 400 soldiers behind them!
Andy is at the VERY back.

It's cold!

My totally butch husband with his really cool, time worn beret, signifying his lengthly time in service and years of selfless loyalty to his nation. If only every man could be so cool............

Governor Palin speaking.

Today was the deployment ceremony.

It could potentially have been a real nightmare. (Picture being seated in the MIDDLE of a set of flimsy, skinny, made-for-5-feet-tall people bleachers with a pack of wiggly, hungry, cold kids with you, trying to keep them quiet while Governor Palin is speaking close by)

Luckily, I thought ahead and put Lexie and Nick into the daycare on post for a few hours. If I hadn't, then my nightmare surely would have been reality.

So, it was Ellie, Kate, Tori, and I who braved the wind and sat on the itsy-bitsy bleachers for 3 hours.

I have to admit that it went better than I had envisioned.

Tori cried a few times, but I was able to pop a cork in her and keep her quiet :)

I made a huge mistake in letting Kate dress herself. It was 44 degrees out when we left this morning. I told her that she had to have long pants and a sweatshirt on. I grabbed everyone's coats and a warm blanket to put over Tori. I thought Kate was good to go until we got out of the car and headed for the shuttle bus. That's when I noticed that she was wearing open-toe sandals. She was cold until the woman in front of us felt sorry for her and ran and got an extra pair of socks out of her truck :) Needless to say, I have let the girls know that the sandals and flip-flops are to be packed away until next year. The time for boots has come!

Anyway, we made it through the ceremony and I was able to take a few good pictures. I let Ellie take a few also while I was busy with Tori, but she ended up with a couple of pictures of Sarah Palin's legs :)

The kids enjoyed the pass and review portion of the ceremony. You don't realize how big a brigade of soldiers is until you see them all march by in formation. Andy was easy to pick out since he was at the very back of the formation with the other First Sergeants.