Getting ready to go

 With Brian leaving in just a week, we knew we had a LOT to do! Sure, you are supposed to always be "deployment ready," but who is? He literally had to walk away from his current job and all unfinished projects. He needed to find all his deployment gear that had been stored away for 10 years. He needed to give me power of attorney to sell a house we had just put on the market 3 days ago. He needed to cancel lots of personal things- from a triathlon he was signed up for this summer to a Ragnar race he had committed to this fall. But the one thing he wasn't going to cancel- Macy's birthday.

He would be gone for her actual birthday on 5/30, so the day he told me he was leaving, he suggested we have an early, surprise birthday for her. So we did, on Monday 5/4. It worked out perfectly that Brian's parents, sister and niece were still here visiting, so we went out shopping that day to make this party happen. When Macy got off the bus, she was very confused as to why there was a bunch of pink balloons tied to our mailbox that said "Happy Birthday!" When I told her, she was thrilled!

When Brian got home that night (oh yeah, no time off because there were SO many Air Force requirements that needed to be done in order to deploy, which he had to crunch into few days instead of the typical few weeks you get. So he was working overtime that entire week) we celebrated Macy!

The awesome Snoopy Sno-cone Machine that we ALL had as kids-

Make a wish!

And a quick picture of Gracie and Uncle Brian too-

Remember how I mentioned above that Brian had to find and sort all his deployment gear? Tate loved helping-