A Rough Day turned to A Day Full of Celebrations

Last Wednesday here at Fort Wainwright was the 1-25 Brigade Deployment Ceremony. I was fortunate to be able to get off of work to be able to attend the "celebration" of the upcoming deployment. Unfortunately due to the Alaska weather and it still being a bit nippy out, the ceremony had to be held indoors. This caused a problem as 1) there was not enough room for all 4,000 soldiers to be able to participate in the actual ceremony and 2) the seating for the audience was hard to come by. Let's just say I had standing room only, and being my height, I wasn't able to quite enjoy the entire thing. And you know what? I was totally okay with that. Only because I was then able to have my soldier next to my side during this time, not something that will be happening much in the next year. The ceremony was very touching as there were some important people to send off the troops with high hopes and thoughts, to include the Alaska Governor, along with the Major General. All the troops then cased the colors and their flags, which are now ready to head over to Afghanistan with them. This was a rough day as it really started to make deployment hit close'r' to home. Everyone that spoke gave their hats off to the wives, husbands, and children of the deploying soldiers. It was nice to know that we will be close in heart even if we are  thousands of miles apart. I think this is what made the day hardest for me. I'll share a few pictures with you from the ceremony.



2-8 FA, B's unit



2-8 Begins the Casing of the Flag

2-8 has cased the flag and it is now ready for their travel to Afghanistan



Major General Palumbo

  

10th Alaska State Governor, Sean Parnell

COL Wood, 1-25 Commander

Enjoying our nice, long walk back to our car!

And the 2 of us!

At this point, I thought the day was done for and there was no way I was coming out of my "funk". But oh, I did! We got to go visit some friends of ours new baby, Paxton!

 And THEN!!! Mom called....They bought tickets to come visit this summer! They'll be here for 10 days, part of which will be the Summer Solstice! This is definitely something to look forward to and we can start planning what they want to do when they are here. Duke and I are super excited for their visit! Now to just get the house together... ;)

Yup, all in all, it was a day full of celebrations. The celebration of Brandon being able to support the fight for our freedom, the celebration of the birth of baby Paxton, and a big WOO-HOO for Mom and Dad making it official that they will be visiting!

Love and Strength,

Lindsey