Saying Goodbye to Our Seabee

I've been MIA lately on this blog, but I have good reason. We packed the past few weeks with family time and separation preparation, and finally said goodbye to our Seabee a couple days ago. I say 'finally', not because we couldn't wait to see him off, but 'finally' because it was quite an ordeal to actually get to that point. We were set to send Jake off on Wednesday, but at the start of the week it was bumped back to Thursday. On Wednesday Jake finished his gear turn-in before lunch and we made a special day of our 'last day' together - we went out to a yummy lunch, took the kids to a movie, picked up pizza for dinner, spent extra time playing outside together and had an epic Tickle Monster battle. We took special photos of each child with their daddy, and Jake recorded messages for their Daddy Dolls. The next morning we spent more time outside, had cookies for breakfast, and made it to the base for drop-off at noon. There were lots of hugs, lots of love, and lots of emotion - there's nothing quite like saying goodbye for 8 months. Then, to all our surprise, Jake texted me 20 minutes later saying that I needed to pick him up because the departure was delayed - again - and he needed to be back at 4:30 am. Yep. am. It was quite disheartening and confusing to explain the delay to the children, and we tried extra hard to help Jacob understand that daddy would be gone in the morning and this time, really, he wouldn't be back for a very long time. I think that Jacob is starting to comprehend the distance part, but I know he cannot fathom the time. We got to talk with Jake on Skype, and I truly think that helped, as we only speak with those far away on the computer (like the grandparents) and Jacob understands that much. 

So now we are without Jake until next August, and I'm praying that the time flies by. He arrived safely and dove right into work, preparing for the rest of his battalion to arrive in the coming week (there are two waves, and Jake was in the first one). And thus begins our newest chapter of our journey, "Deployment 2011".

Here are a few photos from our (not exactly) last night:

 Daddy, aka the Tickle Monster:

Our lifeline for the next 8 months - Skype rocks!

We are so proud of our Seabee. We love him and miss him and can't wait to be reunited once again! 

* And in case you're wondering... I will eventually find time to blog about Thanksgiving and such. We had Jake's parents, sister, and sister's children here for a week and have a ton of photos to go through! But first on my list... I need to make 90 Christmas cards, and I haven't even designed them yet! Aack! Oh well, that's okay, I know my loved ones will understand the delay this year.