233 Years of Tradition

October 13 marks the 233rd birthday of the United States Navy. To mark this birthday we at the Brown household had ourselves a Very Navy Weekend.

Friday evening Aaron and I got ourselves all gussied up. We then dropped the kids off with family for a sleepover with Cousin Anna. We then headed to downtown for the Navy Day Ball. The venue was decorated nicely to include an ice sculpture of the Navy Ram with falcon feathers in his mouth. There were also blue and gold M & M packets. It was all very cute.

There was a huge turnout at this party. There were 68 men from the 1951 Naval Academy class in attendance. As is tradition, the oldest and the youngest Navy member in attendance cut the birthday cake. This year, the oldest was a 90 year old man who survived Pearl Harbor. The youngest was an (barely) 18 year old girl on the Naval Academy cheerleading squad.

After the cake cutting, the Naval Academy cheerleaders held a pep rally for us. (The Navy vs. Airforce football game was on Saturday.) It was very cool to have them show up there. They took time out of their evening to come do some cheers. It was also really nice for them to see a great mix of Navy personnel (i.e. retired, active, reserve, enlisted and officer). I think they had as much fun as the rest of us.

We ended the evening by going out for sushi with some friends. We had dinner at the ball, but there just wasn't enough on the plates for any of us.

Saturday morning there was no time to sleep in. We had to be up by 8 even with our slight hang overs. (Note to self: Don't drink champaign after drinking wine.) Aaron made breakfast for the two of us and two of our friends who had stayed over. As soon as breakfast was over, I went to get the kids while Aaron started packing the truck.

We attended the Navy vs. Air Force football game Saturday afternoon. Before the game, though, we did some tailgating with a bunch of our Navy friends. We grilled hot dogs in the back of the truck. After filling our tummies, we headed in for the game.

Aaron and I lived in Baltimore for three years. During that time we never once went to a Navy football game despite the fact that Annapolis was only 30 minutes away. This was our first game and we had a blast. Caleb did not like all the noise, although, he was able to take a short nap even with the noise. The game ended with Navy on top! Yeah!