Day 330 - November 25

I'm breaking the rules because it was a big day. Cate was baptized and I got to see my friend, Beth, who is visiting her family in the Pensacola area - from Rotterdam.

So, first the Baptism. Cate was welcomed into the Episcopal church through the sacrament of Baptism. Josh and Erin are her godparents, though they weren't able to be there for the service. Michaela did her best to make up for the lack of friends and family there by being CRAZY in front of the whole church. Three year olds and church services don't go well together. It's that much worse when the three year old is on display!

Later on Sunday afternoon, we drove over to Pensacola to have dinner with Beth and her kids. We were neighbors in Kodiak and became great friends (her husband was also a classmate at the Academy), and we've now gotten to see each other twice courtesy of her parents being down the road. Sadly, she was here to help them pack up their house since they were finally able to sell it, so she won't have a reason to visit in the area anymore. But since the Coast Guard is small, and her husband flies the same kind of helicopters as Jason, there's a REALLY good chance we'll see each other again at another duty station!

So, pictures... Pretty self-explanatory, and there are TWO of me!

Me, Jason, and Cate after church on Sunday. Her bonnet is a little funny looking because it's a handkerchief sewn into a bonnet. I'll keep it for her and she'll be able to rip out a couple stitches and turn it into her wedding hanky. Michaela used the hanky that I used at my wedding and will get it for her own wedding one day. I'm sad I didn't have a second one that I used myself for Cate, but I had a new one made and she'll be able to pass it along to her child one day, too.

I had to get a close-up shot of Cate's gown. I'm hoping to have a few pictures done with her in it like I did with Michaela a few months after her Baptism as well. We ended up with a beautiful cotton gown - it just felt southern to us, a nod to our Alabama-born girl.

Michaela LOVED her dress and how "wery" (that's very to you and me) twirly it was. She enjoyed twirling both during the service and during coffee hour.

And finally is a picture of me and Beth after dinner.