Jason and Lauren are going away...

So we threw them a party! Jason is enlisting in the Navy and will be heading off to bootcamp towards the end of September. After he completes that, he will be going to Charleston to study in the Navy's nuclear program and at that point Lauren will leave to join him. Originally his date to leave was just a few days after the party, but due to a clerical error, he gets to spend a few more weeks with us.  There were four generations of Laird/Polsons present at the party, one of the blessings of living so close to family...

Jeremy helped get everyone into the mood and downloaded "Anchors Away" onto his ipod to play as people came into the house. We probably heard the Navy fight song about one-hundred times that evening.  Here he is saluting the camera before we cut into the cake.

 Here are most of the nephews and Abby.  Tara was sleeping upstairs, but Collin (in the red shirt) was representing for Josh and Kristina's family.  Titus (in the blue) is the son of Luke, a good family friend and the bass player in the guys former band.  There were several other kids that came to the party and they spent the entire evening running around the backyard and playing really well together. My boys slept especially well later that night!

 We set up a table out front with a memory book and an address book for people to fill out.  Address books are quickly becoming antiquated in our digital age, I had to run to several stores before I could finally find one! Lauren was really excited to collect addresses in hopes of being able to send out Christmas cards and updates to people. If you are interested in them having your address, email it to me and I'll make sure they get it!

 We started out with what seemed like a lot of food, but after four-hours of party and at least 50 or 60 people, several of which were hungry teenagers, all we were left with was a few cut-up veggies. Several people brought Jason cards and going-away presents.  Luke even got him the game of Battleship!

 We love you guys and will definitely miss you!!