Happy Birthday Marines!



(photo courtesy of United States Marine Corps)

 November 10th marks the 237th birthday of the Marines Corps.  Every year, Marines celebrate this special occasion with a birthday ball which is exactly what you'd think it'd be: men in uniform, dancing, dinner and of course birthday cake!  But this year the Marine Corps birthday was celebrated a little differently.  Instead of having a traditional ball and going out and dressing up with our husbands, all the wives got together for a dinner cruise on the San Diego bay since all our husbands are gone.  It was the ultimate girls night out!



A few of the military wives who have become such an amazing support system & my military family! :) Love you all!



Over 100 women put on their cocktail dresses and boarded the ship to celebrate this special day.  It was strange to be celebrating this day without Josh.  For the past two balls Josh and I have gone to the Marines' Memorial Club in San Franciso, where my dad serves on the board, with my parents.  So being without him on this day was tough.  However, I was so blessed and so happy to be in the company of my military family and the women who have been such an amazing support system while Josh has been gone. 

One of the traditions at every birthday ball is the cake. It is tradition for the "oldest Marine" to cut the cake and pass down a piece to the "youngest Marine".  But because there were really no Marines at this ball they did something a little different.  Instead, the Marine spouse who had been married the longest (turns out this woman was married 27 years) passed down a piece of cake to the  spouse who had been married the least amount of time (less than 2 months; she had gotten married right before the guys deployed).  It was a nice touch. 

The wives and I getting our dance on!
(Photo courtesy of Matthew Cartier, USMC)

The rest of the night was spent dancing the night away.  Anybody who knows me knows I LOVE to dance! I'm not sure where my love for dancing came from and I promise I'm not a great dancer, but I do enjoy it.  No matter what song (yup I was even dancing to the Chicken Dance this night) I will dance.  Its kind of an escape for me; a way to let loose. 

Even though our guys were gone, I have to say this birthday ball was a lot of fun.  Here we were, a bunch of military spouses all in the same boat (both literally and figuratively): our significant others gone, and we're just trying to take each day at a time.  This night was a night to let loose together and forget about the stresses a deployment brings.  Although I couldn't forget about Josh, and all the guys deployed with him busting their butts despite all the holidays and celebrations.  So here's to ALL the Marines, past, present and future: Happy Birthday Marines, Semper Fi!!  Thank you for all that you do and continue to do for our country!