and the third year begins...

Friday Dec 4th, we had a gathering of family and friends for a bit of a send off party for Derek. WE begin the 3rd year of deployment for our family. This time Derek will be in AFG. doing electrical work. We had a wonderful time with lots of great food and drink.

This past summer Derek made a new buddy.. Grady stayed with us one night and he and Derek had a wonderful time in the yard, playing ball and later tickling and playing cars. Derek was surprised to see Grady and his family come tonight, Grady loves to help with just about anything.. He and Derek had a time cutting the cake.. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more~ See those smiles.. they are quite the buds~

Derek took off early Sat morning for the Armory. We went up later to visit a bit and see some of the other guys.

We watched as the loaded the truck and trailor with suppies for the trip out of town.

Andrea, Derek and Brian posed for a quick photo before we took off to go to our spot along the road. We had the big flag that Don had made and we parked the truck on the corner so the guys could see us good. It was fun to see the police escort them to the edge of town and all the folks who stopped for a while on a very cold Sat. morning to show they cared.

This is the Patriot Guard and the bus load of guys heading for training and then Afg.

Here we are on our spot at the corner displaying our appreciation for the work that all the soliders do.

And the crowd as the bus goes by~

So the third year begins, he's still in the states a while longer. But still on a mission~!