Home for the Holidays!

Jay wasn't supposed to return home until Christmas Eve but I received a message saying they'd be in about midnight on Sunday. I was excited to get him home early, however, not looking forward to treking out into our winter storm to get him in Seattle. Fortunately, we have ferries that can do most of the work for us and avoid driving on the treacherous freeways. My biggest concern was getting from my house in Port Orchard to the ferry dock in Bremerton, as downtown Bremerton is a bit "hilly". However, I was determined to fetch my husband as soon as he stepped off that ship, so I had to go no matter what the weather was doing. I'd been getting messages from Jay throughout the day that they may come in even earlier, so I just decided to leave the house around 5:30. Left the boys with Gram and away I went. The 12 mile, 20 minute trip to the ferry terminal took me almost an hour. I arrived Seattle around 7:40 and made my way down to the Base - fortunately, it's just a straight shot from the terminal. The ID checker at the gate said they'd be in around 10 PM. Okay, so I have to wait a couple hours. At least I am there and all is well. Heidi and I decided to take the opportunity to explore the ghost town of a base. I called Jay to see where they were at around 9:30 and he said they were only about 12 miles away, but they blew an engine so they were slowly chuggin' along. Thus, 3.5 hours after I arrived Seattle, the bow of the ship made it's appearance through the two ice breakers that were moored.

Heidi and I quickly ran over to watch her come in. It was amazing because they had to maneauver that ship between four different ships that were already there, mooring up right next to one (double parking, if you will).

I guess the Coast Guard in Seattle wanted all the cutters to be home for the holidays and the last one in got the rotten parking spot :) O-well. They made it work (thanks to the help of a tug) and he was finally granted liberty at 12:20....just in time for us to catch the LAST ferry to Bremerton! We made it home around 3 AM and the boys woke up to the lovely surprise of their dad back in the house. Zac even had a huge smile, so he remembered his daddy! As much as I've complained about the snow in the past week, I realize that is so minimal and if that is all I've had to complain about, then I'm pretty blessed and I need to just SHUT UP and suck it up. Life could be so much worse, but fortunately it is not. Jay is home safely and our family is going to be all together for the holiday. Life is pretty darn good and we are thankful!