Surprising my husband on his 50th birthday!

Walking in totally surprised
at his birthday party.

L-R Tom (my partner in crime),
Dave, Brad and Ralph
all USNA class of '85.

Today is my husband's 50th birthday and for the first time since I've known him he was not looking forward to this one.  I can understand that, I have never enjoyed the idea of turning any of the 3's or 8's, although it has never stopped me from fully embracing the entire month for my birthday.  I decided, a year ago, that I would attempt to actually surprise him and throw a party.  I scoped out so many places and even considered seeing who would want to fly to Las Vegas and join us for the PBR Bull Riding Championships. In the end one of our friends and a shipmate of Brad's, Tom Williamson, helped me out by sponsoring a party at Army Navy Country Club.  We planned for probably four months, going over the guest list, out of town guests and the food, decorations, etc.  It was fun to have a partner in crime and even more fun that in the end it went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time.  To quote my husband, "It was awesome, I was surprised".  Coming from him, that is huge, we really did surprise him.  One of my girlfriends told me afterwards that she loved the idea of us all dressing up for a cocktail party and being together.  It was kind of nice, the women were all in dresses and men in sports coats, there was a variety of appetizers and we had a great bartender that served wine and Brad's two favorite drinks, Crown Royal and 7 and Grey Goose Martini's. 

The family that came from NY, CO,
WA and Virginia Beach.


The funniest line from Brad came when he walked into the party, Tom was giving us a tour of the Army Navy Country Club and we walked into this dark room and he says, "it looks like it's set up for a party".  The he walks further in and says, "Oh it's someones surprise party" then starts to walk out, and all of a sudden everyone yells "Surprise" and he realizes he knows those people.  About ten minutes later he is greeting everyone and he turns to me and says, "are these people staying with us?" It was my parents, his stepmother, brother, daughter Kaitlyn and her girlfriend Erin. Too funny, yes, they were all staying with us for the weekend, second surprise of the night. 



Springboard Pool friends
 

I was very lucky to have our good friends, John and Jeannine help us as well.  John was so good about walking around with me getting all the photos.  Even one's like this of all our Springboard pool friends, some of which are also our St. Bernadette school friends.



At Piccolo's with David
Saturday the 19th
 

I think we both feel like we are incredibly blessed with the friends that we have and the family too.  Many friends and family tried to attend but it was a three day weekend and the government was shut down.  Our dear friend, David was stuck at work with 250 diners of his own, but no worries we saw him last night for a birthday celebration with John and Jeannine.  He is so good to us and if you ever get a chance, visit his Italian restaurant, Piccolo's in Georgetown.  Brunch, lunch or dinner it is all fantastic.  

It has just been such a fun month to celebrate Brad and his 50th birthday.  Many friends and family helped by bringing the balloons and decorations to the party and setting up and the one constant for all our Buswell celebrations, Lynn Dysart and her catering company A Bit More who did the party favors. This time she made footballs with navy blue and gold for everyone to take home. 

Finally, Kaitlyn (Brad's daughter) created a beautiful montage of photos set to music for Brad that we played during the party. It was a huge hit and a total tear jerker.  Here it is, all done by Kaitlyn.

 

 

The Tradition of Navy vs. Air Force Football

Tailgating with our friend, Mike
Schultz, who is an AFA grad.

The US Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy have squared off in football for many years and this is the 42nd year that the Commander in Chief Trophy was up for grabs.  Navy currently has the trophy residing at the Academy in Annapolis, MD. 

Every home game for Navy is the potential for old shipmates to get together and reminisce of past football match ups as well as catch up on what everyone has been doing, whether it has been a week or 10 years. Most important though is the time to tailgate and enjoy watching the current classes of Midshipmen parade down the street and into the stadium. 



Just grabbing a screwdriver before
the game.

My husband's class, USNA 1985 puts on the best tailgater every week I have ever seen.  They almost always have a live band, a submarine shaped smoker for meats and a few goats! The class always has the movable mixtures drink trailer complete with flat screen televisions so no one ever misses a college game. 






Mids marching in through the
tunnel to the field.
 

The Navy - Air Force game this year was a beautiful day, sun was shining and the temperature reached into the 80's by the 11:30 am kick off.  Despite the beginning of the week and the government shut down the game went off as planned.

A huge thanks to USAA for flying the Air Force team to the game and for keeping this tradition going.  Navy was favored to win and despite a slow start, they did win, and by the largest margin of victory ever 28-10. 

Below is Navy running out on the field, like I said it was a beautiful day.  Everything was perfect, except no fly overs.  That little tradition was halted earlier in the year because of government sequester and with the government in full closure over the debt ceiling/obamacare and finding a middle ground with the house and senate, it sure wasn't going to happen on this day either.

 

 Nonetheless when it was all said and done the service academy traditions live on and this is one of the best.  I have posted the Midshipmen singing the Navy Blue and Gold song from the annual Army-Navy game but never this one.  Here Air Force sang their song first, then Navy and all the former midshipmen sang theirs at the end of the game.  A beautiful way to end a beautiful afternoon in Annapolis, MD.