Our 10th Navy Ball Together

Parker and I have officially been to TEN Navy Balls together! Good grief, how did that happen? Since Parker was in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M and contracted to go into the Navy after graduation, we attended the Navy/Marine Corps Birthday Ball each year in college. Our first ball together was in 2007! We were 18 year old babies! It was one of our first dates, and we were both so clueless and awkward that I am sure it was a disaster. Obviously it wasn't a complete disaster, because here we are 10 years later. ;)

We were really excited to go to the ball this year! We missed last year because Parker was deployed, so it had been 2 years since we had gotten dressed to the nines and ready to dance. Parker's parents were in town to watch our little man which was so appreciated! It was nice to be able to take a night off knowing he was safe and in good hands. 

The ball we have attended the past few years has been the Hawkeye Greyhound Ball. It's a ball for E-2 and C-2 pilots which I love because we know so many people. It's always fun to go to parties with your friends!

The ball always consists of a dinner with a speaker and then a themed after party. We all typically hope the speaker is short-winded, if we are being completely honest. This year it was all great, and we were excited for the after party.

This year, the theme for the after party was "holidays", and each squadron picked a holiday to dress up as. Our squadron voted for Oktoberfest. I am the first to admit I was bummed the theme wasn't Cinco de Mayo (because how easy is it to throw on a sombrero and a fake mustache and call it good??), but Oktoberfest actually turned out to be a really fun theme. Thank you Amazon for having Liederhosen for sale at a reasonable price!

Ball number ten is in the books, but it sure was a good one! Just for fun, here's a picture from each ball we've been to together over the years.

A few fun facts...

1. When Parker picked me up for our first ball in 2007, I was wearing a pink dress. He had to go to the bathroom or something, and I decided I didn't like that dress anymore and instead borrowed the blue one in the picture from my sister. What was wrong with the pink one? Who knows. 

2. I've repeated dresses a couple of times (hello, 10 different balls!), but apparently I love the little black number because I wore it in 2009, 2010, and 2013. 

3. I was about 14 weeks pregnant with Taylor Grace at the 2014 ball. 

4. The dress I wore in 2015 was both mine and Parker's favorite dress I have worn to a ball, and we both know there is a zero percent chance I will ever wear that thing again. It was a bridesmaid dress from his sister's wedding. The dress had to be ordered online so I didn't get to try it on, and I ordered it way too small. I had to practically starve myself to fit into that thing, so we joke that it's the prettiest dress I'll never wear again. ;)

5. 2011 is the only ball where Parker didn't wear a uniform. He was out of the Corps of Cadets but 2 months away from commissioning, so he couldn't wear a military uniform yet. A suit it was!