Last Friday, Nick and his battery headed to Fort Bragg (roughly two hours by car, six hours by humvee) where they will practice artillery shooting for the next two weeks.  The days leading up to his departure were a bit stressful and he spent many hours at work so on Columbus Day, Audrey and I headed to his office to have lunch.

Here Nick is showcasing a sweet smile.

While his daughter literally danced and twirled on every pole.

I had to beg him to take this picture outside his office, but I love seeing his name as the battery commander.

Thankfully, Nick was still here for his 32nd birthday and we celebrated in style with a homemade Optimus Prime cake.  This sucker took me an entire nap, he is harder than he looks with all those details on his helmet.  I'm not too thrilled and probably could have done better with more time, but I think he somewhat resembles the picture.

A bit blurry but we celebrated that night at (surprise!) a Mexican food restaurant where Audrey promptly threw all her shredded cheese on the floor and made a complete mess of the booth in less than a minute.

Even though Nick has been gone for four days (thats it?!) Audrey and I have managed to keep busy and this past Sunday she helped me wash the car.  Um...well...she was more preoccupied with washing the bubbles off the driveway.