Ahhhhhhh. 4th of July weekend. One of the best holidays of the year, because its always a long weekend, it always draws a lot of family to town, and its a very active fun holiday because many people stay at the house, so instead of being one day its a whole weekend of swimming, basketball, burgers, beers, cornhole (Google it if you don't know what it is by now...). Even the nights are fun cause we sit around outside or play cards in the kitchen.
Here's a wonderful collection of little cousins watching some movie. They're the next generation, and some of them, like Olivia watching the camera, are pretty cute and awesome.
I got to go on an adventure with the kiddies, and their moms (my cousins). We piled in some cars and headed to the Michigan Dunes/Tower Hill- a place I hadn't been in a few years. And who better to go to the beach with than a bunch of little cousins!
And they loved it. And I loved it. Aside from the fact that the sand was scalding on-fire hot, it was a lot of fun. Doing anything fun with kids is fun, and a place like the beach is of course a novelty that hasn't been experienced often so they're usually extra excited. Once they got all sun-tan lotioned up, we had great fun swimming, burying Emily in the sand, that sorta thing :)
We even hiked down the creek to the clay slides and covered ourselves in clay- Emily and Ian thought it was fun, Teddy wasn't digging it so much- he didn't like me smearing it on him :)
I also horsed around with Olivia, who was 2.5 then (now 3) tossing wet sand up on her legs- she would FREAK OUT yelling "I'm messy!! I'm messy!!!!" and then I'd splash the sand off and she'd be fine. That situation happened like ten times in a row. And she never stopped yelling yet never stopped being perfectly fine as soon as I splashed the sand off :)
On the ride home- the kids were pretty well spent. Especially Livy. Done. We had some food and drink on the way home to relax- we had sodas and sandwiches (they even made me one!) while at the beach, which was great because it reminded me of going to the beach as a kid (or a teenager I suppose).
Another great thing that happened that weekend was another friend wedding. I at least had a part in how they met- Jeff was my college roommate, Rachael was a friend from high school but really Chris's friend from high school who I got to know more after college while THEY were in college, and when they started visiting us in Chicago. And then one fall Rachael came to visit and we all went to a party at Matt Dave Gobel and Andy's apartment and Rachael met Jeff. I don't actually remember/know how got together at first but it was definitely by some goading of Jeff by Matt.
At any rate, they got married that weekend, in South Bend, at the Basilica. Fantastic. A great excuse for friends to come in town and hang out. Friends like Josh, Paul, Dave, Rob, Michelle, and David. Rob and Michelle in particular are gems that I don't get to see much anymore cause they're up in awesome Minnesota doing their thing with their two kids. Though I don't see Paul much more than them! We were all at Fiddler's Hearth this night.
The next morning. Did I mention I was in the wedding? Yeah :) My fifth wedding! Geez. The coolest part- Chris was in the wedding party too- so we got to dress up and look awesome together and hang out with the bridal party all day. It was uh, a bit warm for all that black though...
(I screencopied all these from the photographer but hey I'm not making money or reprinting them...) Here's us waiting for the big moment. I was a little nervous! First time I'd been first (or last, depending how you wanna look at it)- so I hadta wait for the signal from the wedding planner, and hadta GIVE her a signal also, when the bridesmaids were ready behind the door. Geez. The pressure. Second Basilica wedding I'd been in. The guy on my left, Dave, was my first Basilica wedding :D
Looks like someone else was feeling the pressure too a little bit ;) Waiting for the bride to come up the aisle...one of these groomsmen looks tanner than the others. Hmm...
All the rockstars on the altar during the big moment. Father Ken Molinaro, who used to be Jeff's (and Dave's and Matt's and Andy's and Scott's) principal in high school, said the wedding- he's now working at ND in some capacity...
Before you know it, the ceremony is already over and you're marching back out. Here I am making it happen down the aisle with Rachael's friend Megan, the Stowes in tow...
We of course got some more (lots of) pictures after the ceremony. Fun while it was inside... I liked the bridesmaids red accents (good work Rachael).
Here's a great tradition that we had just done for Martha's wedding- the photo on the steps. Again, it was warm. I was standing in the shade every second I had.
All the lady-friends. Katie Christen/Meko Beth Jenny and Ellen.
A photo in the shade. Thank God. We went around campus at ND and Saint Mary's taking pictures. Here's the grotto.
We had a sweet bus taking us around for the photos while we had some beverages to uh, stay cool on the bus. It was a little tight in there but fun being with some of my best friends, and looking sweet in our tuxes.
We even got to visit Keenan Hall, our old dorm, for some photos. It was under construction. We made it work :) I was holding a giant pine tree branch.
What there aren't pictures of is how hot my feet got in those shiny black shoes, standing in the July sun, taking pictures outside. WOW my feet were burning. Right about here, at Saint Mary's, is when I thought my feet were melting.
Reception time. The best time of the day of course (besides taking a shower and going to bed at the end of the day). They had us seated in groups of friends instead of at a head table, which is nice so bridal party peoples can sit with their significant others and see their friends- though for some reason I was sitting more so with Chris' friends :)
The table I wished I'd been sitting at, but I went and visited them. They were nose-goes-ing for something and the photographer thought it was hilarious, so he had them do it again for a picture...
At some point during the reception we wanted to take a cufflinks photo- Jeff got us all cufflinks of our favorite teams, so we gathered up in a circle with the photographer...and then Dave started doing inexplicable Dave stuff, like doing pushups. Huh?
I figured what the heck, lets stick around and do a class ring photo too! Me Jeff Dave Chris and Gobel.
While I could only collect three of us, I thought it was important to document another balding picture. I think the best one we got in college was like 6 or 7 of us. Dave, Me, and Paul- we needed Rob, Hotze, and Justin at the very least...
Right after we finished singing the Victory March at the end of the reception. The way wedding receptions SHOULD be.
The morning after. AFTER, that is, we went to Josh's parents' house and hung out in their garage for two hours after the reception playing cups, while I watched since I was driving my guests Paul and Jenny back to my house safe and sound afterwards :) We had a nice brunch at St. Mary's. Nice to be wearing t-shirts and shorts instead of a tux.
And just as soon as it started, the wedding weekend was over and the friends were gone and it was time to move on with life. Thankfully, I had things to look forward to, like seeing a great band live for the first time, because they hadn't been together in like 7 years. Tonic. I'd seen their lead singer, Emerson Hart, live many times as he toured for a solo album- I even got to see him in Atlanta at a small bar a couple times when I was living their briefly. And now they were playing in Chicago for FIVE BUCKS!!!
So I went with Gobel. It was great. They were great. They sounded great. They played a LONG time. They had a lot of fun. I was standing right in front. It was a street festival on the north side and lots of people didn't even seem to know them or care! Emerson in the middle.
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