We're back....

We're back!  Sorry for the missed blog last week.  We had quite the weekend over the 4th.   As many of you know I was out of town on a wedding weekend for my good friend (and Ethan's Godfather) Aaron's Wedding.  Their location was in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, which is a stone's throw away from Myrtle Beach.  It was a nice wedding and it was good to see friends from long ago again.  I certainly thank Mommy for handling the boys under some very dire conditions.....see below.  Anywho, here a a few pictures I got while I was there for my 2 day stay.

Looking Due East from Aaron's rental home at the Sunset Beach pier

Looking down the beach, pretty typical Atlantic Ocean beach.  Hard, Packed and pretty full of people.  Not my kind of beach unfortunately, but still, a nice place for folks to come and drink on 4th of July Weekend. 

Me and the Groom

I really liked how they decorated the walkway down to the beach ceremony site.  Coolest wedding related thing from the weekend. 

The wedding party, including "Uncle Dan" as the best man.

There were 9 on each side, here's the 5 that I'm friends with: Don, Kev, Jim, Dan, and me.

I know I was hatin' on this beach earlier, but one thing it's got over Mexico is the type of sand that is perfect for building sand castles, check out those arches...awesome!

So, leaving the boys and Emmy over a holiday weekend wasn't the easiest thing to do in the first place, but it got much more tough when Emmy woke up on Sunday with a horrible stomach virus.  She said that she could barely pick up E and that eating of any sorts was not an option.  The boys, by some Godsend, were angels on Sunday.  They played (read: destroyed) the basement and did all sorts of other fun stuff, while Mommy recovered.

Let the destruction begin!

Fortunately, with the help of Emmy's good friend Tracie, she was able to get some liquids in and started to feel better on the 4th. The boys were all dressed up in their Americana garb (thanks Grammy T) and they were ready to play some more!

 Happy 4th of July!

The guys are really going through a "playdoh" phase right now, they play together so well with it!

Big guy posing with this "Birthday Cake"

Mookie Blue Eyes....:-)

It was pretty hot last weekend, perfecto for Popsicles outdoors!

So that's it, Daddy got back on Tuesday, very happy to see the family again (it kinda sucks being away from those little ones and Mommy, especially when she's down).  In any case, I was ready to be back again, you know. Travelling for work is different, travelling for pleasure - to a beach - on the 4th of July, without the fam, well I'm glad to say that things are back to normal.

This weekend was finally a restful weekend that we could just hang out and do our thing. Our parish picnic was going on and we braved the masses to attend on Friday night.  They gave out free hamburgers, dogs, chips and drinks to everyone on Friday, so EVERYONE came.  It was part of their declaration that the parish was now debt free, so they were giving back.  

An important note (and one I didn't capture) was that we took a shuttle bus from a parking lot a little bit away from the picnic and it was a REAL school bus!! Aidan was amazed that he got to ride in a real school bus.  Pretty darn sweet from a kid who will probably never ride one (the Catholic schools near us do not have bus service).

The rides at the picnic were pretty lame this year and ridiculously expensive ($4 a ride, I know?!?).   So, the boys got one ride, this train that took them around 5 or 6 times.  I hope the cut the free food next year and bring back better kids rides, remember last year...awesome!

Make it worth it boys, the church is gettin' us a train ride!!

Today, we got up and went to Church as a family and the boys were very well behaved.  Aidan got an A and Mookie a B+.  For these two boys to be so well acting at Church for the first time in a long time, I was quite impressed.  Way to go boys!  Here's E doing his smiley thing.

Smiling....

Coloring before church....

Our weather here is going back up into the 100s, so after nap today the boys played in a new pool that has a waterfall that we put up on the deck. They very much enjoyed it!

Water guys!

Water bug! :)

Have a great night everyone!

Ty, Emmy, Aidan and Ethan