Reunions, showers, baseball and fireworks!

As promised, here are some photos from our fun-filled but very busy and extremely hot weekend. We started our weekend off by traveling west to the thriving metropolis of Seelyville, Indiana. (It's a one stoplight town)  Every two years, my mom's family has a huge reunion where all of the extended family gets together and has a day-long party with games, slide shows, more games, food and drink, and we all congregate in the backyard behind the house where my great-grandparents once lived, where now my mom's two cousins live who put together the huge show. It gets a little hot, and this year was no exception. I think I cared how I looked when we first got there, but as the day went on, the hair went up, and my clothes were basically soaked in sweat. It was a late night, and by the time we made it back to our hotel, we pretty much crashed after showering, of course. (I'm sure I smelled lovely!) We spent the day playing go fish and Bingo with Roo, of course, who stuck to her best friend T's side like glue. Here they are enjoying the day.

Of course, I had to get a picture in, too:

The next morning, we had a joint bridal shower for T and me and my cousin, Jessica and her fiance' Chris. It was not your traditional shower by any stretch of the mind, as boys were invited to this one, but I was definitely ok with that because I'm not really the formal shower type. My aunts who were organizing this shower knew this, and we had Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch, of course, and some good eats. Now if you recall a few weeks ago, my sister helped me pick out a dress to wear to this event because I was clueless in that I needed to dress up. I loved the dress she picked. I'm definitely not used to getting my picture taken constantly, and neither is T, so this was a good warm up to the big event. I think T was a bit out of his element, too, since this was his first shower that he has ever gone to. We had a great time, and I cannot believe how generous my family was. We got some awesome presents, one of the most creative being a basket of Ireland - Irish whiskeys, Bailey's, Guinness and other Irish brews, and items to bring on our trip to Ireland. Right now all of our gifts are sitting in our guest bedroom because I'm not quite sure what to do with them just yet, but I better figure this out soon because we have our second shower (which is girls only this time) in two weeks.

This shower was extra special because our Grandpa was there. He's my last grandparent I have, and he hasn't been doing so well in his health. You could tell he was really happy to be there and it meant a lot to him, too. After we finished opening presents, he came up to me and Jessica and gave us both $20 and said "this is from your Grandma." It took me a second to register what he just said, and of course, I cried. I miss her every day, and I know she would want to be here, too. I will be carrying a hankerchief of hers that my mother gave me with my bouquet so that I do have something of hers close to me. I love this picture we took of the four of us with my grandpa.

My brother had the camera, and he got a little crazy with his artistic expression...

After the bridal shower, T and I headed home to drop off all of the gifts and change, and then we headed downtown for the afternoon. Our first stop was the Monument, of course, as this was the location where one year ago we got engaged. The weather was definitely different than it was last year, but it really brought memories to be back there together.

We walked around downtown and headed to the Indianapolis Indians game for the evening. Food, bear and baseball. Can't ask for anything better

The Indians lost, but it was still a fun game. A little hot, but hey, what can you do? We stayed in the stadium afterwards since we had an awesome view of the 4th of July fireworks:

Overall it was a great weekend but one that went by way too quickly! I'm looking forward to this weeekend, though, because it brings a very special holiday...T's birthday! We're having a huge bash on Saturday night, so I'll be busy party planning this week.

Happy belated 4th everyone!