Lounging

The perfect place to stop for a break? The floor in Barnes and Noble, of course.

Joe and Laura's Wedding

We celebrated Joe and Laura's wedding on Saturday on the 38th floor of the Grand Hyatt in downtown Denver, overlooking all of Denver and the surrounding mountains.  It was pretty incredible.




Me and Mark


Joe and Laura


Mark and Joe


We had assigned seats at the head table and for some reason they put me at the head of the head table. I must be very special :)


Mark gave a great best man toast that celebrated Joe for the wonderful guy that he is, by way of a slight roast.


They had cupcakes! Three different kinds of cupcakes!


It was a great reunion for the boys...


...Business as usual for this group.






Suds' best "The Situation"


As Joe said, "this pretty much sums it up."


Congratulations Joe and Laura!

Denver Trip

Last weekend we took a trip to Denver without Lyla to celebrate Joe and Laura's wedding.  We could not have done it if it were not for Bammie and Pa, who made a trip to New York just to stay with Lyla for the weekend. Thank you guys so much for taking such good care of Lyla Grace even when she got you sick :(

We left on Thursday night, just as tornadoes hit New York. Tornadoes! Crazy right? Our reaction wasn't quite like these guys (who are being called the "Double Rainbow" of tornado videos :), but the weather was pretty insane.  (Disclaimer:  these guys curse about 100 times in two minutes, so feel free to skip over.  Mark said "Is this really appropriate for a baby blog?"... probably not, but I thought it was kind of funny).


Needless to say, we didn't get off the ground on time... Our flight was about five hours delayed and when we arrived at the airport, our hotel shuttle had already left for the night and there were no cabs in sight. By the time we flagged down an Avis bus, took the bus to the car rental place, rented a car, drove to the hotel, checked in, and got to our room, I was saying good night just as Robin Roberts was saying Good Morning America.

But we rallied in the morning because Mark had best man duties he needed to attend to. We were beat, but nothing a little coffee couldn't fix. Dina and I joke that you know you are old when you use the hotel coffee maker. Well...desperate times call for desperate measures.


After we met up with Joe and picked up Mark's tux for the wedding, Joe took us to Red Rocks, an amazing space carved into the mountains.





There are 138 stairs to climb to get to the top. We climbed them all.




It's a concert venue but people also use it for some serious workouts and general sightseeing. We were in the latter category, although there were a ton of people doing some crazy workouts.




The views from the top are incredible. Definitely worth the 138 steps.










We were the only ones in flip-flops.


And back down we went.


That night, we went to Joe and Laura's rehearsal dinner.


Joe got initiated into his dad's sailing club a la Jacques Cousteau. Jose and his friends all keep their boats at the same marina in Atlantic City and they decided it was time Joe got a red hat.




It was just like old times for the guys. They all used to live there together, which caused Cory to proclaim that he was going to "literally party like it was 1999."




Wedding pictures to come!

Lethal Lyla

We are all hunkering down and weathering a nasty stomach bug Lyla has passed along.  Although she showed practically no symptoms of being sick, she managed to infect me, Jack, Donna, my mom and Nana.  Fingers crossed that Mark and Dahlia stay healthy.  That little stinker...at least she's cute.

Governors Island

Last weekend we took the ferry across the river (literally 800 yards) and rode bikes around Governors Island. The island opened to the public for the very first time ever in 2003. For nearly two centuries before that the island was used as a military facility. During the Civil War, it was used for recruitment and as a prison for captured Confederate soldiers. Throughout World War I and II, the island served as a supply base for Army ground and air forces. From 1966 to 1995, the Coast Guard operated facilities on the island. In 2003, the United States sold Governors Island to New York for a dollar, but restricted permanent housing and casinos on the island. Now, there are great bike paths, picnic spots and open air concert venues. It is such an easy, fun day trip out of the city.

We started out early to make sure we were back in time for the Notre Dame game. We caught the first ferry of the day with tons of bicyclists.


Someone was still a little sleepy on our way there.


It was a gorgeous day -- perfect for a bike ride. The only snag? Lyla was not happy to wear a helmet.





She got used to it eventually.


And we were off...


The views are pretty incredible from all angles. Apologies for blurry pictures but taking pictures while riding a bike is hard work!








We were there on September 11, so the flag was at half-mast.


We stopped for a juice and snack break in the picnic area.


Lyla played peekaboo with her daddy.




On our way back, Lyla started tickling Mark's back.  Mark loved it :)




Heading back to the city...


...just in time for my two favorite people to watch the Irish game and split a bag of Pirate's Booty :)