Chris & Val Tie The Not!

Chris has been such a good friend to Neal over the years and has come to visit him in almost every place he's lived (which is a lot!).  When I met him at our wedding, it wasn't hard for me to see why Neal had spoken so highly of him.  He is a wonderful person with one of the kindest hearts we know.  When he caught the leg warmer (which Neal had pulled off my leg in place of a garter) at our wedding, we joked that he had to be the next to get married.  Since he was already dating Val at the time (though she couldn't come out for the wedding), this seemed like a real possibility.  When we finally met Val the following spring, we quickly grew to love her as well, and saw that she was a perfect match for Chris.  We were so excited when they announced their engagement and honored that they asked us to be a part of their wedding (Neal was a groomsman and we both read the Prayers of the Faithful). 

Thanks for everything Chris and Val.  We couldn't be happier for you both and look forward to hearing about Cozumel!

Another college friend, Rob, and his fiancee Holly 

at the rehearsal dinner

Ben and Anna (also recently married :)

Ralph (best man) and his wife Stella (or Stelka as he calls her)

Who are these two good looking people?

The four senior year roommates

THE BIG DAY!

Breakfast before the wedding

St. Ignatius Catholic Church (on Boston College campus)

before the crowds piled in for the ceremony

Lookin' good boys

This was too funny.  Stella was wearing Ralph Lauren

sunglasses that just said "Ralph" along the side.  She

said she wears them in honor of her husband, Ralph.

Exchanging vows

Val looked soooo beautiful in her dress!

The wedding party and parents of the bride and groom

Newlyweds!!!!

Neal and I in front of the Blessed Virgin

At the reception, the wedding party danced to the

first song after the bride and groom's first dance.

I love how Neal is holding hands with the flower

girl - too cute!!

The BC gang with their significant others

For additional wedding pictures not on our blog, please visit my shutterfly album at:  http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CcNmzlq3asXVg&emid=sharview&linkid=link2

Touring Boston

One of Neal's good college friends and roommates got married in Boston, so we went to share in the joy of their special day. Before the wedding festivities, however, we had some time to tour around Boston. Since Neal went to college there, he was very familiar with the area but I had never been, so it was a treat for me. What a beautiful city Boston is. The more I see of the east coast, the more I fall in love with it!

It was a cloudy day but sailers were making the most

out of the little summer weather that Boston gets.

Harvard University

Val & Chris (the bride and groom whose wedding

we were attending this weekend) both work here.

Not a bad place to come to work every day!

John Harvard

This is a cheesy tourist photo but I thought it was really cool.

It's a bus that takes you on a tour of the city by both land

and water.  A boat-bus!

The Old State House

Quincy Market - a fun hangout for locals and college students

Here is where Neal went to school - Boston College

Neal's favorite chapel on campus - St. Mary's

In front of Bapst Library

The architecture and grounds here are beautiful.

It's easy to see how one might be inspired to study

Theology.  :-)

Texas Sunset

Texas sunsets are amazing.  This was taken from our backyard.

San Antonio

Since we hadn't been back to San Antonio in a while, we decided to head out west for the weekend.   

We spent most of Saturday relaxing by the pool, which

had a lazy river nearby which you could float on with

inner tubes. It was the perfect day to bask in the sun.

The lazy river had spouting water fonts to make sure you

got equally wet on both sides while floating in the tube :-)

For dinner we went to the Riverwalk downtown.  It's by

far the coolest place to eat in the area, and is reminiscent

of a waterway you might imagine in Europe, with restaurants

along side.  There is a boat that will take you the length of

the river and give you some history along the way.  In fact, we

did hear one of the tour guides say that the bridge you see in 

the distance is the one featured in the movie "Selena" (the

scene where J-Lo is sitting on a bridge and says she feels like

she can do anything).  It's a pretty magical little place.

We ate dinner at a fantastic Mexican restaurant called The Iron

Cactus.  As we were enjoying our delicious, freshly made

guacamole, we witnessed a man proposing to his girlfriend

on the bridge behind us.  It was quite romantic.  :-)

Fourth of July

For the holiday this year Mike and Lisa invited a few of us out on their boat. Mike has been restoring this boat since we've known him and has been holding off on taking anyone out until it was finished. Today was its unveiling and we all agreed that it was certainly worth the wait. The boat looked really nice and we had a great time hanging out in Galveston Bay.

The boys gettin' ready to head out

Neal trying to catch some fish

The sunset tonight was beautiful.  The sky kept 

changing colors - from orange to pink.   We took this

photo earlier in the evening

More sunset

For a while it started to drizzle and the sky turned cloudy.

We were worried that we'd get a downpour (as is typical

of the weather here) and have to head in before the

fireworks started.  Luckily, the sky not only cleared

but we got a gorgeous rainbow.

The gang (minus the photographer)

It was great being out on the water for the overhead

fireworks show.  Even after it was over, we had another 

hour of fireworks as different shows were going on in

the bay all around us (you can barely make out another

fireworks display at the bottom right corner of this

picture).

View of the Kemah Boardwalk from the bay

As we waited out the boat traffic before heading in after the show, we had an almost-accident with another boat.  Attempting to leave the area, another couple on their boat came too close to us and caught our anchor rope with their propeller!  Our boat started turning around in a circle to follow them, as Mike yelled for them to stop.  I've never seen a boat reverse so quickly or so precisely, but as the other boat came backwards towards our boat to get untangled, we came within inches of a collision which would probably have caused quite a bit of damage. As it was, we all had a good scare but luckily Mike and Lisa were able to salvage the anchor without having to cut the rope. Whew, what a close call!

New Orleans - Part 2

Neal and I got to explore a bit of New Orleans together as well, though not as much as we had hoped.  The case he was working settled and we ended up coming home sooner than expected. We were grateful for the chance to be there even for a little while. New Orleans is a really neat city, one that we would both not mind visiting again.

On Sunday night Neal and I went exploring around the

French Quarter.  Some of the lighting along the streets

and on the buildings was really beautiful.

One of the most unique characteristics of this city is the

presence of gas lamps near almost every door.  Neal likes

them so much he wants to get one for our front door.

As we were walking down this street, we were a little startled to 

see a giant image of Jesus reflected on the wall of this church.  We

noticed that whoever had created this effect had brilliantly placed 

the lighting on the smaller statue in front of the church to create the 

image of Jesus with its shadow.  We'd never seen anything quite like 

this before - it was really cool.

There's something magical about a beautiful house all lit up 

at night.  There were so many neat ones along the streets of 

the French Quarter, I just had to capture one on camera.

We also stopped by Brad and Angelina's house, though I didn't 

want to take my camera out for a picture because there was

a suspicious looking character eyeing us.

After exploring part of the town, we stopped

at Cafe Du Monde, an old cafe open 24 hours, for their

famous beignets.  They are covered in powdered sugar at 

least an inch high and are sooo good!  Just don't breathe 

anywhere near them, lest the powdered sugar go flying 

everywhere (not that I would know anything about that :-).

View from the roof of our hotel

Lunch on Monday with Tim.  He is a fellow employee and

 friend that Neal worked with in the D.C. office.

Our first day exploring New Orleans together.

Here we are taking the trolley through town.

In front of Jackson Square

Hanging out at the Tropical Isle on Bourbon Street, getting 

our drinks "to go."  The drinking laws in the French Quarter are 

pretty lax and it's tradition to walk around the streets with 

your alcoholic beverage in a plastic cup.  Since we were trying 

to fit in with the locals, we had to participate in the tradition.  :-)

This drink is called a "Hand Grenade"  It's a

melon flavored drink that is supposed to be

one of the best in New Orleans.

Having dinner with the team on our last night in town