Since I have not been in class this summer, we have been traveling as much as possible. We kicked off the summer with a Weber family trip to the Riviera Maya in Mexico in the beginning of June. It was a Christmas present to our family and my brothers from our parents. It was a fantastic week. The boys did well with the long days of travel and were completely spoiled by constant attention for an entire week. It was great to be together, as that it something that rarely happens since Terry and Andrea lived in PA (although they have since moved to Springfield, MO!!) In the beginning of the week, Tommy proposed to his girlfriend Jen! Liam and Gavin loved swimming in the pool and getting to build sandcastles on the beach. There was a lot of Catch Phrase in the evenings. (Tom: you better Maury on out of here) Liam even picked up a few spanish words and asked for leche (milk) for several weeks after we returned.
The following week we went to Chicago. This was a special trip for Dane as we got to spend some time with his host family from Ireland from studying abroad in college. Pat, Dolores and Conor visited the US for a month of traveling in California and worked their way through Vegas, the Grand Canyon and ended up in the Windy City. We stayed with our friends Colleen and Eileen (who Dane also studied abroad with) in their apartment. We spent our first night at the house of some friends of Pat and Dolores for a BBQ. It was nice to have some time to sit and catch up with our old friends Col and Eileen. Plus, Dane's host family are such wonderful people to spend an evening with. We wished we had had more time to see them. As much fun as I had with everyone, I know that seeing his host parents and brother was special for Dane. It is always a lot of laughs to sit around and hear stories of Dane's trip 9 years ago. We also went to Shedd Aquarium and took the water taxi over to Navy Pier. We packed a lot into one weekend with lots of time on planes, trains, automobiles (buses and also a boat :), but it was a great time.
A couple of weeks ago, Dane and I had to opportunity to go to Dana Point, CA. He had a conference at the Ritz Carlton and I decided to tag along. Gram (my mom) came to KC to stay with Liam and Gavin for the 4 days. It was so nice to get away. I did miss the kids terribly by the end, but it is a rare treat for Dane and I to get to spend quality time together. We got to enjoy lots of beach time and delicious food without two kids at our feet. But after all of the our other travels, it was nice to come back home.
