of family trips, weddings and swimming pools - part 1

I have about 30 min before we head off to the pool for the afternoon so I'll start this now and end it over several posts.
Family Trips
We got back on Wednesday from our first long trip as a family of 4. It will not happen again soon. I envy my friends that do family trips and wish that we could be like them but, alas, it does not appear to be in the near future for this family. Flying 1/2 way across the country with 2 children and 1 husband (wives you know what I really mean) is not for the faint hearted nor the inexperienced nor the anal-retentive nor the over-worrier.
We flew out all together to Baltimore for a 36 hour visit with Joe's parents. Joe spent the first 12 hours there asleep, I of course got no break (no one ever told me that moms don't get vacations). The next day the six of us explored Joe's old neighborhood on foot which was a lot of fun for Joe to be able to show that to his kids (I think that he's been dreaming of this day since he was a teenager). Some cousins came over for a visit and we had a quiet dinner at the house. At 6 am we got up, ate and packed the car to leave by 7. Then we drove down to Southern Virginia for my niece's wedding that would be happening on Sunday. We stopped by my childhood home on the way and got to visit with my nextdoor neighbors for a bit. We got to Hallieford around 2 (we had several driver vs navigator issues on the way that made the trip about 1 hour longer than it should have been) and Joe promptly fell asleep while I checked out the beach with the kids.
There was some Boo Radley guy that freaked me out a bit while I was checking out the Big House (we were staying in the Cottage House) but fortunately he didn't show up again over the weekend. After Joe's nap he installed a window a/c unit in the cottage so that we would survive the humid weekend - this would be the first time that he had to share a room with the kids and me so it needed to be as comfortable as possible for him. I got a call from my sister letting me know that the wedding rehearsal was to start at 4 with dinner to follow at 5:30 so when Joe woke up we changed clothes and headed out.
Next Weddings