Our annual summer trip back to the states was fabulous as always, but a bit too short this time. We arrived in Cleveland on Thursday afternoon just in time to celebrate Lydia’s 4th birthday. I can’t tell you how nice it was to spend time with the family again. It had been a year since we had seen Lydia, Chris and Kate and it was the first time we were meeting Neely so to immediately spend an evening with them (with some of my favourite foods) was really special.
Friday we headed up to Ann Arbor, as the wedding of ex-Michigan teammate of Eric’s, Nick Douville and Lindsey Wertzel was the main reason we planned our trip back. We spent much of the day wandering around campus, seeing the renovated buildings, new additions and stopping at the apparel shops to update our Michigan wardrobes. It was so nice to be back on campus and spend some quality time there. The last time we had been up was for a brief visit last summer for about 3 hours. This time, however, we were able to go to Zingermann’s for lunch, visit old coaches and meet the new ones at the pool and just take our time reminiscing.
In the early evening, we headed to Cristie’s, where we were staying, for a nice dinner with her and Ron. We wanted to cook for them since Cristie was so hospitable in offering to put us up for the weekend. It was great to spend some quality time with them again. They then said that they were planning a trip to see us in London in October; yay!
Following dinner we headed to Charlie’s for old-times-sake. We met up with some of the wedding party (including the groom to be) and Lesley and Heath! I’ve missed them so much since they left after their visit in March so I happily spent the night sipping vodka and coke and chatting with Lesley.
The next afternoon we headed to Saint Mary’s Student Parish for the wedding. There were so many ex-swimmers there, it was absolutely wonderful. Not only did we get to see Jeff and Steph, but there were so many that we hadn’t seen in quite some time, and were anxious to catch up with. The bride looked stunning and the church was packed. Austin and Madison Namesnik were also part of the wedding party as ring bearer and flower girl, respectively.
Following the ceremony, we headed to an old stomping ground, Grizzly Peak, to have some snacks and a pint or two. It was then time to head to the reception.
Reception highlights: beautiful location, good food, blue blinking plastic glasses, Urby’s annual speech, a whole lotta dancing and a classic - Dan falling asleep as we waited for the bus.
We had a fabulous time with a lot of old and dear friends.
Jean arrived in Ann Arbor that night and much of Sunday was spent catching up with her and playing with Luke. It also included obligatory (and much anticipated) trips to Angelo’s for breakfast and a Pizza Bob’s milkshake for the drive home.
The next 3 days were spent catching up with the family and Lisa, playing tennis, seeing various doctors, and enjoying time at home. One of the highlights was seeing my grandmother whose visit from Florida overlapped ours by a day. It had been about a year and a half since we had seen her.
We boarded the red-eye flight on Wednesday night with an extra bag full of goodies and a very fulfilling week stateside. It continues to get harder and harder to leave each time!
Cristie's pictures from our visit:http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=hj0zhyv.7ouuy6vb&x=0&y=-sncok8&localeid=en_US
Our limited pics: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=hj0zhyv.92j2ez1b&x=0&y=-wffio6&localeid=en_US
Mom's pictures to come:
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