The Emerald Isle and Hilton's Head

Who, me? Where have I been? It's been a month since my last check-in? Well, let me tell you, we've been around the way and back.

While mom and dad were off in Ireland at their friends' wedding, doing a little bit of this.. (drinking coffee in Dublin and having an actual uninterrupted conversation)

and this... (gettin' all snazzied up and going dancing... does anyone even say that anymore... "going dancing?")

and this... (really, Dad? Archery?)

Let's just pause for one second and take a look at Mom... she literally looks like a professional archerist... archerer... whatever. Maybe it's the pants or the perfect form, not sure.

Anyway, whilst they were doing a little bit of that, we were busy doing a whole lot of this...  (partying hard, whip cream style)

Mae, Pax and I hit the road with Nana, Papa and all our cousins and aunts and uncles and headed to Hilton Head. Then, after three days on the road and 8 days in Hilton Head, Mom and Dad showed up to join us. These pics don't need much narration - except for 1-2 important spots - so let's just get down to it.

Pax channeling his inner Hutch.

Yes, I know, I'm barely in any of those pics. That's because I'm getting all old and stuff and just run around with my cousins or out in the ocean doing my thang. In fact, moms and pops barely saw me when they were there. Face it, I'm all growed up.

Anyway, back to the trip. One day, we all decided to go miniature golfing because after 12 days of beach and pool we were looking for a little change. So off we went.

It was on the fourth hole that Eli hit his ball up a hill, around a curve, back down a hill and... RIGHT IN THE CUP! Hole in one, so naturally, a photo opp.

And then things got really cooky. We were all playing a hole and Pax was messing around right next to us on the hole prior. We looked over to call him and let him know we were going to the next hole when he gave his ball a whack. It went up a hill, into this tunnel thing, rattled around, fell out of the hole on the other side and went... RIGHT IN THE CUP! Hole in one. It was magical, we were hootin' and hollerin' and he just picked up his ball and was like, "yah, I know."

He also loved the water hole where he could work the ball retriever and get everyone's ball out of the water. The last three through the group - Eli, Mom and Dad - purposely hit it in the water just to watch how excited he got with that thing. For a second we thought he might stay there all day and just retrieve balls for $3.50/hour.

And so it was, a magical (but tiring) 18 days on the road for Mabel and me. Pax, Mom and Dad hit the skies a couple days earlier than we got home, flying out of the beautifully quaint Charleston, South Carolina. Pax enjoyed his air adventure...

But not so much waiting at Midway for 75 minutes for our bags.

Either/or, a fantastic few weeks had by one and all.

Who's Comin' With Me?

So if you don't know that line from a famous movie - one of my all time favorites, Jerry Maguire - then you should. Tom Cruise gets fired after he's screaming "SHOW ME THE MONEY!" Then he gives a rousing speech to everyone about integrity, grabs a fish bowl and wants to know who's coming with him, and it turns out Dorothy (Renee Zellweger) is, in fact, coming with him.

So Pax, you are not Tom Cruise, and I am not Dorothy, at least last time I checked.

But you, my friend, look like you are headed to Hilton Head, South Carolina for two weeks of beach fun, pool fun, cousins fun, Smores-roasting fun, and a whole lot of other fun so I am, in fact, coming with you and Mabel can play the part of the gold fish because, well, she is too.

LET'S DO THIS!

Milly-Waw-Kee...

So we weren't going to let Summer go by without a trip north to Brew City. Headed up a couple Fridays ago and started it out right with a stop at the Lakefront Brewery for dinner.

In 2006 B.C. (that stands for Before Children and is a phrase mom and dad's friend Steph came up with to describe what feels like the ancient old days of yore, before we were all born and their lives were slightly drastically different) Dad probably would've gone right at this sign, but with his ducks in tow we headed for the fish fry with a big smile on our faces.

Oh, and the Brewhaus Polka Kings were playing, which consisted of two guys who look like they've been eating bratwurst and drinking beer since they were in the womb, but man, they could play and had a big crowd up and dancing.

Friday night Shea and Jack and their mom and dad showed up and had the hotel room next to us, which was actually connected so it was like we had a 3-bedroom apartment. When they got there we just hit the pool and didn't stop till bedtime.

Next day started with a really good breakfast...

Side note: Shea's dad, Chris, and dad are really good friends and he just loves my blog and his goal is to end up in a minimum of 5 posts over the course of the year. Mr. Chris, you've got some work to do.  Great America was your first and this was your second... you only have five and a half months left.

I digress... then we hit the beach. It was a perfect 80-degree day and we were your typical beach bums.

The weekend also was not going to go by without a trip to the Kite Korner. I made that name up, but in the event you missed this post, there is a little corner on Milwaukee's lakefront that kicks up the perfect amount of kite-flying wind pretty much every day, so we headed down to do our kite thing.

Um, side note: Dad had a rough trip at times. He literally kept getting stuck in places... I think it was partly because he was putting himself in precarious places, but also... dude needs some yoga or something to loosen those limbs.

Example 1
Got in the back seat with Shea and me and literally could not get out. Got one leg over and things got even worse, as you can see.

Example 2
Mae's kite got stuck up in a tree so Dad went climbing up to save the day and then got to a part where he couldn't get down. We had to run and get Shea's dad to help him get down

Okay, and we head to the finish line of this post with my favorite part. Check this progression out. This first pic is me in May, 2012 when I was not yet four. Next shot is August of 2015 at seven and last photo is the Big Dog this year doing my thing.

So there you have it - The German Athens of America (largest German settlement west of Berlin), The City of Festivals, Cream City, good ol' Miltown... it just never disappoints.

Pimpin' The Bride

So you all remember Natalie, right? She was our nanny who came on when Pax was born and lightened our world, just as Miss Stacey had done before and Juliana has done since. We've been unbelievably blessed to have people come into our lives and become such a huge part of our family, so it was only fitting that we were right there with Natalie on her biggest day yet.

And not only were we invited to her wedding, but we were invited to play a gigantic role in her day - Mae and I as flower girls and Pax-Man as the ring bearer.

We weren't sure how it was going to go, honestly, with both Mae and Pax, but sure enough, Mae did her thing and Pax was a superstar. And then we celebrated with Natalie and her closest family and friends.

Oh, and this turned out kind of fun, too.