July/August - America!

(Firstly, as a side note, it should be noted that there has been a long long delay in posting blogs! That is because James rightfully decided that this American blog obviously needed to be written by me (as the one who was actually there!), even though lately he has taken over the reins of blogging. Thankfully he has carried on doing the monthly updates in the meantime, just not publishing them, so as not to get them out of order. So there's about to be twelve more blogs posted following on from this one... In my defence, when it came to my turn to write this blog, which was already a few months behind schedule, I was very newly pregnant. And that meant that I was really really ill and exhausted and falling asleep as soon as the boys were in bed around 8. So writing this post dropped in priority - and then, to be completely honest, I completely forgot that it was waiting for me like a great big clog in the blog pipes. A blog clog. So anyway, I'm finishing it up now, in April - over half a year from when these things happened. Which is unforgivable. But luckily, after this one the rest should fall into place written more or less when they were happening and hopefully, carrying on as such from here on out. All that is left to say is: sorry!! Super super sorry! I will try my hardest to never clog the blog again!)

July/August - our trip to America

We set off for America almost immediately after Finn finished school so as to arrive with a couple days to settle and time-adjust ourselves before the big important event of my brother Matt's wedding. The flights (it took us three) were relatively seamless - though we were all exhausted by the end. Orry crashed out on the floor of the Columbus airport while we waited for our bags to arrive - quite fittingly right in the middle of the Ohio circle :)

As much as the travelling is exhausting - it is always so good to be home. Even without doing much, it is nice just to 'be'

But we had more important things to do than just to hang around all day! We needed to get to Pittsburgh. Road trip!

It was quite a long drive, but an enjoyable one with plenty of stops and plenty of cousin car-swapping. And of course, the main event. Matt and Sarah's wedding. Which was awesome. Such a great day full of so much joy. I was so proud of my boys as well. Finn I always knew was going to be fine as a ring bearer but Orry always had a question mark. But we practiced and practiced and he pulled it off! He held Finn's hand and bravely walked down the aisle to deliver the rings. I was so happy - and he was too! 

Practice run

The real deal!

Later, at the reception, they had the boys walk in together again and Orry talked about it for weeks if not months afterwards - asking me if I remembered "when the man on the microphone said 'Finn and Orry Franklin!' and we walked down the stairs and everyone clapped and clapped." I'm glad it is such a lovely memory for him as it is a lovely memory for me. Especially as Orry is generally really shy and doesn't like doing anything in front of people. So it was a massive sigh of relief all around. And sighs of cuteness - the cousins all looked really spiffy and we got lots of lovely photos!

The wedding itself was great and the party went on with lots of dancing and joy until dark and exhaustion set in.

Unfortunately I don't have too many pictures of the wedding itself, or the very cool reception. It was at this point that our camera started really acting up and the camera on my phone was not that useful because it filled up too quickly (I broke my nice one days before we left for USA so had to get a replacement cheap one super quick just to function - and it wasn't very good). So from this point on I don't have many great photos! I've seen many of them, from my siblings etc, and I believe they have even been shared with me! But when I'm here at my computer writing, I can't seem to find them. So this blog will have to be done with a fair few gaps and missing some of the best pics. Luckily my sister has created a photo-book of this summer, so I will always have that to look back on independently when this blog fails to deliver... but anyway, I digress!

The wedding was clearly awesome and it was great to be able to see where Matt and Sarah are living and a bit of their life, as I had never had a chance before then. But they were soon to be off on their honeymoon, so we didn't stay long before we went back to Ohio. Unfortunately James wasn't able to stick around for too long so he left a bit earlier and me and the boys stayed on in Ohio for awhile more. But before he left we got a fill of Ohio goodness. Including going to visit my grandfather and creating chaos in his house with all the children! Even with the noise, it was lovely and relaxing to be there. And good for me as well as I hadn't been able to come home for the funeral when my grandmother died. So it was my chance to go into the spaces that were hers and smell her perfume and say my goodbyes in a way that I hadn't yet been able to do. I do miss being able to see Grandpa and am sad that my boys won't know him like I do - so we try and soak up as much time with him as we can, when we can!

Although I had a small list of things that I really wanted to do while we were in America, Finn had quite a long list. Luckily there were lots of simple things that were easy to accomplish (eat ice cream, go swimming etc). But absolute top of his list was, and had been for a long time, go camping.
This was James' last day in America - so he got one small taste of our not-very-rustic version of camping before he headed off. But the rest of us got to spend a few days there having a really lovely time. Again, I haven't got too many of the pictures to prove it (but I've just glanced through the book from Jaimie again and there are some brilliant ones - so I'm going to take some pictures of the book pages and post them -which means the quality isn't going to be much good, but at least the memories are saved here as well). But, even when it was raining and windy or steaming hot - it was a time etched into my memory as one of happiness and contentment.

The rest of our time in America was spent happily as well, doing normal things. The last time we had visited, we ticked through a long list of museums and heritage sites and other amazing experiences. But because we had therefore done all of those things fairly recently, this trip was more about spending time with each other while hanging out at home (especially great because my younger sister was able to come and stay for the time as well), or having a sleepover at my older sister's house, or going to the swimming pool or the zoo.

A truly joyous day was spent picking super ripe warm peaches in the morning (during which Orry managed to eat about four I think, before we even made it back to the car! He was so sticky!) and going for lunch and ice cream after. 

So nothing too dramatic - but each and every day was shared with family that we don't see very often and building up moments to cherish for a long time to come.

Our last day was spent at the splash park near to where Jaimie lives. It was one last time for lots of fun before we made our long journey back to the Isle of Man

The way back was again three flights - but this time just me and the boys. I was pretty nervous about it but it was actually pretty seamless! There was a super long wait in Dublin airport, but it was alright - the three of us just set up a little corner in an unused bit of the building, set an alarm for when we needed to get moving again, and crashed out.

Overall it was a great trip, and we've all been thinking back to it with very fond memories ever since. Can't wait to go back again!