New York, New York

For the Fourth of July weekend we drove up from Jacksonville to New York for a traditional Myers / Caires bbq. Where else would we be?

On the way up and down, we stopped for the night in North Carolina and spent some time with Liz and Tarik, and finally got to meet their little girl, Isabel. Isabel is bright-eyed and talkative, and enchanted with her Weeble Wobbles. Sophie spent a lot of time playing with her, and cooing, "I just love babies!" Daniel, on the other hand, nearly took Isabel's head off with a hurled empty plastic soda bottle. In his defense, he was aiming for Sophie.



When we got to New York, the Wades welcomed us into their home and we spent some time with them before they, too, went on vacation, and left us the house for the long weekend. Sophie and Violet immediately went into dress-up mode. Daniel was more interested in Brad's drum set. This made his Daddy very happy, as Daniel has often declared his desire to have his toenails painted purple, just like Sophie's. Very metrosexual of him, I suppose, but unlikely to go over very well in the South.


Saturday night and Sunday were all bbq, all the time. Well, we did go to church on Sunday. Sophie reunited with her old friend, Elena. In their newfound maturity, neither of them wore their tiaras to church. Many of our ACC friends joined us for meat, meat, more meat, a little beer (see incriminating evidence of underage drinking below), and an impromptu speaker war with our neighbors, who wanted to listen to Michael Jackson instead of Ryan and Janellie's eighties playlist. Out of deference, we let the Great Gloved One win.

Darcy in his rightful spot as Grill Master

Fernando, Greg, and Lara Sweatin' to the Eighties

Alejandra, Baby James ("Quattro") Hicklin, Ryan. Alejandra used to babysit Sophie and Daniel, and will soon be watching James. James is wearing his Brasil onesie and coordinating plug.

Ryan and Eddie, Alejandra's husband

The former Book Study girls.
Top row: Jin and Annie; Bottom row: Sylvie, Sophie, Carrie

Laurel, Sophie and Daniel relaxing on the hammock. Laurel is Baby James' mother, and aunt to Sophie's family of yarn Octopuses. One of them used to be a girl, but underwent a sex change so he could change his name to James and marry the other (female) octopus, Trolley, and they could have a baby together. Confused? So are we. But probably not nearly as confused as the Octopuses.

Aunty Cris and Daniel, in his Brasil shirt. Aunty Cris dresses all the kids.

Carrie and Lucinda

Janellie channeling Beyonce: "Put a ring on it!" Janellie almost got to bookend our blog today, to make up for the fact that she was our longest visitor in Hawaii, but didn't get a photo on our last Hawaii blog. But the final photo honor goes to Baby James and Papa Blaine, for reasons that I believe are obvious.


And that, folks, is how to have a party.