Rhode Island

This past weekend I took my first trip to Rhode Island to see my cousin Kev marry his lady love, Jess. We went to Newport where they were married in an outdoor ceremony in a setting that bordered on unreal at Castle Hill Inn. I am not sure I can put into words the love I have for weddings in general, but especially family weddings. Everytime I think I have overestimated how awesome my family is we have a weekend like this. We, literally, danced the entire night. There were multiple circles with some crazy moves happening in the middle. In fact, we got so into the dancing that my brother managed to convince the supervisor to allow some of the servers to dance with us in a dance off. They absoloutely wiped the floor with us, so it wasn't much of a dance off. When the people running the show finally realized we would never stop on our own they politely reminded us that we had to leave eventually. We listened, kind of. After a quick stop to change into our jammies, we then headed to a jazz bar on the beach and when THAT closed we decided to keep the party rockin on the beach where we got up a game of night volleyball. The next morning over breakfast we found out my cousins got pulled over for WALKING UNDER THE INFLUENCE, the cops flashed their lights and everything. True Story! To recap....amazing!

Sealing it with a kiss..

The Elmendorfs, all dressed up

All the female cousins, first time in over a decade....and the gang right after the worst game in history ended

It's that time of year...

...when the reports from training camps start coming in, predictions start heating up and I usually start getting pumped for the football season right around the corner. I am feeling very sorry for myself and sad about the upcoming football season. As a hardcore Bengals fan, not to mention season ticket holder, I love everything about football season and am very sad that I am going to be gone for this upcoming season. All reports have the Bengals looking strong for this fall and I am not sure how many games I will get home for, or even how many I will be able to see on television. So I will gather what information I can off the internet and dutifully write the schedule on my calender as I convince myself that this year is THE year even though I'm bummed that it may, finally, happen in my absence. While it may be bittersweet I hereby swear to wear my black and orange every Sunday in support of the amazing things about to happen in the jungle.