Continued

Left off on Tuesday, which was one of the only calm days we had. We took the girls to the beach & swam in the Gulf & then sat around on the decks, drank beer, talked & relaxed with the sound of the sea beside us. It was lovely and very much needed.


Can you believe they are 7 and 4 already?
Wednesday, the first of the extended family arrived – my cousin Kathleen from Los Angeles.

Cousin Kathleen.
Also on Wednesday, Emmett, my sister, the girls & I spent the day on Galveston’s historic downtown area called the Strand. We took the girls to the Pirate museum, at lunch at Yaga’s Cafe (Yummy!), and went to an old fashioned ice cream shop called LA’s. We also got their pictures taken at one of those old fashioned photo places. Yeah..that started as $10 worth of fun & wound up costing a whole lot more! But so worth it. The pictures are effing hilarious. See my point below.

Maybe the funniest of the bunch!

After all of that fun, we went back to the beach for the evening & caught up with Kathleen & my (not really) cousin Bruce, who had arrived from his short trip to New Orleans.

Amaya & Bruce building sand castles
Thursday, we headed out early to pick up Darnell at Hobby Airport & then headed over to the suit place to grab those. We all assumed this was going to be an easy thing…HA! It was the start of the second round of drama. The store we had ordered the suits from was in Austin, we instructed them to send them to Houston, which was the closest location to Galveston. The first problem was that the store in Austin told us to go to the wrong Houston location. So we drove almost 30 miles out of the way. The lady at that location assured us that they would be at the other location, so we headed there. Once there, we met Shannon. And Shannon was just lovely. She informed us that the suits weren’t there yet, and that Darnell’s suit had actually been sent to the store in Austin & wouldn’t be there until the next day. And then she proceeded to get a really nasty attitude with all of us – especially my dad which is a HUGE no no. Anyway, she told us that we could go back to get Emmett & my dad’s suits that night & return for Darnell’s the next day. After that, my dad headed back to Austin for the night & we took Darnell out to late lunch/dinner at our favorite Galveston restaurant – Fisherman’s Wharf.

View into the shipyard from Fisherman’s Wharf

Darnell reuniting with my dad
We did some catching up there & then headed back to the beach house so he could see everyone. That night my cousin Brenda & Lorinda also got into town so that evening was spent at the beach & then catching up back at the house.

Friday, we got up early & took Darnell to Whataburger (they don’t have them in Ohio so he was super excited)! He made at least 10 friends there & caught the itis from his first Whataburger experience.


The itis

After that, we headed back to the suit store to meet back up with the lovely Shannon. What a disaster. Everything was there, but lo and behold nothing fit. Everything was at least a size too small & Darnell looked like he was straight out of Miami Vice. Emmett looked like he could have done one hulk move & busted right out of his suit coat. Again, Shannon got major attitude with us & told us how much easier it would have been for her had we come back the night before & I’d finally had it with her nastiness. I told her to refund everything & we’d go find something somewhere else. So, there we were at 1pm, an hour or so away from where we were staying, with no suits & the rehearsal was to start at 530. Luckily, this area of Houston had a Sears, Macys & Dillards all in one spot & we managed to find matching suits for everyone. Actually, not suits. Dress pants & shirt, suits & belts. We had already provided the flip flops as footwear, so at least that was done. It was seriously insane though, and I have no idea how I didn’t start to lose my shit at that point.

We finally headed back to Galveston at about 2pm. We showered & got everyone ready to meet at the venue for the rehearsal. Originally, the wedding was to be on the beach but a hurricane was in the Gulf that weekend & the beach was completely flooded & waterlogged. So, we had the rehearsal in the parking lot of the venue. It was awesome for everyone to meet Emmett’s family finally. We had Emmett’s olest sister Mary Kate perform the ceremony & his sister Mary Clare (a professional opera singer) & his nephew Conner were our musicians. Also at the rehearsal, I finally got to see 2 of my closest friends again! Kelyn moved to Dallas about 2 months ago, & Kacey moved back to Phoenix just a week or so later. That was such a happy moment to be reunited with everyone & then BAM. The lady from the venue who gave us all the issues pulls in & starts to get nasty because we weren’t supposed to be on the venue’s property. The minute my mother saw her though, it was on. We confronted her on all of the crap she had fed us, the attitude we got for having the rehearsal there, etc etc. I don’t want to get into it anymore. Needless to say it was dramatic, but we got the rehearsal done minus bridesmaid Laura & her fiancee Brent who were stuck in Atlanta. After the rehearsal, we all headed back to the beach house for a party. Everyone got to know each other & my friends Isadora & Lisa arrived from Cleveland so I got to reunite with them too! It really was awesome for everyone from both sides to get to hang out & mingle so there wasn’t any nervousness at the wedding. Around 11 that night, Laura & Brent finally arrived, so we caught up with them until about 130 & finally got to bed before the big day Saturday.