I have some intention to organize photos and give a succinct blog post for various family events. And then, at a certain point (generally while avoiding the situation in the kitchen) I just give up and look through all the pictures I can find, pick the ones I like, and figure I'll tell the back story as I go along. Originally, I had a lot of pictures for this post (I still do), but I realized that I could actually make this just about Will's First Communion weekend and keep the rest for a future post. Which will come at some point before the post that will come immediately after that one.
A few weeks ago we celebrated Will's First Communion. In Florida fashion and due to the fact that we do not have a whole lot of room, we rented a beach house in Destin to host the family that was able to make the trip. This has worked out so well, that we will most likely do it again next year despite the fact we have no 1st Communions coming up. Just let us know if you want in!
One might think that when one is not hosting in one's own home, one does not have a whole lot of prep. One would be incorrect in this assumption. Not only does one feel a need to get one's home in some sort of presentable order for the small amount of time everyone will be there, one has to pack for themselves, their children, and in an attempt to avoid the tourist prices of Destin, one's entire kitchen. At least it felt like I packed the entire kitchen. Turned out, I didn't, since I still needed to go to the store a couple of times. I did delegate packing to my children a bit. This has always had mixed results. Dom once did not pack pajamas, and this time, Will did not pack shorts. But, as we were on the beach and swimming trunks resemble shorts adequately...this did not really pose a problem. Now, packing for a trip is tricky enough without the resident 2-year-old following along and unpacking everything (perhaps this is what happened to Will's shorts?), so, I put Will in charge of his entertainment. Worked pretty well, except I wasted valuable time watching them interact and taking pictures here and there. At any rate, we made it to the beach house eventually, and had a marvelous time.
Living hundreds of miles away from grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins means that it is a very rare occurrence to have family at sports events. Dom and Will were so excited that they had a baseball game on the weekend everyone was in town and practiced extra hours on their hitting to up their chances of making it to base when they had a solid fan base. Their hard work paid off and each had success at bat. Unfortunately, Will's double turned into an out due to miscommunication and the fact he had not had a hit in 6 games. But, it was a beautiful hit. Fortunately, Dom scored the winning run in our first victory of the season (that came during our last game). As we comforted Will for his out and miss-called final strike (he'd actually tipped the ball, but the ump didn't hear it), Dom regaled everyone over and over and over and over again on his great at-bats. It is a tricky thing to navigate comforting one and celebrating the other. But, the situation provided a wonderful life lesson. And, for Dom, a wonderful childhood memory.
Anecdote: As we were driving back and talking about the game, Dom wanted to know if his hit and winning run helped Will feel better. Will replied: Actually, having Peter in the dugout made me feel better. We are very glad that Peter made the trip to be here for Will's First Communion. They have a special friendship that I hope continues over the years.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing and going to the pool gearing up for the next day. Will had been placed as the first to receive Holy Communion. He was very nervous and we practiced with him, he was ready, but he could not muster much of a smile before Mass.
Or during Mass:
Once Mass was over (and he did a perfect job in receiving Communion), and he could hang out with his boys, Will relaxed a great deal.
He started to crack a bit of a smile with his Godparents, Megan and Stephen, who made the trip with Cousin Zachary. He loves talking to Uncle Stephen about all things Mario. Think Dom with sports, that is Will with Mario.
And then Molly got into the mix and he basically was laughing the rest of the day.
Eric leads the boys into the parking lot. Trouble...oh, no wait, Molly isn't with them.
We stopped at Publix to pick up the celebratory cake and a few other items that I left in my kitchen. I just wanted a picture of these two next to small palm trees. They are giants!
Molly already changed before we got back and John was asleep...so no family picture on the big day, but I got one with the older three...Molly kind of forced her way in.
I do love his smile.
After a late lunch, we packed up and headed to the beach. Where I got my one picture of Zachary. Poor guy was sick for a good portion of the trip. But, I think he enjoyed the beach.
John eventually woke up and quickly became absorbed in the golf game that Grandpa was watching. I mean, there was a ball involved...so...And I took the opportunity to get a profile pic, that I have every intention to use to get a silhouette picture. And I will, because I always follow through on these things. I even know exactly where I will put it. Actually, I want to get silhouettes of all the kids at this point in their lives. Just wanted to share that. Now keep me accountable.
I love pictures of people looking out to sea. This is particularly great for kids since you don't need to get them all looking at the same place and forcing smiles.
I might even get around to printing this. I actually have a frame for it. I just need to find some other pictures and print them, too. Maybe when Mitzi comes to town I will do this. Or not. It's okay.
We finally broke out the cake after polishing off some leftovers. I know it looks tiny. That's because it is tiny. But, we were all so stuffed, that I think everyone got as much as they wanted. Maybe not Peter, he was pretty concerned about the size of the cake. But, he got over it, because he is an awesome kid. We finished out the evening with cards and a walk on the beach.
It was a really wonderful weekend and we are so glad that so many people came for Will's First Communion. Even if a small virus was left behind as a souvenir. But, that is for another post.
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