We spent the long holiday weekend visiting my parents and vacationing on South Padre Island. We left Thursday morning and headed to Edinburg so that I could go to a client meeting for work (this allowed me to count Thursday as a day at work and still make our drive to the valley for the weekend- pretty good deal, isn't it?). I did learn that it was not the best idea to wear a black top if I was planning on having our blonde puppy lay in my lap for the 4-hour drive, nor was it worth my while to painstakingly iron my skirt which would only become a wrinkled mess by the time I arrived at the meeting. Luckily Debbie had a lint roller in her car so that helped with the little white Chihuahua hairs. After the meeting, we made the last 1.5 hour-drive and arrived at SPI; my parents had a spaghetti dinner waiting for us which was very nice.

On Friday, Phil and my dad played golf early while my mom and I did what girls do best - shopped. The four of us took one vehicle to Brownsville to save gas money, so Mom and I dropped the guys off at River Bend and headed to the shops. Brownsville has really built up since we lived there- they have a brand new shopping area which spans both sides of the freeway, with shops like Kohl's, Petsmart, Mervyn's, Sam's, Academy, TJ Maxx, and a second, and much nicer, Target. They even got their first Taco Cabana! The stores were even clean (which for Brownsville is unusual!), but that might have been due to the fact that we were shopping before the busy weekend while kids were still in school. Either way, we had a nice time, and were not ready to pick up the guys when they called at noon for us to pick them up. Alas, we cut our shopping trip short and picked them up (although not soon enough if the guys were to tell the story- you should have heard Phil's response when I told him we had just stopped at a garage sale on the way- it wasn't joy in his voice that I heard!). We spent the rest of the day basking in the sun poolside, and had some delicious Reuben sandwiches for dinner.

Saturday was another day of relaxation by the pool and on the beach. We met Dad at the dock at noon after his fishing charter and Mom cleaned his boat so that we could all go out to lunch afterward! This has been the deal ever since I was a young "Boat Girl"-- although back then I used to get $5 in addition to free lunch for washing his boat. These days, getting fish guts on my hands just isn't worth the $5 to me. But hey, I can't knock the job where I earned enough money to buy my first pair of rollerblades, and many many many rides on the Bungee Trampoline.

Saturday evening we attended the wedding of our high school friend, Molly, to her fiancee Jerry. They actually live in San Antonio since Molly just finished up law school at STMU so we hope to be able to have them over for dinner soon. Although come to think of it, we know they got lots of cool wedding presents (like that food processor we got them) and probably want to try them out, so maybe they should cook for us! Haha, okay maybe I am just trying to get out of one of my least favorite tasks, cooking. I guess we could just barbeque for them, since then Phil would be the one to cook.

Their wedding was really wonderful. The setting was very whimsical- outdoors on the resaca of The Inn of Chachalaca Bend. They had lanterns strung from the trees, and the ceremony was on the dock at the water's edge. They had really cute touches like polaroid cameras for the guest book and really personalized programs with history and personal notes about the guests, family, wedding party, and bride and groom. The groom's cake was even 3D and shaped like an airplane since Jerry will be a pilot "when he grows up". Debbie who made the cakes is the same person who made my Barbie cake as a child, so I knew she would do a great job (this was before they sold them at HEB! At the time it was a huge deal and I was so so so excited about it).

My parents and Phil and I got dressed up in "elegant garden party" attire and we really enjoyed ourselves. We got to see some of our high school friends that we haven't seen in almost 10 years (yes, our 10 year reunions are quickly approaching!) so that was really fun. Freddy was there as well and he is fun to see as always; he was running late getting to the valley as he had driven from Austin that afternoon, stopping in Laguna Vista to change into his suit for the wedding. The ceremony was scheduled to begin at 6:00 and luckily for Freddy the ceremony did not actually start until almost 6:45. He showed up just as the ceremony was starting... actually, he walked down the aisle to be seated after all the wedding party had walked to their spots at the altar to the tune of the stringed quartet, and just before Molly was to make her entrance on her father's arm. Actually, everyone was already standing to see the bride for the first time, and here came Freddy running down the aisle, trying to be inconspicuous but of course not able to since everyone was looking that direction! Anyway, Molly was very excited to see him so she didn't mind one bit (lucky for him)!

My parents left the wedding around 10:00 but Phil and I stayed until almost midnight, since Freddy had offered to drive us back to the island afterward. While driving down Padre Blvd. on the island, Freddy and Philip decided on a whim to stop at Recoil which is the bungee tower where he worked all through college. While Phil caught up with his old co-workers, Freddy and I decided to ride the Reverse Bungee. It was so much fun, even though I had ridden before. I didn't remember it doing so many turns and lasting so long, so that was a great surprise. And actually, we watched the next few people ride, and theirs didn't seem to flip as much as ours. But I think our screaming as we were propelled up into the sky was good for business, because the line got pretty long shortly thereafter. Then, Phil decided to bungee jump! He has jumped hundreds of times before, but it has been almost 5 years since he worked there when he used to jump so frequently. I think they tested him by having him hook up his own harness just to see if he remembered how. Hopefully they double checked his work!

I tried to get some photos but I clearly have some work to do in learning how to take good night-time photos, especially at a distance where the flash doesn't work. If anyone has tips (other than buying a new camera), please share.

On Sunday, we spent the day again taking long walks on the beach (one with and one without Cooper- he would start sprinting as soon as he hit the sand and tire out so quickly that we would have to pick him up about half way through and carry him, so during our second walk that afternoon, we left him at the condo with my parents where he could rest). We got plenty of sun, but neither of us came back sunburnt! I think we are learning how to do this whole tanning thing. We decided to head back to SA after dinner yesterday evening so that Phil could work on a big presentation he has to make on tomorrow at work. He was thinking about it all weekend so we wanted to be sure he had time to tweak and prepare it before Tuesday. We left the island around 8:00pm and had no idea that the traffic would be as bad as it was! We sat in traffic all the way down Padre Blvd. and then all the way across the causeway! Luckily, we had a delicious treat to help soothe our frustrations. Cooper even had a few bites, but it turned out when the ice cream got drippy and I accidentally dropped a pretty large spoonfull down his back, he wasn't too thrilled. He didn't even let me try to lick it off. And since it was Blue Bell, I might have tried. This brand of ice cream alone may keep me in Texas for all my life. YUM!