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kay’s christening
A special christening for a special baby girl who’s family comes in to NY from their home in Chicago for each of their children’s baptisms. Last time it was their twin girls being baptized at their grandmother’s parish in Queens, and this time it was their newest baby Kay being baptized in her grandfather’s parish in Brooklyn. (there is a chance that I might have the grandparents and their parishes interchanged, so just bear with me on those details!) Like last time, there was family joining them all the way from Ireland to celebrate their day. Its always great to see the whole family, and thank you Eileen for being patient waiting for your pictures!
Beautiful church, beautiful baby.
Godmother.
Proud parents and godparents.
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back to school- timmy’s first day of 3rd grade
And so it begins. I was less than happy when the alarm clock rang at 8am today (although I was sleeping that fitful sleep when you know you have to wake up and keep waking up to make sure you don’t oversleep). And if I thought 8am was a problem, wait until tomorrow when Jack & Patrick have to be up at 6am.
Timmy was not thrilled to be done with summer and starting a new school year, but I think within the first week he’ll come around.
Since the big boys don’t start until tomorrow, they decided to come along this morning to drop off Timmy. So sweet- they are such good big brothers. When they’re not all fighting.
Timmy and Olivia in class together. So glad to see them together again (they’ve known each other since they were a few months old- Olivia is Timmy’s gymboree friend!)
Timmy and one of his besties James in the same class, too. So happy!!
Only 180 more wake ups to go. -
playgroup (the crew) now & then
When Jack & Patrick were 3 months old we started going to Gymboree in Oceanside where we met the most amazing group of people, both babies and adults. We started a weekly playgroup hardly knowing each other and we would go to each of our houses once a week on Fridays to hang out with the babies and each other. We always had so much fun, had each other to lean on, to ask questions, to cry on, and mostly to laugh.
The best part? We’re still all friends! Thats 14 years worth of friendship, even through the birth of a zillion more babies (ok, so 12 additional babies between us after the original group of 7), a few moves- two of which were far out of state, the death of a spouse (and we still love our David stories!) and years apart because we were all so busy with our 900 children, jobs, schools, volunteering, laundry and just life. Thankfully, Jennifer put together a bbq at her house a few weeks ago and most of us (all of us who still live in NY) were able to make it. Which was like a miracle in itself. We had a great night, laughing as usual, and just being in disbelief of how the kids are all still the same as they were when they were babies. We promised that we would get together more often as our oldest- the original crew- start high school this year. A far cry from classes with the Gymboree teacher (who reminded us all of Salma Hayak in the movie 54)!
This was how it all started. They were all around 5-8 months here. Jack, Connor, Beau, Ryan, Kerrin, Molly, Patrick.
Then at around 3 years old. Back row: Connor, Jack, Patrick, Beau. Front row: Molly, Kerrin, Ryan. Omg, the cutest!!!
And two weeks ago! Kerrin, Beau, Patrick, Jack & Molly. And really, none of them look very different than they did at 3. 
Celeste and her girls Ryan and Peyton now live in Georgia, but this was a picture of them from summer of 2012 down in Atlanta. 
The boys and Connor right before they moved to Michigan. 
Beau, Jack, Patrick and Connor around a year old.
Connor, Patrick and Jack (iphone pic) from their visit to NY in early August. 
Spencer (often known as Finster around here cause my boys couldn’t pronounce Spencer when they were little, and that’s what it sounded like), Patrick, Connor, Jack, Katie (my one and only goddaughter) and Timmy.
Katie, Spencer, Connor, Patrick, Jack and Timmy. Katie has the right idea standing far away from the lunatics. 
There was always tuna at playgroup. 
And the whole NY crew now. Back row: Ali, Bridget, Kerrin, Beau, Patrick, Jack, Molly. Middle row: Mac, Joey. Front row: Eli, Teddy, Timmy, Luke & Johnny. 
We’re hoping to get everyone together at some point before they graduate high school. We’ve got 4 years. Make it happen!
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the 36th annual beyrer family fishing trip (meaning softball game. of course.)
Right after we got home from our California & Arizona adventures, we went to the annual Pt. Lookout family reunion. Which is still called the fishing trip. But there is no fishing, only softball. You understand completely now, right?
Most of the whole motley crew that was there. From the left, back row: baby Matthew, held by his grandma Maureen, Laura, Sean, Chris, Kevin, holding Gabby, Bobby, Tim, Inez, Dick, John, Grandpa Jack & me. front row: Timmy, Brendan (kneeling), Quinn, Joe, Danny, Aidan, Sean, Patrick & Jack.
Some of the game mixed in with some of the scenes at the field. 
Inez was laughing cause her godson (Patrick) is soooo much taller than her now.
Think its pretty funny how 3 out of the 4 Beyrers pictured have their hands on their hips. 
Yeah, you don’t juggle. 
Some of the cousins. A few were missing but the ones that were there were pretty cute.
Thanks Uncle Dick and Aunt Cathy for another year of fun! -
summer baseball trip- arizona (sedona, grand canyon, phoenix & diamondbacks)
On the morning of 8/11 we took the long, long drive from Anaheim to Sedona, Arizona. 8+ hours of cacti, desert and much more greenery than I had ever expected. (this is going to be a long post, so get comfy)
Dust devil- had no idea what this was and had to google it from the road. Auntie Em, Auntie Em! Saw a bunch of them between CA and AZ. 
I didn’t get a picture of the Agua Fria sign that was by the “river” on the right side, but only the national monument sign. But kind of ironic, no? There was certainly NO agua, and there was definitely NO fria- it was 113 degrees. 
Made it to Sedona. Gorgeous!!
Its a truly beautiful place but so not for us. With John’s back we can’t do any hiking (not that we’re much for the hiking anyway) and can’t do the Jeep tours. And it’s all artsy and stuff. Definitely not Beyrer territory. But it does make for good pictures.We were booked into the Best Western and John upgraded us to a townhouse which was great. There was a babbling brook running thru the backyard below the mountains. (that was probably actually agua fria, but we didn’t go down. I have no idea what’s poison ivy or poison oak and if snakes live around there. So not a nature girl!) The best part for me was the washer/dryer in the townhouse and I caught up on all our laundry. We were going on 2 weeks with only one laundry stop before this!
View from the hotel. 
Patrick.
Jack.
Me!
Sunset. Perfect timing!
John.
Thanks for the pictures, Patrick!
No one will ever say my kids aren’t classy. And you can just barely see the outline of the mountains in the dark. 
Best skies, too.
We grabbed some dinner at the Cowboy Club in Sedona. And ice cream for dessert. It wasn’t carvel, but still good!
Hey there Tex. Or for you fellow Walking Dead fans…”Stay in the house, Carl!!!”
The next morning we left Sedona and drove the 2.5+hrs to the Grand Canyon (south rim) to go check that out. It was so much greener and prettier than I thought it would be. 
Reminded me of the mountain in Close Encounters a little.
As we were arriving I asked if there was a drive thru Grand Canyon. Apparently, there is not. But we did get out of the car to go check it out for literally 20 minutes. 
It was really pretty, but I’m kinda convinced that the whole thing is painted and is an optical illusion. It just doesn’t look real!
Top of the world, ma! The elevation on the trip was 7,000+ plus as opposed to like 15 feet in rvc. Definitely took some getting used to. 
Sky like Andy’s room wallpaper.
And then after our abbreviated Clark Griswald-esque visit to the Grand Canyon for 20 minutes, it was back on the road for the almost 4hr drive to go to Phoenix. They had a game to catch!
The thing I noticed most on the trip was the light being so different than home. It was a lighter light. Or something. Cleaner maybe? I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was but it was beautiful. And the skies are way bluer. 
As we arrived in Phoenix from the lovely 77 degrees at the Grand Canyon, it was 113. And then at 8pm, it was 101. Wtf? My first thing I said to my friend Debbie (who I haven’t spoken on the phone with in at least 12 years and now lives in Phoenix) before even saying hello, was “how the hell do you even live here??” It was like hell with that heat. You could feel the heat baking out of the pavement at night after the sun was down. The water in the pool was like pee. You can’t touch the car doors without leaving a layer of skin on the handle. I was not digging that at all.The boys enjoyed the Diamondback’s game which is air conditioned. I put the air on in the room at 60. Oh, and John said I should have gone cause they had sushi. Yeah, NOooooooo.
We spent our last day with my high school friend Debbie and her husband Fritz who welcomed us into their home for the day (refugees that we were) with a/c. Lots of laughs and catching up and even an early dinner out. We got to the airport (the Phoenix INTERNATIONAL airport, mind you) at 9:15pm. There was no one there. There was no one anywhere. Its like a ghost town. They told us that all the restaurants are closed “at this late hour”. Wtf- late hour? Its 9pm!! (Can you even imagine that happening at JFK?) We walked thru security with absolutely no line. So bizarre. Took the redeye home (not a fan) and small world sat next to someone from RVC who now lives in Arizona. What are the odds there? She is the cousin of a few of my clients and we have a few mutual friends- of course we are now Facebook friends (*waving*- Hi Cathy!!) None of us really slept on the flight so we were all really wrecked for the next two days.It was an awesome trip (except for the baseball for me) and I’m so glad we made it. It was a little iffy with Patrick still puking the night before our early morning flight out. I really loved it out west, but can’t be happier living in NY (ok, ask me again in January when I’m miserably freezing).