Time With the Boys

It is no secret that I thrive on time spent with the boys.  (If you didn't know this, are we friends?  Have you read anything I've posted before?  Do I know you?)  Never in a million years did I think I'd ever be saying I thrive on time spent with the boys, but I do.  It makes my heart happy to have a bunch of boys over and listen to their crazy shenanigans.  We recently started watching Sons of Anarchy.  I absolutely adore this show.  Bad boys, vigilante justice, taking care of family, bikes, leather, the list goes on and on.  I turn into a child when I watch tv.  I keep begging Dave to let me have a biker gang now.  If I was a little lighter and could get away with it I'd dress like Gemma.  I love that she is the mother hen of the group of misfits.  She has given me the term "family dinner."  I know lots of people have family dinners with their blood relatives, but her family dinner means a dinner with the biker gang family.  My "family dinner" will henceforth be my group of boys, whoever that happens to be at the time.  My group of boys evolves a little each year.  It also depends on who is available and in the area.

Our tradition began in the good ol' USMC.  The first year we were married we spent Easter in DC and had Bynum and Martin over.  It was a fun time.  Favorite memories include: the jug of wine which tasted horrible and now that it is empty serves as our change collection jar and the two candlesticks that are still covered in wax from the boys getting bored and playing with the candles.  It is from this first gathering that the tradition has evolved.  Every time we stayed at our duty station for a holiday instead of driving home we would invite boys over to enjoy the holiday with us.  We have continued this tradition here in Alabama too.  We gathered at the in-laws house for Easter and it made my heart happy to have some boys over to enjoy the day with us. 

Our Easter tree at the in-laws.  Cute, huh?

We had a wonderful dinner and great desserts.  The boys definitely didn't go hungry.  I'd say they enjoyed it...

Post dinner nap time.

I spent the day how I always do when my boys get together~behind the camera trying to catch the best moments on film.  If there is a video involved then I am laughing as it records.  My boys are the best...even if they argue about being boys and insist they are grown men.  They may be grown men, but to me they'll always be boys at heart.  Spend 5 minutes with them and I dare you to disagree.  They know I love each of them dearly.

Another event with the boys was The Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish Boil.  They do boil crawfish, and the boys ate some, but mostly it is an excuse to gather in downtown Birmingham to pay too much for beer and watch great artists and mediocre artists perform.  It is a two day event, although we only went Friday night despite my begging to go see Nelly Saturday night.  I heard something about me being old and ghetto for liking Nelly.  *Let's pause while I sing Ride With Me and relive memories of me driving the Toyota Corolla with beads hanging from the rear view mirror.  Ok, we can move on now.*  What lured me in to the Crawfish Boil was that Sublime featuring Rome (their new lead singer) would be performing.  Dave and I have seen a Sublime tribute band play a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed it so we couldn't pass up a chance to catch the real deal (sorta).  Sublime was cool, but they played a lot of newer songs instead of the good ol' songs we love.  Overall, great performance and the new stuff sounded great, but I missed some of my oldies, but goodies.  Dave was stoked that Weezer would be performing.  Oh my goodness did I have a blast!  I knew I knew Weezer's songs, but until they came out on stage I had kind of forgotten who they were.  The opening number, Hashpipe, played and I was like "oh, I remember these guys they're really cool."  Weezer put on a fantastic show.  I should mention this show was the week the tornadoes had come through Alabama.  The tornadoes hit on a Wednesday and the concert was Friday.  The Crawfish Boil was taking up donations for the Red Cross at the event and all of the performers made sure to let us know they wanted us to have a good time.  Weezer showed us they meant what they said.  I would definitely go see them perform again.  Really cool.  Here is my newest favorite pic of Dave and I.

And one more of me and one of the boys.

Our most recent adventure was a night with the boys during Memorial Day weekend.  A friend that is now a Marine was able to come home for the weekend and we invited Matt over for some of the fun too.  In true "time with the boys" style we had a blast.  I came out from the bathroom to find this:

Boy can't be left alone.  I know this, yet I do it every time.  Lucky for me they only used up all my tin foil and didn't burn down the house or anything.  Life is an adventure, live it up, and have lots of laughs.