The Beginning of Summer

It has been awhile since I have had time to sit and type up a blog post. Summer has started with its weekend festivals, travel, and fun.

Two weekends ago Haley and I drove over 700 miles between Friday and Monday because she had gigs in NY and PA and her friend, Mackenzie from Swannanoa Gathering (who lives in CO) was visiting NYC so we just had to spend a wonderful day in the city with her and her grandmother. Our weekend started with a drive to NY for a fiddle lesson with Brian then into Queens we went for a really fun gig with John Whelan. It was John and Haley's first "duet" gig on their own. We arrived early to see if they needed sound in the newly remodeled Irish Center. The room was smallish and the sound good without mics so we went for dinner at a local diner then back to the Irish Center where Haley and John worked up a set list. They had a nice crowd for the concert…some people we knew, including Haley's best Swannanoa friend, Mackenzie, who was visiting NYC from CO, and some new people we'd not met before.

Haley and John sounded great together! John is fun and Haley loves playing with him.

We drove home after the concert in preparation for the next adventure on our weekend calendar….an AOH Montgomery County Festival in PA. We didn't get home until after 1am but it couldn't be helped. We needed Dylan for the AOF festival and since he started his first job on Saturday, he could not go to NYC with us.

The Montgomery County AOH members have been huge supporters of Haley and her friends who have gone to Ireland over the past few years. Haley and the boys performed for them as a "Thank you" for all their support! The festival was well attended and the kids had fun playing together.

Dylan accompanying the Converse Trio.

The Converse Trio and Dylan…though Haley found some great shoes that are not Converse!

Afterward they took a few promo shots for their upcoming gigs together….this was not one of them but it is funny!

Immediately after the festival performance, we headed back to NJ where Daddy picked up Dylan then Haley and I headed back up to NY to spend the night in preparation for our day of "girl fun" with Mackenzie and her grandmother, Rebecca. What started out as a rainy drive into the city on Monday morning, quickly cleared up and we had a great day! We walked around the city, went to the Juilliard school gift shop so Mackenzie could find a souvenir, and did a lot of shopping.

We walked past Carnegie Hall and we found this amazing little (very expensive) shop called Mackenzie's Child. They have really cute things. The girls pretended to have a tea party. One lady who worked in the shop said they used to have tea parties for kids using their products in the shop but don't anymore.

My boys are finishing up school next week. Newt is graduating and will head off to college at WVU while Haley and I are in Ireland for this year's All Ireland competition. We traveled down for his new student orientation this past week. Newt and I took turns driving down on Thursday while Haley rode in the back. We checked into a hotel, had dinner at a delicious authentic Mexican restaurant, then took a walk around campus to check things out.

Orientation began early on Friday morning. I spent the entire day fluctuating between being excited for Newt as he begins this new chapter of his life and being sad that he's leaving us and I won't be as big a part of his life ever again. We were all together for part of the day and they took the students into other rooms for other parts. Newt changed his major, got his classes chosen, and we got a few T-shirts (most free!) before riding the bus back to the car. Before driving home, we stopped to see if we could make contact with a wrestling coach and happened to find an assistant coach in his office. After a brief talk, we headed home. It's a long-ish drive but an easy drive.

This weekend we stayed a bit closer to home.

Saturday was the one and only trio practice before we head to Ireland. The kids worked on some recall tunes for a couple hours then we all went downstairs for the session at Fergies.

Sunday was concert #2 of the Sligo-Bound Six (Haley and her five friends from the Philadelphia Region heading to the All Ireland competition) fundraising concert series. The kids played a concert and we had a chance auction with some wonderful gifts donated by area businesses. We had a good turnout of people and it was a nice day.