Derek's 26th and a mini family reunion

I apologize for not writing in a while, but last week was pretty busy as I did last minute birthday shopping for my hubby and we got ready to head down to Dauphin Island for Derek's cousin Joey's wedding... so here goes the recap. There will be a lot of pics, so just bear with me.

Thursday night we went out with some friends to (where else) the Bulldog for drinks to celebrate Derek's big 2-6 a few days early. His actual birthday was Sunday, but since we were going to be out of town, we thought we'd just make it a four-day celebration by kicking it off on Thursday. It also didn't hurt that we were both off on Friday. After the Bulldog, Derek, Katherine, John, Will and I went to Que Sera for some live music and what we thought would be some good raw oysters. The music proved to be great, but the oysters not so much. We had a good time regardless. Here we are on the patio, then here's Derek taking his pre-birthday birthday shot. Ugh... makes me want to gag just thinking about it.

So Friday we woke up feeling not so great, even though we were home at 10:00 on Thursday night. We got packed and jumped in the car with Derek's parents to head down to Dauphin Island. As I mentioned before, it was Joey's wedding weekend, so we had the pleasure of catching up with Derek's grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and more cousins. It really was a mini family reunion, especially since we really only see everyone at weddings these days.

Friday was a rainy day, so once we got to the beach, we just got ready for dinner and headed over to PawPaw Billy and MeMe Lou's house. They retired to Dauphin Island years ago, and I can't think of a better place to be. It's so quiet and laid-back down there. We went to dinner at the Country Club, and then we headed back to our hotel to meet up with everyone else. We decided to find a bar, and lucky for us, there was one right across the street. It was called the Oar House (which was pretty clever, we thought) and it was built like a treehouse. They had some decent live music and cold beer, so we stayed out for a while just catching up with Uncle Rusty.

On Saturday, we headed to the beach when we got up and moving. The beach was packed, and the sun was super hot, so we only stayed down there for a few hours. But what a great place for people-watching! We actually saw a real mullet, complete with the blue jean shorts to make the look complete...

Here are a few more pics of our fun in the sun... Ryan Hadley eating Fritos on Aunt Katie's towel and Gary putting the finishing touches on his sand castle.

Saturday night was Joey's big event, which was held on the pier overlooking the ocean. It was very beautiful with the sun setting and a nice breeze keeping us all from sweltering. Here's a pic of the happy couple.
Here are a couple more photos from the wedding and the reception... the Grey kids (minus Ryan), Ryan Hadley with Uncle Derek, and Derek's mom with her brothers and sisters. As you can see, I was a little camera-happy this weekend, but aren't you glad I gave you plenty to look at in this blog? :)

After the wedding soiree, a big group of us headed back to the Oar House for a bluegrass band that was SO MUCH FUN! They were great, and we had two tables right at the front. And lucky for Derek, apparently the first weekend in August is a popular time because the band sang happy birthday to about five people. Here's Derek enjoying his moment on the stage. Ha!

After the bar closed, Derek and I decided we'd head to the pier to share the birthday bottle of champagne Katie bought him. We sat up until about 3 a.m. talking with Derek's aunt and uncle about what life was like when they were growing up. We had such a good time, but by that time we had been celebrating Derek's birthday for what felt like 72 hours, so we called it a night.

Even thought his actual birthday was spent riding back from the beach, I think he had a good weekend, and it's always good to see family, regardless of the occasion.

So cheers to Joey and Angela as they enjoy their first week as newlyweds, and cheers to Derek for growing yet another year older! A good time was had by all, and I think we should do it again soon - maybe not the birthday or the wedding part, just the reunion part... :)