Irish Pubs and a Wedding in Yonkers

One Sunday in January one of the sweet younger ladies in my ward handed me her wedding invitation. Her fiance was one of Noah's primary teachers last year and I just love them both and was so excited that they thought to include us in their invitations. When I opened it up and saw that they were getting married up in Yonkers, New York, however, I was super bummed knowing that we wouldn't be able to attend. After church I showed David the invite and expressed my regret at not being able to go. He started laughing as he informed me that of course we were going because he was the one marrying them! We decided we would go up Friday morning after the kids went off to school, spend the day in New York City, stay overnight at the hotel where the couple was getting married, enjoy their wedding Saturday afternoon, eat dinner at the reception, and then head home Saturday night. So, the hunt was on to find someone willing to take our kids into their home. We weren't able to do that but we did find something better; my fabulous friend Elinor agreed to sleep at our place Friday night so the kids could sleep in their own beds and then she'd head home Saturday morning. I was so excited to get this little overnight getaway with David.

Early Friday morning I dropped Bryan at the airport (sad) and got home just in time to send this wee Irish lad off to school!

And then we were off! It was a gorgeous day and we got up to NYC in no time!

Our plan of a big sightseeing day in the city started to unravel at the seams almost as soon as we got up there. Our thought was we'd check into the hotel in Yonkers and then park our car at the nearest train station and get into the city that way. Who wants to drive in New York City??? What we didn't count on was our inability to find a station with any kind of parking. After over an hour of driving around with no luck we decided to throw in the towel and find an Irish pub to celebrate the holiday and stuff our faces while watching March Madness. It turned out to be the most brilliant idea!
We ended up at Maggie Spillane's!

Eating corned beef sandwiches, listening to the heavy Irish brogues behind the bar, and watching a ton of exciting college basketball games on multiple TVs turned this into one of my most favorite St. Patrick's Days ever!

We spent several hours there and then headed back to the hotel for a short nap. Unfortunately I came down with a massive migraine that evening which really made things tough. David and I did venture out for some pizza at this little street corner pizza shop but my headache really put a damper on things. Thank goodness it was gone by Saturday and we had such an amazing time at Jeanne and Paul's wedding. We were treated to some very different elements in this wedding than we're used to. They're both from Africa and, although from different tribes, some of the wedding traditions are the same. There was a lot of pre-ceremony dancing which I loved! Paul really knows how to bust a move!

Jeanne was an absolutely beautiful bride!

Another wedding under David's belt. He always does such a fantastic job!

The reception was right in the hotel so we were able to enjoy some hors d'oeuvres and drinks while the couple finished up some official wedding business and then everyone headed into the reception room for dinner.

The food was delicious and there was even more dancing to watch. It was starting to snow so we didn't get to stay long but I'm so grateful we got to be with these two on their special day.

One thing we missed while we were away - Noah's basketball team played in the championship game Saturday afternoon. Thank goodness his sweet coach didn't want him to miss it and provided rides to and from the game for him. I was able to grab pictures from some of the other parents.
Getting ready to start the big game!

We ended up playing the only undefeated team in the league. They had beat us both times we played them in the regular season and I know our boys were concerned about that. But guess what? The victory was ours!!! I hear the boys played their hearts out!

Trophy time!!