Grutz says, "Hectic doesn't even begin to describe it." or "Actually, we're heading out of town, again."

Wedding season is open.

Anyone (oh about 5 of you) following this blog documenting a year in the life of the entity known as Nick&Carleen* knows that we post, at the very least, every few days, if not more.  Lately, this has not been the case due to a very busy schedule for the two of us.  Now I'll happily fill all five of you in....

Carleen's brother, Matt, wed Maggie a couple weeks ago.  I put up a nice pic of Carleen in the last blog.  Cincinnati is such a great city and this is no doubt because of Carleen's family.  Tom and Karen were kind enough to let us stay with them WITH Arnie.  It was great.  The stay did feel a little busy, though, with getting the wedding set up, rehearsals, rentals, pre-post-parties, and a 115 lbs dog named Lola.  But enough of this yammering, photos!

Julia Healy.  A force to be reckoned with.   Best photo of the wedding, hands down.

The happy Healy clan.  Carleen, Karen, Matt, Maggie, Tom, Julia and Michael (from l-r).

When the Healys out number everyone on the dance floor you know the party has hit its stride. 

What a dynamic pair. 

Iowa Waltz.

This last weekend was Gretchen's 30th birthday.  I can't believe my little sister is 30!  So just after returning from Cincinnati we took off for Iowa.  But before we ventured west of the Mississippi we stopped at Uncle Jeff's in North Aurora.  Jeff and his wife, Yung Kuei, we're hosting Nana who was visiting from DC for the above mentioned wedding.  Along with his two daughters, Amy and Jennifer, we had a great visit and fine, fine food from the grill.  Jeff's house boarders a nature preserve and is very close to the impressive Fox River.  We, of course, had Arnie with us and he greatly enjoyed Jeff's spacious yard.  The woods behind the house, though, proved too tempting to Arnie.  He walked up to the fence, paused, and just jumped right over!  A good 4 1/2 feet high fence!  Of course he walked around to the front of the house, no big deal, but we now know that you're standard chain linked fence will NOT contain Arnie.  It's pretty amazing to witness such an athletic little pooch.

So after the great visit, we got on the road to head to Iowa across western Illinois.  The sky turned dark and the rain came down.  It was a different route for us, as we usually head towards Dubuque, but in this case our destination was Grandma Barb's house in Coralville (it's closer to Gretchen's place in Cedar Rapids).  As you may know, I kinda like Iowa.  A lot.  As we neared the Mississippi, a feeling of comfort and stability crept into my heart.  Weird, I know.  And once we crossed into Iowa the sun broke through the clouds and the rain stopped.  A symbol?  A message?  Something divine?  Nope, that's just Iowa welcoming you home.  And, eerily, it's not the first time this has happened!

The Iowa sun breaking the clouds.  A welcomed sight.

Arnie thinks he can sit in the front.  We think he can't.  So Carleen keeps him happy.

Gretchen's birthday was very busy (a reoccurring theme!) as we went to her place to meet with her, her kids, my mom, and Wally's parents.  Wally is Gretchen's fiance and is stationed in Afghanistan (only one month to go!) and we had yet to meet his folks.  As I get older, it's exciting to see how our 'family' grows and changes.  After this visit, we went back to Gram's and celebrated Grr's and Waylon's (His 3rd, June 29th) birthday with Uncle Jim's family.  Then we drove to Dubuque.  Notice the driving, there's a lot of it.

Unfortunately, this visit to Iowa wasn't all fun and games.  We had a passing in the family.  Now I'm not going to go into the details and such, but it was a profound moment for the Linden family.  Just always remember that family and friends are the most important things in this world.  It was moving and sad, but there was something positive, too.  I can't put my finger on it or articulate it, but there was a positivity found, somewhere, in all this loss.

Continuing with the positive.

My lovely wife, Carleen, with wonder-mutt Arnie, in Mom's joyous garden.

In other good news, our great friend, Ciaran, is enjoying Northern Ireland.  I mentioned his visit here.  He's also been documenting his journey on a blog.  You should really check his blog.  Go to it.  Now.  And it doesn't hurt that he gives us a shout out, too.

We did even more than I've written and we have more to do.  We're leaving to go Sunset Beach NC tomorrow and we have to find an apartment and we have a wedding in Missouri in two weeks, yikes!  We'll try to keep you posted.  And something a little more humorous.

* Our friends, JulieAnn and Dan, have a wonderful daughter, Nora, who refers to me as NickandCarleen.  Kind of like how little kids think lmnop is one letter.   It's funny.