"I told you it wasn't the river."

Going to Pittsburgh over Memorial Day weekend is a Skinner family tradition. That is unless Ned forgets and makes other plans. Or I have a baby roughly a month before Memorial Day as I did last year. Anyway, we go to Pittsburgh to visit Ned's college roommate, Ray, and his family. The Sekowskis have an awesome set of friends and we are lucky enough to count a number of them as our friends. We always have a blast and this year was no different. As an added bonus, another of Ned's fellow college swimmers, Randy, and his wife, Melissa, also came up from Florida.

On Saturday night, the Sekowskis had a party and invited a number of their friends over. Things got a little out of hand. The G-rated version with most of the names changed or omitted to protect the innocent:

1. Ned got so drunk he embarrassed himself yet again AND threw up quite a lot.

2. Some dude I didn't know (married with kids) ended up laying drunk and passed out in the front yard.

3. At least 9 bottles of vodka were consumed. That doesn't factor in beer or wine consumption.

4. Someone's boyfriend had to call his mom to pick him up because he was too drunk to drive. Unfortunately, he started throwing up just as his mom arrived.

5. I can't post most of the pictures for reasons I probably shouldn't go into. Here is a fairly benign one.

I should mention that Ray and Chris's oldest daughter is a cheerleader and on an awesome squad. In fact, they just placed 5th in the World Championships in Orlando. They're that good. And G's only 15! Anyway, the cheerleaders were having a party that night at another house in the neighborhood. Somehow I found this picture on Ned's camera. You tell me.

Remember these girls are in high school. I'm thinking there are a lot of very happy boys at this high school.

Ned's hangover be damned, the next day we went into Pittsburgh and took a tour of the city (which we've never done). It was a land and water tour called a Ducky Tour. Honestly, it was a lot of fun. Bear even got to be the captain of the boat for a bit.

She's telling her co-caption her name and where she's from. She did a fine job. As an aside, notice her sunglasses and the writing on them. They say "I Love Troy" from, you guessed it, "High School Musical."

Our friend Tyler also got to drive for a while:

What a great view!

Afterwards, we went to P.F. Chang's (also a tradition). Jack looks pretty happy to be there.

And he was. For all of about 20 minutes. Then he got so out of control from fatigue (no nap) that I had to go sit with him in the car. It's a good thing you can get the Chang to go.

So, all in all, a great trip. Many thanks to the Sekowskis, Huffys, and everyone else. Can't wait to see you all in September.

Things did fall apart a little bit on the way home. It's a six-hour trip so we had to stop several times for the kids. Once we got into Giles County, Virginia, we started noticing this really foul smell. It had been raining so Ned and I kept saying that it must be the river. We knew it wasn't Jack because we had just changed him not a half an hour ago. Bear told us more than once "I don't think it's the river." The smell got worse and, finally, I noticed that there was something brown ALL over Jack and his carseat. He was only wearing a onesie because I didn't put his shorts back on when I changed him last. Anyway, you can guess what the brown stuff was. He exploded. We had to pull over at Giles High School and strip him completely down on a picnic table. We must have used 50 baby wipes. Here he is after the clean-up and getting ready for the last 30 minutes of the trip. Not so happy.

Notice how happy Bear looks. She's got a lot of her mommy in her--she loves to be right. She kept telling Ned and me "I told you it wasn't the river."

Love,

Allie