Greetings from the Irish Festival!

This is a story of an Irish lady and her cute French-Canadian husband who woke up one morning, temporarily changed their last name to McCoyer and headed down to the Newport Irish Festival...

This couple enjoys the Irish culture very much and once there immersed themselves in the festivities by drinking copious amounts of...

Irish beer and...

even more copious amounts of...

deep fried Irish food.

The McCoyer's then hung out and listened to many live bands where they were occasionally seen dancing...

and singing loudly with the crowds.

Fueled with the spirit of the Irish, this happy couple then proceeded to...

purchase all the novelty Irish products they could get their hands on...

which included a picture of an Irish bar that they cleverly had personalized to be named Coyer's Corner Pub.

After hours of merriment this couple grew tired. They then walked home to their strange cat, hand in hand, laughing about the memories they had made and lived happily ever after.

The end.

hmmm....

Dear Readers, ::waves at moms::

I am so sorry that I have not blogged in so long. You see it is not my fault, there has just not been anything blog worthy happening. Apparently our life has gotten, well, a little boring. I know, I know, you can pick your jaws up off the floor, it was just as devastating to write. I guess it was bound to happen sometime with work and what not, life can't always be super exciting right? I just hoped it would never happen to us. ::takes a moment::. I suppose I could update everyone on the disaster with which is our garden/weed forest but is that really interesting? Probably not. ::hangs head::.

In times like this I am reminded of what my very wise dad always says "there is no boring, just boring people" and I'll be darned if I become a boring person. This will be fixed, don't you worry. ::scampers off to find things to do::

- Shan

Greetings from Maine!

While sometimes having a husband in the Marines can be grueling, every now and then you get to attend some pretty cool events. This weekend we are up in Bath, Maine attending the christening of the DDG-109 USS Jason Dunham. This christening was near and dear to the Marines as it is named after a fallen Marine and Medal of Honor recipient, Corporal Jason Dunham. Todd was incredibly honored to be invited to support a fallen Marine and I was incredibly excited to be his plus one. This was definitely not something you see everyday.

The ceremony was beautiful with speeches from several Congressmen, the Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, and the former Commandant, Michael Hagee. It was a very emotional day and ended with Corporal Dunham's mother dedicating the ship to her son and hitting it with a bottle of champagne. I can only imagine what an honor it is for his family.

All dressed up.

Ok seriously, Marine dress blues have to be to best looking uniform, hands down. How can you not swoon looking at these guys?

Walking up to the ship

Waiting for the ceremony to start

View from our seats

Listening to the Secretary of the Navy's speech

General Hagee

Corporal Dunham's mom and sister

The boys with some kids in the NJROTC. These kids were in complete awe of these guys.

Gunny and Mrs.

I learned today that when these boys are in uniform people will bend over backward for them. If I lifted my camera, 5 people would hurry over and offer to take the picture. People were constantly coming over to talk to them, offer them drinks, food...anything. It was very neat to see how appreciated they are.

The Coyers and the City...the adventures continue...

Greetings from New York City!!! As part of the Coyer's whirlwind tour of the Northeast we are happily in New York. Having only been here once when I was 10, I was so excited to experience this city as an adult. After just a short 4 hour drive we found ourselves smack dab in the midst of this amazing city and immediately started walking around. We stayed in a beautiful hotel in the financial district and for the next 2 days proceeded to walk our little feet tired in an attempt to see everything we could. We can definitely see why this is such a beloved city. Todd and I spent most of the trip daydreaming about how fabulous our lives would be if we lived here. Of course we would have to figure out how to grow a money tree but hey a couple can dream right?

Our view from our hotel window. Gorgeous.

Ground Zero. This picture was taken from our room on the 37th floor as our hotel was literally across the street. This was a very surreal experience. So many thoughts, emotions, memories and feelings come to mind when looking at this.

We stumbled across a cute bar called Mudville9 on our quest for dinner. They sold these towers of beer. We stopped.

Umm, honey the camera is that way.

Time to start sightseeing! On the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.

Listening to my audio tour at the Statue of Liberty

Us with Lady Liberty

Brian and Sandra with the New York skyline in the background

Off to Ellis Island

Todd in the Great Hall

Empire State Building

Central Park

Hanging on a rock in Central Park

After walking 6 miles to get to Central Park we decided to lay down on our little rock. We were pretty comfy. The sun was out, you could see the skyscrapers through the trees, this was a little slice of heaven.

After Brian and Sandra peeled us off our rock we went on a carriage ride around the park. This was really cool.

Riding around.
Good horse.

Me and Sandra in Times Square.

Todd and I are planning a trip back asap. We are definitely in love New York. ::scampers off to plant her money tree::

The adventures of Sandra, Brian, Shannon and Todd...

This week we are so fortunate to have Todd's brother, Brian and our sis-n-law, Sandra, visiting us. Yay! When we get together it is just non-stop laughs, we have the best time. Since its summer and there is so much to do in Newport during the summer we thought it was time to do some seriously touristy New England things. We ate many things from the sea prepared in a breaded and deep fried way, drank the local brew, toured mansions, lighthouses and even did a lobster boil and sailing trip. Why is it that you seem to only discover your home when you have visitors?

Todd and Brian walking around the rocks off the Ocean Road

The fabulous Sandra in front of the Castle Hill Lighthouse

Time for lobster! I needed a few lessons on how to crack into these little buggers.

Brian and Sandra were pros


Time to sail around the harbor

Very stuffed with lobster


We are on a boat!

Hello!

cute family

watching the sunset, we always seem to make time to take pictures of ourselves though. :)

We were so lucky, we had rain the day before and the day after, this day though was perfect

The fabulous Coyers

The other fabulous Coyers

You really can't go wrong with lobsters, wine and sailing can you?