Benton told me that he spent so much time in the Hallacs’ pool at one point that he had large chunks of skin coming off of his feet (lovely image, that):

Some sort of posed photos with 5 of the 7 kids captured (the twins were apparently off to bed or elsewhere):

l-r: Alana, Benton, Anna, Carson, Markus

At the barbecue on Friday evening — Trice’s husband, Jimmy, took their kids back to the hotel after the meal (Marilyn flew to Ohio to watch our kids — more on that in another post). I’m sure the free time had nothing to do with the size of Trice’s smile:

Which brings us to the Julie/Tim early dating anecdote. Trice has accepted that she will never, never, never live this one down, so I might as well go public.

There are milestones in any relationship. Many of them are practically clichés. The first time the couple met. The first date. And…the first kiss. In some cases, all three are the same. Certainly not for Julie and me (I’m a gentleman…or at least a slow mover!). I went at things a little backwards, in that I first proposed to her within a week of meeting her (so she claims). But that’s a topic for another post.

We’d known each other for several years. We’d gone on a number of dates — official dates as well as unofficial “just hanging out” dates. One evening, we went for a walk along the Charles River in Cambridge. The moon was up and reflecting off the water. The wind was blowing towards the water, so the pollution aroma was faint. We stopped. We gazed into each other’s eyes. We kissed. I was in heaven!

I walked Julie back to her dorm, where she lived in a single just across the hall from Trice. Clearly, Julie and I had reached a milestone in our relationship. This wouldn’t be one of those evenings where I would agonize over whether or not to go for a goodnight kiss before heading back across the river. Nosirreebob! The ice had been broken. The sun would rise in the east the next morning. Gravity would accelerate any earthly dropped object at 9.81 m/sec². Christmas would fall on December 25th. And, by golly, I would kiss Julie goodnight!

Except Trice poked her head in.

And, after exchanging a few pleasantries, decided that tonight was the night that she and Julie would peel off all of the glow-in-the-dark stars that the prior resident of Julie’s room had stuck on the ceiling.

An hour later, I headed home.

Trice and Julie were maybe halfway through their task.

Not that I carry a grudge or anything. It all worked out in the end.

Carson was quite taken with the twins. He was happy to let them pull his hair, wanted to play with them at every opportunity, and refused to leave until they had woken up from their morning nap.

And then…there was Julie (Sophia on the left, Maya on the right).

Not shown: the phenomenally lucky guy who managed to marry her (go ahead…click on the image and view a larger version!)!

Anna Hallac has quite a wardrobe of dress-up clothes, which Alana was happy to make her way through. She tried on a dress…and then got to feed Maya:

She got to be Supergirl…but very much did not want that documented. Go ahead, call me cruel for taking the pictures anyway, but notice that Julie and Benton are having a grand time watching Alana’s performance!

She even found a fairy outfit that she put on all by herself:

But then Julie made her go potty…and she skipped a few parts of the costume when getting back into her fairy attire (no, I don’t think she will forgive me for posting this…but it’s damn funny!):

And, she caught a 4-hour virus…that might have been a “I was up chattering away to myself until heaven knows when” ailment. She woke up, I got her dressed and brought her up from the basement, and she then zonked out on the breakfast table seating in the kitchen.

She was zoned out for several hours until she had 4 licks of a Pedialite Popsicle, at which point she was cured!

Thanks to Picasa, though, I was able to quickly dig up this picture from 2000 of the adult Hallacs (this from a memorable and enjoyable trip to the Florida Keys):

Basically, Trice’s hair is now longer, but Jimmy still spends most of his time with his finger in his mouth like this. It’s the darnedest thing.

Their daughter, Anna, is a hoot in many, many ways.

Yes, we did catch Trice tapping her fingers together and leering, “I call her…mini-ME!” several times. That was a little freaky, but we overlook these things when it comes to the person I will always refer to as The-Gal-Who-Wrecked-My-First-Opportunity-to-Make-Out-with-My-Future-Wife-in-Private-Because-She-Was-Obsessed- with-Removing-the-Glowing-Stars-and-Planets-from-Julie’s-Dorm-Room-Ceiling. It’s a mouthful, so sometimes I just call her “Trice.” But, in my mind…

And then, there are the twins, being fed by Anna:

And just being damn cute (Maya in the background, Sophia in the foreground):

Carson, in particular, was smitten. More on that in a bit.