The Wedding

Dan and Amy are married! And we survived! What a whirlwind of a weekend. So much fun, but I'm pretty sure we didn't stop moving for three days. We left Friday morning to head to Des Monies. Luke's an all-star traveler right now, so he slept. Clara got to do her favorite thing in the whole world: watch the IPad. It's shocking the amount of stuff that was crammed in our van for two nights away with two littles.

We met Amy and the wedding crew for lunch. While the kids took afternoon naps, the ladies headed out to get our nails done. After a quick change of clothes, we had rehearsal and a beautiful dinner at Centro Friday night. Clara got to stay up late at the dinner with me - she loved every minute. There were new things to explore and my Aunt Barb provided lots of entertainment. She literally did not stop moving. I think Amy's friends that don't have kids yet were a little scared off! She finally crashed in the car on the way to the hotel when she told us she wanted to go to sleep so much that she didn't want to change into her jammies, that she'd sleep in her tights :)

The couple - aren't they cute??

This is when we got concerned Clara was getting too comfortable :)

Saturday morning I headed to Amy's house to get ready. Clara was a lucky girl and got to join us mid-morning. She added some energy and loved getting to hang out with the girls. 

So excited to be a flower girl

Amy was a beautiful bride!

The kids took naps Saturday afternoon while Brad and I left for photos with the wedding party. They met us at the church in time for Luke to walk down the aisle with my mom. Clara was super excited to be a flower girl for weeks (we practiced). But, until about 10 seconds before it was her time to walk down the aisle she was hiding in a corner away from the group with that toddler look of "You can't MAKE me do anything" on her face. At the last minute, she walked up and said "I go", like she'd made up her mind to cooperate. She marched down the aisle quickly, dumped all her flowers at my feet at the front of the church, spiked her basket to the ground and then dove into my dad's arms once he'd given Amy away. 

The ceremony was wonderful and the kids both did great while we were at the front of the church. 

Clara also had a blast at the reception. She moved between all the adults every 2 minutes sampling everything on our plates (mostly cake and cake balls), enjoyed the photo booth and loved the glow sticks at the dance. Luke was a trooper and stayed up way past his bedtime. 

Looking pretty sleepy here...

We were able to leave the kids in the hotel room with Steph after they went to sleep and spend the rest of the evening catching up with friends and family, interluding with my dad and enjoying a few adult beverages.

After a late night, Luke's wake up call came a little early Sunday morning. Brad was gracious enough to take him on a long walk after I fed him, so the girls all got to sleep in. He was as happy as can be in the hotel:

Clara got her first hotel pool swim in, we got to see Amy & Dan one more time and we had lunch at Jethros before we hit the road happy and a little tired!

Overall, the kids did great and we were very thankful for their go with the flow personalities. A special thanks to Steph for traveling with us - you made the whole weekend possible!  Congrats to Amy & Dan, and thanks for including all of us in your big day!