Wedding Weekend Getaway: Part 1

Well, despite all of the silliness that led up to our departure for Illinois, we had a GREAT time on our trip!  My friend, Tari and her now husband, Aaron got married in St. Charles, which is about an hour from Chicago.  I'd been there to visit her before but didn't get a chance to see the historic downtown area along the Fox River, which is where the wedding ceremony and reception were held.  It was beautiful!  When we arrived into town Friday afternoon, Lily took a nap at our hotel (our setup of having the pack n play in the bathroom with the fan going worked awesome!) and then we had dinner downtown.
We all slept wonderful that night and when I glanced at the alarm clock the next morning and saw that it was 8:00am and no peep from Lily, I did the typical 'go in there to make sure she's okay' move.  Well, that woke her up. :)  But hey, I cannot complain about 8:00!  We splish splashed around in the pool after breakfast and Lily got pretty good about kicking her legs every time Justin would ask her to.  We'd also say, "swim!" and she would do a little doggie paddle with her arms. Thanks to our friends, the Carsons, for letting us borrow their inflatable pool float! 
So, without further ado, here are some photos of the first part of our trip.

Arriving at the hotel, checkin' things out

Walking downtown for dinner

This was Lily's choice of attire for breakfast so we went with it :)

Pillow Fun

Ridiculous

I know, I know, I'm tired of that word too.  It's way overused.  But it was really the only word I could think of to describe the past 24 hours.  So we've been planning to go out of town this weekend to my college roommate's wedding for months now.  And we've had our hotel room booked since February (and getting a friends & family discount at the Marriott thanks to my former coworker Charity - sweet!).  So why in the world did we just decide yesterday that it might be a better idea with a 15 month old to drive down the day before the wedding?  Yeah, I don't know either.  Anyway, we also just came up with the brilliant idea that we should have transitioned her to a big girl carseat so she could at least face forward for this trip since we'll be in the car for 5 hours.  Nothing like deciding these things at the last minute!  So, I called up the friendly folks at Marriott to add Friday night to our reservation but of course we can't get the discount because all of the rooms at that rate are sold out.  The day before....surely not. :)  But Justin insists that it's worth $129 to avoid taking a cranky toddler to a wedding and possibly rushing to get to the ceremony in time.  So there we go.  And tonight we'll be enjoying our evening by checking out all of the carseats at Target and Babies R Us to find just the right one for our little peanut.  If you know me well, then you know I'm indecisive and so I would normally research a big purchase like this for weeks before buying anything.  I'll be just a tad bit out of my comfort zone.  But hey, life is meant to be lived!  Buying a carseat on a whim - now that's living on the edge!  Sounds pitiful now that I actually type it out. So long story short, what could have been a very simple trip was turned into something complicated.  Usually I spare you from the ridiculous things that happen around here but I thought, why not just be real with all 5 of you that read this blog?  I think it will turn out to be a good thing though because we'll actually have time to shop at a nice outlet mall nearby and more opportunities for Lily to splash around in the pool at our hotel.  More like a little mini vacation instead of a wedding sandwiched in between 2 long car rides.  Whew, if you've made it this far, I'm impressed.  Stay tuned....pictures to come upon our return!

First Knee Scrape

I think Mommy was more upset than Lily was. 
We have a pretty tough girl!

10 Year Class Reunion

This past weekend, we attended my 10 year class reunion in Seymour.  Our school has a unique event every year called the Alumni Banquet.  Every class starting with the current year's graduating class up through the oldest class represented, in intervals of 5 years gather together in the high school gym to be served dinner among a few different programs.  This year was fun because not only was it my year but it was my brother's since he just graduated and also my great uncle (who was the emcee for the evening) and my grandma's.  The oldest class present had graduated 70 years ago!  There was also a woman there that just accompanied her daughter since it wasn't her year for the banquet and she was recognized for graduating from Seymour 78 years ago.  Incredible!  We had a pretty good turnout with 16 classmates in attendance out of the 28 we graduated with.  After the banquet, we headed over to one of the girl's house to catch up with everyone and we watched the slideshow that was shown at our graduation ceremony.  It was fun to reminisce and to also rejoice about where we're at now and the blessings we've been given.  I look forward to seeing how things change when we meet up again in 5 years!

10 year table - Class of 2001

Left to Right: My brother Travis, Grandma Karen, Great Uncle Mike and me

13 out of the 16 that came to the banquet - 3 people had left before this photo was taken

At Krista's house after the banquet.  We stopped at my parent's house in between the banquet and this gathering to put Lily to bed and Justin & I commented as we pulled out of the driveway that we hadn't left to go to a social event at 10 pm in ages!

Some of the girls

One of my good friends from high school, Whitney and I

Me & My Pal Mavin

The Shirt Says It All