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Monday, September 29, 2008

Off to School, Off to Work... and a WEDDING!!!

Good morning! I have lots to update you on, so let's begin! Last week, the kids started their 2-day preschool program at our church. They will be attending New Creation Preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays while I work with the music department over in the church offices. I am so excited about this because the kids love to be around other kids and people, so I know they will learn and grow a lot as they get to interact with others. And I am excited to get to contribute to the planning and implementation of music and media at the church and get to work with such a great team!

Last Tuesday was their first day and they did great! The first comment their teacher made when I picked them up was what great eaters they both are! This cracked me up because everyone comments on this. These kiddos LOVE to eat! Is this not normal for most kids? They eat everything I give them without hesitation. Here are a couple of pictures from the first day.

Here we are all loaded up in the car and ready to go!
Out of the car and into the stroller.... ready to go inside and play in our new classroom!


Last Thursday, we left after work/school for our long road trip to Los Alamos, New Mexico for my stepbrother Aaron's wedding. We arrived late Thursday night, around midnight, and put the kids to bed.

Here's a beautiful shot of the mountains I got the next day.... Los Alamos is a BEAUTIFUL place!

After breakfast on Friday morning, Brad went to play golf with Andy and Aaron (my two stepbrothers) and I went with Kathryn (Andy's wife), my dad, Mary (Aaron's fiancee, aka "The Bride") and her mom to tour the wedding site and its museum which contained information on the site's history. They married at the Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos, which was a boys school at one point so we learned about its history as well as a general history of the town of Los Alamos. This little town is where our country's nuclear technology was developed and tested so there was plenty of fascinating information on this. After the Fuller Lodge, we briefly visited the science museum and watched a very informative video on the history of Los Alamos.

Upon meeting the kids for the first time, Uncle Aaron let them each have a turn sitting on his motorcycle.....
Cool motorcycle dudes!
What a cute biker chick!

Friday evening, everyone met in the Rose Garden behind the Fuller Lodge (where the ceremony took place) for the rehearsal. After a smooth rehearsal, we headed to the neighboring town of Pojoaque for the rehearsal dinner at Gabriel's mexican restaurant. I can't believe I didn't get a single picture at the rehearsal or dinner. I got plenty on Saturday at the wedding though!


My three loves - all dressed up for Uncle Aaron's wedding!

The handsome groom before the wedding

My dad, Andy and Chris waiting around before the wedding

Boys will be boys.... Andy and Chris being goof balls (I guess they'll never grow up!)

Kat, Tami and Andy

Mommy and Tori

Daddy entertained us during the wedding by letting us play in the grass at the park!

The Brady Bunch: All Grown Up - this picture reminds me of one of our first family photos after Dad and Tami married (Andy and I were 6th graders and Chris and Aaron were 4th graders). It's cool, and a little weird, to see us all together as adults!

Oh my gosh, I just realized I didn't get a single picture of the bride and groom together!!! I'll get someone to share one with me and post it later.... CONGRATULATIONS AARON & MARY!!! It was a beautiful wedding!

Sleeping Beauty... all this wedding stuff is exhausting!

Me too.... sleepy boy!

Little did we know what was in store for us that night (Saturday night). We put the kids down a little early since they were so tired. They were so wound up, it took them awhile to finally settle down and go to sleep. Tori slept until about 11:45 or 12:00(midnight), and that's when things got really interesting....
From then until about 2:00 am, we fought trying to get her back to sleep. She would scream and then once we picked her up, be fine and acted tired - rubbing her eyes, yawning, etc. - so we would put her back down. She would make it about 10-15 minutes and then scream again. This cycle went on and on for about two hours when Brad finally decided he had had enough and wanted to just go ahead and get up and start our drive home. Our original plan was to leave Sunday morning after breakfast (and a good night's sleep), but obviously Tori had other plans in mind! I was not a happy camper and thought Brad was crazy for wanting to pack up and sneak out in the middle of the night without even saying goodbye to anyone. But, by this time, he was wide awake and couldn't go back to sleep and he had a good point - we either stay and continue on with her all night to where we're BOTH exhausted and can't drive home, or we go ahead and get on the road and let me and the kids sleep while it's dark and get home earlier in the day. So, we got out of bed around 2:15 am, packed everything up (Tanner was last since he was sleeping so well - I felt sooooo bad for having to wake him!) and were pulling out of the B&B by 3:00 am. Once we were moving, Tori was asleep in 2 minutes flat and they both slept until normal time - about 7:30 am. I got about 3-4 hours myself and after stopping in Amarillo for breakfast, I took over driving while Brad tried to rest. I think he only slept an hour though, poor guy!

Anyway, we arrived home around 3:30 pm yesterday and got everybody settled back in and enjoyed the evening at home. We all went to bed early (the kids were down by 6:45!) and now we're up and back at it today!

What a crazy, busy, whirlwind weekend!!!

1 comments:

HaskinsHouse said...

WOW, We love road trips so we completely understand your Middle of the night fiasco. These are the special times you will remember and gladly share with her husband some day. HAHAHA, love the stories keep em coming.