Wedding Bells

My parents decided to stop by our house for the night on their way up to my cousin's wedding in Twin Falls, Idaho. They arrived around 9 PM and, somehow between the hours of 10 PM and 11 PM, they convinced me and the kids to go with them the next morning. Nate had to go to a team practice for work and had a few other "errands" he had to complete, so he gracefully bowed out of the adventure. Personally, I think he just wanted to be free to play video games with his friends all day. We drove to Twin Falls and only had to stop twice. Unfortunately, both times were because Hudson decided to explode through his diaper and shot stuff all up his backside. We went through three onesies before we even made it to the temple. Good thing I had the foresight to pack a few extra sets of clothes along with my emergency clothes.

The temple and the grounds were beautiful. Brynlee scampered all over the place checking out all the red and pink flowers. For a girl who is obsessed with the color pink, to say that she was in heaven would be an understatement. She also insisted on touching each and every water fountain. The only way I could convince her to go inside the temple was with the promise of a cheesy taco at Cafe Rio later. 

My cousins Casey and Maddi were kind enough to watch my kids while I attended the ceremony. My kids are really well behaved, but I always worry how they are going to be when I am not around. Once again, my worry was for naught. Casey and Maddi said the kids were perfect. Maddi rocked Hudson to sleep (he must have been exhausted from his earlier blow outs) while Casey read books with Bryn. When we got back, Casey and I were talking and she told me how amazed she was with Brynlee's vocabulary. Casey grabbed my arm and said, "Jen, she asked me if I wanted to do 'pirouettes' with her. What other two year old knows what a 'pirouette' is let alone knows how to pronounce it?" I just smiled at her and told her that we like to read and dance. . . a lot.

When the bride emerged, Brynlee was enchanted with her. All I heard, was "Oh Mom. Look at that big beautiful dress." When Ali had a minute, I led Brynlee up there to talk to her. I wasn't expecting Bryn to say anything, so I was surprised when she blurted out, "Your dress is beautiful," and then quickly buried her head in my thigh. Ali was very gracious and took time to converse with her. This was their first time meeting and it was very sweet.

The reception that night was held at a suburb of Boise, so following the ceremony and a little bit of shopping, we drove another hour to Eagle, Idaho. The reception was held at some type of country club with cobblestone walkways and a patio overlooking several ponds and fountains. My cousin Matt showed up with his wife and their three girls which was great. It has been years since I've seen him, and it was fun to catch up. It was a riot to see Matt in his "daddy" role. Living with bunch of females has taught him a whole new vocabulary. When he saw Bryn, he pulled out all of his best tricks to try and get her to talk to him. I heard him say the words "beautiful hair" and "sparkly dress" several times and I think he even threw in a few "princesses" too. But despite his best efforts, Bryn wasn't interested in striking up a conversation with him. Hudson, on the other hand, couldn't get enough and Matt actually offered to trade one of his girls for Hudson. I told him we would wait a few years and see how Hudson is as a toddler. After all, it is always a good idea to keep your options open.

From here on out, I will refer to Casey as The Baby Whisperer. She was perfectly happy toting around the not-so-light Hudson all evening. Those two could not get enough of each other. When Hudson wasn't being held by Grandma Steph, he was lounging on the shoulders of Casey. That little man has admirers where ever he goes. One of the wedding photographer actually came up to me at one point, after learning that both Brynlee and Hudson were my kids, and asked me, "Do you not know how to have anything but gorgeous kids?" I thought to myself, "Well, when you take someone as attractive as myself and then add a devilishly handsome guy named Nate, magic is bound to happen." But I kept this to myself and just smiled and said, "Thank-you."

As the evening wound down to a close, Ryan and Ali ran off through a tunnel of sparklers. Even my Dad was feeling festive and let his sparkling personality shine. By this time, Bryn was getting tired and didn't want to hold one despite my best efforts of trying to convince her that is was a "sparkly princess wand." Hudson was mesmerized by all the dancing lights and was probably waiting for someone to light themselves on fire. 

On the way to the hotel, I thought that both kids would fall asleep for sure. Imagine my surprise when we arrived at the hotel and everyone was still wide awake. Seriously, who can sleep when there are Grandma Steph's BBQ chips to share while lying in bed? Not this girl.