Indiana Wedding

We recently took a trip to Indiana to go to the wedding of some friends of ours, Matt and Erin, whom we knew from Greg's work at Oaklawn. Most of Greg's co-workers have moved to other cities now but a few still work there. Anyway, we left Tuesday night Sept. 29th after Greg got home from work, thinking that maybe Luke would sleep the whole way and make the trip really easy... Boy were we wrong!

I think it was the worst overnight drive we have ever done!!! Luke maybe slept a total of three hours at best. The rest of the time he either cried or watched Veggie Tales like a zombie with his eyes half open, refusing to let them go all the way closed. I think Greg and I each got about two hours of sleep as well, but we did get to IN by around 11:30 am their time and after sitting around a bit, giving Mimi some time with Luke and eating lunch we took very nice long naps!!!

That night Kent and Kathy's came over with the kids for supper and Luke had a blast playing with them but I didn't get any pics because the battery in our camera was dead and needed charging.

The next day Greg and Luke and I went out to breakfast with Greg's mom and her sisters who live close by, and then Luke and I dropped Greg off for a trip to Chicago with the Groom and a bunch of other guy friends for the Bachelor Party!

I think they had a lot of fun in spite of the fact that the Cubs game they were intending to go to got rained out. )-: I let Greg take the camera along because he was going on this big trip with his friends and said he wanted to take lots of pictures and then he only took two! On the train! How exciting is that?

Mean while Like and I got caught up on our sleep and went to Greg's aunt Glenda's house for a family reunion and I wished I had the camera there... Oh well, that's the way things go.

The next day Luke and I grabbed the camera and went to visit my good friend Jen and baby Nolan while Greg got caught up on his sleep. Luke was sooo happy to see baby Nolan and did a really good job of being gentle. He REALLY wanted to hold Nolan so this is how we managed it and he did so well! It did make me really glad I don't already have another baby, it would be much easier if Luke was older and able to follow directions a bit more consistently and not be a baby himself still. He looks like a big boy and he is definitely getting there, but he still needs me so much and some concepts are still way beyond him at this stage. It is still very much all about him and what he wants and needs, so as long as what he and I want coincide he listens perfectly, otherwise not so much.

Aren't they sweet together! Ever since we got home Luke has been playing with his babies a LOT. He likes to put them to bed together on a pillow and then carry it around. So cute! Someday he will be an excellent big brother, but not yet!

we actually brought one of his babies with us to Jen's house so that he could play with it instead of Nolan, and he did! He put the baby in Nolan's bouncy vibrating seat and had a lot of fun learning about all the sounds and movements that seat could do.

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He also had fun playing with Jen's camera which she had been using to take pictures of him with, and the two of them took several pictures of baby Nolan with one of his uncles. I don't know if any of them actually turned out or not.

We actually got in a good amount of family time while we were there, you always want more of course, but for the amount of time we had everyone was available. Greg's Aunt Sharon was even there from Texas and we spent some time out at Greg's grandma's farm painting and getting everything ready fro the next renters, as well as eating some amazing Mexican food at his aunt Glenda's house. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of everything because I didn't always have the camera with me.

Kent and Kathy!

Anna playing dress-up.

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Luke learned a lot from his older cousins and we had to really be careful this time what the bigger kids did, because he would try to do just about anything. Here he is watching Isaac do flips over the couch in the basement...

It wasn't too long before he figured out how to do it too, but I don't have that on camera unfortunately!

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Anna loves playing dress up and has a great imagination and direction. If you don't know what to do she can help you out!

Anna decided we should have a tea party!

What can I say, my boy loves hats!!!

The main reason we got to go to Indiana in the first place, Matt and Erin's wedding!!!

Everyone waiting to see the bride! The look on Matt's face was priceless!

It was a really nice simple wedding, very beautiful!

This is Tom, Dori's sweety, we think he is pretty sweet too!

How I miss Dori!!!

Since Kevin was part of the wedding party Jen had Nolan all to herself while he performed his groomsman duties, or so she thought!

Dori's turn with Nolan!

Time to cut the cake, is anyone paying attention???

My turn for Nolan!

Kevin.... I hope he never stops being Kevin!

Our last day there was Sunday and we went to church in the morning to get in a little time with our old Sunday school class. Luke did really well. He was so enthralled with all the cool toys in their nursery that he didn't mind a bit being left there to play while we stayed in church and Sunday school. Afterwards we went back to Mimi and Papaw's for lunch with Kent's family and Luke showed off his new trick. In the video below is a cookie monster toy that Luke enjoyed playing with and half way through our visit we saw him doing this, but we only just caught it on film before heading home. It was so cute that Mimi sent the toy home with us!

Before heading out we took Luke outside to play a bit and get in some last minute time with Mimi and Papaw. Papaw has four little ponds in his back yard, beautiful garden, and the largest has fish in it. It has always been a grandchild favorite activity to help papaw feed the fish...

One last chance to play with Mimi before we hit the road!

On the way home we stopped by Dori and Tom's to see their new house and eat supper as well as to give Luke a chance to run off some energy.

Luke ran around their big back yard, went for a short walk down the street with Dori and I and took a tour of their beautiful four bedroom 2 1/2 bath house and still had energy to spare. So what does one doo when one has seen the whole house and isn't allowed back outside??? If you are Luke you turn in circles!

He also enjoyed a chance to learn the ins and outs of Tom's camera. Everyone has a nicer camera than mommy!

One more of Greg's famous scarry faces for the road.

The trip back wasn't quite as bad as the way up, I think Luke slept a little more, but I don't think Greg or I really did. It was a long, long, long way home, and boy did our bed feel good when we finally fell into it at 8:30am!!! both Greg and I had to work that evening, but I think we both got enough sleep to be ok after we finally got home.