A weekend we won't soon forget

My little brother got married this weekend. Aw. :)

And we will probably never forget this weekend road trip/wedding celebration - the good and the bad. :)

We traveled down to Ohio, our first time traveling out of Michigan with Taylor, on Friday, and got settled into our hotel that would be our home for two days. This was also Taylor's first time staying at a hotel. That first night, she was quick to show us her talent of being able to climb out of the pack 'n' play, and Saturday morning she was up at 5:30am. We figure Taylor must have just been excited about the wedding day!

We took advantage of the pool in the morning before all the festivities began.

A funny picture of the rest of us, but I think Taylor's little blue eyes look so cute in this photo!

Walking around in Grandma mem's shoes

Dressed and ready to head to the church later that afternoon, we started the trek from the hotel. The 8 mile drive took us over 25 minutes - with heavy traffic, an AMAZING number of stoplights, lots of braking and turns, we finally pulled into the lot, and just as we pulled into a parking space, we heard a sound no one wants to hear 20 minutes before a wedding. The drive proved to be too much, and Taylor got carsick ALL over herself in her carseat.

Oh. my. goodness.

My first instinct was to feel horrible that Taylor didn't feel well, but then I started to think - we are going to miss my brother's wedding. But we moved quickly, and I am so thankful for my mom who was calm and helpful, the wedding planner at the church who stepped in, and after a wash down in the bathroom and a change into a clean fleece and wrapped in a snowman blanket, we made it to the ceremony. My emotions were running pretty high at this point, and when we finally had a chance to take a breather in our seats, I looked at Ryan and started to cry. Then my brother walked out, looking all dapper in his tux, enter more emotions. :o) It was a beautiful service, though, and Jen (the GORGEOUS bride) looked amazing. Loved, loved, LOVED her dress. (No pics from the ceremony itself, focusing on more important things than the camera. :o))

After the service, Taylor burned some energy (clearly feeling better) by running across the pews...in just her diaper. Ha!

And for the professional family pictures right after the service? We wrapped her in a white church tablecloth - kind of reminded me of Jesus being swaddled in cloth... all we could do was laugh about the situation, and just acknowledge that it would be part of the wedding story. I'm going to have to see if anyone else captured this, because she was definitely cute (as always) but a sight to be seen. ha! :)

After a quick stop at Target, and a scrub down of the carseat, we were dressed and ready to party! The reception was fun - a full-on celebration for sure!!! Great food, music, dancing, and speeches (my brother surprised everyone with a speech for Jen - a genuine, emotional, heartfelt speech that was so touching and sweet - enter more tears, this time from many people sitting in that ballroom).
A few pictures of the reception

Pic with the bride and groom

Had to include this because not only is my grandpa being his usual silly self, but you can see the tasty cake in the background

First dance - LOVE that dress!

Dancing with Mem and Bapa

Being silly on the floor

She would NOT look at the camera :-P

Most of our table

With a wonderful, long time family friend

The next morning, getting some breakfast, visiting with the groom, before hitting the road...

It was a long, but fun road trip/weekend!! (And a special thank you to the Marriot hotel were we stayed for having laundry facilities so our drive home was with clean and fresh-smelling clothes and carseat. :)).