This weekend my cousin Clay was getting married in Lakeland, so we happily made a trip to be there! A few years ago when his brother Cole got married, Mom, Mitch and I just made a day trip down there, but with the kids, I knew that I would not be up for that. So Mom, Brookelynne, Braxton and I headed down there Friday morning so that we would have the whole afternoon and next morning to spend some time with family and go see/do the things we wanted to. We stayed at my cousin Laura's house and she was so kind to host us so graciously. She's such a sweet person and has a beautiful home. (which is quite spotless, I might add)
I didn't take us long to make ourselves at home, as you can see. Brax and Grandma took a short nap soon after we arrived. After all we had a busy night planned!
We ate dinner and visited for a couple of hours after the kids got home from school and then headed over to the ball field to watch Taylor play baseball. :) Brookelynne was quite interested in this! :) She stood at the fence watching the boys warm up and then regularly 'checked out the action' in between her climbing adventures on the bleachers! haha (She would go up and down the first two steps, and she also found and stole Grandma's water a time or two!)
Taylor's team played well, and while he struck out his first time at bat, he did get a hit his second time. Not only did he get a hit, but his hit brought home the boy on third, breaking the tie, so that they won the game! Brookelynne loved clapping with everyone! She even said "GOOOOO TAYYYY" one time! :)
She was such a sweet girl most of the night and took a couple of trips to the concession stand with Hannah. :)
Toward the end of the night, you could easily tell that it was past her bedtime, because my little booger got Grump. E. !!! We headed home and I was just sure that Brookelynne would go to sleep, but boy was I wrong! lol She got a bath, which she was a little hesitant about at first, but quickly started to enjoy herself in the tub with the cup and ability to 'slide'. (Our bathtub is textured on the bottom, so she can't slip at all, but Laura's was not textured, so I would pull Brooke from side to side and she LOVED it!) We also put Brax in the bath, and he really enjoyed it. I hadn't brought his bath chair, so I just held his head out of the water and let him rest in the water, which I guess is better to him than his chair, but I'm not really sure how. Braxton fell asleep shortly, right after his 9:30 bottle, and right along with his normal schedule, but Brookelynne Starr did not fall asleep until at least 11:30. Oh.My.Goodness. lol It was quite a fight to get her to go down, but then she was out!
We woke up the next morning at 5, but after I pumped and fed Brax, I made Brookelynne lay back down with me and we slept until 9ish. Aunt Betty had made us a wonderful breakfast of biscuits and gravy when we got up, and we all enjoyed a few hours of getting ready and hanging out. Josh and Amy arrived around 9:30. And we all headed out around 11 to go to the cemetery. I know that may sound morbid to some, but it's a really sweet time for us to go and visit my grandparents grave and put flowers there. I don't know how others handle that type of stuff, but I take that time to talk to them and tell them the things that they've missed, and how much I miss them. I know they can't hear me and that they're not even there, but it seems so much more real when I talk to them there than if I did it anywhere else.
After that, we went to Chili's for lunch.
Aunt Laura took some time while we were there to love on Brax! :) Aren't they so sweet!
When we left Chili's, Mom, Amy, Josh, the kids and I drove by my Grandparent's house to show it to Amy. It was definitely bittersweet to see how badly the people are taking care of it and the land. Then we drove by Uncle Elam and Aunt Vera's old house and stopped at Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Darlene's house to see them. Aunt Darlene wasn't there, but Uncle Jimmy was there with some of our cousins working in to install a lift. Josh decided to stay with them for a little while and help them finish up. :) We went back to Laura's house and make Brookelynne take a nap, and when I say "made her", I mean that I had to hold her in the 'laying down' position until she fell asleep. She cried hard for several minutes, and then my mom came in there and held her and she fell right to sleep. I went ahead and took a shower and started getting ready for the wedding and packing everything that we had to take home. Here is a picture of Mom and Aunt Betty before we headed out!
The wedding was at a large Catholic Church in Lakeland, and they had quite a ceremony! With 14 bridesmaids and 14 groomsman, but only 1 step, they had a line that stretched across the whole church! The bridesmaid dresses were beautiful and pink. And Heather looked amazing, as Amy put it "a real life sized Barbie!" The ceremony was sweet and much shorter than the last Catholic wedding that I went to. (That ceremony had Mass as a part of it). Brookelynne was clapping after each song, so we were trying to keep her quiet. When the priest had us all stand to pray, I told Brookelynne to bow her head because it was time to pray. Unfortunately the priest didn't start to pray immediately, he just talked for about 2 minutes and then read a verse that had "Amen" in it. When Brookelynne heard that, she looked up at me and said "Amen" just in time for the priest to actually start praying. I kept whispering "Bow your head, we're praying" and she kept shaking her head going "Na, Na, Na" and trying to grab a book. Finally my mom had to take her out because after we sat back down, she was looking at a book, turned the page and got so excited that she squealed! *Talk about blushing* And since we were family, we were sitting on the third row. Thankfully, Braxton slept through the whole thing. :)
We headed over to the reception site, which was at Lone Palm Golf Club. When we walked in, there was a candy bar for everyone to take advantage of. Grab a bag, fill it with your choice of candy and head into the ball room. There you found cheese, fruit, shrimp and such for everyone to start on while we waited for the wedding party. There was also an open bar, with anything you could want. We had seats right next to the dance floor and it was great to get to see everyone come in. When they were announcing the wedding party, Brookelynne was very interested in it! :)
Here is a picture of the happy couple's first dance. It was very sweet and easy to see how very much in love they are. :)
Here is a picture of my mom, Aunt Gail and Aunt Linda. They were catching up during the interlude between the bride and groom's first dance and when Heather danced with her dad. It didn't last long though, because Aunt Gail was up next to dance with Clay!
Then they cut the cake! :) I didn't get to see it because I was feeding Brax (and myself) at the table, but hear that they did get each other dirty, at least on their faces!
Here is a picture of Aunt Linda and Uncle Chet! They are super sweet and I just love getting to see them. I wish I got to see them a lot more often, but unfortunately we just don't. I loved that she got to spend a little time loving on my little man though! :) Here's Braxton and Aunt Linda!
The whole reception was a lot of fun. The toasts were fantastic, especially Cole's. He was practically a stand up comedian! lol. I took advantage of the dance floor a couple of times, one dance with Uncle Jimmy, and then a line dance just because I can't pass a line dance up! :) Brookelynne spent the night being a little ham, but everyone seemed to love her and be totally fine with that, so I was too. :) Didn't my little man look great in his little suit? :)
We left around 10:30 and headed on home, so that the kids would sleep the whole way home! (Which they did) I dropped Mom off around 1:45, and got home at 2:15. Brookelynne went to bed with Daddy and I pumped, fed Brax and got to bed around 3 am. Up and atem for church came quickly, but we made it to Sunday school on time, so I call it a success!
Uncle Jimmy, Me and Brax, and then a picture of me and my sweeties before I changed them into their pjs! :) Can't you tell that it was late and they were a little cranky? lol
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