Family Wedding Weekend

We had a grand adventure west last weekend. On our way we stopped to meet our newest friend, Elise, who is the daughter of my dear friend, Jen, whom I met at freshmen orientation at Western!

 Addy loved holding sweet lil' one and was a total expert and natural! Elliott held her but not for long enough. I couldn't snap even one picture of him. And he's been quite he pistol lately so he wouldn't join us for this shot either!

 Visiting friends was our first stop. We continued on to a hotel in Indiana. This would be the first hotel that A and E will remember staying at and boy were they excited. It was a miracle they even went to sleep...

 but they did!

 And even better was our cousins and Zia and Zio were staying at the same hotel because we would all be heading to our cousin, Catherine's, wedding the next day!

 Addy was beside herself with excitement to be attending the first wedding she is actually old enough to remember.  And the excitement of planning what to wear and talking about what the wedding would be like began long before the actual wedding weekend. 

But we just couldn't stop at visiting friends, and wedding and cousin fun. We took our first camping adventure as a family of 5!

 Enjoyed deliciously bad for you s'mores!

Enjoyed the marvelous Lake Michigan beaches.

 Enjoyed putting rocks in our mouth.

 And even slept some.

It was an exhausting, but fun trip. Elliott likes being at home and Addy likes being on adventures. Rose goes with the flow. The first night went well and morning too, but the afternoon was a little dicey. Elliott was tired and cranky and wanted to go home. Addy was tired and cranky and wanted to go to the beach. Once Elliott had a chance to play firefighter back at the campsite, while Addy and I went to the beach and Rosie napped, he was good to go for another afternoon and night.  All in all a fun adventure. Everyone slept as good as can be expected. And the weather was perfect. 

 Jason and I realized last night that we actually hadn't really gotten a chance to talk, to even catch up on anything since before our trip and we were both getting a little edgy. Typically we catch up in the bathroom at the end of the night, when the dishes are done and other chores taken care of and we've finished brushing our teeth or showering. One of us will start talking and then I usually sit on the edge of the tub which causes us to just stay there spending 10 minutes, 20 minutes, sometime longer in the smallest room of our house, catching up on our adults lives. Whew.  Thank goodness for weekends at home. 

This weekend we are staying put!