Wedding Weekend

This weekend we traveled to Memphis for my brother's wedding. We left Friday morning and got back a little bit ago. This was Sara Kate's 2nd long car ride in her life, her 1st trip out of state, and her 1st time to stay in a hotel! She did so great all weekend. On the way over to Memphis, she slept between Fayetteville and Conway for a while, and then we made a lunch stop in Conway where she made friends with some older people who asked if we could leave her with them. I told them she was on her way to be a flower girl in a wedding and the family might be upset if we didn't show up without her! After lunch she wasn't crazy about going back in her car seat, plus she was getting tired again. I borrowed a portable DVD player and brought a couple Baby Einstein movies but the movies were in the trunk. Smart parents. So I held Chris' phone, which had a Baby Einstein video on it, and she watched it for a bit and dozed off right outside of Memphis.

Between Little Rock and Memphis I had my camera ready to capture some pictures of the flooding. It was really crazy. Here are a few...

These people obviously had their homes flooded because they had their campers set up on this flooded exit and they had their little boats tied up here too. And here's the Mighty Mississippi. Welcome to Tennessee! Here's what Sara Kate thought about visiting a new state for the first time...ha! As you can see, she got in a little cat nap right as we were getting into Memphis. Good thing because we were up for a while and busy the rest of the day. We headed to the hotel with enough time to change clothes and head to the rehearsal.The rehearsal was short because there was some kind of kids graduation there that night. Chris was playing most of the music and he was able to get some practice time with the trumpet player in before we headed to the dinner. While they did that, Sara Kate had a ball climbing the stairs...over and over and over and over again... Dinner was at Corky's BBQ and it was really nice, and really good! My college roomie lives in Memphis and helped my mom come up with a location. She came to dinner and as always, it was great to spend time with her. A cute picture of Holly and Phillip at dinner. We headed back to the hotel afterwards and let Gran and Pop play with their grand daughter for a bit before turning in. I thought to call and ask the hotel if they had cribs available for babies, and they did so that was one less thing we had to bring (the pack n play). The 'crib' was a little pack n play so it worked out perfectly. Sara Kate slept great her first time in a hotel. I tried to take a picture of her but the ones I took came out too dark. Oh well. Point being, she slept great!

Wedding day started out with showers, getting ready, breakfast, etc. Bath time was in the sink because there was no tub but she loved it! We were at the church at the appointed time and hung out while the rest of the bridal party got ready. I managed to get Sara Kate to take a little nap during our wait (thankfully!!!). We did a few pictures before hand and then it was ceremony time. Sara Kate was the flower girl and I was Holly's matron of honor. Matron seems so 'old.' Ha! The dress Sara Kate wore was made for Hannah (by Chris' mom) when she was in her other aunt's wedding at 15 months old, and Sharon and one of her teacher friends came up with the tutu idea. It turned out adorable, and we got so many compliments. We didn't get a ton of pictures because she was getting a little cranky afterwards but here's a few. This first picture and the video are from when she was trying it on last week.
Here is Sara Kate with her 'babysitters' during the wedding. I walked in carrying her and she tossed a couple petals, then I handed her off to my aunt and uncle, and I picked her up on the way back out. She did great, despite the Cheerio EXPLOSION!! Should have gotten a picture of that! But hey, it kept her quiet. Thanks again, Tim! The wedding was fine and went off without a hitch. After the wedding they did pictures. I tried to snap a few as the photographer snapped but most of mine came out blurry for some reason. Oh well. I just have a couple decent ones.
Our family in attendance. Got to spend more time with Vanessa, which was super great. Love that we were able to spend so much time with her this weekend, on Friday night and Saturday afternoon!
Reception time. The new Mr. and Mrs. Then it was time to drive off into the sunset. They left today for a cruise to the Caribbean...sounds lovely!

Last night we spent some time with my family and had a nice dinner and hung out in my grandmother's room. Sara Kate played hard and almost stood up all by herself, holding onto nothing. Then she realized what she was doing and fell over. It'll be very soon.
We headed home this morning after a breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then headed out. Sara Kate slept most of the way between Memphis and Little Rock and then she watched some Baby Einstein between Russellville and Fayetteville...along with making a Cheerio mess in her car seat. Anybody see a trend here? :-) We had a great weekend and it was nice to get away, even though it was a little hectic. Best wishes to the newlyweds. We love ya'll!