We started off by driving to Steubenville, Ohio, to stay the night with family.
Miriam and Edy were joyfully reunited. They actually had a sleepover -- Miriam wanted to sleep not with Mommy and Daddy, but in Edy's room. *sniff!* Our baby's growing up!
Katie and Max got along well, too -- although they're from very different planets. Well, Katie's always in her own universe anyway. :)
There's a playground right across the road from Edy's house. On the way home that afternoon Katie said, out of the blue, "Look, there's a deer!" A little fawn somehow got caught in Aunt Rachel's garden, bleating for its mother. Awww. :( While we were trying to herd it out the gate, it found a loose board in the fence and amazingly squeezed through and went bounding away.The next day we caravaned to South Bend, Indiana (home of Notre Dame) for the next overnight stay.
While we were getting ready to leave in the morning, at Joseph's nap time, Mr. Pickles put Joseph down for a second to start packing up the car. Poor neglected kid fell asleep spread-eagle on the floor!
All the kids did a lot of this on the way. They were all troopers! That was a long day. We had originally planned to barrel all the way through to Chicago that day, but decided that would have been insane, with kids who needed to stop every 2 hours. By stopping in South Bend we got to meet up with even more extended family before continuing the trip to Chicago. We stayed at a hotel that -- hooray! -- had a pool, so the kids were in heaven. Katie had a bit of a mishap, though. For some idiotic reason I dressed her in the swimsuit withOUT floaties, which was fine when Mr. Pickles was there to swim with her. It was a pretty shallow pool -- Miriam could stand on tiptoes and be fine. But at one point Mr. Pickles had to take Miriam to the bathroom, so Katie had to get out of the pool (I was -- what else -- nursing Joseph at the time). While I was trapped Katie had snuck next to the pool and was sitting on the edge -- the room was really echo-y so she didn't hear me yelling at her to get away from the side. Just then a bunch of people came in and obscured my view -- next thing I knew, Katie was IN the water, clinging to the side of the pool and bawling her eyes out. I managed to get someone's attention to haul her out of the water. Thank God my wonderful niece Edy was there -- she was in the water at the time and saw Katie fall in and came to her rescue. If Edy hadn't been there, I don't like to think what would have happened. Needless to say Katie has a little more respect for Mommy's rules about swimming pools now.Grandma B. gave all the girls matching dresses, so the next morning we all dressed them alike. It's great that they're at an age where they still think it's fun to look alike. :)
We finally arrived in Chicago Thursday afternoon. That evening was the rehearsal. I have to say it was one of the smoothest rehearsals I've ever been to. This whole wedding was definitely extremely well-planned! Just the sheer number of area maps and directions provided to the guests was impressive. Kudos to our new Aunt Katie for her amazing organizational skills! The next day, Friday, was a fun day! We started off with a giant family picture at a park nearby Dave & Katie's new apartment. At first we thought it was going to rain, but fortunately it didn't -- and the diffused light actually made for a nicer picture without the harsh shadows one usually has in bright sunlight.
Joseph, as the newest member of the family, got passed around quite a bit. :)
Aunt Emily is the WORST baby stealer.
Joseph with JosephWe have oodles of family pics on a CD which I haven't uploaded yet -- after I do I'll post some.
The picture session went really smoothly and was actually lots of fun. We have a great family, if I do say so myself! Afterwards we all walked the few blocks (well, some of us parked a little closer) to Dave's apartment for The Big Birthday Bash -- Dave's 30th and Nana's (belated) 80th!
the birthday buddies!
Katie found a secret hiding place, which Peter (her second cousin) thought was intriguing.
The Bobbsey twins spent most of the time outside on the balcony. Miriam's face was fairly pink that evening! Dave and Katie found a GREAT place -- it runs the length of the building with balconies facing both sunrise and sunset. Of course, everyone insisted on a concert by Dave, and we were treated to some of his amazing repertoire! As much as I love hearing Dave play, I sort of pity his neighbors -- maybe he should get a rug... :)
Everyone got a kick out of this MANLY gift in MANLY gift wrap -- i.e. a tool kit wrapped in plywood and duct tape. Excellent.
After the Big Birthday Bash we headed back to the hotel to crash -- next day was going to be a big day! Naturally, since the hotel had a pool AND a jacuzzi (which all the ladies made good use of after the children were in bed!), we all relaxed there in the evening.
all the lovely ladies! Little Lucy looked adorable in her swimsuit.
Katie and Daddy soaking their feet in the "hot pool"
Aunt Tine getting some Baby Joey time. She was amazing -- in the midst of her own wedding planning, she managed to fly halfway across the country to come to Dave's! But we've known her family for ages and ages -- not to mention that her sister is married to our brother, so they really are part of our family. Of course, Dave and Katie returned the favor by taking time off from their honeymoon to attend her wedding.After swim time was girlie time -- manicures and pedicures! New Aunt Katie gave the flower girls some great presents -- adorable fluffy doggie purses filled with girlie swag: flower post-its, glitter pens, nail polish, and about million different flavors of lip smackers. So the girls chose pink and silver nail polishes for the morrow.
Katie isn't patient enough to sit still long enough to let the polish dry -- so she played with pine cones and grass instead, and was perfectly content. :)Next: the Big Day!
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