Andrew's Wedding Weekend

We have had a large whirlwind of activities! My brother Andrew was married on 7/11 up in Albion, NY so entered in to our first family vacation as a foursome that involved a flight. This was Megan's first flight and Abby has flown 3 times before however gets more "challenging" every time. This was her first flight where we had to pay for a seat for her. We enjoyed the extra room and she now has embedded in her head that "ding ding" means put your seat belt on. The flights out went well, we cut it a little close on time with our airport arrival and short layovers, but made it without any issues.

Megan slept pretty much the whole time.

Abby was awake pretty much the whole time.
Abby continued her "I'll do it myself" mentality and took care of her own carry on luggage.
Friday evening was the rehearsal dinner at the Stone Yard Bar & Grill in Brockport, NY. The restaurant was located right on the Erie Canal which was nice.

Here is the happy couple Rebekah and Andrew, less than 24 hours left!


Here is my Dad giving his toast to Andrew and Rebekah.
Tim is multi-tasking.
Here is Rebekah's family.
The Papke Family - not a bad looking group.


Here is Abby feeding the ducks on the Erie Canal. One of the owners kept giving her bread to feed the ducks all night, I think they were well fed that night.

This is Andrew's group of high school friends that made the trip - minus Justin Kron who showed up on Saturday. They are a good group of guys that have stayed close. Then of course Abby was in the picture as well. She was attached to Rebekah for most of the night.

Feeding the ducks again with Grandma and Grandpa Papke.
The Papke ladies - Ann, Colleen, & Rebekah.
Here is the reception tent before the wedding. The flowers were beautiful and everything worked out just perfect with the weather. We had a little thunderstorm scare but the weather forecasts were wrong and everything cleared up and was a great night.


The wedding cake - simple and elegant (and tasty!).

The wedding ceremony site. Chad and Adana (sorry if I spelled that wrong) are on the left and Tony and Joe LaBrecque on the right.
Andrew is waiting patiently.

Rebekah being escorted by her step-father Neil.
The Vows, - the sun came out through the trees on them right as they started their vows.



The rings.

This wasn't the official first kiss - but the better shot of the two. Here's to the newest Mr. & Mrs. Papke.

The Powers side of cousins that made the trip.
Megan - just chilling. She napped through the ceremony.
The wedding party.


The newlyweds with their parents.

My parents, Andrew, and Uncle Joe. The wedding and reception were at his house.
The Papke Family.
The first dance.
Mixing it up with the parents.

That pretty much wraps up the wedding pictures due to a low battery situation. The wedding and reception were very nice. Great food and drinks, and the Regina crew kept things rolling until after 2 AM from what I heard. The Schmidt family on the other hand called it quits around 10:30 after Abby had crashed. We came out the next day to spend a little more time with Andrew and Rebekah before we headed to Niagara Falls and Canada. That is another blog though.

4th of July Weekend

We hope everyone enjoyed and survived their 4th of July weekend. We think it went by too quickly. We actually spent a weekend at home if you can believe it. Since we have not been home in quite a while we had a lot to catch up on at the house and many projects that had been sitting. Plus we had a few errands to do to get ready for our trip to New York on Thursday. We did get a few things done along with some relaxing so I would say it was a success.

Abby and I started the weekend off with some haircuts and pedicures.


Here is Abby getting her toes painted after her haircut. She really likes Emily and actually lets her blow dry her hair as well. She picked out her own toe nail polish as well.

Getting the first glossy coat.
Abby was pretty proud of herself, behaving well, and having a good time.
Getting the final touches.


Here are the purple toes. She was pretty cute as we walked to the back for my pedicure. She was walking on her heels and going slow telling people she had to be careful.

Later that day we decided to bust out the $7 we spent in fireworks for Abby and did some black cats and sparklers. We weren't sure about the weather for the 4th so we took advantage of the weather we had. Abby enjoyed the sparklers and we still have some leftover to do this week.
She did a lot of circle drawing.
Here's Megan in her exersaucer. She is actually tall enough to touch the floor on the shortest level, however we have to put a towel around her to prop her up. She's figuring out the toys and just can't move her hands fast enough. There is a video of her below.
Then of course we had to see the Slenker's. Here is Abby and Landen on our way to Sparky's for some ice cream. Megan is chilling in the front.



Here's a video of Megan in the exersaucer. You can here Abby in the background "helping" Tim put together an end table. Tim is enjoying all of his help to say the least.

On Thursday we head to New York for Andrew's wedding and then a trip up to Niagara Falls for a little family vacation. It's Megan's first flight and Abby's first flight where she actually gets her own seat. I'm sure there will be plenty of photos and a couple of videos.

GBS Lake Weekend

This weekend we headed down to the Lake of the Ozarks to the Cowan's lovely lake house. We had quite the house full, both in adults and children. We took a vacation day on Friday so we could get some extra time with our friends who had flown in from out of town and really enjoyed the relaxing.


Here is Megan with her first time in the pool. Ashley and Brogan aren't helping out much with all the splashing but she loves baths so she did just fine.
Hanging out in the pool. We did actually put her in the lake for about 5 minutes. She wasn't that happy but she was also in a life vest and baby float so she might not have been that comfortable.

Ashley and Abby hanging out with Megan.

Megan and Abby together in the pool

Here are Dave and Tim taking the paddle boat on it's maiden voyage. I believe there were some steering issues but they overcame them.


Jenn trying to get the Party Barge canopy up. It's a lot harder than it looks!
Here are Leann, Colleen, and Jenn chilling in the cove. This was pretty much our afternoon activities. I don't have a picture of all 7 girls together unfortunately. At this point and time we were still waiting for some others to show up.


Dave and Casey resting on the barge.
Saturday morning before the Taris clan arrived. They were watching some cartoon. From left to right it's Ashley, Brogan, Megan, and Abby.
Jenn & Dave took Abby and Ashley out for a spin on the paddle boat. The girls are pretty much inseparable when they are together.
It was a little hot and my camera fogged up really quickly. The dogs were helping protect the paddle boat.
Here is Tonya with Chase (in her lap) and Emmit is in the car seat. Or it could be the other way around too. They look very similar. Of course all the babies were very entertaining for the toddlers.


Finally on Sunday Abby was brave enough to go out on the waverunner with Tim. She was pretty much against it but we felt the need to force her to do it and once we were down there she was all about it and had a great time. They just stayed pretty close to the cove.

Here they are coming in.
Abby was helping drive.
She enjoyed the trip but was ready to get off so Ashley and Dave could go out.
There goes Ashley and Dave!

The weekend was great. I think we'll be recovering from it for a couple days as well. A little too much partying, sunburns, and some sore muscles from skiing will wrap it up. I have no pictures of Jessie, Jess & Rob, or Tom, Coty, and Axel, but they were all there. Once we got the kids down for naps all the adults were in the water enjoying what time we could get being all "kid free". So not a lot of picture taking there. Unfortunately the weekend had to end, but I bet we'll be back down there before you know it. The water was really warm and so relaxing to be in. Abby swam in the lake as well, she just likes to have a good hold of you. I think she'll get better as we're down there more.
We'll have the Taris family visiting tomorrow so I'm sure we'll get some good pictures then.

Megan 4-1/2 month update:
Height - 25-1/2 (>95)
Weight - 16 lbs (>95%)
Head - 16-3/4 (90%)

She is happy and healthy and that is all we can ask for. Believe it or not, we're staying home for the weekend of the 4th. Jenn & Dave will be in Springfield so no lake action. But I think we could use some relaxing and catching up with things at home. We'll be leaving for NY for Andrew's wedding the following week so we will probably need plenty of time with that as it will be the first time flying with both kids.