Backlog: Emily's Wedding Part 1

WARNING: Pic-heavy post...

Yeah, I know we went to John's cousin's wedding in August, which was about, oh, five months ago, but I never blogged about it. And I should blog about it because BOYS IN TUXEDOS!

John's cousin, Emily, got married last summer in New York. At first, I was not interested in going. Dragging two toddlers cross country to stay among the highrises in Manhattan for five days and then attending a huge wedding at night, with said screaming toddlers, did not sound like something I was interested in. So the initial plan was that John would go on his own and I would keep the toddlers at home, where their screams are (usually) tolerated.

Obviously, that idea didn't last long.

So on August 15th, we found ourselves waiting at Lindbergh field to board a six hour nonstop flight to Newark with John's family. Surprisingly, the plane ride wasn't awful. We brought along Johnny's car seat and he was totally content to sit there and play with the new quiet book I made for him especially for this trip. Plus John's mom packed some kid-sized backpacks with new stuff to keep them occupied.

Watching the planes

Playing with trash cans with Aunt Julie, arguably the best part of an airport

Letters and numbers from Johnny's quiet book

Concentrating

Hank enjoying Johnny's car seat for awhile

The flight was not that bad. We ended up in Economy Plus seating, which has extra leg room, Johnny and Hank both napped a little and were content to let us entertain them for the rest of the time. But we were all definitely ready to get off at the end.

Burning energy while waiting for rental car

Lifting caution cones. Because why not?

Then we were off to Aunt Janet's house. John's Aunt Janet owns a fantastic house on a horse ranch and it was the PERFECT place to stay with two young energetic boys. The pre-wedding party was held at her house, so we didn't have to go anywhere for a couple of days, which was just fine with us. The boys explored her lands, met some horses, picked flowers, threw grass, ran to their heart's content and were overall stinking adorable.

Neither Johnny nor Hank was particularly friendly with many of the family members that came around, but of course, most of them were strangers since the boys either hadn't met them before or hadn't seen them in a really long time. That was really the biggest problem early on; that and Johnny not understanding that we were 3,000 miles away from home, so he kept asking to go home. Oh, and neither of them slept much at all.

Sleepy Daddy... especially since he slept on the couch.

Look! We were there!

Meeting horses

Johnny's favorite person, John's cousin Joey

Whoa, dude, grass!

Visiting a local animal rescue ranch

Look! A Hank-sized pony!

And that was only the first part of the trip! The time at Aunt Janet's was, actually, a lot of fun. Even though the boys (and thus John and myself) hardly slept, it was great to watch the boys explore and spend time with the extended family.

I'll come out with Part 2 (the part with tuxedos!) later. I know. I'm such a tease. :)