Brian & Leighsa's Wedding!

The whole reason we ended up vacationing in Chicago and finding ourselves in Michigan is because these two special people were getting married.  And they chose the two cutest ring bearers on the entire planet.  I mean, can we just entitle this post "Two Adorable Ring Bearers?"

Leighsa has lived with us for the last year and a half.  She could probably give you all the information you might ever want to know about our family… the good, bad, and the ugly.  But she has chosen to love us anyway.  And we are so grateful for her and how she has put up with us and served us without ever complaining.  She's a keeper and we are sad she's not living in our spare room anymore :(

BUT, we are happy that she married Brian!

Back to the wedding pictures...

Leighsa was a beautiful and laid back bride (which is the best kind!).  And Brian looked rather dapper himself, didn't he?

These two did a great job in the wedding… except that Nathan fell asleep on my lap during the ceremony, and when I woke him up, he was slightly out of it as he walked down the aisle.  But he made it.  And I think that nap made him awake enough to be the party animal that he was at the reception.  More pictures of that later :)

The other boys looked handsome too.

I even got my hair done for the wedding, compliments of Leighsa's mom.  What a treat to not have to do my own hair or make-up, not that I do much to it anyway.  As a side note, I could seriously could use a hair and make-up artist around the house… that way when I went to Costco and Target, I would look really fab ;)

Didn't she do a good job?  37 bobby pins… if you wanted to know :)

Six very handsome guys!

And one of us, too.

I'll leave you with lots of pictures of the cuteness.  I just couldn't narrow down the pictures any more than this.  Love them so much.

Next up… the reception.

July Madness {Our Last Day in Chicago!}

I promise this is the last of the Chicago pictures… for whomever is still looking at these, you must be a true friend! ;)

Our last day in the city was FULL, and we loved every minute of it.  We "made" the kids go to the Art Institute.  My parents took the Jopie and Nathan to the Planetarium and we took the older boys to see some amazing artwork that we can't see here in Texas.  It was well worth it.  I can't say the boys loved it, but I think they will remember our time there.  The city passes gave us phones that we could walk around with and hear about the artwork.  I think they liked that they had something to do while they walked around.  And kids love gadgets and pressing numbers in phones, don't they?

I'm not much of an artsy person, but it is amazing to see these pieces of artwork, especially the ones the are familiar.

We took this one for Mrs. Travis, our piano teacher.

This one was my personal fav… something about that orange moon.  I'd like to steal it and hang it above my mantle, but I'm not sure the Art Institute of Chicago would appreciate that.

After our cultural experience, we hit the Starbucks for some caffeine to wake us up a little, and wandered over to the Bean.  We had to take our obligatory pictures here.

As a side note, sometimes I look at these pictures and wonder how in the world I'm the mother of such big boys.  SAMUEL will be 10 this year and then I will have more kids in double digits than in single digits.  I mean, I'm really not sure how it happened.

It sure is fun hanging out with these big boys, though.

Jopie at the Planetarium with my parents.

Someone was a little tired and fell asleep on the bus.

One of the highlights… eating Lou's Pizza with one of my dearest friends who I wish I got to see a lot more than I do.  Dinner was all the time we had, but soooo happy that it worked out.

Sometimes I get a kick out of the things this boy does.  

We ended our time in Chicago at the top of the John Hancock.  The sun was setting and it was amazing up there.  Kind of dreamy… In my opinion, the view up here is better than Willis Tower.  You can see the whole city on one side and the lake on the other.  The kids were in awe.  We lingered up there for quite awhile.

And to end it all, we did the Tilt.  You can read about it here.  It was one of the scariest things I've ever done.  And I'm not sure I was prepared for it.  It literally tilts you out over the city… 94 stories up.  It still makes me weak at the knees.  And the boys still talk about it.  It was one of their favorite things.

One last picture of us on top of Chicago.

We walked back to Moody where we had parked, the same walk down Chicago Avenue that I've made hundreds of times.

It was a wonderful four days.  I'm thankful.

Then, we hopped in the car and headed to Michigan!