Megan's Wedding

We got home LATE Sunday night from Houston after spending a week there getting ready for and attending Megan's wedding. It was an exhausting but really fun time! The weekend before the wedding, we got to have a Sister's Night Out where we went shopping (our favorite past time) and then out to dinner and dessert. We rounded out the evening by playing our favorite card game 'Nertz' until late into the night. Good times!

Sister's Night Out

Oliver sorting some fun plates that Meme got for him

Then this past Saturday, July 26th was Megan's wedding. We met her and her new husband Travis at the Houston LDS temple at noon to see them come out as husband and wife.

The bride and groom

Then we all headed to The County Line for a BBQ lunch! Yum! Then an hour drive back down to my parent's house where all of the girls got their hair done. Then it was off to the Ring Ceremony and reception at the Weston Lakes Country Club in my parent's neighborhood. We had AWESOME food, and lots of fun with friends and family at the reception. The kids didn't make it too late into the night after such an exhausting day, so my sweet husband took them home and put them to bed so I could stay there for Megan. Thanks honey! Good memories were made...

Megan and I

The sisters dancing like little girls

Click here to see some more pictures of our eventful weekend!

Megan's Bridal Shower

Saturday was Megan's Bridal Shower at a yummy restaurant in Brookshire just up the road from my parent's house. Here's a sister's picture (and Gabby got to join in too):

In age order... Me (and Gabriella too), Natalie, Megan and Emily

We spent today out shopping for shoes for our bridesmaid dresses and getting Megan's marriage license. Check, and check. Still a few more things on the list before Saturday though... it's going to be a busy week. We were shopping at the Katy Mills mall and Oliver got to revisit the Rainforest Cafe that we went to back in May. He LOVED seeing all of the jungle animals but was still VERY apprehensive of the snake. A little too life-like. He was cute! AND is still napping... 3 hours after he went down - WAHOO!

We made it!

On Friday night, the kids and I loaded up the car to head down to the Houston area to begin "wedding week." My sister Megan is getting married next weekend! Unfortunately, my husband didn't have the vacation time to take off this whole week until the wedding. But I decided to just stay through the week as driving 4 1/2 hours back home and then 4 1/2 hours back down next weekend for the wedding sounded neither fun nor economical. SO, that set me up for a long car trip by myself with the kids. That's always a little scary, especially with unpredictable little ones. So to make the trip easier on myself, I set the following in place:

• Plan to leave Dallas right after Gabriella's last feeding around 6:30pm so there would be (hopefully) no need to stop for her
  
• Pray that she falls asleep quickly and stays that way
• Bring the DVD player for Oliver just in case
• But hope and pray that he falls asleep as well... though acknowledging that he would probably be awake for a while since his normal bedtime isn't until around 8pm
• Bring a book on CD for me - Corrie TenBoom's The Hiding Place
• Intake all of the liquid I can up until the "Liquid Cut-off Point" 2 1/2 hours before leaving Dallas... including a Diet Dr. Pepper to keep me awake late into the night!
• As we head out the door, go to the bathroom for the last time until I hit my parent's house 4 1/2 hours later!! The thought of waking up two sleeping kids somewhere in po-dunk Texas late at night to drag them in to a dirty gas station so I can go to the bathroom did not sound appealing to me in the least!

So how did it all turn out. Well some things as planned, some not. Gabriella fell asleep before we left Plano which was awesome. Oliver and I talked for a while as we drove out of Dallas which was so sweet and such a special time. It is so fun that he is able to carry on a conversation of sorts these days. What a cutie!

As we got South of Dallas, I thought I would try listening to my book, hoping the rhythm of the voices would put Oliver to sleep. However, the road noise from the highway coupled with Oliver's desire to let out a little yell every few seconds for fun did not make listening to my book feasible. One plan bites the dust. Another plan quickly follows suit as Oliver's yells have now awoken Gabriella! Uh oh! Fortunately, the 45 minute nap she had put her in great spirits and she happily stared out the window and played with her brother for the next few hours until she fell asleep again. The sun setting is what eventually got things calmed down enough for them to fall asleep. Unfortunately, at this point in the summer, the sun does not completely set until between 8:45 and 9pm. However, the kids really were in good spirits (Oliver mostly because he knew we were on our way to Meme and PeePee's house). But I was just worried about what the later bedtimes would do to me the next day! But thankfully, they both eventually dosed off and it looked like smooth sailing from there.

There was a bottle of water sitting in my cup holder taunting me to drink it. However, I kept up my will power and abstained until we got about 15 minutes from my parents house in fear of the last bullet point mentioned above. I don't think I was ever really THAT thirsty, it was just the fact that I KNEW I couldn't have the water that made it so enticing. Funny how that works! But thankfully we made it fine (with no bathroom stops needed) at around 11:15pm and I did beat my best time one-way from our door to their's by 5 minutes. Four hours and 25 minutes! Woo hoo!

Since it was a special night, Oliver got to play for a while after we got there even though it was nearing midnight. He was so happy to be to the destination he'd been asking about daily since my Dad told him on the phone what was coming a week before we left. I have learned that a week is too long for a toddler to comprehend and therefore results in constant appeals for the promised activity. However, Grandpa "Peepee" couldn't stand to wait! So Oliver and I were both thrilled when the day came and I could finally say "YES" today's the day my boy!

Fortunately, Matt will be joining us on Friday in time for the wedding and will be our traveling companion as we make our way back to Dallas after the wedding. Yay!! Love you hon! We miss you and look forward to having you back with us again soon!

A helpful website for the |traveler| in you

My tip may not be completely new to all of you, but I hope it will help some.

It's summertime... traditional time for vacations. And for those of you "household managers" reading this post, I have a helpful tidbit for you. One of the things on most traveler's to do list before they leave is to take care of the mail. Whether it's a neighbor, family member, or friend, usually some outside party gets roped in to doing this task. Instead of finding someone to pick up my mail after it has already been delivered to your mailbox, why not have the Post Office do the work for you!

From www.usps.com Put your mail on hold online.

Whether you are on vacation or an unexpected business trip you can rest easy knowing your mail is safely held for you at your local Post Office. This online service will electronically notify your local Post Office to hold your mail. Mail can be held from 3 to 30 days. We will resume normal delivery of your mail on the date you specify.

And not only will they hold it for you, but they can deliver it in bulk once you return. So you don't even have to make a trip to the Post Office to pick it up. And you can reserve all of this online! Brilliant. And oh so handy! I have used this service numerous times and it has saved me time and hassle for many, many years. I hope it will do they same for you.

This week in pictures

Here is our last week in pictures...

Oliver and Daddy in a kayak at our neighbor's lakehouse

Oliver jumping off the end of the jet ski... 1, 2, 3!!!! I love the happiness in his eyes!

Playing with his new found friend... a worm from the flowerbed. Here he is twirling it around like a New Years Eve noisemaker!

Feeding a miniature cow at a petting zoo (did you even know miniature cows existed?!)

My darling Gabriella smiling and being a good sport as she waited for Oli to finish at the petting zoo

Good times...

Cute Creativity

Oliver using his "banana phone" today at lunch. His end of the conversation was:

Oliver: Hello. Luh lou. Bye Bye. (Translation: Hello. Love you. Bye Bye.)

The Beck Family Reunion

We got back a few days ago from our 2nd big trip of the summer and I'm finally feeling together enough to post about it! This time, we traveled up to the Utah/Wyoming border to visit with my Dad's side of the family. Since Thanksgiving, I've been working with my Great-Aunt Jean to plan this reunion and I'm happy to say it came together really well and had 75ish people attending!

We left last Wednesday to fly up to Salt Lake City... with a layover in Phoenix... a long day of travel! But we all enjoyed the evening spent in Salt Lake at my Aunt Darla's house. Oliver especially loved having other kids to play with - and older kids at that. He had spent the time traveling continually asking when we were going to be at "Joshies House" (my cousin - Darla's son). Josh and his siblings were so sweet to my kids and they just loved every minute they spent there... I think it helped too that we were no longer in an airport!

The next morning, we got up and had a yummy breakfast at Darla's before heading out on the 3 hour drive to the Beck Ranch in Northern Utah. The trip was amazing as the kids slept for the first 2 hours until we stopped for lunch. Then they happily sat in their seats as we all sang along to songs from Matt's iPod for the last hour. What a fun family time together - I love it when we are all in good spirits and can just have fun together. I also really enjoyed feeling like a real family. Not that I don't normally, I just feel it even more so whenever I'm around people that I grew up with and am used to being a kid around. But this trip, I was no longer a kid, but a wife and mommy and that really made me feel old - but not in a bad way. In a happy-to-be-in-this-stage-of-life-with-a-family-of-my-own way :)

We arrived at the Ranch and headed up to the "Picnic Grounds" which is a campground area on my family's land. The local familes had pulled their camper trailers up there for us out-of-towners to stay in so we enjoyed some time just exploring the area and relaxing.

Father and son

Oliver striking a pose - and without any prompting from me. I'm just glad I had the camera there to capture his cuteness.

Thursday night we had a big meal at the picnic grounds and enjoyed getting to see family we hadn't seen in a while. That night was not the best night's sleep I've ever gotten as I decided to sleep with Gabriella to keep her on a bed... but turns out, she is a bed hog. We made different sleeping arrangements the next night... with her on a bed we made for her on the floor. Mucho better! It was actually pretty cool at night - in the low 50s and upper 40s - but beautiful during the day with 70 degree temperatures. Much better than what it's like in Dallas right now.

Oliver on one of the cool mornings

Friday we had another yummy meal with family and Matt enjoyed hiking through the wilderness with some of the men in my family while I stayed back and chatted with people while the kids napped. We snuck away that afternoon to my cousin Cory's house to get showered and bathe our kids after the two very dirty days we had spent camping. I felt WAY better after that. I don't like feeling dirty! That evening the Beck Family joined the Briggs Family who was also having a reunion that weekend for a huge cookout/potluck and barn dance. The Briggs family is close to us because my great-aunt married into it. So Oliver and Gabby once again got to enjoy the outdoors, being held by aunts and uncles and cousins (and of course Meme and Peepee - my parents). Matt and I actually got to revert back to our country-western dancing days in college as there was music and dancing after dinner. So we tore it up on the dance floor and showed off some of our moves, which I am proud to say were pretty good! I was way impressed with my partner and all of the moves he remembered!

Saturday was another full day - Matt went rafting with about half of the group and I hung back with the kids and visited with my mom, Aunt Natty and Uncle Matt, and others who were around. We went into the little town of Manila, Utah for lunch and ice cream and then visited with my Aunt Carol until everyone got back from rafting. Then it was dinner and off to the local church building in McKinnon, Wyoming for the big Saturday night finale - a Little Girls Beauty Pageant and Family Talent Show. Gabriella competed as the youngest member of the Beauty Pageant and was the cutest one out there - in my humble opinion. But miraculously - everyone who participated tied in the judges scoring! It truly was a miracle with everyone taking home a crown, ribbon and bag of goodies :)

Mommy showing off Gabriella during the "evening wear" portion of the beauty pageant

It was a fun trip, but also a tiring one and we were definitely glad to be home after our 12 hour travel day on Sunday! But we made a lot of fun memories - and that is what it is all about!

Click here to see more pictures from our trip!

Click here to see a video of Gabriella in the Beauty Pageant