To Minnestota and Back Again

Boy I sure am getting slack about posting events as they happen! I used to be on top of it but now.... I've become a terrible slacker!!

Well two weeks ago I flew to Minnesota to be a brides maid in a friend's wedding. It was so much fun. I've never been on a trip by myself so it was pretty exciting to travel alone and then have two whole days away from Bobby & the kids. It was nice having time to myself but I still missed them so much!!
I went up on a Thursday evening, the rehearsal was on Friday (in Duluth), the wedding was Saturday and I came home on Sunday. It was a whirlwind trip and I spent most of my time riding in a car but at least I got to see Lake Superior - and we even ventured over the border into Wisconsin as well. I made some new friends who were delighted to learn that Southerners really do drink iced tea, eat grits and say "y'all." I, on the other hand, was less than thrilled to learn that most Northerners aren't friendly at all (would it kill you to smile?) and call everything "cute". The wedding itself was interesting, to say the least, but that's a tale that you'll have to hear in person :-)

Evie & I the morning of the wedding. It took 65 bobby-pins (no joking!) to put my hair up in a french twist.

The Matron of Honor- Darcy. She was such a sweetheart! She was cute ;-)

Me & the beautiful bride.

The entire wedding party.

The groomsmen I walked with was Jake - Darcy's little brother.

Taking a moment to pose.

There's a whole story about Nate. He was very quiet and answered questions with one word answers. Darcy asked him questions non-stop throughout the rehearsal dinner until he finally got up and left the table!! We thought it was hilarious that he goofed off with us while we were waiting between wedding pictures (it took 90 minutes for the photographer to get all of the shots that Evie wanted!).

Another new friend, Stephanie. She loved it when I said, "y'all!"

Santa's Land - in October!

I tried to do this post two weeks ago but for some reason my computer just wouldn't upload my pics. Better late than never right?

Two Saturday's ago my parents took the kiddos & me to Santa's Land in Cherokee, NC. My parents paid for everything of course, even though I had money for us. We spent the day looking at all of the zoo animals and riding all of the rides at least twice. Hannah & Sammy even rode the Rudi-Coaster and they weren't scared at all! Sammy just laughed the whole time and when it was over said, "Again!" (like he says about everything.) The weather was cool and there wasn't a lot of people there so it was a great time to go.

After we left Santa's Land we went to "downtown" Cherokee and just walked around looking in all of the shops. The kids were so good and never whined about wanting anything. They simply had fun looking. After shopping we had a picnic supper and then headed home. My Dad loves taking the kids to Santa's Land and I love watching him having fun along with Hannah & Samuel. I have the best parents in the world and Hannah & Samuel are blessed to have the best grandparents ever!

This was actually at the end of our day but it's one of my favorite pictures. I love my parents so much!!!

Hannah looks cautiously happy while Sammy just looks confused!

Shaking hands with Santa.
Sammy loved the goats! My mom has a picture similar to this one at her house - of my niece, Jessie, feeding the goats.
He could probably just jump down and run away. But why would he when he gets fed every two minutes or so?

Sammy is still fascinated with the goats.

Hannah was very very excited about the carousel.

Hannah & Sammy riding the U.S.S. Prancer. Poor Sammy just has to follow Hannah wherever she goes - which happened to be the pink boat.

Don't quite think he's old enough to have a license!

Crazy driver!! There two other little girls (sisters) on this ride and their Mom was standing just to the left of Hannah video taping them "driving." At one point, as Hannah's car is passing the Mom, Hannah leans over and says, "Cheese!!" right toward the camera! She's a little ham!!!!

Mama & the kids on the back of the peddle boat. In the middle is ring tailed lemurs and spider monkeys. For $1 we bought a bag of fish food to feed the fish while we paddled around the pond.

This is what happened when Hannah threw the food into the water!

Granny & the kiddos driving Santa's sleigh.

Everyone looks so enthuastic to have their picture taken with Santa!!

Cherokee is doing this really neat thing called the "Bear Project". They've got 15 of these huge bears all throughout the reservation. And the were all painted by Native American artists. We only managed to have our pictures taken with three of them but we saw seven. There's actually more bears to come and I'm excited to go back and see them all.

Sunrise Bear

Harmony of Life Bear

The Trail of Tears Bear