Hot-Weather Wedding

We recently went to the wedding of one of Bryson's cousins ... yup, the kids came, too!  It was over in Midland, Michigan, nearly two hours away from our house, but the kids did great on the ride there.  There was a lot of family in attendance, and it was nice to catch up with people a little bit before the ceremony started.

The bridesmaids all wore these beautiful blue dresses and matching shoes.  And even though there were all sorts of sizes of girls in the wedding, it really and truly looked good on them all!

The bride looked beautiful in spite of the heat and humidity.

After a lovely ceremony, we headed over to Dow Diamond for the reception.

Much to Baylor's delight, there was an elevator.

There were place cards for the kids but not for Bryson and I.  Thankfully they were okay with us tagging along with them at their table.

Oh, did I mention Dow Diamond is a minor league baseball field?

Baylor had so much fun exploring the seats with Grandpa Chris in tow.

The reception itself was on the concourse area of the stadium.  Ordinarily I would have thought this to be a beautiful, unique setting for a reception, but it was super hot and humid out and the stadium shielded us from any real breeze - not that there was much of one to speak of.

Mollie looked adorable in her little strawberry dress and fancy shoes.  Sadly, the shoes eventually gave her blisters.

Baylor, poor child, turned tomato red with the heat and humidity ... and all the running around.

He stopped for a butterfly cracker and some carrots for nourishment, then he was off again.

Mollie took up with cousins Lydia, Emma, and Ellie.  Bless those girls' hearts, I thought I wouldn't have a break the whole night with how much Mollie had been clinging to me earlier in the day.  But they managed to keep up with her and keep her entertained.  Lydia had a bit of trouble picking her up at first, but she did fine once she got the hang of it.

The cake was gorgeous.

As was the groom's cake.

Baylor so wanted to explore the field and the dugouts, but sadly he was kept behind the fence.

He spent a little time with the girls.

He has been talking about the locker room ever since this wedding.

But the girls didn't want to talk to him as much as he needed them to, and soon he ventured off on his own.  And, of course, he headed straight for the elevator.  Thankfully I was able to run in my heels, though I must have looked like a lunatic doing it.  To appease him, I rode the elevator a few times with the little man, in hopes that he'd back off of it for a while.

But, once we were done riding it, he just wanted to sit and stare at it.

Ah, great fun!

Then he wanted his picture taken with it.  That's my boy!

Soon it was time for dinner, and we sat the kiddos down to prepare.  To keep Baylor busy, I busted out a slinky I had purchased for him earlier in the day.  He took to it like a fish to water ... kinda.

We had a great time, stayed way too late, and ended up not getting back to our house in Grand Rapids until 11:50 p.m.!  The kids barely napped so we thought for sure they'd sleep on the way home, and though Mollie slept almost right off the bat, Baylor stayed up and chatted with us (okay, peppered us with questions) until about a half an hour from home.  (... when his sister woke up, realized she didn't know where she was, and cried uncontrollably; there is just something about her sobbing that puts the little man to sleep like nobody's business.)

All in all it was a great time and it gives me hope that our children are more "portable" than I would have originally given them credit for.  Yay!